A new centre for storing newly-manufactured lengths of rail has been opened by British Steel in Scunthorpe, where most rail for British tracks is made. BS said the new £10 million ‘stocking hub’ will make sure that new rail is ready when needed for Network Rail projects. It said the rails ‘will have undergone stringent testing and quality assurance checks required to meet the specification to allow immediate despatch or welding into 216m lengths’. The new centre has 11 multi-gantry hoists to lift the finished rails on to wagons. When fully stocked, the hub will hold around 25,000 tonnes of finished rails. British Steel’s commercial director, rail, Craig Harvey said: ‘We are committed to building the railways of the future, and this investment supports the government’s ambition to improve rail travel and connectivity. ‘It will also enhance our long-term strategic partnership with Network Rail – a partnership which helps millions of passengers and freight operators enjoy safe, enjoyable, and timely journeys. ‘Together we have an integral role to play in strengthening the UK’s infrastructure, enabling development, and supporting hundreds of businesses and thousands of jobs in the supply chain. ‘The new facility is the latest in a series of major investments in British Steel by our owner, Jingye, which is resolute in its commitment to enhancing our operations and helping us build a sustainable future for our business.’

Although it is still autumn, wintry weather has swept across the Midlands, Northern England and North Wales overnight. Railways are affected by snow in a number of places and Network Rail has launched its snow plan, which involves removing ice at junctions and equipping locomotives with mini snow ploughs. The cold belt has now reached London and South East England. National Rail is warning that services affected include Bradford Interchange to Huddersfield, Hebden Bridge to Halifax, where some peak services to Leeds will not run, and Halifax to Hull, where trains are running only between Bradford Interchange and Hull. Further south, there are no trains between Nottingham and Worksop this morning, while in Wales buses have been replacing trains on the Conwy Valley line between Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog. Snow is not the only problem. Flooding near Ulverston has resulted in an emergency speed restriction, and this is delaying trains between Barrow-in-Furness and Lancaster. Some may be cancelled. Carlisle to Lancaster services are terminating at Barrow and so are not calling at stations between there and Lancaster. Network Rail’s North & East route operations director Karen Duffy said: ‘Our teams will be monitoring conditions and engineers are on standby ready to respond if necessary. We are urging all passengers to check their journeys.’

The drivers’ union ASLEF is calling for radical improvements to the provision of toilets for drivers, because the lack of hygienic facilities is a ‘real problem’. ASLEF will be launching a report called Dignity for Drivers at the House of Commons tomorrow, to coincide with World Toilet Day. The union reports that many drivers have to use unsuitable containers or even a bush, while some deliberately dehydrate themselves, which can affect concentration on their safety-critical job. It is calling for clean, hygienic toilets offering privacy, as well as warm running water, a sink, soap, and safe sanitary disposal. One in eight drivers suffer from a disability and have found their health has been worsened by their inability to use a toilet during the working day. ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan said: ‘It cannot be right that train drivers are often left with no dignified or hygienic options for carrying out basic bodily functions. And this problem only serve to undermine efforts by stakeholders in the rail industry to recruit a more representative number of women to the driver’s seat. ‘Some train drivers choose not to drink tea or coffee or water – “deliberate dehydration” – to avoid having to go to the toilet. Not maintaining good fluid levels has an effect on concentration, and harmful long-term effects on health, too. Driver’s cabs can reach temperatures of 30°C in the summer heat. ‘Some drivers are having to change sanitary towels in bushes by the side of the track – that’s outrageous in a first world country in the 21st century. Who wants to urinate in a bush? One woman driver used her hard hat. It’s time our industry realised its obligations and did the right thing – not just for drivers but for the passengers and goods they move around this country. ‘We need to address this issue and address it now. Long-term, the answer is to design out the problem. When the train operating companies and freight operating companies are commissioning a new train they should build and design it with a staff toilet on board. ‘And, in the meantime, companies, when retrofitting old stock, need to come up with a solution to the problem. Some firms are fitting camping toilets on old trains and, while not great, freight drivers say a camping toilet is better than a bush. ‘This report makes grim reading. But read it you should. Because only then, when the extent of the problem is understood, can we begin to put things right.’

The promised consultation into the next steps for East West Rail has been launched. The consultation publicity confirms that discontinuous electrification is now being considered for the whole route, which would be served by hybrid 25kV/battery trains. The section between Oxford and Bedford was to have been electrified in full under the 2012 plans for an Electric Spine connecting Portsmouth with the Midlands but this was later abandoned, and it was decided that EWR would not be electrified, although passive provision has been made for overhead wires where new structures have been built. The consultation, launched yesterday, will run until 24 January, and there will be 16 events from next Tuesday onwards which can be visited at various points between Oxford and Cambridge, including Bicester, Steeple Claydon, Bletchley, Bedford, Tempsford and Woburn Sands, as well as in the two university cities themselves. Virtual webinars have also been arranged on three dates, while there is a virtual consultation room where information will be available. Services are due to begin between Bicester, Bletchley and Milton Keynes next year, but it is not expected that the existing Bletchley to Bedford section will be incorporated in the new service until 2030. Some stations on this section could be closed, effectively combining them with others nearby. The line between Bedford and Cambridge is expected to include two tunnels, avoiding the need for large cuttings. Meanwhile, further station enhancements have been outlined for Oxford, Oxford Parkway, Bicester Village and Bletchley, and there are two options for a new station at Tempsford. Trains are likely to run between 06.00 and 24.00 from Mondays to Thursdays, 06.00 to 01.00 on Fridays and Saturdays and 07.00 to 23.00 on Sundays. East West Rail Co chief executive David Hughes said: ‘I’m excited to present our updated proposals, which include electrification to reflect our commitment to running a net zero carbon railway.  Local authorities and businesses have been calling for this railway for three decades and our revised plans aim to maximise the benefits of the project.’

Transport secretary Louise Haigh has confirmed that the last private sector train operating contract will end in October 2027, with the new ‘directing mind’ Great British Railways expected to be functioning by late 2026 ‘at the earliest’ after the forthcoming Railways Bill has been passed. There are ten former franchises still running at the moment under National Rail Contracts awarded in the wake of the Covid pandemic. Ms Haigh was making her first appearance before the newly-formed Commons Transport Committee yesterday. As with other Parliamentary Select Committees, its membership was revised after the general election. Another Bill, currently going through the House of Lords, will authorise the Department for Transport to take control of the former franchises at the next ‘break point’, or else when the core contract expires. The DfT will also be able to take back any contract at an earlier date if it has been breached. The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill, which makes public ownership the default rather than the last resort, has already passed its Commons stages and received its Third Reading in the Lords yesterday. It is expected to receive Royal Assent soon. Two former franchises reached their core expiry dates on 15 September, but the Government did not take action because its Bill had not yet become law. As a result, West Midlands Trains may now run until April 2026, and Greater Anglia until September 2026. The next two are Chiltern Railways and Govia Thameslink Railway, which both have core expiry dates of 1 April 2025, and it seems likely that they will be the first to be renationalised using the powers of the new Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act. The last former franchise is set to be CrossCountry, which has a core term expiring on 17 October 2027. The Government is waiting for legitimate break points in contracts before taking action, to avoid potentially major claims for compensation. Louise Haigh was questioned about a number of railway issues by the Committee, which also heard that the Railways Bill is expected to be introduced next summer. She said: ‘I don’t want anybody to underestimate the scale of the reform challenge that we are undertaking.’ She continued that the Government has ‘to massively reduce and simplify the mass of regulation that has been built up over the last 30 years of privatisation’ because it ‘stifles a huge amount of innovation and progress’ and there are presently ‘dozens and dozens of competing and conflicting interests’. When a train is delayed, she explained, ‘Rather than work together to see how we can fix it and make sure it doesn’t happen again, instead we have dozens and dozens of lawyers that argue over whose fault the delay was and how to attribute the blame and who pays for the faults.’ Meanwhile, half-yearly results published by FirstGroup this morning show that its revenues from DfT contracts were ‘in line with expectations’, while open access recorded revenue growth of £5.6 million, or 12 per cent, which was also as expected. As the DfT contracts wind down, operators like First are concentrating increasingly on the prospects of more open access. First reported that it has acquired track access rights for new open access services between London and Stirling, while applications for the extension of Hull Trains to Sheffield and Lumo to Glasgow have been submitted, along with a new service between Rochdale and London. Consultations are ‘progressing’.

Updated 10.22The growing number of complaints reported from rail passengers who are sometimes prosecuted and heavily fined for a comparatively trivial mistake about the fare they should have paid has triggered a Government review into how operators deal with fare evasion, which is said to cost several hundred million pounds a year. In one recent case, a 29-year old passenger from St Albans was threatened with prosecution because she had inadvertently chosen the wrong railcard when buying her ticket on Thameslink, even though she held a valid card which entitled her to the same discount. That case has now been overturned after her MP intervened, but she had previously been fined £450 in her absence in another case because she had not uploaded her railcard properly to a phone app, although she proved to a revenue enforcement inspector that she had bought the right railcard by producing her receipt. The papers for that case had been sent to the wrong address, and she told the BBC that she still does not know if she now has a criminal record. Transport secretary Louise Haigh has asked the Office of Rail and Road to carry out the review into how clear terms and conditions are for passengers, and when prosecution is appropriate. The ORR said ‘reports have emerged of instances where a disproportionate approach might have been taken to those making a genuine mistake’. The transport secretary said: ‘Make no mistake, deliberate fare-dodging has no place on our railways and must be tackled, but innocent people shouldn't feel like a genuine mistake will land them in court. ‘An independent review is the right course of action, and will help restore passengers’ confidence in the system. ‘It is clear that ticketing is far too complicated, with a labyrinth of different fares and prices which can be confusing for passengers. That’s why we have committed to the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation, including simplifying fares to make travelling by train easier.’ The ORR’s director of strategy, policy and reform Stephanie Tobyn added: ‘We welcome the opportunity to conduct this review. ‘It is important passengers are treated fairly and dealt with consistently and proportionately when ticketing issues arise, whilst also balancing the legitimate revenue protection interests of operators and taxpayers.’ Officials at the Department for Transport will now work with the ORR to decide the review’s scope, timings and terms of reference after seeking legal and other expert advice. Watchdog Transport Focus responded: ‘We will be sharing with the review what passengers have told us about how confusing the current ticketing system is. People who have made an innocent mistake should be treated with understanding and not immediately assumed to be guilty. ‘We also know fare evasion costs the railway hundreds of millions of pounds every year, money which could be better used to improve services for passengers. Positive action on revenue protection with a focus on ensuring penalties are given only to those who deserve them will help build trust and confidence in the railway.’

Transport secretary Louise Haign has sounded a warning to the railway industry, saying that performance ‘improvements that can be made now must be made now’, and that the level of performance must be communicated to passengers more effectively by using station screens. She told MPs that performance is starting to improve, hailing ‘green shoots’ on LNER, where the number of cancellations has been falling. She also highlighted the new ‘five-point plan’ for overcrowded London Euston, where more trains are being advertised twenty minutes before departure, reducing the need for the ‘Euston dash’ down the ramps from the concourse to the platforms. She continued: ‘Platform announcements are made earlier, crowding has been reduced and, yes, the advertising screen has been temporarily switched off.’ She promised ‘tangible improvements’ on Northern: ‘Thanks to our agreement on rest day working, hundreds more driver shifts have been covered this weekend, cutting cancellations now and in the long run. At TransPennine Express, operator-caused, on-the-day cancellations averaged around 2 per cent in the last year, compared to 5 per cent in the year before it was taken into public ownership. On CrossCountry, we took immediate steps to implement a remedial plan to reduce its cancellations and get services back on track. Its reduced timetable has brought greater stability, and I expect even greater reliability in the long term as the full timetable returns today. ‘We will be fully transparent with passengers by displaying performance data at stations to demonstrate how the railway is working and to allow the public to hold us to account as we deliver change. That is important, because the railway is a promise—a promise to passengers from the moment they buy a ticket that the train will arrive on time, as the timetable says.’ Shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon responded: ‘I agree that rail performance is a key concern to passengers throughout the country, and it is a fair criticism to say that several operators have consistently underperformed. That is why, when we were in government, we took action to improve performance on our railways, investing more than £100 billion. ‘We know that while in some cases it has been necessary in the short term to bring rail operators into public control, it has not made the difference in performance that the Government would have us believe. It takes only a cursory glance at passenger rail performance statistics to see that some of the rail operators operating under public control have done little or nothing to improve cancellations or delays in relation to other operators.’

The line between Par and Newquay in Cornwall will close next week so that engineers can lay new track and install signalling. Two possessions have been arranged in connection with development of the £56 million Mid Cornwall Metro. Trains from Newquay will replaced by buses to St Austell. The first closure begins on 18 November and will run until 1 December. Engineers have just completed a new platform at Newquay and they will now lay the platform line and install points. The platform is intended for local trains and will be shorter than the existing one, which can take full-length Intercity Expresses. Trains will be replaced by buses again between 24 February and 23 March so that a passing loop can be built at Tregoss Moor, between Roche and St Columb Road stations. These works will allow the Par-Newquay line to carry an hourly service from May as well as daily intercity trains during the summer. The line opened to passengers in 1876 but was severely rationalised by British Rail in the 1980s, which also singled 9km of the main line between St Austell and Truro as another economy measure. That section was redoubled in 2004, and now the main cutbacks on the Newquay line are also being reversed. The traditional tokens protecting single line sections will be replaced by axle counters, and two level crossings in suburban Newquay will soon be closed to vehicles following completion of a new road bridge. Further ahead, the hourly local train service from Newquay is due to be extended to St Austell, Truro and Falmouth by 2026. Network Rail industry programme director Bogdan Lupu said: ‘This is the first of two major pieces of work we need to complete on the Newquay branch line. We’ve got a new platform ready and now we need to lay new track to reach it. ‘We’re sorry for the disruption but working this way is the fastest route to bring the benefits of Mid Cornwall Metro to passengers.’ GWR’s station manager for West Cornwall Sharon Holloway added: ‘This improvement work forms part of wider plans to enhance services for those choosing to travel by rail across Cornwall. ‘During these dates, trains will still run between Plymouth and Penzance at Par station with replacement buses running between St Austell and Newquay.’

Operators are not maintaining station help points efficiently and are leaving passengers without information as a result, according to the Office of Rail and Road. The equipment is installed at more than four stations out of five, but becomes particularly important when no staff are available. Passengers most commonly use the points to ask for information about train services, but they are also sometimes used to ask for assistance or to report an emergency. Passengers can use an equivalent service by calling a freephone number at the 325 unstaffed or partially staffed stations which do not have a help point, but there is a risk that both help point and freephone services can be affected by poor mobile coverage in remote areas. The Office of Rail and Road reviewed data from 21 operators of stations responsible for help points at more than 2,500 stations and also reviewed Department for Transport and Transport Scotland data from routine service quality audits. It found that a quarter of stations audited for the DfT in England in the twelve months to August this year had at least one help point reported as ‘not working’ when inspected. The ORR added that operators’ methods of testing their help points ‘vary significantly, and we are concerned that operators may not be identifying and therefore fixing issues promptly’. Operators are being asked to review their monitoring of help points, and to carry out a risk assessment for the unstaffed and partially staffed stations on their networks which rely on mobile phone coverage for help point or freephone communication. The ORR will be looking at what is being done to improve the situation early in the New Year. The regulator’s director of strategy, policy and reform Stephanie Tobyn said: ‘Help points can provide an important backup for passengers seeking journey information, assistance, or a way to report emergencies. ‘Without regular inspection, maintenance, and an understanding of the purpose and frequency of usage, help points will not meet passenger expectations or support train and station operators in driving broader customer service improvement.’

The November print edition of Railnews is published today, and a free online update, Railnews Extra, can be downloaded now. The latest Railnews podcast, featuring exclusive industry reactions to the Autumn Budget, will go live at 13.00. What is in the new print edition? Click here for more. When the podcast is available later today, a link to it will be published here.