The Office of Rail and Road is working with Network Rail to encourage greater competition among suppliers of signalling equipment and so reduce costs. The ORR carried out a study of the market, which is worth £800-900 million a year, and published its recommendations in November 2021. Network Rail has

(Library picture) A National Rail strike could be staged in June, if RMT members vote in favour of a walkout over job fears. Network Rail said it was ‘disappointed’. The RMT is starting its strike ballot on 26 April. It will cover more than 40,000 employees of Network Rail and 15 train operating

A new poll of around 1,000 Yorkshire and Humber adults has found that 60 per cent of respondents in the region chose York as the new headquarters for Great British Railways. The others were divided between Doncaster (20 per cent), Hull or Wakefield (both 10 per cent). The government’s competition from towns

An investigation has been launched into an incident on Easter Sunday when a London-bound Lumo service made an emergency stop at Peterborough. Passengers complained of minor injuries and luggage was thrown off racks. Lumo, which is an open access operator owned by FirstGroup, said the train involved was the 08.20

Theresa May has joined Great Western Railway’s stakeholder advisory board, which is an independent external body. Mrs May was Prime Minister between 2016 and 2019, and is MP for Maidenhead. She was invited to join the board by Lord Faulkner of Worcester, who chairs the 12-strong group. Mrs May said: ‘I

The compilation of future timetables for the East and West Coast Main Lines has reached a ‘crucial’ stage at which important decisions must be made, according to the Office of Rail and Road. Services in the new timetables are intended to make better use of capacity and also to be less

The government has made £7.6 million available for new technology to improve the railways. Rail minister Wendy Morton has announced this year’s First of Kind competition, which invites bids from companies specialising in innovative ways to modernise rail. In partnership with Innovate UK, this year’s competition will award up to

There are warnings that not building a linking line between HS2 and the West Coast Main Line near Manchester will have a serious effect on future HS2 services to Preston, Carlisle and Glasgow. The Golborne Link was intended to run from Hoo Green in Cheshire to a WCML junction south

The continuing postponement of the government’s plans to improve the railways is causing problems for the rail supply industry and could lead to increases in project costs, according to the Railway Industry Association. It is now almost two and a half years since the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline was last

Cracks found in the bodyshells of several types of Hitachi trains almost a year ago were caused partly by salt in the air, according to a new report from the Office of Rail and Road. The problems were first discovered at GWR’s Intercity Express depot in Bristol, and similar trains