RAILDATE 2024.11.08

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

The latest Raildate is always at https://latest.raildate.co.uk

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

• Extending Wisbech rail link from March to Chatteris could make it more viable

East Midlands

• Historic Ajax locomotive set for a new chapter at Northampton and Lamport Railway
• The lost railway station in a region named one of the 'best places to live' that is now a café
• Great Central Railway offering first-class dining this Christmas
• East Midlands Railway reveals reason for station traffic chaos

London

• It’s time to dust off plans to unblock rail’s Selhurst Bottleneck
• Central Line blasted in Essex as TfL admits just one train fully refurbished
• Forty year old signalling switched-off across south London by Network Rail
• ASLEF calls off Underground strikes

Midlands

• Severn Valley Railway Christmas events

North East

• Campaigners call for more train services to fill 'rail desert' in Northumberland

North West

• Wirral: Railway line to be bought for £15m park plan

Scotland

• East Kilbride line to close for several months
• Major rail line to close for 16 weeks
• Grangemouth chugs slowly onward towards passenger rail station in town
• Rail line to close 16 weeks for electrification works
• East Kilbride-Glasgow line to close for 16-week £140m electrification upgrade

South

• Trains cancelled on day of rail line's reopening

South East

• Ashford Hastings line reopens
• Remembering the Ufton Nervet rail crash in Berkshire 20 years on
• Delays due to level crossing accident near Egham
• East West Rail Company announces public consultation on electrification plans
• Railway linking Oxford and Cambridge to go electric
• This major rail line linking London with east England will be massively disrupted in November and December

Wales

• Powys rail crash: Train safety system failed before crash
• Train safety system failed in moments before fatal crash in Wales, investigation shows

Yorkshire

• Funding for NRM development could be withdrawn
• Wensleydale Railway track repairs

National

• Grant Shapps: Labour's plan for the railways promises only stagnation - and higher costs for the taxpayer
• Trainline accused of ripping off customers and deliberately misleading them

International Rail News

Ireland

• Light Rail Feasibility Study for Galway

Netherlands

• Eurostar service to Amsterdam to be reinstated

Portugal

• Portugal to launch new €20 monthly rail pass by end of 2024
• Stadler wins contract for Lisboa metro rollingstock

Serbia

• Fatal collapse of station canopy in Serbia

Switzerland

• Solar Panels to Be Put on Rail Tracks – But Will They Work?
• Solar panels will be rolled onto Swiss railway tracks ‘like a carpet’

USA

• Metro-North introduces Siemens dual-mode locomotives

Other Transport Modes

Air

• Budget airline launches new flights from Edinburgh to 'historic Walled City'

Bus

• Telford & Wrekin Council-run bus service fares to remain at £2 despite price cap rise
• Classic Welsh buses from another era spotted back on the streets
• Arriva confirms 'significant' bus service cuts in Leeds and Wakefield due to driver shortage

Canal

• Historic Wiltshire canal being restored for boat trips

Marine

• CalMac's plan to charter Ben-my-Chree abandoned after trial
• Historic Southampton ship to be moved for the first time in 27 years
• Crush incident on board ro-ro cargo vessel Clipper Pennant with loss of 1 life

Credits

Thank you to this week's contributors.

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

The Weekly Poser: Where is this?

Once a dense railway network, only two lines still exist. Where is it?

Please send your answers to raildate.co.uk@gmail.com

Last week's Where is this?

How well do you know the GB rail network? [OpenRailwayMap snapshot]. Where is it?

Answer: Barrow in Furness. Congratulations are due to the following for their correct answers: Phil Deaves, Andy Foster, Dave Goodyear, John Lacy, Richard Maund, Jim Allwood, Chris Gibbard, Jeremy Harrison, Neil Kearns, Colin Penfold, Blair Robinson, Paul Reeve, Neil Spencer

The town is now best known for the naval shipyards, but many of the closed lines around Askam and Dalton (both "-in-Furness") were serving iron ore quarries linked to the Askam Iron Works. The so-called "Askam Pier" was a slag tip, not somewhere that ships called. It was the local steel that led to the shipyards developing. On the other hand, Roa Island to the south was served by a public railway 1846 - 1936, initially for ships crossing Morecambe Bay. Furness was in Lancashire at the time, but only connected to "mainland" Lancashire by rail after 1856.

A sleeper service from London was available until the late 1970s, probably mainly for civil servants heading to the shipyards, as shown in this 1975 timetable. "BT" = Breakfast Tray. The return working would arrive in London at an ungodly 02:27 - but would allow sleepy travellers to lie in at Euston until 07:30.

SMALL PRINT

We welcome links to publicly available online news items and videos from anywhere in the world.  Despite its name, Raildate covers all transport modes, including also bus, tram, air, and marine.  

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©  Matthew Shaw 2024