News

Fresh out of the box! DRS Class 88 No. 88002 Prometheus made a test run from Carlisle Kingmoor to Crewe on March 27 as part of ongoing driver training and acceptance testing. The loco is seen arriving into the bay, platform 10. Testing on Daventry to Grangemouth intermodal trains is expected during April. IAN SHARPE…

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NETWORK Rail’s management of the Great Western Route Modernisation (GWRM) has been severely criticised by the influential House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The PAC’s Modernising the Great Western Railway report says that NR and the Department for Transport must learn from serious failings in the design, planning and costing of the project. It…

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THE scrapping of rolling stock at T J Thomson in Stockton-upon-Tees has ended because it is uneconomic. The firm will in future concentrate on metal trading. For more than 85 years, the yard has cut up numerous diesel locos as well as wagons and other vehicles, and had been one of the country’s leading metal…

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By Keith Fender The RM has confirmed that Deutsche Bahn (DB) still sees London as a viable market. This follows denials in a national newspaper report that the company planned to begin Frankfurt to London services in 2020. In a statement to The RM, DB said: “In the medium-term DB is still interested in operating…

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TWO Branch Line Society railtours in March raised a total of £55,000 for charity. More than £43,000 of the total was from March 18’s ‘Bound for Craigy’ InterCity 125 tour of unusual lines and depots along the length of the East Coast Main Line. Another £12,000 was raised on March 12, when the BLS ran…

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TRANSPORT for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is proposing to take over the ownership and operation of 94 stations in the Manchester city region. The £400million plan would see TfGM remove responsibility for small and medium stations in the region from train operators by 2020 and turn them into ‘community hubs’. Funding for improvements would come from…

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STADLER has confirmed it will build a £20million depot at Kirkdale to maintain its fleet of new trains for Merseyrail. Civil engineering company BAM Nuttall has been contracted to construct the state-of-the-art depot and refurbish the facility at Birkenhead North. The deal is part of the £700million contract signed last month for Stadler to manufacture…

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PAST, present and future East Coast express power will run side-by-side on the ECML north of York on April 23 in a unique public relations event to promote the line. In the spirit of legendary railway PR stunts of the 1930s, Virgin Inter-City 125 and IC225 sets will be joined by the National Railway Museum’s…

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ROYAL Assent for the HS2 bill that will pave the way for the construction of phase one of the line from London to Birmingham was granted on February 23. Construction is due to begin in April or May, with the building phase creating around 25,000 jobs as well as 2,000 apprenticeships. It will also support…

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