Rail Express

Welcome to a new era of Rail Express. First off, let me thank Mark Simmons for his hard work, dedication and the assistance he has provided during the handover process for the magazine. I wish him nothing but good luck. For those who don’t know me, I have been a journalist since 2002 and have worked in the rail press since 2005. Importantly, I think, I have been an enthusiast all my life. It is that enthusiasm and passion for the railway that I aim to bring to Rail Express, a magazine I have read since the first issue. I don’t want to rip up the template for what has long been a popular magazine, but I want to make some minor changes and hopefully you’ll approve. The most important people for…

STRIKE action disrupted the railway for the first week in January, with the dispute set to continue despite various rounds of talks. The RMT union’s most recent action on the national network took place on January 3, 4, 6 and 7. This followed action by RMT members on December 24-27 which disrupted planned engineering work over the festive period. The union also went on strike on December 13, 14, 16 and 17. Meanwhile the driver’s union ASLEF took industrial action on January 5. The industrial action is over job security, changes to working conditions and pay. On January 7, the RMT published research it claims shows that operators made profits of more than £300 million during the Covid-19 pandemic between March 2020 and September 2022, when the Government was providing financial support to keep…

NINETEEN Class 769/9 ‘Flex’ tri-mode units ordered by Great Western Railway in 2018 will be returned to Porterbrook at the end of their lease in April this year having never entered revenue-earning service. It was planned that the trains would be based at Reading and would operate on the Thames Valley as well as third-rail destinations served by GWR including Gatwick Airport and Reading. Crew familiarisation had begun, but a GWR spokesperson confirmed to RE that this will now end. The spokesperson said that the decision was due to revised passenger growth. He said that when the trains were ordered in 2018 there was expected to be a 12% growth in passenger numbers by the end of 2022, but now, thanks to the pandemic, customer demand has reduced by 3%, meaning overall…

STATISTICS published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) show that for the three months ending September 30, 2022 passenger numbers were 80.3% of the total for the same period in 2019, which reflected the demand before the pandemic struck. A loss of one-in-five passengers is bad enough, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that farebox revenue has fallen off a cliff. The ORR’s data suggests it was at 70.3% of the 2019 figure with takings of £2.2 billion compared with £3.1bn for the same period three years ago. If that trend continues, it is likely that the income shortfall will be even worse given the widespread disruption during the three months up to December 31. Taken on an annual basis, the industry is facing an income shortfall…

CLASS 231 DEMUs are due to enter traffic on the Penarth-Rhymney route in the coming weeks, a Transport for Wales spokesperson has confirmed to RE. The 11 four-car Stadler trains are undergoing driver training on the Valley routes. The trains, Nos. 231001-011, have all been delivered to Cardiff Canton, and received authorisation to enter passenger traffic from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) last June. The spokesperson also confirmed that five former Grand Central Mk.4 sets will be introduced onto the Cardiff Central-Manchester Piccadilly route “in the next few weeks” once work to fit Selective Door Opening (SDO) to the stock is completed. Initially the ex-GC sets will be formed of four coaches but will be boosted by a fifth coach later in the year. Eventually TfW plans to have eight…

FORMER HHPI No. CB1001 arrived at Immingham Docks on December 16, the first of a new batch of ex-European locomotives to be added to the GB Railfreight fleet over the next 18 months. No. CB1001 was moved by road from Immingham to Doncaster Roberts Road on December 18, although it had yet to be unloaded by the end of the month. The 11 Type 5 locomotives comprise the entirety of Akiem’s European fleet of Electro Motive Diesel-built machines and includes, for the first time, examples of the Class 77 variant that were specifically designed for operation in mainland Europe and include out-of-gauge (for the United Kingdom) cab roof air-conditioning equipment as well as other features. Sixty Class 77s were delivered to EWS subsidiary Euro Cargo Rail from 2007, with Akiem, previously a subsidiary…