RAILDATE 2025.03.07

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

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

• Alice in Wonderland train at Mid-Norfolk Railway cancelled

London

• Severe delays on London Underground after track fault
• Bakerloo line extension moves forward as Sadiq Khan secures planned route
• Call for 'health hazard' railway bridge clean up
• West London Orbital could open in 2034 and connect to HS2
• I can't take it anymore' say Highbury residents living over Tube with trains passing every '40 seconds'
• The barely used London Underground station so quiet it has no ticket barriers
• The fascinating London Underground station so special it was on a stamp
• The beautiful commuter village on London Underground once named happiest place to live
• Has Elizabeth line shown what rail investment can achieve?
• From backwater to hotspot: how HS2 could bring £10bn economic boost to Old Oak Common

Midlands

• "Shrewsbury Moves" station plans take a step forward

North East

• Engineering works over-run on Bishop Auckland branch

North West

• Level Crossing accident at Grange over Sands
• Network Rail pledges new bridge and barriers for Nantwich station
• Rail services disrupted after level crossing crash
• Sinkhole found at site of level crossing accident between Grange over Sands and Arnside

Scotland

• Disruption after HST power car catches fire near Dundee
• Bridge Replacement near Busby

South

• 50 years since the closure of the Bridport branch

South East

• Rail delays as Eastleigh-Basingstoke engineering works overrun
• Blast from the Past! Southeastern revives the iconic Network SouthEast livery
• Faster car parking for Southeastern customers after ANPR is introduced
• Eurostar not interested in serving Ashford
• Restoration of 35005 Canadian Pacific nearly complete
• Sadiq Khan wants TfL to run Southeastern train services
• New platform at Oxford rail station delayed by Botley Road
• Proposed ‘Essex-Kent Superlinks’ to scupper 'unaffordable Lower Thames Crossing'?
• Bluebell Railway and Network Rail sign ‘landmark’ agreement
• Steam locomotive Judy to visit Kent and East Sussex Railway

Wales

• Another setback for reopening Pontrilas station
• Cambrian Coast Line blocked due to high tide
• 16 days of railway closures planned as Network Rail undertakes 'vital' engineering work

West

• Okehampton Interchange
• Devon's £15million new railway station will be a game-changer
• Great Western Railway pioneer honoured with new statue in Swindon
• Work begins to build Okehampton Interchange

Yorkshire

• Harris Hawks patrolling East Riding stations
• GBRf Drax services to operate using HVO fuel

National

• ECTS fitment to DB Cargo locomotives
• Worst railway stations named and shamed for first time
• Political spin on a new way of displaying cancellation information
• Engineering works e-mail alerts
• Rail200 exhibition train dates
• London to Scotland trains set to be axed on 9 weekends including Easter and May Bank Holiday
• UK rail passengers may lose patience as problems take years to fix, says minister
• Rail fares rise by 4.6% in England and Wales
• HS2 ‘a casebook example of how not to run a major project’, MPs say

International Rail News

Canada

• Air horns stolen from BC museum loco

Czechia

• Dangerous Goods derailment and fire in Czech Republic

Greece

• Greeks hold mass protests demanding justice after train tragedy in spring 2023
• Greek PM vows to upgrade railways as government faces confidence vote

Ireland

• Iarnród Éireann detail major expansion plans in Cork

Poland

• Alstom to Supply Five Traxx Locomotives to CLIP Intermodal in Europe

South East

• Agreement between Network Rail Sussex Route and Bluebell Railway

Switzerland

• Stadler wins $155m contract for rack rolling stock for TPC in Switzerland

Other Transport Modes

Air

• How Russia-Ukraine war led to legal row in Dublin over leased aircraft
• Service to remember WW2 plane tragedy 80 years on
• MH370 Search BACK ON After 11 Years - Why This Time is Different

Bus

• Proposal for North to West Wales express coach service

Marine

• Stranded MSC Baltic III Cannot be Safely Refloated Reports Coast Guard
• Southampton Port welcomes ammonia fuelled vessel
• Cargo ship will be stuck in mud of Humber estuary 'for a month'
• Australian 'fiasco' ferry ordered to leave Edinburgh
• Delays to Turkish built CalMac ships
• Senydd enquiry into storm damage at Holyhead in December
• Isle of Man's MV Arrow chartered to Channel Islands for a year
• Agreement signed for new Red Funnel high speed ferries
• Australian 'fiasco' ferry ordered to leave Edinburgh
• Report on PS Waverley hitting Broderick pier in 2020

Credits

Thank you to this week's contributors.

• Alan Rushworth
• Bill King
• John Oliver
• Mike Price
• Neil Kearns
• Paul Tambini
• Richard Buckby
• Richard Maund

The Weekly Poser: Where is this?

A satellite image of lines approaching a city terminus. Where is it?

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

Last week's Where is this?

A diesel Blue Pullman unit at a station that has been completely transformed since. Where is it?

Answer: Birmingham Snow Hill. Congratulations are due to the following for their correct answers: Nigel Petre, Dave Goodyear, Colin Penfold, John Czyrko, Jim Allwood, Peter Tisdale, Bryn Pitcher, Brian Harrington, Simon Wass, Tony Fox, Bob Joshua, Jason Matthews, Blair Robinson, Jules Curran, John Nuttall, Bob Hart, David Bromley, Phil Drake, Jeremy Harrison, Peter Binnersley, John Grimley, Ian Lowe, Dave Winter, Andy Foster, John Musselwhite, Richard James, Chris Gibbard, Peter Skelton, Neil Spencer, Martin King, Paul Hopper, Bernard Gudgin, Tony Harker, Richard Weller, Howard Cook, Ian Bromley

I'm afraid Birmingham New Street and Moor Street have been disallowed as answers.

Image credit: John Cull RCTS Collection.

The Western Region operated the new units from 1960, serving Solihull, Leamington, Birmingham and Wolverhampton - the winter timetable is below. Electrification from Euston led to express Paddington services via Snow Hill being withdrawn from March 1967, though the station limped on until 1972 with local services.

After closure, the station remained accessible for many years. I recall walking around the empty platforms in 1978 and regret not having having a torch to proceed through the open tunnel to Moor Street.

SMALL PRINT

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The main Raildate website https://raildate.co.uk includes a history of Raildate by the founding editor Howard Sprenger and archived editions from 1996 to the present.

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©  Matthew Shaw 2025