Railnews Magazine August 2025 Back Issue

Railnews for August leads with the news that the Office of Rail and Road has granted several ‘limited’ open access applications, but the only new route is an extension of Lumo from Edinburgh to Glasgow. Several other applications are outstanding. Meanwhile, renationalisation took another step on 20 July, when Trenitalia’s c2c National Rail Contract ended.

A man has been jailed for killing a husband and father at York station in an unexplained attack, trains were disrupted after 10 cables were cut by vandals near Blackpool North on 29 July, and the RMT is warning that violent incidents on Southern and Gatwick Express are placing staff at risk.

A bridge in south London is also at risk because of careless vehicle drivers, and Network Rail is
fitting special beams to the bridge at Coulsdon South to reduce the impact of collisions on the structure.

Railway improvements are in the news, because a study into restoring the railway between Oxford, Witney and Carterton has concluded it would reduce road congestion, a 15-year agreement to modernise South Yorkshire Supertram has been signed by Hitachi Rail, the number of daily Eurostars between London and Amsterdam will rise to five in December, and Eurostar is also proposing to invest £69 million in upgrading Temple Mills depot.

As many as 40,000 new homes could be built on surplus railway land over the next ten years, and Jeremy Westlake will be the next chief executive of Network Rail after Sir Andrew Haines retires.

Nearly 40,000 visitors were expected at The Greatest Gathering railway festival at Alstom in Derby, and a GWR Intercity Express was named for Cyril Bleasdale on 8 July. He was the first director of InterCity and later helped found the company which bought the BR staff newspaper Railnews.

Railnews for August is out now.