Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Wednesday, 28th March 2024.
InTheNews: The latest rail news on Wednesday, 28th March 2024
The Government says public transport links in Cornwall will be transformed thanks to £50 million of investment to deliver the mid-Cornwall Metro Scheme.
In a visit to Newquay Station yesterday, Transport Secretary Mark Harper met with local leaders including St Austell and Newquay MP Steve Double to discuss progress on the major improvement project that will better connect residents to employment, business and education opportunities.
Initial benefits of the scheme will be delivered in May next year and – once complete in full by the end of 2025 – it will offer a new hourly coast-to-coast train service between Cornwall’s largest urban areas: Newquay, St Austell, Truro and Falmouth.
A railway bridge described as a “crucial” transport link for the UK’s economy is set to be replaced, causing travel disruption later this year.
An article on the BBC website says Network Rail will spend more than £20m rebuilding the Castleton bridge which straddles the M62 in Rochdale.
A section of the motorway will shut for two weekends in September for the work.
CrossCountry has announced that it has secured five additional Voyager trains from rolling stock company Beacon Rail, boosting its capacity. The news comes after the long-distance operator secured seven extra Voyager trains in October 2023.
The 12 extra trains – comprising 60 additional carriages in total – will strengthen CrossCountry’s long-distance services from May 2025, increasing capacity on north-south routes by over 36,000 seats per week.
Combined with a new timetable proposed from May 2025, they will help CrossCountry to provide more services, as well as longer trains across the network – particularly on its busy Reading to Newcastle corridor.
Network Rail and British Transport Police are issuing an urgent reminder to the public about the importance of rail safety as newly released stats reveal that the number of trespass incidents on the railway network increase by a staggering 25 per cent during the month of April as the clocks go forward to mark the start of British Summer.
Trespass is a huge problem on the railway with around 19,000 recorded incidents each year – almost one for every mile of track in the country.
Worryingly, the surge in incidents is even greater among children, with last year seeing a 40 per cent increase in incidents involving young people under the age of 18 years. Nearly two-thirds of all trespass incidents take place during the official summer months of April through to October.
