News

By Ben Jones HM THE Queen followed in the footsteps of Queen Victoria on June 13, making the short journey from Slough to London Paddington on one of GWR’s new Hitachi Class 800 units. The trip marked the 175th anniversary of the first train journey by a British monarch, on June 13, 1842, when Queen…

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French Railways (SNCF) added another 484 route kilometers to their high speed rail network from July 1, expanding the length of the French high speed rail network by a fifth in a single day. It now totals 2916km, the first section of the Paris to Lyon line opening in 1981, writes KEITH FENDER. Two new…

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THE Borders Railway between Edinburgh and Tweedbank is attracting new workers, homeowners and tourists to communities served by the line. An independent study by Peter Brett Associates reports the £300million railway has become a major factor in decisions to relocate to the area, with 50% of users who had moved house and more than 80%…

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TYSELEY’S flagship locomotive – No. 7029 Clun Castle – made its post-overhaul debut at the Tyseley Locomotive Works open weekend on July 24-25, albeit incomplete and on static display only. The event, which was supported by The Railway Magazine, provided Tyseley with an ideal opportunity to showcase the work that has been carried out on the…

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By Ben Jones BOMBARDIER’S Derby plant has won the £895million contract to build 90 new ‘Aventra’ EMUs for First/MTR’s new South Western franchise. The 750 metro-style EMU vehicles will be formed into 60 ten-car and 30 five-car trains and will replace the current fleet of ex-BR Class 455s and 456s, the recently rebuilt Alstom Class…

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ALLIANCE Rail Holdings has, despite the best efforts of many parties, dropped its plans to procure Class 390 ‘Pendolino’ trains for use on Blackpool to Euston services. Although the Office of Rail and Road approved the proposal in 2015, Alliance and the ORR have agreed that the approval will lapse. Instead of ‘Pendolinos’, Alliance is…

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NETWORK Rail has started a 12-week public consultation over the closure of Breich station, on the Edinburgh to Glasgow via Shotts line. Just 138 passengers used the station in 2015/16, an average of 2.6 every week on the single train in each direction per day. It is estimated that £1.4million is required to bring the…

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By Ben Jones A REPORT into the poor performance of Southern in 2016 has finally been published. The company is part of Thameslink Southern Great Northern (TSGN), the UK’s biggest rail contract. The report was prepared by Network Rail non-executive director and career railwayman Chris Gibb for the Department for Transport (DfT) between September and…

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