Transport secretary Louise Haigh is reported to have intervened in the crisis at Hitachi’s train-building plant in Newton Aycliffe, which is endangered by a lack of orders. A similar problem had occurred at Alstom’s works in Litchurch Lane Derby, but a new order for 10 Elizabeth Line trains worth £370 million has saved the Derby plant, at least for now. Hitachi at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham was opened in 2015 to assemble Intercity Expresses which have since been delivered to GWR and LNER. The Hitachi plant was so busy for a while that an additional batch of Class 802 Intercity Expresses for GWR had to be built by Hitachi in Italy. Newton Aycliffe is now completing orders for Avanti West Coast and East Midlands Railway, but there is nothing further in prospect for its 700 staff until Newton Aycliffe plays a part in building trains for HS2. In a letter to MPs in the region quoted by the Northern Echo, Ms Haigh said: ‘I share your concerns about the current production gap and the impact this could have on the workforce at the site and the local supply chain. ‘I was clear before the election that there must be an end to the assumed boom and bust in rail manufacturing and I am committed to producing an industrial strategy for the sector which flattens the order curve and delivers the stability necessary to support job skills and the wider supply chain. ‘Upon taking office one of my first requests was to see the options to address the production gap at Newton Aycliffe and on July 24 I met with Hitachi and officials to kick start a process of work on those options.’ She added that her officials were now working on a ‘suite of potential options’ to keep Newton Aycliffe in business. She continued: ‘Officials have confirmed to me that they will engage as appropriate with all stakeholders, including the train operators and the owners of the relevant rolling stock.’

More attention needs to be paid to the plight of passengers on stranded trains, according to the Office of Rail and Road. The ORR commissioned a report in co-operation with Transport Focus which examined what happened after four trains had come to a stand in mid-section in December last year. The incidents chosen were at Ladbroke Grove near London Paddington, Corby Glen on the East Coast Main Line and at Beattock Summit and Bourne End Junction, both on the West Coast Main Line. Passengers on these trains were asked about their experiences. The report concluded that although there is useful guidance, it is not always followed. Some passengers said that although there evidently were procedures for staff to follow, ‘no one really knew what they were’. The ORR and Transport Focus have emphasised that prompt action is needed, particularly when the batteries for lighting, air conditioning, heating and toilet systems have become exhausted. This can lead to exasperation or even panic among the stranded passengers. One said: ‘It was actually really hot and … because the power went off, obviously there was no sort of air flowing through the train at all.’ There is also a need for better assistance when passengers have been able to resume their journeys. One reported: ‘I was literally left in a place in London I don’t know, on my own as a woman, and my battery was almost dead. I was panicking about how I was going to get home.’ Staff were often praised for ‘carrying the day’ and being ‘really, really helpful’ but the report says more staff training is needed so that the safety, welfare and experience of passengers gets proper attention. The ORR and Transport Focus are going to bring together rail operators and Network Rail later in 2024 to make sure that improvements are made. The ORR’s director of strategy, policy and reform Stephanie Tobyn said: ‘Being stranded on a train for a lengthy period of time is thankfully rare, but when it does happen, rail operators and Network Rail need to work together quickly to assess the situation from a passenger perspective and create a workable plan to safely manage the situation. This plan must assess the conditions on the train, the specific welfare needs of all passengers onboard and the previous experience of public behaviour during such incidents.’

The cost of abandoning HS2 north of the West Midlands has topped £2 billion, according to HS2 Ltd. In its latest annual report, for 2023-24, the government’s developer said it had written off costs of £1,003 million which had been spent on Phases 2A to Crewe, Phase 2B to Manchester and the new station at London Euston. This total consisted of £713 million on Phase 2A, £137 million on Phase 2B West and £153 million on Euston station. In addition, there was a further £1,074 million in costs previously incurred on Phase 2, plus almost £95 million spent north of Birmingham since the Crewe and Manchester sections were cancelled, giving a total of approximately £2,172 million. The £95 million spent since Prime Minister Rishi Sunak cancelled Phases 2A and 2B last October included ‘remediation, reinstatement, and costs of exiting the phase with an orderly, regular, and safe cessation of activities’, according to the report. The changes at London Euston, which have yet to be confirmed or funded, reduce the size of the proposed station from 10 to six platforms. The report explains: ‘The company is no longer expected to gain an economic benefit from the specific design work already completed on the 10-platform station. Accordingly, the company has impaired the value of the work that can no longer be used by reducing the asset value and declaring the expenditure [£152.9 million] as a loss.’

Transport campaigners have expressed their dismay after Chancellor Rachel Reeves told MPs that the £500 million Restoring Your Railway fund had been cancelled, as part of a wide range of national economies to deal with an ‘overspend’ in the national budget of £22 billion. The decision puts projects to reopen lines and stations at risk in many parts of England, from the south west to the north east. Ms Reeves told the House of Commons that the railway fund is one of many budgets which had not been costed by the previous government, and that she was seeking savings in transport spending which will also involve the cancellation of road schemes, including a controversial tunnel near Stonehenge. She explained: ‘The spending audit has revealed nearly £800 million of unfunded transport projects that have been committed next year,’ and she said transport secretary Louise Haigh will ‘cancel projects in the “Restoring our Railways” programme which have not yet commenced’, saving £76 million in the coming year. However, projects will then be reviewed individually, and could still go ahead. So far, only the reopening of the Dartmoor Line to Okehampton in Devon has been completed using money from the RYR fund, but restoration of the Northumberland Line between Ashington and Newcastle-upon-Tyne is at an advanced stage and the line is set to reopen ‘this summer’. Another project which is under way, on paper at least, is the Mid Cornwall Metro linking Newquay, Truro and Falmouth, and engineering consultancy Aecom was commissioned in March to launch work on the detailed design. However, the £56.8 million budget for the Cornwall scheme includes almost £50 million from the Levelling Up Fund rather than Restoring Your Railway, and it is unclear whether it is affected by the Chancellor’s cuts. Schemes which are set to be delayed until they can be reviewed again include the Barrow Hill line between Sheffield and Chesterfield, the Ivanhoe Line between Leicester and Burton-on-Trent, and the lines to Portishead in Bristol and Fleetwood in Lancashire, as well as stations at Meir in Staffordshire, Haxby in Yorkshire, Cullompton in Devon, Wellington in Somerset, Devizes in Wiltshire, Ferryhill in County Durham, and Aldridge near Walsall in the West Midlands. Ben Curtis from the Campaign for Better Transport said: ‘This is a hugely disappointing decision. Rail is one of the greenest forms of transport and crucial to the economy. Growing the rail network is vital to economic growth and reducing carbon emissions. The Restoring Your Railways Fund was key to getting much-needed lines and stations reopened like the reopened Okehampton station, creating an additional 550,000 journeys in just the first two years of operation. We urge the Government to reconsider.’ Railway Industry Association chief executive Darren Caplan said: ‘We support the need for a strategic review of transport schemes, and urge the government to make sure that the spending review takes account of the crucial role rail investment plays in supporting jobs, local growth, connectivity and decarbonisation within and between the UK’s nations and regions. As the National Infrastructure Commission recently noted, a lack of rail capacity is at risk of holding back growth in key cities.’

The Chancellor has told the House of Commons that the £500 million Restoring Your Railway fund has been cancelled.Rachel Reeves said the Fund had not been costed, and that she was seeking savings in transport spending worth £1 billion. The decision will save £76 million next year. Individual Restoring Your Railway projects will be reconsidered through a review by the transport secretary.

The Chancellor has told the House of Commons that the £500 million Restoring Your Railway fund has been cancelled.Rachel Reeves said the Fund had not been costed, and that she was seeking savings in transport spending worth £1 billion. The decision will save £76 million next year. Individual Restoring Your Railway projects will be reconsidered through a review by the transport secretary.

Railway schemes speculation The chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to set out a range of infrastructure schemes which are to be scaled back or scrapped, in a bid to close a £20 billion funding gap in the public finances. Some road and hospital schemes are said to under scrutiny, along with the £500 million Restoring Your Railway fund, which could also be reduced in scope or suspended. The Fund has already paid for the restoration of passenger services to Okehampton, while current schemes in progress are the Northumberland Line between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Ashington, which is due to open this summer, and the Mid Cornwall Metro, for which detailed engineering designs are currently being carried out before upgrading work is due to start later this year. Meanwhile, the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill which paves the way for the nationalisation of most passenger operators is due to be debated by MPs as it receives its Second Reading today. Eurostar services restored Eurostar services from London to Paris have returned to normal today, after a weekend of disruption caused by three arson attacks on the French high speed rail network early on Friday, a few hours before the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris. SNCF has been working to repair damaged signalling data cables. Three high speed lines had to be closed, including LGV Nord between Paris and Lille, which carries trains from London, Brussels and Amsterdam. Investigations into the reason for the attacks and the identity of the arsonists are continuing. Scottish strike ballot Unite the union is launching a strike ballot on Wednesday involving more than 300 of its members at ScotRail, as a pay dispute continues. The union says ScotRail staff have been offered a backdated two per cent rise from April this year, and a further one per cent in January 2025. The staff who will have the chance to vote include train cleaners, engineers, booking office staff and conductors.

► Arsonists set fire to cables alongside high speed lines, blocking signalling data ► Police and soldiers are patrolling stations in Paris just hours before Olympics launch ► Thousands of people delayed as trains are diverted to classic lines or cancelledUpdated 11.53Three arson attacks have disrupted high speed train services in France, on the eve of the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris. Trains from London have been affected, along with other international and domestic high speed services within France. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal says the effect on the country’s railways has been ‘massive and serious’. SNCF said vital cables had been damaged by the fires, and police with Olympics duties are reported to have been diverted to some major stations in Paris to help deal with crowds of frustrated travellers. Some soldiers have also been seen on stations. 11.53 update: It appears that the arsonists set fire to bundled fibre-optic cables in conduits running along the cess, knocking out signalling data circuits. SNCF president Jean-Pierre Farandou is quoted by news agency AFP as saying: ‘There's a huge number of bundled cables. We have to repair them one by one. It's a manual operation requiring hundreds of workers.’ Repairs are not expected to be complete before Monday. Eurostar has been affected because one of the attacks damaged LGV Nord near Arras, between Paris and Lille. Some Eurostar services between London and Paris have been cancelled, while those trains which do run are being diverted on to the slower classic line between Lille and Paris, and Eurostar has warned that journeys will take about 90 minutes longer as a result. It said its staff had been ‘fully mobilised in stations, in the call centres, and on board to assist and ensure our passengers are fully informed’. LGVs Atlantique and Est have also been damaged by the attacks, and SNCF is asking its passengers not to try to travel on these lines. SNCF said there had been a ‘massive attack aimed at paralysing the network’. A fourth attack on LGV Sud-Est to Lyon has apparently been prevented, but no further details have been given. There is no obvious connection with the Olympics so far, and no-one has admitted responsibility, but the disruption has come on one of the busiest days of the year for French Railways. The system was braced to deal with many thousands of people arriving in Paris for the start of the Olympics, while a second surge of passengers consists of people leaving Paris at the start of the summer holidays.

More talks over the long-running train drivers’ pay dispute are set to be held in the near future, after a first meeting this week between ASLEF and the Department for Transport was hailed a success and officially described as ‘constructive’. Before the election on 4 July, ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan had blamed the Conservative government for the stalemate in the dispute and the continuing strikes, saying that if the government had not ‘breached our trust, and acted in bad faith’, then the walkouts would not have been called. Mr Whelan has also dubbed the latest talks, which apparently did not involve the Rail Delivery Group, as constructive. He continued: ‘With a new Secretary of State for Transport in place, I hope, and think, we can, and will, get a deal done.’ The new transport secretary Louise Haigh had already tweeted on X that: ‘Fourteen years without a workforce strategy has left our railways understaffed, reliant on voluntary working and lurching from one crisis to the next. Our urgent priority is to reset workforce relations and put passengers first.’ The DfT said: ‘The Transport Secretary has been clear she wants to reset industrial relations for the benefit of passengers and the workforce. ‘Today officials resumed talks with ASLEF, holding a constructive meeting as we look to resolve this long-running dispute. ‘Further conversations will be held in the coming weeks.’

Transport secretary Louise Haigh has criticised the Conservatives’ management of HS2, in the wake of a report from the National Audit Office which warns that capacity between London and Manchester will be reduced rather than increased because the trains planned for HS2, which will continue north of Birmingham on the conventional network, may have fewer seats than the Pendolinos they will replace. The report says it may be necessary to encourage people ‘to travel at different times or to not travel by rail’, although it concedes ‘this may constrain economic growth in the region over the long term’. One alternative would be longer trains, but these would need ‘additional works at existing stations such as at Crewe or Preston’. The station at London Euston would have six platforms rather than ten, because there will be fewer high speed trains. The report concludes that it will cost £100 million to close down the work on HS2 north of Birminghan, which was cancelled last October, and urges the DfT and HS2 Ltd to ‘reset the programme successfully to avoid repeating past failures’. It says ‘they will need to be clear on what benefits they want from the programme now.’ Transport secretary Louise Haigh says in a tweet on X that: ‘The Tories recklessly mismanaged HS2 and allowed the costs to spiral out of control. This report lays bare the sheer scale of Conservative incompetence. We won’t make the same mistakes. We’re assessing the books and will set out next steps in due course.’ Meanwhile the charity Campaign for Better Transport says HS2 has become ’a complete shambles’. Silviya Barrett of the CBT said: ‘At a time when we need to encourage more people to take the train, it beggars belief that the public might be discouraged to travel with even higher fares and fewer seats. ‘The severely curtailed HS2 project has now turned into a complete shambles that needs to be urgently addressed. ‘For the sake of current and future generations, the Government must consider the best way to expand rail capacity and improve connectivity from Manchester to central London as originally intended, whether high speed or not.’