Potential Chunnel operators say depot capacity is biggest barrier
Companies which want to run international trains from London are calling for ‘urgent action’ to secure investment in increased depot capacity to allow more Channel Tunnel trains. The Office of Rail and Road has concluded that capacity at the present Temple Mills depot in east London would allow only one additional operator to Eurostar, which has occupied the site since 2007.
Most London Underground lines were not reopening until 08.00 today -- some three hours later than usual -- as an after-effect of the strikes which have been staged since Sunday in the RMT’s dispute with Transport for London over pay, conditions and working hours.
London Underground trains are only running on a few suburban sections on the last day in the present series of RMT strikes. Today is the second day that signallers have walked out, while other staff were on strike on Monday and Wednesday. The RMT has warned that more strikes could lie ahead.
A new report from right-leaning think tank Policy Exchange which has been endorsed by Reform UK proposes the scrapping of Northern Powerhouse Rail, triggering a political storm. The report has been written by journalist Andrew Gilligan, a long-standing critic of HS2 who was special adviser to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
There are almost no Underground trains running in London today, as signallers stage the first of two 24-hour strikes as part of this week’s series of walkouts called by the RMT in its dispute with Transport for London over pay, conditions and working hours.
Underground services are not running in central London on the first day of major strikes in the dispute between Transport for London and the RMT over pay, conditions and the length of the working week, which the union wants to see reduced from 35 to 32 hours. There was some disruption yesterday, and widespread shutdowns are now set to continue until Friday morning as various groups of staff walk out in turn.
Transport for London made an eleventh-hour bid to prevent Underground strikes last night, by urging the RMT to suspend the walkouts and restart peace talks. But industrial action over pay and working hours is set to continue, with the first walkouts by track access controllers due tomorrow.