Concern grows over future of open access
A group which lobbies on behalf of the private sector is urging the government to make the future prospects for open access passenger services clear, after transport secretary Heidi Alexander warned on Monday that she is advising the Office of Rail and Road to ‘ensure that the benefits provided by open access operators outweigh the impacts they have on taxpayers’.
The public consultation over plans for the next stages of East West Rail restarted yesterday, having taken a break during the Christmas and New Year holiday. However, it is not yet clear when services will return to the newly-rebuilt section between Bicester and Bletchley, which was opened for test trains last October.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has sounded a note of caution over future open access services, and has issued new advice to the Office of Rail and Road, which decides whether to grant licences. She emphasised in her letter that the formal guidance had not changed, but added that ‘I hope it will be helpful to the ORR by setting out my expectations’.
The immediate outlook for companies supplying the railway has remained ‘strained’ since the Labour government was elected in July, according to the Railway Industry Association. RIA is asking the government to take the opportunity offered by the Treasury’s Spending Review 2025, due in the summer, to smooth out ‘boom and bust’ work cycles.
A year-long festival of railways has started, to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the first passenger train to be hauled by a locomotive on the Stockton and Darlington Railway on 27 September 1825.
The New Year Honours list includes a number of railway people who have been recognised for their services to the industry, including its staff. Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines has received a knighthood.
Avanti West Coast train managers are to stage strikes from the end of December until May next year, after 83 per cent of those voting in an RMT referendum rejected the operator’s latest offer. Strikes which had previously been called for 22, 23 and 29 December had been suspended while the ballot was held.
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