Network Rail is reminding people of the dangers of playing on or near the railway as some areas prepare for the school half term holiday, because there has been a spate of incidents involving children and young people at level crossings. Network Rail described CCTV images as ‘shocking’, because the cameras have recorded children taking risks on level crossings at Charfield in Gloucestershire, Wantage in Oxfordshire and at Toffles foot crossing, which is near Topsham on the Exmouth branch in Devon. They are shown stopping to take selfies, loitering on the track and failing to check that no trains are approaching before cycling across the line. East Midlands Railway has also reported young trespassers risking their lives at Bingham, between Grantham and Nottingham. Unexplained cable damage disrupts Tyneside services Network Rail teams are working to repair a damaged power cable in the Seaburn area which is affecting National Rail and Tyne and Wear Metro services. The damage first caused problems on Tuesday but delays have continued, and Tyne and Wear Metro has been forced to reduce its service between Pelaw and South Hylton from five to two trains an hour. The cause of the damage has not been revealed. New Network Rail route director named Network Rail has confirmed that acting Sussex route director Lucy McAuliffe has been appointed permanently. She became acting route director last December following two years as the Southern region’s stations and security director, and since then has been overseeing efforts to improve reliability on the Sussex route. Southeastern automates rolling stock inspections Southeastern has signed a contract with Siemens Mobility and Eversholt Rail to develop a fully automated vehicle inspection system. The new technology will be installed at Ramsgate depot, and will use high sensitivity cameras and optical laser sensors to collect and analyse data about the condition of the Mainline fleet. AVI will check each train’s brake pads, collector shoes and wheel profiles, as well as the wheel tread thickness. It will also inspect the underframes.

National Rail operators and Transport for London have reached an agreement which means Day Travelcards can continue to be bought by passengers who are starting their journeys from outside the TfL area. Travelcards were introduced in the 1980s as a joint initiative between British Rail’s Network SouthEast and London Transport, when the tickets were originally branded Capitalcards. They allow unlimited travel for one day on Transport for London trains, trams and buses, but were in danger of being abolished as Transport for London was struggling to balance its books since the disruption and loss of revenue caused by Covid. The agreement follows a long period of negotiation by the Rail Delivery Group, TfL and the Department for Transport to find a compromise which secures the future of the tickets while at the same time enabling TfL to meet its budget commitments. However, the price of the tickets will rise by an average of 3 per cent in March, in addition to any general increase in regulated fares. Rail Delivery Group commercial director Paul Bowden said: ‘I think it is a great outcome for customers that we’re able to keep this popular ticket, which offers complete travel flexibility in London. There has been a huge amount of work behind the scenes, with the industry working together with a firm focus on customers’ interests.’ TfL’s chief customer and strategy officer Alex Williams added: ‘I’m delighted that after close collaboration with the Rail Delivery Group and Department for Transport, we have now been able to find a solution which allows the Day Travelcard to continue to be accepted on TfL services, while still meeting the terms of TfL’s funding agreement with Government.’ The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he was ’delighted’. He continued: ‘As part of the Covid-19 financial deal TfL made with the Government, there is a requirement to make savings of £600 million. I refused to countenance removing weekly, monthly or season travelcards and today I am pleased to confirm the Day Travelcard is also now safe. ‘The offer now on the table saves a much-valued product for visitors to London, while giving TfL a fairer share of ticket revenue.’

Some long-distance trains on the West Coast Main Line have been cancelled during the last three weeks of December. The cuts have triggered new criticism of Avanti West Coast, which almost lost its government contract after problems with performance last year. After two six-month probationary periods the Department for Transport granted a new long-term National Rail Contract to Avanti’s owners FirstGroup and Trenitalia, which began on 15 October. Avanti said the reductions would be temporary, and mainly affected the London-Manchester route. They are intended to reduce the likelihood of cancellations being announced at short notice. One insider pointed out to Railnews that there would still be around 40 daily trains between London and Manchester during the week, with 31 on Saturdays. Most Sunday services are unaffected. However, the drivers’ union ASLEF said Avanti’s explanation was ‘nonsense’, and that the operator was letting the public down over the Christmas period. ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan said: ‘Avanti West Coast has consistently let down rail staff and the great British public. Not employing enough drivers to deliver the services it has promised passengers – and the government has left crucial services understaffed and undervalued.’ Avanti added that it had withdrawn peak-hour restrictions from 22 December to 7 January, to spread demand.

Reports are claiming that at least some station ticket offices in England will be spared the nationwide cull which was proposed during the summer, as the deadline for making recommendations about the closures approaches. The House of Commons Transport Committee has written to rail minister Huw Merriman to express its concerns about the proposed closures and their effect on disabled travellers and people with special access needs.  The letter voices the Committee's concerns that these proposals go ‘too far and too fast’, and risk excluding some passengers from the railway altogether. At a minimum, the letter argues, any proposed changes should be ‘carefully piloted’ so that the effects can be assessed before closures are imposed more widely.  The Committee says evidence from operators suggested that ‘the justification for these changes was based on the behaviour of the majority of passengers’. The letter recognises that it is reasonable to an extent that operators should adapt to changes in how passengers buy tickets but argues that this is ‘not a sufficient approach to safeguarding the needs of disabled passengers’. The cross-party committee of MPs says ‘there are many legitimate concerns about whether ticket office closures would reduce the assistance these passengers need to travel freely and reliably on the railway like anyone else’. The letter calls for clarity about alternative staffing and the arrangements for people with different kinds of disabilities. The letter has followed an evidence session held in September on the proposed closures as part of a wider inquiry into the legal obligations of Accessible Transport. If the proposals set out in August went ahead in full even some of the largest stations, including London Waterloo, Birmingham New Street and Glasgow Central, would lose their ticket windows, in a bid to reduce railway costs. Transport ministers say the displaced staff would be moved on to open areas of their stations, such as concourses and platforms, where they would give face-to-face assistance to passengers. They argue that ticket offices are no longer essential, because 88 per cent of journeys now involve purchases from ticket machine or bookings on line. Critics say arranging help on concourses would be difficult to manage, and that without the discipline of queues at ticket office windows the staff could risk being overwhelmed at busy times. The RMT is also concerned that thousands of jobs could be lost. The watchdogs Transport Focus and London TravelWatch have reported that they had received 680,000 responses to the consultation by the time that it closed on 1 September, but the RMT has claimed that the total was more like 750,000, with 98 per cent of respondents opposing the closures. Although any official comments are unlikely before the end of this month, when the watchdogs are due to announce their recommendations, the Daily Mirror has quoted an industry source as saying: ‘I’m sure the train companies thought this would be a done deal. But the sheer weight of opposition has made them have a major rethink.’ If savings are made by closing at least some offices the operators will not benefit, because they now run trains as contractors on behalf of the Department for Transport, which collects the revenue and pays the costs. The Rail Delivery Group says: ‘If accepted, the proposed changes would be phased in gradually. Ticket office facilities will remain open at the busiest stations and interchanges, selling the full range of tickets.’ RMT general secretary Mick Lynch, who is opposing closures, said: ‘Do we want a stripped-down app-based society, where people who are not necessarily attuned to modern technology feel a bit left out?’

Members of the RMT have voted in favour of continuing strikes for another six months in the long-running dispute with the Rail Delivery Group over pay and jobs. In the wake of the result, the union has warned that it is prepared to call further stoppages over the autumn and winter unless there is a settlement. The ballot was held to comply with the law which governs industrial relations, and involved more than 20,000 RMT members at most train operators in England. The union said 89.9 per cent had voted to continue strikes, and that the turnout had been 63.6 per cent. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘I congratulate our members for delivering a decisive mandate for future industrial action as we pursue a negotiated settlement of jobs, pay and conditions. ‘This ringing endorsement of RMT's approach to the dispute now means we have industrial leverage to secure an improved offer from the RDG. ’The government who controls this dispute through a contractual mandate over the train operating companies, must now allow the Rail Delivery Group to put forward a revised offer so we can work towards reaching a settlement. ‘However, if no new offer is forthcoming, we will once again take strike action in defence of our members’ livelihoods.’ The RDG responded: ‘We want to resolve this dispute and are acutely aware of the damaging impact it's having on our passengers, our people and the many businesses up and down the country who rely on rail.    ‘We call on the RMT executive to bring an end to this dispute and put the deal, which offers job security guarantees and a pay rise of up to 13 per cent to the lowest paid workers, to its members so we can end the uncertainty and move forward with delivering a better railway for our customers.’

The Arriva Group has been sold by German state-owned train operator Deutsche Bahn to the American transport investor I Squared Capital. The value of the sale has not been disclosed, but it is reported to be around £1.4 billion. DB bought the British company Arriva from its shareholders in 2010, after it had been founded as leasing company Cowie in north east England in 1938. Cowie entered the bus market in the 1980s as a result of deregulation and privatisation. Arriva owns the Department for Transport contract to run CrossCountry, which has just been renewed and started on Sunday. It also has the Chiltern Railways contract and owns a number of bus companies in Britain and on the continent, where it also runs some train operators. The Group has been running trains in Britain since early 2000, when it acquired first-generation franchise holder MTL Group. DB had been trying to sell Arriva for some time to raise cash, but reported interest from FirstGroup came to nothing. Deutsche Bahn’s CFO Dr Levin Holle said: ‘We are happy that I Squared is willing to support Arriva in its future growth.  Arriva has good prospects for sustainable growth as market liberalisation in Europe progresses. The strategic goal of Deutsche Bahn is to make record level investments in environmentally friendly rail in our core business, combined with the massive increase of investment of the German Federal Government into our German rail infrastructure. The purchase agreement signed today is therefore in the spirit of Strong Rail. At the same time, the sale to I Squared will give Arriva new options to support its growth potential, for example for the future electrification of European fleets. For us, the agreed sale is an important step to focus even more on additional growth in rail transport in Germany.’ I Squared invests in transport, logistics, energy, utilities, and digital infrastructure. The firm said it ‘is committed to creating sustainable, long-term growth across its portfolio, supporting management teams in improving operational performance, and investing to support the energy transition with lower-carbon infrastructure’. Managing partner Gautam Bhandan said: ‘Transport accounts for around one-fifth of global CO₂ emissions. Three-quarters of this is from road transport, and a greener public transport sector is critical to the shift to lower-carbon infrastructure. Arriva’s strategy for net-zero operations and the decarbonisation of its fleet aligns with our strategy to develop and scale assets with technologies that accelerate the energy transition, as well as providing cleaner air in cities and towns by investing in green public transport. We are excited to work with Arriva and we will invest to support its future growth as a major European bus and rail operator.’ Arriva Group Mike Cooper added: ‘We want to see a future where people choose to leave their car at home, a future with less traffic congestion and cleaner air. This transaction marks an exciting next stage for us, and will deliver significant benefits for our colleagues, our passengers and the many Passenger Transport Authorities we partner with across Europe, enabling us to play our role in delivering a better future.’ The sale of Arriva should be completed next year, so long as closing conditions and approvals are agreed.

The Second National Infrastructure Assessment has been published today, and it says economic growth will be achieved by improving public transport in large regional cities. It is also advising road improvements on stretches which are ‘underperforming’, but these should be accompanied by a ‘new, comprehensive and long term’ plan for railways in the Midlands and North of England. The National Infrastructure Commission’s report has appeared just two weeks since the Prime Minister announced that he was axing Phases 2A and 2B of HS2 between the West Midlands, Crewe and Manchester. The Commission is warning that ‘all infrastructure systems should be more resilient’ and also protect the environment by reducing carbon emissions. It continues: ‘The costs as well as the benefits of transforming the UK’s infrastructure will be borne by the public as taxpayers and billpayers. But making these investments will help lower costs for households and keep them lower in the longer term. These upfront investments will be paid for by consumers in their bills over the coming decades, not all at once.’ The Commission’s chair, Sir John Armitt, said: ‘The good news is that modern, reliable infrastructure can support economic growth, help tackle climate change and enhance the natural environment. ‘We stand at a pivotal moment in time, with the opportunity to make a major difference to this country’s future. But we need to get on with it. ‘People often talk about infrastructure as the backbone of our economy: what our infrastructure needs now is the collective mettle to turn commitments into action that will reap rewards for decades to come.’ Sir John has already described the decision not to continue HS2 north of Birmingham as ‘deeply disappointing’, and he has now sounded a warning about the land which had already been bought for the project and which the government is now planning to sell as soon as possible. He told the BBC: ‘I think it's a mistake. I think that the land should be kept for at least two or three years to give the opportunity for people to revisit that and look at what can be done within that space and find a more cost-effective solution, not write it off today. ‘I am disappointed because I think it's what we often describe as a sort of knee-jerk, snap reaction. ‘We had an integrated plan a few weeks ago, we've now lost that. There are a number of projects, some of which already existed, some new ones. Let’s get those properly turned into a well-thought-through, integrated plan for the future.’

Transport secretary Mark Harper has revealed that discussions have started on raising private investment to fund the construction of the central London station for HS2 at Euston. Mr Harper made a statement to the House of Commons yesterday on the first day that it had reassembled after the conference recess. The Prime Minister had told the Conservative Party conference on 4 October that the section of HS2 between Old Oak Common and Euston is still in the plans, although the project has been put on hold in response to sharply rising costs. Mr Harper said talks took place with the Euston Partnership Board last week. The Board is a group of stakeholders which was set up in 2020, and is chaired by Lord Hendy. It involves representatives of the Department for Transport, HS2 Ltd, Network Rail, development partner Lendlease, Transport for London, the Greater London Authority, the London Borough of Camden and the West Coast Partnership. He explained: ‘The facts have changed, so we are changing our approach. With work well under way, we will finish HS2 between London Euston and the west midlands. Just last week, I spoke to the Euston Partnership Board on the huge regeneration opportunity that can be unlocked with private investment.’ Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh responded: ‘The consequences of this shambles are no joke; they are profound. There will be owners of small and medium-sized enterprises that have bet the house on HS2. People will lose their jobs this side of the general election as a result of this decision—homes, farms and businesses all sold, the countryside carved up, and Euston a hole in the ground, and for what? He has wasted £45 billion on a line between Old Oak Common and Birmingham that no one asked for and that has no business case. Only in Conservative-run Britain could a high-speed train hit the slow-coach lane the second it hits the north of England.’

The MP for Stoke-on-Trent South is remaining optimistic about the prospects of a new station for Staffordshire. It was included in the government’s list of transport schemes which will use the budget released by the cancellation of HS2 to Manchester, but the list was ridiculed when it became known that some of the schemes had already been completed years ago and that others might not be started until the 2030s. It was revised within 24 hours of publication, and ministers then defended it as ‘indicative’. Even so, Conservative MP Jack Brereton says there has been ‘rapid progress’ with the project to restore the station at Meir, on the Stoke to Derby line, and that construction could start by the end of the year. Catering staff strike Staff employed by Rail Gourmet who work for TransPennine Express are striking today. The walkout by the catering workers is the latest development in a dispute between the RMT and Rail Gourmet over pay. The union says their pay, terms and conditions are not as favourable as those offered by TransPennine Express to its directly-employed staff. Owls on patrol at Morpeth Northern has recruited plastic owls to deter pigeons from roosting at Morpeth station, where the pigeons cause a mess. Meanwhile, Northern is using the cries of hawks to frighten pigeons away from Driffield station, where the sounds of the birds of prey are broadcast over the public address system twice an hour between 10.00 and 16.00. The trials are set to continue until the end of next month. If they are successful, similar methods could be used at other Northern stations.

A Channel Tunnel consortium which includes the British National Express Group is purchasing 12 trains from Alstom, with the intention of competing with Eurostar. The consortium is investing £1 billion, and has an option to ‘scale up’ its fleet to 16. Eurostar has been providing services between London, Paris and Brussels since 1994, and has recently merged with continental operator Thalys. It also now runs beyond Brussels to Rotterdam and Amsterdam but, as an open access operator, it does not have exclusive rights to run international passenger trains through the Channel Tunnel. It has never had a railway competitor, although Deutsche Bahn ran a demonstration ICE train to St Pancras International 13 years ago this month, as an overture to launching services between German cities and London. However, these never appeared. Spanish national operator Renfe has also considered running between London and Paris, again without result. The consortium, known as Evolyn, is backed by the Spanish Cosmen family. The Cosmens have a holding in National Express, which is now Mobico, although it has kept its original brand for its British long-distance coach services. Evolyn chief executive Jorge Cosmen said: ‘The acquisition of 12 high-speed, state-of-the-art trains, to be expanded to a minimum of 16 according to our forecasts, is the definitive step in the materialisation of Evolyn, a high-speed rail operator that has been under development for three years and that today marks a very important milestone. ‘We know that the governments of the United Kingdom and France welcome a project that will allow their citizens to increase the connection options between the UK and several countries in continental Europe with a green alternative that will also contribute to decarbonisation.’