Railnews Magazine May 2014 Back Issue

A photograph of a panel of door controls is a key part of our lead story this month, which reports that financial close has been reached on the second tranche of Intercity Express – for the East Coast Main Line. A parallel development has been the unveiling of a full-size mock-up of the new trains, and we reveal many of the details for the first time. The door controls panel, meanwhile, is causing concern to rail unions, because its presence confirms that Intercity Express would be able to run in driver-only mode. We report the reaction of the RMT. Other main stories include a call from RDG chairman Martin Griffiths for the industry to improve its mind set to cope with continuing growth, while the transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin is urging calm in the face of opposition to HS2. Our main feature brings the HS2 story right up to date, following the Second Reading of the Hybrid Bill, while our featured news covers the three-phase £250 million project which is being run by the Staffordshire Alliance, comprising faster line speeds, resignalling and 10km of new railway to ease a West Coast Main Line bottleneck. In the world of business, Network Rail is to cease borrowing on the open market, Eurotunnel is reducing its freight charges and the future ownership of Alstom is in the balance, with the possibility of a USA-based takeover worrying the French government. We also report exclusively how one leading figure in the railfreight industry is critical of electrification plans for CP5. In other news, we report the effects of the London Underground strike, and have pictures of the newest station on the Docklands Light Railway, which opened last week. All these developments – and many more – are in Railnews for May.