Railnews Magazine January 2024 Back Issue

Railnews for January leads with the news that HS2 Ltd is preparing for a ‘critical new phase’ as work on the surviving section of Phase 1 between Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham Curzon Street is stepped up, with an investment of £5 billion in new contracts for 2024, while a council on the route of HS2 to Crewe says cancellation could force it into bankruptcy

Strikes on the Underground were expected to go ahead when Railnews closed for press, but it was later announced by the RMT that they were being called off.

Winter storms disrupted train services in many areas in December and January, and we have pictures of flooded railways in Scotland.

The regional managing director at Network Rail Wales & Western Michelle Handforth resigned in mid-December, after a prolonged delay on the approaches to London Paddington. Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines was among the trapped passengers, and said: ‘We have gone backwards on customer service.’

In other news, FirstGroup has applied to run an open access service between London and Sheffield, the Rail Delivery Group has named Arriva’s David Brown as its new chair, new stations have opened at Brent Cross West and East Linton, engineers have continued to install digital signalling between Peterborough and Grantham, the final sections of track have been installed to relieve a bottleneck on the Hope Valley line, and Network Rail completed upgrades worth £127 million over Christmas and New Year.

In London, the Government has agreed to provide £250 million to TfL for 2024, but there is growing concern in Derby after Alstom MD Nick Crossfield warned that the Litchurch Lane works have only a few weeks left. In Cornwall, the council has approved Mid Cornwall Metro between Newquay and Falmouth.

Railnews for January is out now.