RAILDATE 2024.06.07

Your free weekly guide to what's happening and what's new.

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Raildate is a collaboration between the editor and a number of contributors. Please think about supplying links that you spot. The contact email address is: raildate.co.uk@gmail.com

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There are sections on:

• UK Rail News
• International Rail News
• Other Transport Modes
• The Weekly Poser (and the answer to last week's poser)

UK Rail News

East Midlands

• 130-year-old Victorian railway footbridge in Derbyshire village gets £900k facelift

London

• Blackheath tunnel closes for 10 weeks for repairs
• The Necropolis Railway station is up for sale
• Bonus Trains for Crossrail?
• Slow moving London property market helped by Crossrail
• The Tube station that's named after an area that's actually 13 miles away
• What London Underground's pink card readers mean and how they can save you money
• Waterloo Necropolis Station up for sale
• The DLR could extend even further into southeast London than previously planned

Midlands

• Fewer than a third of trains arrive on time at multi-million pound station

North East

• New glazing for Whitley Bay Metro station’s historic canopy

North West

• Cumbria’s ‘Connecting Penrith’ project takes a step forward
• HS2 Phase 2b formally scrapped in favour of Liverpool – Manchester railway
• Liverpool – Manchester Railway Board created to push for construction of new line
• 34067 on tour on the Cambrian Coast Line
• LNER 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley with The Settle & Carlisle Fellsman 05/06/24

Scotland

• Glasgow subway machines 'can't accept' new King Charles bank notes
• Latest on Central Door Locking and Jacobite trains
• ScotRail announces withdrawal of Ayr to Prestwick shuttle
• ScotRail welcome new train timetable for Inverclyde
• Jacobite steam train operators cancel all afternoon bookings
• Great Fife days out by train: Two new stations bring the seaside to your doorstep

South East

• Repairs to Kingsferry road and rail bridge
• Signalling failure affecting Chiltern Routes from Marylebone
• Railcar on loan to Cholsey & Wallingford line

Wales

• The train service that is mimicking London's Tube
• Train's final journey scuppered by nesting birds
• New Hitachi Trains for North Wales Coast Avanti services

West

• Another call to reopen to Bideford
• Major £5.8m station revamp for Salisbury
• A festival train will take Glasto-goers to Worthy Farm this summer

National

• Avanti West Coast adds more seats with summer timetable change

Rail Industry

• GBR finance briefing
• Hitachi completes €1.6bn Thales acquisition
• Mainline train runs under in-cab signalling in UK first
• Battery trains could save £3·5bn, says Siemens Mobility

International Rail News

Canada

• Canadian National fire fighting trains

Czechia

• Fatal crash in Czech Republic

Germany

• DB completes the sale of Arriva Group

Netherlands

• OBB Rail cargo purchases Captrains - Netherlands

Switzerland

• Gotthard base tunnel to be repaired by September

USA

• San Deigo railway to be diverted due to costal reosion

Other Transport Modes

Bus

• £2 bus man plans journey around England and Wales
• Electric bus on test on Isle of Man
• Brighton and Hove Buses accused of spying on conversations

Road

• Carriage maker's archive secured for public

Credits

Thank you to this week's contributors.

• Alan Rushworth
• John Grimley
• Matthew Shaw
• Mike Price
• Neil Kearns
• Paul Tambini
• Richard Buckby

The Weekly Poser: Where is this?

Please identify the locomotive, and where it is.

Last week's Where is this?

A small town but quite a significant railway junction (1940s map). Where is it? [Map now unmasked]

Answer: Selby. Congratulations are due to the following for their correct answers: Chris Gibbard, Jim Allwood, Andy Foster, John Lacy, John Musselwhite, Bryn Pitcher, Jeremy Harrison, Paul Hopper, Colin Penfold, Andrew Treves, Neil Spencer

The Selby swingbridge across the River Ouse was a major bottleneck on the ECML until the Selby Diversion opened in 1983. The 25-mph speed limit on a bend had long been a problem for fast services but it was itself a diversion from the original 1850 routing via Knottingly.

A new mainline was built avoiding Selby as part of developing the Selby Coalfield. The old line to York has now closed, with the trackbed partly used by the A19, the rest by a splendid cycleway. It's fun to pedal along where LNER A4 Pacifics, Deltics, and HSTs once raced.

The image below shows a southbound HST entering Selby from the swingbridge on 2nd August 1979. The through lines have since been lifted. Image credit: Kevin Hughes RCTS Collection

SMALL PRINT

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©  Matthew Shaw 2024