Great western franchise

The franchise of the great western main line has been cancelled for the 15 year franchise.  The franchise will be run by First until October 2013 where a possible 2 year extension will be negotiated between First and DFT. If the negotiations are not feasible in DFT's eyes then Directly operated railways will step in. This will result in a train operating company like East coast. The 15 year contract will be decided and rebid for after the 2 year extension.

More information here: http://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/news/great-western-franchise-competition-cancelled

West coast Rail franchise

The "major failures" resulting in the collapse of west coast rail franchise deal with First and Virgin trains.

More information here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21266501

Route for HS2

The route for the 2nd phase of High Speed 2 have been announced. This phase of the project will be an extension of the current HS2 phase one from London to Birmingham and then onwards to Manchester and Leeds.

More information here: http://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/news/preferred-hs2-route-to-leeds-and-manchester-announced

Route for HS2

The phase 1 route map for HS2 is now available for an in-depth view here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12514475

BBC Keeping britians railways on track

New series on UK Railways starting soon

More information here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2013/07/the-railway-keeping-britain-on-track.html

Crossrail on the one show

Crossrail has been featured on the one show today(28/01/13) explaining what the project is all about!

Watch here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qdrp7/The_One_Show_28_01_2013/

ukrailblog now on twitter!

The ukrailblog is ow on twitter follow @UKrailwayblog for up to data information on the blog on the go! This twitter feed will be updated ever time that a post is put on the blog.

AC Traction

There are some serious worries for rail enthusiasts across the county as there is long term concerns for the AC traction company. AC traction company own and maintain and restore AC electric locomotives that include the class 87, Class 86, class 82, class 83 and the only class 89.

More information here: http://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/news/end-of-the-line-for-main-line-heritage-ac-traction

HS2

The second phase of High Speed Two has been announced specifying the route from London to Birmingham  Leeds and Manchester.

More information here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21221828

47500 on fire in manchester

47500 has derailed and caught fire just outside of Manchester.

More information here- http://www.itv.com/news/granada/story/2013-01-23/train-derails-in-manchester/#four-fire-engines-tackle-train-blaze_150705

Ticket prices

The BBC have found some interesting statistics on the season tickets and single fares and compared them to the fares in 1995

More information here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21056703

LU 150 years steam tour

The London underground 150 years celebrations are well under way with the start of the steam hauled tours on the circle line between Olympia and Farringdon/Moorgate

More information here - http://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/news/thousands-line-platforms-for-met-150

Buzz on the train

It was lovely to see the friendlessness of my fellow railway travellers when the second man to set foot on the moon was welcomed onto the standard class carriage of a train travelling from London to Edinburgh . Buzz Aldrin who was the second man to step on the moon was welcomed onto the carriage and allowed to use chargers and other items with fellow passengers. Buzz was travelling on the East Coast service after his flight from London was cancelled due to the snow of late. It was nice to see that the railways where coping well then and giving a new side to the general commuter that isn't all about moaning about ticket fares and overcrowding. 

More information here - http://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/news/space-hero-buzz-takes-to-train-beaten-by-snow

Train collision in austria

Train collision in Austria
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21120778

Snow

Here we go lets see how the UK rail network deals with the snow this time!

Fire on a Gatwick Express Class 442

There has been a fire underneath a Gatwick Express Class 442 at London Victoria as shown here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21056044

Network rail CP5 2014 - 2019

I was reading the network rail CP5 documents stating what network rail would like to do to improve the UK's Railways from the period of 2014 to 2019. As a result Network rail have produced some worth reading figure such as;

• Since 2002/2003 passenger numbers have increase from 976 million to 1.46 billion in the year 2011/2012

• The cost of the UK railways have reduced from the year 2003/2004 hen it was £8.82 per km for each train and in 2013/2014 it has reduce to £4.15 per km 

• Average passengers arriving on-time has gone from 773 million in 2002/2003 to 1.302 Billion passengers in 2011/2012 

• Freight is expected to rise 30% in the period between 2012 and 2019 

• The average cost of a ticket was £5.06 in 2003/2004 and is now £5.21 in 2013/2014. The amount of money that is spent by network rail is also stated showing that in 2003/2004 network rail spent £3.57 per £5.06 ticket and it shows that in 2013/2014 it will be reduce to £1.62 per £5.21 ticket

• That there is now 7.2 million trains running in 2012 rather than the 5.9 million in 2002.

• That the northern hub project would generate £4 for every £1 invested .

• There has been a 50% reduction in train accidents and network rail aims to make this figure Zero!

• That there is now 170,000 seats at peak times.

• 1,000,000 lorries off the road as a result of freight on the railways.

This all makes some interesting reading for the next control period from 2014 to 2019

Snow on UK Railways

I do sometimes wonder how other European countries manage when it snows as it seams to me that as soon as it snows in the UK then everything grinds to a halt. How hard can it bee t run a railway network when it snows.

Steam on the underground

Finally to celebrate the London Underground's 150 years since the first underground train travelled between Paddington and Farringdon. To celebrate this the Underground have run a special steam train today pulling some of the oldest carriages that exist that where on the underground. More information here ...  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21004315

Steam on London Underground

The Metropolitan railways Met 1 loco will be making a return to the London underground network on the 13th - 20th january 2013 where it will be making a number of runs from Paddington in the west to Farringdon / Moorgate in the East. This is part of the celebrations of London Underground's 150 years. from 1863 to 2013. The tickets have already sold out so you will have to settle for photos off the train. The train will pull 3 carriages 2 on hire from the Bluebell Railway and the Metropolitan Jubilee couch that has recently been restored.

Find out more here  http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/tube150/calendar

Crossrail work in the Paddington Area

The crossrail work in the area of Paddington railway station is preventing people from using Eastbourne terrace and has resulted in the closer of the the taxi rank beside platform 1 and the move of it to above platform 12. The closer of Eastbourne Terrace is to facilitate the excavation of the crossrail box in which the Paddington Crossrail station will be built. This means that people wanting to exit the station towards Sussex gardens need to use the exit at the end of platform 8 beside the entrance to the Main London Underground booking office where you can walk along the road.

Few pence of Tickets

I am asking the Conductors on the UK Rail network if a customer is 10-20p short on a rail fare if they would let them off or would you fill out a form for the payment later.

Greater Anglia Christmas song

Have every body seen the Greater Anglia christmas song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMJ14IIiYXI&sns=tw

Plug doors on mk3 chiltern carriages.

I noticed that some Chiltern main line MK3 coaches I was wondering how much it would cost to modify the whole MK3 carriages fleet of 848. It Would decrease door on the catch incidents, cut down on the air flow through the carriages and be more passenger friendly. at a cost of a few million pounds then i don't see the point.

First class and people walking through!

Is it just me but when you travel out of London in First class then you get lots of people running through the train on departure. Can standard class passengers not walk down the platform and board in standard class accommodation, it is just getting annoying.

Crossrail

I had a look at the updated crossrail website about where each TBM is underneath London. I found out that the TBM Phyllis has currently traveled 1759 m from Westbourne park/ Royal Oak to just underneath Hyde park. I also saw that TBM ada has tunnelled 779m from Westbourne park/ Royal Oak to just underneath Paddington . I also noticed that TBM elizabeth is currently tunnelling in the canning town area after traveling 24m from the portal. All in All then I think that the Crossrail project is making good time and I think will finnish on-time.

http://www.crossrail.co.uk/near-you

How is everybody's Christmas travel plans going at the moment? leave a comment below with your plans!

Very odd to think that the HST is 37 years old this year only 13 years to 50 years in service. I think that they will still be about in 2025.

Just saw all of the D400 (50050) restoration photo's on their Facebook page. Well done to everybody involved and good luck in the restoration.
http://www.facebook.com/50050Fearless

http://www.d400fund.org.uk/default.html

London overground orbital is now complete which finally put to an end to that annoying 2 car stopping unit from victoria to London Bridge. Nice to see the advancement in the overground and tube developments south of the river (northern line extension)