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News and Views

Blueprint for the North

Author: Ian Brown CBE FCILT - Published Fri 11 of Jan, 2019 13:22 GMT - (7055 Reads)

The initial strategic challenge

Railfuture Policy Director Ian Brown contends that rail cannot make any meaningful contribution to growing the North’s economy, or even realise the benefits of new rolling stock and services about to be delivered, without investment in core routes and core stations to enable a further doubling of journeys over the next 15 years. Crowds on the only two through platforms at Manchester Piccadilly demonstrate the need for investment in extra capacity linking Chester, Liverpool, Preston, Manchester, Sheffield, Bradford, Leeds and Hull – photo by Maria Whelan, from Twitter.

Ticket gateline furore

Author: Tony Smale - Published Mon 07 of Jan, 2019 13:49 GMT - (4671 Reads)
New ticket gates cause a furore in Portsmouth. Portsmouth Harbour gateline: pass down to the end and turn left to access the ferry terminal.

Rail Challenge 2019

Author: Railfuture Board - Published Tue 01 of Jan, 2019 00:01 GMT - (8201 Reads)
Signal interlocking, whether mechanical or computerised, underpins public trust in the safety of the railway. But the industry has lost public trust in its service delivery, with the ongoing industrial dispute and the timetable fiasco. Image Network Rail. Railfuture challenges the rail industry and government to rebuild that trust in 2019 by fulfilling ten customer demands.

Go and Compare Athens

Author: Ian Brown CBE - Published Mon 17 of Dec, 2018 16:16 GMT - (5368 Reads)
Athens is a great city to visit and travel around. Despite the debt crisis but stimulated earlier by the 2004 Olympics the city has an excellent transport system with innovation precipitated by the lack of finance. We can learn from this for the Rail Review. The Athens card is all mode and comes as a contactless ticket for single journeys and day tickets and longer periods. Note the pictogram of modes available and the Metro showing at a lower level. It includes bike parking. All photos by Ian Brown for Railfuture.

Tram-train open for traffic

Author: Andrew Dyson - Published Fri 07 of Dec, 2018 13:39 GMT - (4791 Reads)
The new tram-train service between Sheffield and Rotherham opened to passengers on 25 October 2018. Cathedral-bound tram-train 201 pauses to change from train-mode to tram-mode on the new Tinsley chord. The former Great Central line from Woodburn Junction to Rotherham Central can be seen in the background - photo by Robert Pritchard.

The 2018 Rail Review

Author: Ian Brown - Published Wed 31 of Oct, 2018 13:51 GMT - (5201 Reads)
The Rail Review – what are the facts? A briefing by Ian Brown CBE FCILT, Railfuture Policy Director, on the Rail Review announced by Chris Grayling on 20 September 2018. Image: DfT.

UN Climate Change report

Author: Ian Brown - Published Wed 10 of Oct, 2018 21:12 BST - (4149 Reads)
Briefing by Ian Brown CBE FCILT, Railfuture Policy Director, on the effects of climate change and the need for investment in rail to provide sustainable transport which will help to reduce climate change. Image by iStock.

Impossible timetables

Author: Toby Hart - Published Sun 26 of Aug, 2018 19:43 BST - (4745 Reads)
Toby Hart was a Network Rail train planner based at Leeds. This letter is his submission to the Rail Delivery Group and the Office of Rail and Road inquiry into the disruption following the May 2018 timetable changes. It backs up Railfuture’s contention that Network Rail’s reorganisation of the timetable planning function to reduce costs (at DfT’s direction) and centralise at Milton Keynes contributed to the failure of the timetable through a loss of expertise and insufficient iterations of the timetable process to resolve conflicts in the proposed timetable. Image: Official TfGM Twitter announcement on 19 May 2018.

Next step forward on EWR

Author: Ray King - Published Sat 28 of Jul, 2018 22:11 BST - (5162 Reads)
The next major step in restoring rail links between Oxford and Cambridge was taken this week (27 July 2018) when Network Rail applied for legal permission to rebuild a railway across central England.

Franchise failure?

Author: Jerry Alderson - Published Thu 28 of Jun, 2018 08:25 BST - (5645 Reads)
In the last 11 years passengers travelling between London and York, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh have been carried by five different train operators as the above image shows. Virgin Trains East Coast was the third east coast mainline intercity franchised train operator to “fail” in that time. On 24 June 2018 the government replaced it with an outsourced operator under its control. The question for the government, rail industry, staff and, most importantly, passengers, is can a fourth be prevented? Photo montage of tweets and logos by Jerry Alderson

Wales and Borders award

Author: Peter Kingsbury - Published Wed 27 of Jun, 2018 22:25 BST - (4222 Reads)
Power to award rail franchises in Wales was devolved to the Welsh Government in 2017. This power has been used for the first time to award the Wales and Borders passenger franchise to Keolis and partner Amey to operate the franchise from October 2018 to 2033. New Stadler tram-train to be procured for South Wales Metro, including street running to a new station named ‘Flourish’ in Cardiff Bay – image from Transport for Wales presentation.

Help to find a seat

Author: Jisun Kim - Published Wed 27 of Jun, 2018 19:06 BST - (2933 Reads)
Help us design an App to reduce passenger crowding on trains - fill in our survey to let us know what information you need to find empty carriages.


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