Complaints about fare enforcement trigger review
The growing number of complaints reported from rail passengers who are sometimes prosecuted and heavily fined for a comparatively trivial mistake about the fare they should have paid has triggered a Government review into how operators deal with fare evasion, which is said to cost several hundred million pounds a year.
Transport secretary Louise Haign has sounded a warning to the railway industry, saying that performance ‘improvements that can be made now must be made now’, and that the level of performance must be communicated to passengers more effectively by using station screens.
The line between Par and Newquay in Cornwall will close next week so that engineers can lay new track and install signalling. Two possessions have been arranged in connection with development of the Mid Cornwall Metro. Trains from Newquay will replaced by buses to St Austell.
Operators are not maintaining station help points efficiently and are leaving passengers without information as a result, according to the Office of Rail and Road. The equipment is installed at more than four stations out of five, but becomes particularly important when no staff are available.
The November print edition of Railnews is published today, and a free online update, Railnews Extra, can be downloaded now. The latest Railnews podcast, featuring exclusive industry reactions to the Autumn Budget is also available now.
Two 24-hour strikes which had been called on London Underground by ASLEF for tomorrow and Tuesday have been called off, after the union received what it described as a ‘significantly improved’ pay offer from Transport for London.
Accident investigators have confirmed that the fatal head-on collision on the Cambrian line in mid-Wales on 21 October was caused by wheel slip, and that although the driver of the affected train made an emergency brake application the automatic sanders which should have been triggered by the slipping wheels were blocked.