A two-year mid-life refurbishment of the 56 Alstom Pendolinos operated by Avanti West Coast has been completed, just two months since the 22nd anniversary of the day in April 2002 when a Pendolino went on display at London Euston for the first time. The first Pendolino passengers were carried on 23 July that year, when a special Virgin Trains service took invited guests from Birmingham International to Manchester Piccadilly. The completion of the £117 million refurbishment, financed by Angel Trains, has been celebrated with an event at Alstom’s depot in Widnes. A total of 574 vehicles have been improved and the last Pendolino set to be completed went into service yesterday, when it worked the 08.43 from Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston. The upgrade, at an average cost of £2 million a train, has included the fitting of 25,000 new, ergonomic Standard Class seats, the conversion of one First Class coach in each of the 35 eleven-car Pendolinos to provide more than 2,000 extra Standard Class seats, a new on board shop, improved lighting, refurbished First Class and Standard Premium seats, new information screens, more luggage space in Standard Class, power points at all seats, refurbished toilets and new carpets throughout, made of British wool. Avanti West Coast managing director Andy Mellors said: ‘The refurbished Pendolinos, together with our new Evero fleet, are a key part of our mission to transform rail travel for our customers on the west coast route. ‘The Pendolino is an iconic train, and now even better than before, with innovation and sustainability at its heart.’ Alstom’s services managing director UK, Peter Broadley, added: ‘This milestone highlights the dedication and expertise of our team at Widnes. They have worked tirelessly in partnership with colleagues at Avanti West Coast, Angel Trains and our wider UK supply chain to elevate the interior refurbishment of rolling stock to another level. We are immensely proud to see the entire Alstom-built Pendolino fleet returning to service in peak condition.’ Angel Trains CEO Malcolm Brown said: ‘A huge thank you to both Alstom and Avanti West Coast for making the UK's biggest ever fleet upgrade possible. It's significantly transformed our iconic trains, and I'm positive that passengers will enjoy the comfort and connectivity when they travel on one of our refurbished Pendolinos. ‘This is exactly what the partnership between our businesses set out to achieve together, and I'm certain that it will encourage people to make a positive decision to travel by train on the West Coast Main Line.’

A railway in north Derbyshire will be closed for seven weeks in July and August, so that Network Rail engineers can step up their efforts to prevent part of an embankment falling into a river. Cracks in land in the Goyt Valley west of New Mills, near the village of Hague Bar, were first reported in April. Engineers started emergency repair work on two sites, but it was then decided to close one running line and impose a speed restriction on the other. Now Network Rail is warning that 50,000 tonnes of earth could fall into the River Goyt unless a full engineering possession is arranged. The line will now be closed completely from 6 July until 25 August. Buses will replace the train service between New Mills Central and Chinley while the engineers stablise the embankment by drilling foundations into the earth and building a wall between the railway and the river to stop the ground movement. Network Rail’s scheme project manager Vitesh Solanki said: ‘I’d advise passengers to check National Rail enquiries for travel advice in July and August for services between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield. ‘I’m sorry for the disruption the rail closure will cause passengers. The closure is the safest and quickest way for us to carry out the work so we can reopen the line fully as soon as possible.’ Network Rail is working with Northern to reduce disruption as much as possible. Northern said: ‘We’d like to thank our customers for their patience while this important, safety-critical work is carried out by Network Rail. We’ll do everything we can to make sure customers can still get where they want to be – but they should allow more time for their journeys.’ The work means there will be some changes in services from Manchester to New Mills Central via Bredbury: From Monday to Saturday there will be an hourly train service between Manchester Piccadilly and Marple while buses run between Marple and Chinley. On Sundays, an hourly bus service will run between Manchester Piccadilly, Bredbury, Marple and Chinley. Services between Chinley and Manchester Piccadilly will continue to be diverted via Hazel Grove and Stockport.

It has emerged that passengers have been scanned as they passed through station ticket gates. A complaint has been made about alleged breaches of data protection law. The use of AI was revealed when civil liberties group Big Brother Watch made a Freedom of Information request. It appeared that Network Rail was assessing the moods of passengers, but Network Rail said that was not so. A spokesman told the Press Association that emotions were not being analysed. Instead, the purpose of the scans was to ‘protect passengers’, and that the data could be used to ‘measure satisfaction’ and ‘maximise advertising and retail revenue’. The system sent images for analysis by Amazon Rekognition software to record demographic details, such as a passenger’s sex and apparent age, but that part of the programme has ended. The trials were said to be part of a wider programme to use AI to tackle such problems as trespassing, overcrowding, bicycle theft and even slippery floors. Trials are believed to have started in 2022 at Glasgow Central, Leeds, London Euston, London Waterloo, Manchester Piccadilly and Reading, which are all stations managed by Network Rail. Similar trials have apparently been carried out at Dawlish, Dawlish Warren and Marsden stations, which are managed by Great Western Railway and Northern. Big Brother Watch head of research and investigations Jake Hurfurt said: ‘Network Rail had no right to deploy discredited emotion recognition technology against unwitting commuters at some of Britain’s biggest stations, and I have submitted a complaint to the Information Commissioner about this trial. ‘It is alarming that as a public body it decided to roll out a large-scale trial of Amazon-made AI surveillance in several stations with no public awareness, especially when Network Rail mixed safety tech in with pseudoscientific tools and suggested the data could be given to advertisers. ‘Technology can have a role to play in making the railways safer, but there needs to be a robust public debate about the necessity and proportionality of tools used. ‘AI-powered surveillance could put all our privacy at risk, especially if misused, and Network Rail’s disregard of those concerns shows a contempt for our rights.’ Network Rail responded: ‘We take the security of the rail network extremely seriously and use a range of advanced technologies across our stations to protect passengers, our colleagues and the railway infrastructure from crime and other threats. ‘When we deploy technology, we work with the police and security services to ensure that we’re taking proportionate action, and we always comply with the relevant legislation regarding the use of surveillance technologies.’

Distracted driver A Freightliner driver who was in charge of a test run was distracted by the need to deal with a fault on the locomotive and ran past a red signal, according to a report from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch. The incident was near Stafford on 22 August last year. No one was injured and the locomotive was not derailed, although some points were damaged. The RAIB found the locomotive had been travelling too quickly as it approached the signal, which was protecting a junction. No other trains were directly involved, although another was approaching. The RAIB said Freightliner had no formal process for managing the risks of test runs and light locomotives, and that its competence management system had not equipped the driver to deal with an unexpected and potentially distracting situation. It has made two recommendations. Railway recruitment Southeastern has launched its biggest ever recruitment drive to encourage more people to choose a career on the railways. The operator, which was nationalised in 2021, says it wants to ‘break the outdated perception of what working in rail is like’. Southeastern wants to attract 170 trainee drivers and more than 100 station staff. It is also seeking staff for enforcement and protection, on board managers, train conductors and engineers. The operator has launched an advertising campaign which aims to encourage people from communities who may not have previously considered a career in rail. Accessible Anniesland Network Rail engineers worked through Saturday night to install steel structures at Anniesland station which will contain new lifts. The lift towers are 12 metres tall, with steel walkways connecting the upper towers to the existing platforms. The footpath underneath the railway bridge, parking bays, and the inside eastbound lane of nearby Great Western Road will remain closed for the duration of the project, which will be completed later this year. 

Ten trains have been ordered for the Elizabeth Line from Alstom in Derby. The order, which is reported to be worth at least £400 million, has come at a time when the site was running out of rolling stock orders and faced closure. The Derby works became part of Alstom when that company acquired Bombardier Transportation in 2022, but trains have been built in the city since the nineteenth century. Manufacturing supports dozens of supply chain companies in the East Midlands, some of which had also been set to close along with the Alstom works. Alstom’s UK managing director Nick Crossfield said: ‘We are delighted to now have a confirmed workload for Derby Litchurch Lane and our supply chain across the UK. The UK remains one of Alstom’s most important global markets.’ The trains are being funded by £220.5 million from the Department for Transport, while Transport for London is purchasing maintenance of the Aventra units until 2046. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: ‘Alongside TfL, I’ve been making the case to the Government that investment in new Elizabeth [Line] trains would give a vital boost to UK manufacturing, and support supply chains and jobs around the country. I’m delighted that Ministers have confirmed the funding for these state-of-the art trains. ‘The transformational Elizabeth Line is the fastest growing railway in the UK, with more than 350 million journeys made on the line since its opening, significantly helping to drive recovery from the pandemic and adding an estimated £42 billion to the UK economy.’ Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: ‘Labour has been calling for this deal to be done for months to save jobs and the future of Alstom. ‘It's extremely welcome that Transport for London have placed further orders with Alstom after concerted campaigning from Unite the Union and local Labour leaders. ‘We cannot go on like this. Labour will put an end to the cycle of end to boom and bust in our rail manufacturing sector, support the skilled jobs of the future and provide the stability communities like Derby deserve.’ Unite has also welcomed the news, but criticised government delays. General secretary Sharon Graham added: ‘Our members at Alstom will be breathing a huge sigh of relief but they should never have been in this position in the first place. The government were guilty of being asleep at the wheel. There is a huge need for new trains in this country, but Alstom was being starved of work.’

The recovery of the passenger rail business is continuing in the wake of the Covid pandemic, according to new figures released by the Office of Rail and Road. But the proportion of journeys made by commuters is still declining. Annual revenue has topped £10 billion for the first time since 2019, and totalled £10.3 billion in the year to 31 March 2024. This was a 13 per cent increase if compared with the £9.1 billion in the previous year, when adjusted for inflation. In the last year before Covid, 2019-2020, revenue from passenger services was £10.4 billion. The number of people travelling by train and the distances they covered have also continued to rise. A total of 1.61 billion journeys were made between1 April 2023 and 31 March this year, which was an increase of 16 per cent compared with the previous year, although the total in 2019-20 was 1.74 billion. This was the highest figure recorded since the 1920s, although there is an element of statistical inflation because modern journey totals count each train used during a trip, and cannot take account of split ticketing. Passenger kilometres were also up, at 60.1 billion. This was a 13 per cent increase on the 53.0 billion in 2022-23, but still below the 66.7 billion kilometres travelled in 2019-2020. The earliest equivalent figure available in historical records is for 1934, when it was approximately 34 billion kilometres. Until modern times the highest totals were recorded during the Second World War. The peak of 56.7 billion kilometres was recorded in 1945, when many thousands of demobbed troops were travelling home. Meanwhile, the number of commuters is still falling. The proportion of journeys made using season tickets is down from 34 per cent in 2019-20 to 13 per cent in 2023-24, and this was two percentage points lower than in 2022-23. Commuters now account for fewer than one in eight passengers, compared with one in three before the pandemic.

The Labour manifesto has been published today, and it promises that if the party is elected the new government will set up a National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority. It says this authority will combine existing bodies, ‘set strategic infrastructure priorities’ and ‘oversee’ project designs, scope and completion. Labour is pledging to ‘forge ahead with new roads, railways, reservoirs, and other nationally significant infrastructure’. Basic reforms of the railway industry are also set out. They include returning most of the passenger railway to public control under Great British Railways, ‘as contracts with existing operators expire or are broken through a failure to deliver’. Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said last night that if her party came to power next month, she would be asking ’for early advice’ about whether Avanti West Coast had ‘already breached’ its contract and whether she would be able to end that contract earlier than the next break point, which would occur in October 2026. Open access services, which the manifesto describes as ‘an important part of the rail system’, will continue. Mayors will have a part in designing the services in their areas, while there will be a duty to promote and increase rail freight. A ‘tough new passenger watchdog’ will be formed, as predicted in Labour’s earlier document, Getting Britain moving, which was published in April.

The Labour Party is planning to begin its rolling programme of nationalising private sector passenger operators with Avanti West Coast. Owned by FirstGroup and Trenitalia, the former franchise was only given a National Rail Contract in September last year. This contract began on 15 October and was to run for at least three years, with extensions possible until October 2032. Until last September, Avanti had worked under two six-month emergency contracts, to allow time for its services to recover from major performance problems which were mainly caused by a shortage of drivers. Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said standards had continued to be ‘woeful’. In its document Getting Britain Moving Labour has already undertaken to end National Rail Contracts over time, as they expire or reach a break point, but Ms Haigh made it clear that Avanti’s time may be shorter than that if her party wins the election, three weeks from today. She said: ‘I anticipate I will be seeking advice early on whether Avanti has been in breach of its contract given the woeful service that it’s been providing to passengers down the West Coast Main Line. ‘No ifs, no buts, October 2026 will be the last date Avanti will have notice, but I will ask for early advice about whether they have already breached their contract and whether it can be brought in any earlier.’ Transport for the North has already urged the government to end the Avanti operation. Avanti did not comment directly on the prospect of early termination, saying only: ‘Recently we have introduced our new Evero fleet on the West Coast Main Line which has boosted capacity on the network. This combined with our refurbishment of our Pendolino trains, the introduction of standard premium and our Superfare ticket has significantly improved our services.’ The operator has recently started to introduce new Hitachi-built replacements for the Bombardier Voyager fleet, which is now more than 20 years old.

The Green Party manifesto says privatisation of the railways has failed, and that the railways should be the ‘backbone of a sustainable transport system’. Its MPs will support investment in a ‘modern, efficient, publicly owned railway, with affordable fares’. The party is also in favour of ‘more rapid electrification’ and a ‘national strategic approach’ to identifying lines and stations which could be re-opened, with regional and local government taking a leading part in this. There would be more support for companies with lorries to move away from using internal combustion engines to transporting their goods on freight trains. Train operators with National Rail contracts would be brought back into public ownership gradually, by allowing their contracts to expire. Rolling stock leasing companies would not be nationalised outright, but replacement rolling stock ordered in the future would no longer be leased from them. The Party says ‘it’s time to shift the transport system away from cars and roads. Green MPs will push to restore the fuel duty escalator.’ The Greens would also would push for local authority control and proper funding for bus services, increasing these in urban areas, and also ensuring that ‘there is a bus service to every village’. An additional £19 billion would be spent over five years to improve public transport, and some of this funding would be reallocated from road schemes. There would be a ban on domestic flights for journeys that would take less than three hours by train.

The Conservative Party has confirmed in its manifesto that, if elected, it would create Great British Railways, which was envisaged in the 2021 Rail Review and described then as the industry’s ‘guiding mind’. GBR would be responsible for increasing the part played by the private sector in the rail industry, including the expansion of open access passenger services ‘to bring greater choice’. The Conservative manifesto says: ‘GBR will usher in a revitalised private-public partnership, delivering a modern and innovative railway with reliable services, and simpler tickets.’ It also says that that ‘outdated working practices’ will be addressed in its forthcoming Rail Reform Bill, a proposed law which would be included in the King’s Speech at the opening of the next Parliament. Other Conservative railway plans include national mobile pay-as-you-go contactless tickets, an evaluation of proposals to continue the Borders Railway from Tweedbank to Hawick and Carlisle, an updated East Coast Main Line timetable, electrification of the North Wales main line, improvements on the South Wales main line, more reopenings and investment in the line through Dawlish, the Energy Coast [Cumbrian Coast] line and the Ely Junction scheme in East Anglia, and improved accessibility at 100 stations, including the 50 announced in May. The Northern Powerhouse Rail project would continue, including electrification to Hull and a new station for central Bradford. The Midlands Rail Hub would also be funded with £1.75 billion. In addition, the manifesto says ‘We are committed to all the schemes set out in the Network North Command Paper,’ and that the Conservatives will ‘support the growth of the rail freight sector’. although no further details are given. Nothing is said about how National Rail Contracts could change or be re-awarded in future, nor if the four nationalised English train operators would be returned to the private sector.