Transport Central

London Midland has gotten off to a relatively good start with a big rise in punctuality over the previous two periods (85% to a shave off 90%) which is something not seen that much under the previous operator. One can see that to be true when travelling on London Midland’s services as they seem to operate without issues and certainly good things are being said about them in the press.

London Midland is in the process of refurbishing its older trains at the moment with the first trains being rolled out on their West Midlands services (picture from londonmidland.com) over the next six months at the rate of one a week:

These are fairly standard three-car trains and will receive new seat covers, interiors and facilities for people with sight problems. These have also been ‘deep cleaned’ so they should be looking nice inside very soon too. Some of the carriages are receiving “intelligent sensors” to assist with the counting of passengers and identify overcrowding so something can be done about it. This sounds quite interesting and it will be good to know how well this works.

Read more »

There are a number of issues affecting the network today:

• There are signalling problems affecting the Redbridge area near to Southampton Central (TOC: CrossCountry, First Great Western, South West Trains)
• There has been a fatality between Leeds and Wakefield Westgate (TOC: CrossCountry, East Midlands Trains, National Express East Coast, Northern Rail)
• There has been a broken down train between Oxted and Uckfield (TOC: Southern)

Read more »

Here’s a quick summary of today’s railway incidents:

• There was a fatality at Harrow & Wealdstone which is situated between London Euston and Watford Junction (TOC: London Midland, London Overground, Southern, Virgin Trains)
• There were two separate events of signalling issues at Llansamlet which is situated between Bridgend and Swansea (TOC: Arriva Trains Wales, First Great Western)
•  There was a fatality at Tile Hill which is situated between Coventry and Birmingham New Street (TOC: CrossCountry, London Midland, Virgin Trains)

Read more »

RAIL 587 reports that Deutsche Bahn (DB) and EWS, which is owned by Deutsche Bahn since last year, have launched container freight traffic from Duisburg to Manchester using the Channel Tunnel.

Read more »

There were a number of issues affecting the railway network on 12 March 2008.

• There were overhead line issues between Doncaster and York (TOC: CrossCountry, Grand Central, Hull Trains, National Express East Coast). This is still on-going and there are no through services between the North East and Scotland. National Rail Enquiries are advising passengers to delay non-essential journeys until Friday when tickets will still be valid.
• There was a tree on the line between Chester and Hooton (TOC: Merseyrail)
• There was a broken down train at Bootle Oriel Road situated between Liverpool Central and Southport (TOC: Merseyrail)

Read more »

Due to the severe weather conditions, Virgin Trains have cancelled a large number of services in the morning today. You are advised to check alternative routes if possible or try to squeeze on those few trains still remaining if you must travel today.

The following services are cancelled:

• London Euston to Birmingham New Street: 07:08, 8:10, 9:10, 10:10, 11:10, 12:10
• Birmingham New Street to London Euston: 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00
• London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly: 07:35, 08:35, 9:35, 9:38, 10:35, 11:35
• Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston: 08:15, 09:15, 10:15, 11:15, 12:15, 13:15, 14:05, 14:15

The following services are expected to suffer problems:

• London Euston to Liverpool Lime Street: unaffected, delays of up to 60 minutes
• Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston: unaffected, delays of up to 60 minutes
• London Euston to Scotland routes: unaffected but heavy delays expected
• London Euston to and from Holyhead: route unaffected

East Midlands Trains’ customers are advised to check the announcement on the TOC’s website.

This is due to speed restrictions in force between 9:00 and 14:00 for the following Train Operating Companies: East Midlands Trains, First Capital Connect, First Transpennine Express, Grand Central, London Midland, Virgin Trains.

Read more »

Here’s a roundup of the issues that affected the railway network today:

• Broken down train in the Egham area (TOC: South West Trains)
• Severe weather affecting various services (TOC: All)
• Broken down train at Pilning (TOC: CrossCountry, First Great Western)

Read more »

It will come as little surprise to those of us who use the railways on a regular basis that the government is not really interested in improving the network beyond what exists today. While the government continues to consider railway investment as ‘subsidy’ and ‘cost’ there is little hope of this ever changing in times of such great need.

There are to be no rail reopenings considered except at local authority level for the next seven years, the electrification decision has been postponed again, there will be no decision on a new north-south high speed line until 2012 at the earliest, and there is little forward thinking and guidance from the Department for Transport in these matters. It, therefore, comes, also, as no surprise that ‘investment’ in roads is talked about quite a lot.

The Times ran a very interesting article detailing this phenomenum: the road network is growing fifteen times faster than the railway network. According to The Times, “In five of the past eleven years, no track was added to the domestic rail network, and in the peak years for rail growth, in 2001 and 2002, the network grew by only six miles a year.” Reopenings have happened in Wales and Scotland, however. The Highways Agency has 40 new projects in the planning stages and the only seriously considered railway project is Crossrail which only benefits London and the surrounding area.

Read more »

Today was a rather uneventful day compared with the weekend disaster for the West Coast Mainline which is now back in operation again after Network Rail carried out emergency engineering works between Preston and Carlisle to make whatever repairs were necessary and to clean things up. Other events today were:

• Fatality at Harlow Mill which is situated between Broxbourne and Bishops Stortford (TOC: National Express East Anglia)
• Person hit by a train at Walthamstow Central which is situated between London Liverpool Street and Chingford (TOC: National Express East Anglia)
• Signalling issues affecting the area between Gainsborough Lea Road and Lincoln Central (TOC: East Midlands Trains, Northern Rail)
• Emergency services had to deal with an incident at Blackburn (TOC: Northern Rail)
• Over-running engineering work between Rugby and Northampton (TOC:  London Midland, Virgin Trains)
• Signalling issues in the area between Kettering and Leicester (TOC: East Midlands Trains)

Coming soon to this website will be features detailing each of the franchises and how they have been doing recently. Watch this space!

Today has not been a good day for travellers on the railway network today with the West Coast Mainline effectively shut down in two major areas resulting in train crews and trains being out of place nationally.

The cause of the incidents at Shap between Preston and Carlisle and Hemel Hempstead between Rugby and London were both down to freight containers being blown off freight trains. Network Rail expect the line between Preston and Carlisle to be shut until Monday morning. The screenshot below is just a short snapshot of the train situation today with trains late up to two hours and more and cancelled.

Read more »

« Previous entries Next entries »