Updated 13.04THE minimum social distancing restriction in England is to be cut to one metre, the Prime Minister has announced. The change will come into effect on 4 July, and will have implications for train operating companies and Network Rail, who have worked for some weeks to mark out trains and

THE minimum social distancing restriction in England is to be cut to one metre, the Prime Minister has just announced. The change will come into effect on 4 July, and will have implications for train operating companies and Network Rail, who have worked for some weeks to mark out trains and

THE RAIB is investigating a reported near-collision between a London Underground train and a National Rail service on Sunday night. An image from the scene shows a Chiltern Railways unit and a train of Metropolitan Line S-Stock at a stand  just a few metres apart at Chalfont & Latimer, the junction

THE site of the proposed new station at Cambridge South has been revealed by Network Rail, following a six-week public consultation in January and February this year, after which 94 per cent of respondents supported the building of a new station south of the city centre. The station has been planned

FUNDING worth £360 million for the replacement of conventional lineside signalling with digital train regulation on the southern section of the East Coast Main Line has been announced by transport secretary Grant Shapps. The Department for Transport says it is ‘new investment’. The installation of ETCS (European Train Control System), the signalling

Times are changing, with widespread speculation that the government is about to halve the social distancing minimum to one metre. As Sim Harris writes, the railway industry has spent several hectic weeks adapting itself for the original measurement. IT has been a busy time for train operators and Network Rail. There

THE Department for Transport has drawn £7 billion from the government’s contingency fund, partly to support train operating companies through the Covid-19 crisis. Transport secretary Grant Shapps said the money will pay for Emergency Measures Arrangements on the railways, which are known to have cost £3.5 billion so far. Funding has

THE RMT has launched a ballot for industrial action in protest at changes to working patterns at Heathrow Express which could involve redundancies. The union has claimed that 123 posts could be lost. The jobs affected are mobile sales advisors and customer concierges. Heathrow Express said it is planning to

STAGECOACH has lost its battle for compensation against the Department for Transport after its bids for three franchises were ruled ‘non-compliant’ in April 2019 because they attempted to reduce pension risks. The High Court has rejected the Group’s claims against the DfT. Stagecoach said: ‘We believe there were important issues

Keith Fender reports on the construction of the Northern Line extension to Battersea, which has necessitated the construction of a narrow gauge railway under south London – albeit a temporary one. MAJOR tunnelling projects are normally accompanied by construction railways using locos designed for mining and tunnelling – by their nature