http://www.transportcentral.co.uk Opinion, Facts, Ideas and Discussion About All Things Transport Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:18:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Times has run a particularly interesting story regarding the new apparently preferred method of the government to close railway lines down without compensation. A ghost bus has been set up without telling anyone and with the apparent desire to conceal this fact from the public, even the existence of ... http://www.transportcentral.co.uk/rail/closures/ghostly-goings-on/ It all started on Sunday evening. The wires came down onto the track at Watford Junction causing all kinds of issues - every single train in and out of London Euston was cancelled. As I personally travelled on Sunday evening, I was witness to a complete lack of information and ... http://www.transportcentral.co.uk/rail/west-coast-mainline-update/ Newly elected London Mayor, Boris Johnson, announced the implementation of one of the key pledges of his election manifesto yesterday, for which London voted for by a majority of approximately 140,000 combined preference votes. It has, however, come under a sustained attack from unions fearing that their members will have ... http://www.transportcentral.co.uk/rail/ban-of-alcohol-consumption-on-tube-1-june/ The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has approved the recently unveiled Network Rail delivery plan as detailed in March 2008. The ORR considers the delivery plan sufficiently robust for the completion of the modernisation work by the end of 2008. The aim of the work is to allow the number ... http://www.transportcentral.co.uk/rail/west-coast-main-line-modernisation-update/ Although the overhead line problems affecting the West Coast Main Line have been fixed, there is now another, separate issue affecting the area between Tring and Leighton Buzzard which all Virgin Trains to and from London Euston go through. This is causing delays of up to one hour and the ... http://www.transportcentral.co.uk/rail/rail-update-6-apr-2008-more-virgin-trains-woes/ A problem which impacted in a big way on the West Coast Mainline today brought misery to many hundreds of passengers waiting at Euston and other stations around the country for their Virgin Trains services. The problem was at Rugby where there has been an overhead line issue. Any other ... http://www.transportcentral.co.uk/rail/rail-update-5-apr-2008-virgin-trains-cancellations/ A number of issues affected the network today: There were overruning engineering works between Oxted and Uckfield / East Grinstead (TOC: Southern) There were signalling issues between Nottingham and Worksop (TOC: East Midland Trains) There was a security alert at Moorgate (TOC: First Capital Connect) There was a broken down train at Hilsea (TOC: ... http://www.transportcentral.co.uk/rail/rail-update-20-mar-2008/ National Rail Enquiries will be keeping an up to date summary of routes affected by the line closures on their website. It is very advisable to check this website before travelling over the Easter period Friday to Monday inclusive. The Association of Train Operating Companies has offered a useful summary ... http://www.transportcentral.co.uk/rail/easter-rail-summary-closures-alterations/ UPDATE: This action has been suspended pending further discussions.  South West Trains are facing industrial action in the form of strikes due to Aslef members voting to reject a 4.5% pay increase. The strike action is planned for four days: 31 March, 1 April, 2 April and 3 April. South West ... http://www.transportcentral.co.uk/rail/south-west-trains-proposed-industrial-action/ 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 ... http://www.transportcentral.co.uk/rail/toc-focus-london-midland/