Railnews Magazine

Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh is accusing the Government of ‘complacency, negligence and creating chaos for Britain’s rail manufacturing industry’.

She visited the Alstom works in Litchurch Lane Derby on 2 April, where the factory is being mothballed because of a lack of orders for new trains. Alstom says it will have to start preparing for 1,300 redundancies, while Hitachi warned that up to 700 jobs are also at risk at its Newton Aycliffe works in County Durham.

A Northern train was derailed between Lancaster and Barrow-in-Furness on 22 March, and a void in the ground was discovered nearby. Unstable earthworks have been also causing problems between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury as well as at Farnborough in Hampshire and New Mills in Derbyshire.

Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines has warned that Control Period 7, which started on 1 April, will mean meeting challenges posed by ‘climate change, performance, industry revenue and reform’.

Although ASLEF strikes were going ahead, walkouts on London Underground and by tram maintenance staff in Croydon were called off after progress was made in peace talks.

Elsewhere, Siemens is investing £100 million to replace its rail infrastructure centre in Chippenham, a campaign has been launched to encourage young people to travel by train, and work to ease congestion at London Victoria is set to be completed by the summer.

Open access services are set to start running between London and Stirling next year after the ORR approved an application by Grand Union, although contracted train operators had objected. The Government has rejected a call from Transport for the North to end the Avanti contract.

In this month’s feature, we discuss the prospects for open access if Labour gains power and allows private sector contracts to expire, renationalising the passenger railway.

Railnews for April is out now.