Indice dei contenuti per Issue 1026 in RAIL

NEW Year is a time when we usher out the old and welcome in the new. In 2025, we could say we are ushering out the last 200 years of rail and welcoming the next 200. Rail’s bicentenary day isn’t until September 27, but the celebrations have already started as we begin events up and down the country that run all year. We kick off our Railway 200 anniversary coverage this year with a look at what survives from the original Stockton & Darlington Railway (pages 20-27). It will be the first of our bicentenary articles dipping into two centuries of rail history. Also in this issue, David Clough tracks the repetitive rises and falls of the Class 90 locomotive (pages 42-47), while Philip Haigh looks at the history of…

A total of 433 million passenger journeys were made during July-September 2024, a 9% increase on the corresponding quarter in 2023, according to the Office of Rail and Road’s latest quarterly statistics. Post-COVID passenger numbers continue to be boosted by the success of the Elizabeth line, which has been included on ORR’s statistics since it opened in 2022. Transport for Wales and TransPennine Express experienced the highest increase in passenger journeys compared with the three-month period in 2023 (both 25%) An updated timetable and an increase in services following its introduction of Class 756s on the Valley Lines contributed to TfW’s increase. Revenue also saw an 11% uplift, with the highest levels of revenue growth recorded in the commuting sector (12% year on year). Great British Railways Transition Team Customer…

Network Rail Chief Executive Andrew Haines has been awarded a Knighthood in the New Year Honours list. Haines, whose railway career began with a holiday job at London Victoria’s left luggage office, has emerged as a leading figure in the UK transport sector. Since joining Network Rail in 2018, he has guided the organisation through a period of unprecedented challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Before his tenure at Network Rail, Haines was the head of the Civil Aviation Authority. Prior to that, he led South West Trains. Haines said: “It’s not every day a boy from a comprehensive school in Merthyr Tydfil, or indeed anyone from the railway, is recognised in this way, so it is immensely humbling. It’s a tribute to the work of the many thousands of people…

Contributions for by far the UK’s most published column by the same author - now in its 43rd year - are most welcome from all sources. Personal observations, society magazines, website printouts and live links, transport group newsletters and media cuttings (with dates, please) are sought to maintain topicality. Please email your contributions direct to hj@howardjohnston.co.uk, or rail@bauermedia.co.uk WESTERN Bristol: Plans to convert the disused Eastgate tunnel (once part of the Clifton Extension Railway) into office and commercial space have been turned down by the city council for environmental reasons. Parracombe: The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway has submitted proposals to extend the line from its present terminus at Killington Lane to Cricket Field Lane on the edge of the village. The decision rests with the Exmoor National Park Authority. Swindon:…

PASSENGERS can expect a boost in rail punctuality from 2026 - but not necessarily because more trains are running on time. The boost comes simply from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) moving the punctuality goalposts to give train operators and Network Rail an easier time. Instead of measuring how many trains arrive within one minute of scheduled arrival, ORR will instead allow trains running three minutes late to count as punctual. On current performance, this instantly lifts punctuality from around 66% to about 84%. Unsurprisingly, ORR reports that rail companies largely agreed with its proposed loosening. It says that measuring ‘Time to 3’ is more realistic and sensible, arguing that “a large proportion of on-time failures [are] difficult to attribute given current systems available”. ORR claims passenger support…

A former Deputy Chief Inspector of Railways has called for magnetic track brakes (MTBs) to be fitted to British main line trains, in the wake of October 21’s collision at Talerddig in Wales. Speaking to RAIL, safety expert David Keay said: “Over the years we would have saved quite a number of lives if British trains had been fitted with track brakes. “Collisions such as Southall in 1997 and the more recent wheelslide incidents at Salisbury and Talerddig could have been avoided if the trains involved had been fitted with emergency track brakes. They should be thoroughly examined for use in the UK. “MTBs are a high-integrity standalone safety system. Their major advantage is that they provide an emergency brake that is independent of friction - they don’t depend on…

Network Rail, the Department for Transport and train operators have approved a revised East Coast Main Line timetable - although work is still ongoing regarding freight paths, with no agreement finalised. The new timetable will begin in December 2025 and will see LNER run three trains per hour between Newcastle and London King’s Cross, plus an hourly train from King’s Cross to Edinburgh which will stop at York and Newcastle only and is anticipated to take just over four hours. Currently, only the 0540 ‘Flying Scotsman’ Up service covers the distance in four hours. The operator’s proposed seven direct services per day between Bradford Forster Square and King’s Cross has also been confirmed, beginning in May 2025. LNER Managing Director David Horne said: “This transformational timetable will guarantee thousands of…

Two former Great Western Railway power cars (43160/162) have been moved to the Mid-Norfolk Railway for store, pending export later this year. On Thursday December 12, Rail Adventure’s 43468/480 collected the locomotives along with Mk 3 Sleepers 10551/553, and took them as the 0705 Laira-Wymondham. The train could not gain access to the heritage railway until the following Monday, so it was stabled in the siding at Wymondham station for the weekend. With the recent departure of 43063/091/161 from Laira, the only stored power cars left at the Plymouth depot are now 43088/153/194. Meanwhile, on December 19/20, Allelys Heavy Haulage moved withdrawn Angel Trains 43024 from Ely to the ScotRail depot at Haymarket, to provide spare parts to other Class 43s still in use with the operator.…

Prospects for an alternative to HS2 between Birmingham and Manchester have been thrown into confusion. The Midlands-North West Rail Link, also known as ‘HS2 Lite’, is being promoted by the Mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. It is expected to follow the same route as the scrapped second phase of HS2, which was axed by Rishi Sunak in 2023. Soon after coming to power, the new Labour government agreed not to dispose of any properties bought along the route through Staffordshire and Cheshire. However, recent comments from Lord Hendy appear to indicate that the line is not a priority. Speaking at a recent Transport Select Committee hearing, he made it clear that the immediate focus was to get costs and timings on Phase 1 from London to Birmingham…

The latest Class 57 to be reactivated by West Coast Railways is 57008, which now sports the company’s maroon livery. It had been due to return to use in December, but is now expected in traffic this month. It is likely to be the last of the five Class 57/0s the company bought from Direct Rail Services a couple of years ago. 57009/010/012 have already been returned to use, while 57011 is not expected to be reactivated and instead will be retained as a source of spares. WCR uses the ETH Class 57s for charters.…

Freightliner, in collaboration with Porterbrook and the UK’s only railway wagon manufacturer WH Davis, is spearheading a sustainable initiative to repurpose a fleet of redundant coal wagons into modern aggregate box wagons. The conversion will be carried out at the WH Davis factory in Mansfield, breathing new life into the decommissioned fleet. Porterbrook will fund the conversion and lease the repurposed wagons to Freightliner. “By reconditioning them in the UK, we not only reduce waste but also contribute to the local economy,” said Freightliner’s Rail Services Managing Director Dave Penney. Freightliner and Porterbrook hope it will enhance rail freight growth as well as providing more sustainable options for customers. But it is the growth in the construction sector which is one of the key drivers for this project, believes Porterbrook…

WELCOME to the RAIL Crossword. In this issue, our successful solver can journey to the South West and follow the story of the Severn Tunnel Junction, courtesy of Crowood Press (crowood.com). The Severn Tunnel Junction was the largest freight marshalling yard on the Western Region of British Railways, once stretching for over two miles along the Welsh bank of the River Severn. At its height it was a goods yard, junction, station and locomotive depot, but it was also an important railway community and small town. Featuring more than 150 photographs, The Severn Tunnel Junction (paperback, 144 pages, retail price £20) describes the beginnings of the yard within the wider historical context, and discusses the expansion of the site and the impact of the two World Wars. It documents the…

The Royal Mint has launched a commemorative £2 coin to mark 200 years of the modern railway. The coin depicts Locomotion on the Stockton and Darlington Railway on its opening day in 1825. Railway 200 kicked off on January 1 with a Whistle-Up of locomotive and units of all ages from around the UK, as well as other countries such as New Zealand, the USA and Sierra Leone. More than 100 activities and events are planned for the bicentenary celebrations.…

UPGRADES at Ely and at Haughley Junction remain in the balance, with the rail industry looking to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spending Review later this year for answers. At Ely, five tracks converge, creating a bottleneck for container traffic passing through the junction from Felixstowe (via Haughley Junction) towards the Midlands. The Ely Area Capacity Enhancement is a project aimed at enhancing capacity to cope with ten trains per hour in each direction, instead of the current six. Despite promising discussions before October’s Budget, which led some to think that the project could finally get the green light, no announcement was made. And since then, Rail Minister Lord Hendy has said that decisions made by shipping company Maersk to stop using Felixstowe for large containers, instead moving them to London Gateway,…

SOUTH Western Railway has not ruled out using Class 458/4s on the express services for which they were originally refurbished, even as the fleet is rolled out across its suburban network. Alstom has completed a £25 million upgrade of the 28 Porterbrook-owned sets at its Transport Technology Centre in Widnes. The work has involved fitting 2+2 seating, reconfiguring vehicles to allow for faster acceleration, and overhauling powered wheelsets to increase their top speed from 75mph to 100mph. The work, announced in 2021, was supposed to have begun the following year, before delays in the introduction of the Class 701 Arterio fleet pushed the programme back. The first refurbished unit entered service in June 2024. The final unit (458414) was unveiled on December 12. The initial plan was to run them…

UP to 35 trains a week are set to soon be supplying Port Talbot Steelworks, as it continues to manufacture products following the closure of its blast furnaces. The Tata-owned site ceased traditional steelmaking at the end of September 2024, and the company plans to build a greener electric arc furnace (which melts scrap steel) in a £1.25 billion scheme. However, the project has led to more than 2,000 workers at the South Wales site being made redundant, while coal, lime, scrap and slag trains supplying the steelworks have all ceased. Tata hopes to have the new furnace up and running in three years. In the meantime, steel slabs are being imported and taken to Port Talbot - primarily from Newport’s Alexandra Docks, but also from Cardiff Docks. By mid-December,…

ACCIDENTS such as the collision between two Transport for Wales Class 158 diesel multiple units in mid-Wales on October 21 are rarely caused by a single factor. In this case, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) quickly identified that blocked sanding equipment, combined with poor rail adhesion caused by damp weather and fallen leaves, contributed directly to the failure of the 1831 Shrewsbury-Aberystwyth to stop at Talerddig Loop. It's not the first time a Class 158/159 type diesel multiple unit has been involved in a collision caused by low adhesion in recent years. The serious collision at Salisbury Tunnel Junction on October 31 2021 occurred in similar conditions and at the same time of year, injuring 14 people. At the time, it was the first collision between two moving passenger…

FOR the second time this decade, we have had three Transport Secretaries in a year, emphasising how this is a post that while relating to a long-term industry, suffers from short-term tenures of ministers. In 2022, it was because of the insane Truss interregnum, when Anne-Marie Trevelyan held the post for just seven weeks. In 2024, it was because we had a General Election, while a very minor and rather odd scandal did for Louise Haigh. Before looking at the record of the Labour government since last July’s election, it is worth recalling what happened in the dying days of the Conservative administration, lest we forget how badly the railways were treated by Rishi Sunak’s government Indeed, the final actions of the flailing and failing Tory government provided a neat…

AN intended reorganisation of local government that includes an increase in the number of elected Mayors is likely to improve the delivery of local rail services and bring proposals for new services. A two-stage process is to take place, with unitary authorities merging the existing responsibilities of county and district councils, and creating mayoral boundaries that combine these authorities. For example, in the case of Norfolk, which is likely to have three unitary bodies, there would be a single elected mayor with responsibility that includes separately funded projects for integrated public transport. It is widely accepted that in markets such as local transport, decisions are best made by funding bodies that are closest to users, to understand what the demand might be rather than depend on forecasting models based on…

Some final thoughts from the team at RAIL @RAIL Send contributions to: mike.wright@bauermedia.co.uk We return to the world of lost property, with Hull Trains announcing its top ten most unusual personal items that have been left behind on its services during the past year. Phones, tablets, laptops and bags regularly turn up unaccounted for, but Hull Trains names the top ten unusual items as: 1 “I could have made my own android person from the amount of prosthetic body parts we’ve had left on our trains over the years,” jokes Hull Trains Planning Administrator David Bliss, who managed the lost property for Hull Trains for many years. “One of my favourite stories is that we once had a wedding dress, complete with associated bridesmaid dresses, left on the train. The…