Railnews Magazine December 2019 Back Issue

DISTURBED industrial relations are marking the last few weeks of 2019, with a month of strikes starting on South Western Railway and seven Saturdays of strikes on West Midlands Trains. Other operators are also facing potentially disruptive disputes.

Autumn weather has been another cause of disruption, with floods blocking lines during November.

Class 701 units for South Western Railway have been unveiled at Bombardier in Derby, while examples of the bi-mode ‘Nova 1’ Class 802 units for TransPennine Express went on display at Liverpool Lime Street on 22 November.

The industry will launch the new national timetable on 15 December, and GWR is leading the way with hundreds of faster trains and revised schedules.

The Network Rail regions have taken responsibility for all projects within their borders, and most of the network will be open for business this Christmas and New Year.

There is fresh concern about the maintenance of doors on some types of rolling stock, after the RAIB reported that Greater Anglia found loose screws on at least 60 Class 321 doorways out of 480 doorways on its refurbished Class 321 fleet.

In business news, FirstGroup reported a loss of £188.1 million in the six months to 30 September, but the company said it is trading ‘in line with expectations’. Meanwhile, the predicted costs of Crossrail are set to rise again by as much as £650 million to more than £18 billion.

The new West Coast Partnership franchise starts in a few days from now, with a formal launch on 9 December. We have details of the latest senior appointments.

Finally, Railnews has some exclusive pictures of the day that railway people gathered at Southwark Cathedral in November to commemorate more than 20,000 railway staff who lost their lives in World War 1.