Rail Express July 2021

I WRITE these words this month with a feeling of genuine sadness, because it is my final one in the editor’s chair. It has been an absolute pleasure to edit Rail Express over the past eight years, not least because – from a personal point of view – it has given me the privilege of combining work with my lifelong passion for railways. But putting a magazine together is far from a solo effort, and there are countless people that have helped – and will continue to help my successor – get Rail Express off to print every month. I would like to thank our team of writers, all of whom are experts in their field, as well as the back office staff in design, production, publishing, circulation, subscriptions, customer services…

The largest tunnel boring machine ever used on a UK rail project has started work north of Denham in Buckinghamshire. The 2000-tonne, 170 metre-long TBM Florence will dig out about 15 metres a day and take three-and-a-half years to complete the 16km (10 mile) up line tunnel. The identical Cecilia is due to start boring the parallel down line tunnel later in June. Each machine is a self-contained factory crewed by 17 people around the clock, with 100 others working above ground.…

THE Williams-Shapps plan suggests that the UK rail network will return to a single national brand, incorporating an updated version of the instantly-identifiable double arrow logo developed by BR. Although still used at stations, the logo will be supported by standardised signage and a new rail alphabet. No definitive plan has been worked out about the livery of rolling stock, and decisions will be complicated by the existence of devolved operations such as Scotrail, Transport for Wales, and Merseyrail – as well as open access operators. The plan recognises that discretionary travel will become much more prevalent, resulting in a need to improve the journey experience to encourage the use of trains where there are alternatives, such as working from home and therefore not travelling at all. In practical terms, this means that…

THE Office of Rail and Road is undertaking a review to understand safety and passenger impacts after the discovery of cracks on Hitachi Class 80x and 385 series trains in May. ORR’s safety review will work with Hitachi Rail and others to find the root cause of cracks in the jacking plate and on the mount for the yaw damper bracket. It will examine industry processes relating to the assessment of safety risk, as well as the withdrawal and return of trains to service. In-depth examination of technical areas including design, manufacture and maintenance, as well as responsibilities for inspection, maintenance, repair and remedial action will be considered to see how these could be improved. ORR will work closely with affected train operating companies – Great Western Railway, London North Eastern Railway, TransPennine…

THE Covid pandemic saw passenger journeys during the financial year 2020/2021 fall to the lowest levels of annual usage since records began in 1872, according to official statistics from the Office of Rail and Road. Nationally, 388 million journeys were made in 2020/2021 (April to March), barely more than one-fifth of the 1739 million made in 2019/2020. Total passenger revenue in Great Britain was £1.9 billion in 2020/2021, compared to £10.4 billion in 2019/2020. Three operators of services in and around London recorded the highest levels of usage relative to 2019/2020. TfL Rail (32.5%), London Overground (31.8%) and c2c (31.7%) were the only operators to record at least 30% of the journeys made in 2019-20. Heathrow Express, which operated throughout the year, recorded the lowest level of usage as a percentage (4.7%)…

“If this sounds familiar, it is – because it replicates exactly how British Rail was run before sectorisation, and the Big Four private companies prior to that, only with a separate Scottish region” THE Williams-Shapps plan for rail was published on May 20, three years after the failure to implement revised timetables in May 2018 caused a breakdown of services that resulted in widespread train cancellations and the use of replacement buses for Thameslink and Northern routes. The plan proposes creating an entity known as Great British Railways (GBR), which will have five regions, each with devolved budgets. If this sounds familiar, it is – because it replicates exactly how British Rail was run before sectorisation, and the Big Four private companies prior to that, only with a separate Scottish region. GBR will receive…