Railnews Magazine

The front page story in Railnews for March concerns the struggling HS2 project, which has become a ‘casebook example’ of how not to run a major infrastructure scheme, according to the Public Accounts Committee. It said the Department for Transport and HS2 Ltd had failed to work together effectively.

In other news, Network Rail has been fined £7 million after three track workers were killed in two incidents, East Midlands Railway has launched a public appeal after a series of attacks on trains in Loughborough, a man has been jailed for 18 months after he trespassed on a busy railway, and the RMT has criticised closures of Southeastern ticket offices.

The union has also seen a new leader start work. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch retired on 7 March, and his successor is former railway worker Eddie Dempsey, who was elected unopposed.

Railway schemes are in the news. Work on the new £15 million Okehampton Interchange station has begun, as infrastructure upgrades for Mid Cornwall Metro continue. Still in the west of England, plans to restore the railway to Portishead near Bristol are going ahead.

Regulated fares rose in England and Wales on 2 March, but a call for planned rail fare increases in Scotland on 1 April to be scrapped was outvoted by MSPs.

The government is planning to introduce a major Rail Reform Bill this year, and Great British Railways has been described in more detail than before as part of a consultation which runs until April.

Plans for the Railway 200 festival are continuing to take shape. A Networker unit has been repainted in Network SouthEast livery, while the first 13 stops for the tour of the festival’s exhibition train have been revealed. The organisers are hoping to announce more soon.

Railnews for March is out now.