Railnews Magazine January 2015 Back Issue

The overrunning engineering work at London King's Cross after Christmas and the resulting disruption is the lead story in the first edition of Railnews for 2015, including reactions from around the industry. The New Year itself has begun with protest rallies at stations in the north and south of England: demonstrators in Brighton are calling for the railways to be gradually renationalised, while there are concerns in the north of England about possible changes to the next Northern and Transpennine Express franchises. Fares traditionally change at the start of January and we have the details, while the new timetables which came into force in December have included another station in South Wales as well as new through London services for Shrewsbury and Blackpool. A new station for Northampton is to open in early January, while London Bridge has gained its third pair of new platforms. Railnews Business leads with criticism of the Department for Transport from the Commons Committee for Public Accounts, which is concerned about recent orders for rolling stock. We also report that the Welsh Government is considering a 'not-for-profit' contract to succeed the present Arriva Trains Wales franchise in 2018, and in the first of a new series of legal columns our railway lawyer considers some of the implications of such a change. In other news we have the proposals to convert redundant London Underground trains into diesels, and although we have the latest developments at the turn of the year we also review 2014, recalling some of the key events which have occurred. As things stand, 2015 looks set to be just as eventful, and we look forward to bringing you all the details in the coming months.