A report published today sets out proposals for a new rail link on the West Coast corridor to replace High Speed 2 Phase 2a which was cancelled in October last year. The report was commissioned the Mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands Combined Authorities. The report concludes that the best way forward is […]
In a statement on 3 September, the Secretary of State for Transport launched the next stage in rail reform by instructing the CEO of Network Rail, the Director General for Rail Services in the Department for Transport, and the CEO of DfT OLR Holdings Ltd (DOHL) to establish a Shadow Great British Railways. The
West Coast Rail 250 held its AGM and General Council meeting in Birmingham last Thursday. The Chair, Cllr Trevor Roberts, said “I am grateful for HS2 Ltd for hosting this meeting in their offices in central Birmingham. It was a very successful event, and I would like to thank all of those who participated, particularly
The General Council meeting of West Coast Rail 250 was held last Thursday (23rd February) in Liverpool. Members heard from Richard Scott of Avanti West Coast and Melissa Farmer from Transpennine Express on current train operation issues and their plans for the May and December 2023 timetables. The meeting was also updated on the activities
Avanti West Coast has launched a new timetable which reintroduces many services which were a casualty of the August step down. The new timetable started on 11 December, and now includes 40% more services per day. One of the headline changes is the re-instatement of 3 trains per hour on the London to Manchester route.
The Department for Transport has awarded Avanti West Coast a six month extension to the current Emergency Recovery Measures Agreement, taking the contract up to 1 April 2023. The current agreement was due to expire on 16 October 2022. The extension has been set to allow Avanti time to deliver its timetable recovery plan and
The DfT has published (9 June) consultation on the legislation that will be required to enable the rail transformation as set out in the William-Shapps Plan for Rail published in May 2021. This includes the creation of Great British Rail as “the guiding mind for the railways”. The consultation document can be found on the
The legislation required to build Phase 2b of High Speed 2 was introduced to Parliament today. When passed, the High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill will enable the new line between London and Birmingham / Crewe currently under construction to be extended to Manchester. The Government has also announced four changes from the original
The £2 billion contract to build the 225 mph trains for High Speed 2 has been awarded to a joint venture between Hitachi and Alstom. Whilst the majority of the work will be undertaken at plants in Newton Aycliffe and Derby, the West Coast economy will benefit from the assembly and maintenance of the train
The final report of the Government’s Union Connectivity Review, led by Sir Peter Hendy, was published today, and can be found at Union Connectivity Review (publishing.service.gov.uk). The report recognises the important role of rail, and includes the recommendation that the Government should “upgrade the West Coast Main Line north of Crewe to improve journey times
