First East West Rail operator named
Rail minister Lord Hendy has named Chiltern Railways as the operator for the first stage of East West Rail. The line is set to open later this year, providing trains between Oxford, Bletchley and Milton Keynes Central and serving six stations, including a new one at Winslow.
The contest to provide competing services through the Channel Tunnel is warming up. A new contender has been announced, led by a long-standing critic of HS2.
Research published by passenger watchdog London TravelWatch reveals that paper tickets on some modes of transport in the capital can cost 200 per cent more than their digital equivalents. The watchdog published a report called Left out Londoners two years ago, and it has taken a fresh look at progress since then, concluding that there is a mixed picture, highlighting both good practice and continuing barriers for passengers who do not use digital methods or are disadvantaged in some way.
New figures show that the demand for railway services is getting closer to levels recorded before the Covid pandemic, and could be about to overtake them. The latest quarterly figures from the Office of Rail and Road for the three months to December 2024 show that passenger numbers grew by 7 per cent in the last quarter year-on-year, and that revenue was up by 8 per cent over the same period.
Arriva is making a fresh application to run open access services, in spite of discouraging indications from the Department for Transport, which has highlighted possible path shortages. Arriva Group is submitting an open access application to the Office of Rail and Road to run direct services between Cleethorpes, Grimsby, Habrough, Scunthorpe and London.
More than a hundred trains have been cancelled or delayed after a fire in an electrical substation near London Heathrow Airport left the terminals in darkness. About 150 homes in Hayes have been evacuated and nearly 5000 are without power. More than 1000 flights have been diverted.
MPs on the Commons Transport Committee are calling for transport to be made more accessible for people with disabilities, saying that accessibility for disabled people must be recognised as a human right rather than ‘nice to have’. Failures should be seen as discrimination, not merely as a customer service problem, and a change of approach is needed by operators, regulators and enforcers.