News
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NR annual report highlights delivery successes – but debt grows again
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NEW and expanded stations, electrification schemes and capacity for an additional 3,000 trains a week are all highlighted as successes in Network Rail’s 2018/19 annual report. The year to March 31, 2019, saw £7billion invested in targeted improvements to the British rail network, and although many of those were delayed, the benefits of various major…
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New canopy for Dore and Totley after long campaign
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A NEW canopy is now in use at the station in the south-west suburbs of Sheffield. This follows a long campaign by the Friends of Dore and Totley Station. Dore and Totley is served by Hope Valley line trains and is popular with commuters to Sheffield and Manchester. Campaigners are now seeking more improvements, including…
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Victa Peak Forest ‘super shunters’ bow out – but new hoppers come on stream
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REPORTS suggest Victa Railfreight has replaced its hired Class 56 ‘super shunters’ at Peak Forest in Derbyshire with Class 66s. Privately owned Colas and latterly UK Rail Leasing ‘56s’ have been used over the last couple of years, but slow speed operation and excessive idling have led to numerous failures, and their replacement with more…
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Maritime launches two new London Gateway trains
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SHIPPING company Maritime Transport has launched two new dedicated trains from DP World London Gateway, near Thurrock, to Trafford Park and Wakefield. The daily train pairs are the fifth and sixth UK intermodal services to start since the company launched its partnership with DB Cargo UK in April. They have been running since June…
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‘Jumbo Train’ success for Freightliner Class 70
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FREIGHTLINER’S trial run of a Mendip Rail ‘jumbo train’ using a Class 70 diesel has been hailed as an outstanding success by the operators. No. 70003 hauled a train weighing 4,624 tonnes between Merehead Quarry in Somerset and Acton Yard in West London on July 17. These trains are currently the heaviest in the UK and…
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Delay to Birmingham’s eastern £137m extension
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GOVERNMENT approval for the West Midlands Metro’s £137million Eastside extension to Digbeth, which would serve the proposed HS2 station at Curzon Street, is being delayed by uncertainty over the high-speed rail project. The extended tramline, which would connect Curzon Street with New Street, Moor Street and Snow Hill stations, may not now open until 2026…
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New South Shields interchange opens
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HE new £21million transport interchange in South Shields opened on August 4, with the first Tyne & Wear Metro train departing at 07.00 that day. The station replaces the previous South Shields Metro stop, which closed on July 7 (RM August). It is at the end of the Metro’s Yellow Line from Pelaw on the…
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Busy weekend at Guildford
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GUILDFORD Model Engineering Society (GMES) held its annual gala over the weekend of July 6-7. The club was formed in 1954 and moved to Stoke Park, Guildford in 1958, where it leases land in the eastern end of the park. Access is from London Road at Burchatts Farm Gate. There are passenger lines of…
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Pilgrim returns to service at Watford Miniature Railway
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MUCH-travelled 0-6-0T Pilgrim (D King 1980) is visiting the 10¼in-gauge Watford Miniature Railway (WMR) for the railway’s 60th anniversary season (RM July, p84). It arrived on August 6 following boiler work at Denver Light Railway, Birmingham. Pilgrim was built for the Wells & Walsingham Railway, Norfolk, running there from the line’s opening in 1982 until…
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UK railway news round-up
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This week we cover Stephenson’s Rocket returning to the National Railway Museum, a senseless attack at a tube station in London, a Caledonian sleeper service strike and a UN report that claims hundreds of miles of coastal railways are at risk of flooding by 2100.
