There were worrying words from Teresa Villiers, Rail Minister at Northern Rail’s Conference in Leeds on 20 October. It seems apart from the Ordsall Curve, that the rest of the Northern Hub may be cut back or postponed due to overspends elsewhere (South East England – where else!!) It’s apparently “an expensive package”, though it’s [...]
We’ve talked about the serious overcrowding in the Leeds and Manchester areas more than a few times since this Blog started. Last December we blogged about when we might see the overcrowding relieved, given the then further announcements that had been made. The cascade has started. Here’s 1986 built ex-London Midland class 150 150111 on [...]
The Friends of Heaton Chapel Station are applying for a NatWest community grant to assist them in their work …. They’d very much appreciate your vote to help them towards the grant …. It would also set a good precedent for other station groups.
Twice a year Northern hold conferences at York for their engineers from their stations and depots around Northern England from Liverpool to Carlisle, and Newcastle to Sheffield. Around 100 attend each conference, each one being run twice to allow for shift patterns as well as making sure there are still engineers in place to keep [...]
Not only is business in the North West strongly behind the need to bring HS2 to the North West, but also calling for much more investment in the traditional rail infrastructure. Click here to read yesterday’s interview with Michael Oglesby, Bruntwood Chairman and recently crowned North West Property Personality of the Year.
As many of you know, we’ve been complaining to Northern about the dirty state of their trains for well over a year. A previous post covers this, with comments as things changed (a bit) …. A new washing plant was promised for Newton Heath, the Manchester depot where all these diesels are maintained, as well [...]
On Friday, Philip Hammond, Secretary of State for Transport released a statement on the revised franchising timetable. It shows the Northern and TPE franchises extended to April 2014 with a view to considering prior to then whether to combine them or to split the services in some other way. Given the upcoming electrification programme, this [...]
Very sad news. Derek Bateman, formerly Leader and Father of Cheshire County Council, died last Saturday. A great shock. Derek was a passionate public transport supporter and a realist. There’s an excellent article about Derek in the Northwich Guardian. We pass on our condolences to his family, friends and those who worked with him. Thanks [...]
Remember a few years ago when Northern were told to expect an extra 220 carriages. In the event they got 8. TransPennine Express were told to expect 26. They got none. There are spare third rail carriages available, replaced by modern trains in the London area, but we don’t have the third rail lines to [...]
I represented MCRUA at one of the ICWC repalcement franchise consultation meetings. Here are the notes from the meetings. InterCity WestCoast Consultation meetings – notes. For your interest ….
Category: