Railnews Magazine Aug 2020 Back Issue

PASSENGERS are welcome again on public transport, but a debate over driverless trains on London Underground has flared up after Boris Johnson spoke in their favour and hinted that any further financial support for Transport for London might include the development of driverless working as a condition, although the RMT has reacted angrily. This month’s feature in Railnews stays with the subject and is entitled ‘What, no driver?’.

Still in London, the price of Crossrail has risen by another £140 million, and it also seems likely that completion of the project will be delayed yet again.

In other news, the RAIB says a Chiltern Railways driver involved in a near head-on collision with an Underground train had passed a red signal and then reset the TPWS.

Alstom and Eversholt Rail are investing another £1 million to develop hydrogen trains, but plans to extend electric train services north of Bedford to Kettering and Corby have been delayed by up to six months. The pandemic is being blamed.

Meanwhile, the Emergency Measures applied to train operators because of the fall in revenue caused by lockdown may have the side-effect of ‘nationalising’ them according to the Office of National Statistics, because their debts could be moved to the public sector.

The Department for Transport has received 50 bids for funding to help restore long-closed railways or stations, Midlands Connect is asking the government for £20 million so that it can move ahead with plans to improve rail links to Birmingham Airport and Coventry, and a 60-strong team of volunteers from Network Rail has played a major part in creating a Nightingale Hospital in Exeter.

Finally, lorries have collided with a railway bridge in Staffordshire 28 times in the last year, making it the most bashed in Britain.

Railnews for August is out now.