Newcourt station between Digby and Topsham on the Avocet Line opened this morning, and this photograph shows the first train at 05.57.

Trams would benefit the historic heart of Oxford

Transport consultants Dr Nicholas Falk and Reg Harman look to Europe and the US and argue that the
UK city of Oxford should have a transport system more like its ‘twin’, Grenoble.
Photograph: Grenoble, by Reg Harman. Trams on lines A and B mix with people in the heart of the city.

Speak up to stop us becoming rail’s forgotten region. Join Railfuture!

The Cambridge Guided Busway scheme opened in 2011 (costing almost twice as much as planned and nearly three years late) uses the former track-bed of two rail routes either side of Cambridge. The photos above, taken from a document produced for Cambs County council by Capita shows the poor state of the busway, after only three years of use, which could cost £30m to repair. Even the bus stops are not cared for (photo Jerry Alderson). Is this really something we want more of?

This is how Britain’s Treasury saves transport projects from disaster.
Things were so much easier in the old days. One of Sydney's trams in 1960. Photograph by Ian Brady.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin today announced a feasibility study into the extension of Crossrail to Tring.

Why reopening Okehampton is the only solution - a purely personal view by Philip Shelton.
Photograph of Meldon Viaduct by Martin Cordon, reproduced under GNU Free Documentation License.

Network Rail are presenting their proposals for grade separation at Werrington in a local exhibition today and tomorrow. Railfuture have been campaigning for this development which will complete a strategic eastern spine route for freight, relieving the East Coast Main Line.

Overground train at Crystal Palace in south London