20 years going in circles?
- Published Fri 05 of Feb, 2016 21:33 GMT - (6175 Reads)On 4th February 1996 the most noticeable change arising from privatisation of Britain’s railway was the start of services by South West Trains, the first private company to carry passengers since 1948.The photo above, by Andrew Butcher and taken from Wikipedia, shows a British Rail Class 444 approaching Clapham Junction railway station
Save the sleeper
- Published Fri 05 of Feb, 2016 16:09 GMT - (4773 Reads)Lea Bridge lynchpin
- Published Fri 05 of Feb, 2016 15:21 GMT - (3814 Reads)Mountain of ideas
- Published Tue 26 of Jan, 2016 19:17 GMT - (7648 Reads)Railfuture campaigns for a bigger and better railway in Britain – one that is modern, innovative, welcoming and meets the growing expectations of passengers. There are a mountain of ideas that can be emulated from railways around the world. Salzburg provides a good starting point.
Sent to Coventry
- Published Sun 24 of Jan, 2016 19:43 GMT - (5863 Reads)Ever wanted to send someone to Coventry? Well, the railway can certainly help you do that. The city is served by fast frequent trains. But supposing you wanted to send them to Coventry Arena? Well, that’s a different matter - unless you are using German (left) or Austrian (right) apps and sites because they know precisely where the stations are, as the map on their apps proves.
White NUCKLE ride
- Published Mon 18 of Jan, 2016 23:50 GMT - (8600 Reads)Two new stations, Coventry Arena and Bermuda Park, opened today as the first step in the NUCKLE programe, which has been a white knuckle ride in railway planning. The line between Coventry and Nuneaton has been nicknamed the Bermuda Triangle line because trains will disappear when a match at the Ricoh Arena finishes. Photos by Michael Tombs for Railfuture.
£53m franchise cost
- Published Mon 18 of Jan, 2016 11:09 GMT - (6996 Reads)Night train axe
- Published Fri 15 of Jan, 2016 20:59 GMT - (3540 Reads)Southern orange
- Published Thu 14 of Jan, 2016 01:00 GMT - (4577 Reads)Turning South London Orange – a report published by Centre for London today recommends reforming suburban rail to support London’s next wave of growth.
Treasury profit from rail
- Published Tue 12 of Jan, 2016 21:15 GMT - (4785 Reads)Government does well out of the railways after all.
Rail fares protest
- Published Mon 04 of Jan, 2016 19:18 GMT - (3865 Reads)Fare rises - RPI vs CPI
- Published Sat 02 of Jan, 2016 16:42 GMT - (6988 Reads)Railfuture succeeded in calling (along with other groups) for an end for RPI+1% fare rises, which were introduced by the government in 2004. Railfuture is now lobbying hard for the government to switch away from the obsolete RPI measurement to the modern CPI inflation figures, which are about 1% lower, when setting the annual regulate fare rises.
New Year, better railway
- Published Fri 01 of Jan, 2016 15:05 GMT - (6098 Reads)Railfuture looks forward to a lot of rail schemes coming to fruition in 2016 along with progress on longer-term schemes such as CrossRail, Thameslink and electrification. However, it’s important not to forget about the small things that improves the passenger experience. Railfuture has a wish list for those items too.
Nine days rail surge
- Published Sat 26 of Dec, 2015 18:06 GMT - (5018 Reads)In a nine-day period in December 2015 passengers benefited from the opening of two tram extensions (the above photo shows the Midland Metro leaving Bull Street for Wolverhampton - by Ian Brown), two brand new stations, a relocated and much-improved station plus the resumption of train services through a re-bored and much larger tunnel allowing faster journeys and future electrification. It’s not a bad way to end 2015 – a year that also saw the longest ever rail reopening – and hopefully a sign of further progress in 2016.)
Tube usage hits record
- Published Thu 24 of Dec, 2015 17:26 GMT - (5417 Reads)Annual passenger numbers on the London Underground grow each year and in December 2015 it had its busiest-ever day carrying 4.821 million passengers. Is the under-pressure system capable of carrying more, and if so, how? (Photo montage shows a new entrance at King’s Cross, Northfields station on a Sunday afternoon, interior of a Central Line carriage, passenger flow control around lifts at Heathrow Airport.)
Passenger growth future?
- Published Wed 23 of Dec, 2015 17:24 GMT - (5784 Reads)Britain’s railway has seen a massive growth in the number of passenger journeys over the last 20 years. There are various reasons for this unexpected and unprecedented resurgence. However, looking at the graphic from the Shaw Report (interim) published in November 2015, one might ask how this has been possible without a corresponding increase in capacity.
Trains boxed in
- Published Mon 21 of Dec, 2015 21:59 GMT - (4703 Reads)Felixstowe cut off
- Published Mon 14 of Dec, 2015 18:18 GMT - (5713 Reads)In the 1930s a newspaper once used the now-famous phrase “Fog in channel - Continent cut off”. In November for 12 days residents of Felixstowe were feeling rather “cut-off’ as their train service was temporarily abandoned by train operator Abellio Greater Anglia, which has a desperate shortage of fit-for-use diesel trains and this was exacerbated at the time by the ‘autumn leaf-fall’. This mocked-up newspaper display stand gives an indication of how seriously stakeholders are treating this complete failure to provide a contacted service.
Railfuture shows their complaints and includes a communication from Abellio Greater Anglia to give reasons why they had utterly failed to deliver the contracted service. Now that almost all leaves have fallen the service is back to normal but only time will tell how much damage has been done to passenger confidence and short-term patronage.
Railfuture shows their complaints and includes a communication from Abellio Greater Anglia to give reasons why they had utterly failed to deliver the contracted service. Now that almost all leaves have fallen the service is back to normal but only time will tell how much damage has been done to passenger confidence and short-term patronage.