Railnews Magazine January 2016 Back Issue

IN an exclusive interview with Railnews, Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne has ruled out a full-scale division of Network Rail into a series of regional businesses, but he is in favour of further devolution to the route managing directors. The torrential rain during December caused major damage to railway infrastructure, and among the details Railnews reports how a key viaduct on the West Coast Main Line in southern Scotland may not be back in service before the beginning of February. There was better news from around the network over the holiday period, with several hundred upgrading projects being completed on time. Bombardier in Derby has celebrated the construction of the final S-stock car, which should be delivered to London Underground as part of the last completed train in March. In franchise news, Arriva is now mobilising to take over Northern at the start of April, while FirstGroup has gained the next Transpennine Express contract. New sections of tram route opened in Birmingham and Manchester in December, and in both cases the additional lines are part of longer links through city centres. The consumer group Which? has used legal powers to file a 'super-complaint' about train operators' performance with the Office of Rail and Road, while there are also problems for Danish rail commuters after Sweden ended open-border arrangements. Still on the continent, National Express is celebrating victory after a legal battle to confirm its bid to operate S-Bahn trains in the German city of Nuremberg. There were seasonal celebrations at Leicester, too, when the station played host to some Victorian dancers just before Christmas. See them, and much more, in Railnews for January.