Chaudhry-van der Velde to leave troubled West Midlands THE managing director of West Midlands Trains Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde is leaving the troubled company at Easter ‘to take a career break’. His replacement has been named as WMR director Julian Edwards, who is joining now and will work alongside Mr Chaudhry-van

ONE of the vehicles in a new Caledonian Sleeper train is reported to have emergency windows that cannot be opened. Serco, which owns the franchise, has attributed the problem with the high-tech windows to a ‘circuit fault’, but added that ‘guest and staff safety is always our number one priority’. The windows

For the regular commuter or avid traveller, trains are not always the most convenient of places. Seats can be uncomfortable, amenities are often limited and long journeys can be boring. Here’s a selection of handy gadgets to make those tiresome train journeys just a bit more manageable. 1. Rest in comfort with

DB CARGO has been fined £1.2 million with £27,873.03 costs after a trespassing 13-year old boy suffered serious injuries from electrocution at Bescot freight terminal on 1 June 2017. He and two other boys of the same age had climbed on to the roof of a wagon, and the boy received

THE curtain came down for scheduled HST services on the East Coast Main Line  on December 15. LNER is changing many services to become ‘Azuma’ operated, and the move brings to an end 41 years of sterling HST service on the ECML. Since early November, the number

Updated 12.25Arriva’s Northern franchise ‘will only be able to continue for a number of months’, transport secretary Grant Shapps has warned.In a written statement to Parliament published today, Mr Shapps says: ‘On 16 October 2019 I informed the House, through the Transport Committee, that I had issued a request for

Avanti West Coast have secured a major seven-year deal worth £642 million with Alstom to upgrade all 56 of their electric Pendolino trains on the West Coast Mainline. As well as covering a £127m upgrade of the Pendolinos, which is believed to be the biggest train upgrade programme ever

THE rail franchising crisis has deepened in the past 24 hours, with West Midlands Trains now joining the list of contracts in doubt. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also confirmed that contingency plans are being developed to replace Northern.The Prime Minister was answering a question about WMT from West Worcestershire

I HAD to travel to Glasgow at short notice and decided to try out the new Caledonian Sleeper stock. As there were no cabins available, I had to travel on one of the new ‘reclining’ seats. My first impression was how fabulous the train looked, and inside the seating car

SATURDAY, November 30 saw the third and final TransPennine Express (TPE) train fleet finally entering passenger service, when Class 397 ‘Nova 2’ set No. 397007 worked the 08.10 departure from Manchester Airport to Edinburgh.  An incident-packed journey saw the train finally arriving at Edinburgh significantly behind time because of an