rail announcement december 2014

ii9h_Rail AnnouncementAnnouncing all the news from the rail industry

December 2014

Locomotive named after Jack Mills

Plans for D78s

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Have faith

The sudden arrival in the UK of the US import ‘Black Friday’ exposed the bla-tant commercialism that Christmas has now become. The greed it incited goes against everything that Christmas is meant to represent, even if its origins stem from paganism. The antics of Black Friday propelled Christmas further towards its pagan roots, a festival that was one deemed so pagan that Oliver Cromwell banned it. The early Christian Church was very clever to connect the birth of Jesus to an al-ready existing pagan festival, for most theologians agree that Jesus was born rather a long while before December. In reality Easter is the real deal to the Church when it comes to celebrating the Christian faith.

Rather like all religious faiths, the rail industry maintains faith in itself against an increasingly hostile environment, knowing that many of those at the front line are doing a thankless task, often in the face of adversity, but never giving up. I person-ally have heard ignorant remarks from passengers, whose train has been held at a red signal for two minutes, accusing signallers at one of the country’s biggest signal boxes of being asleep. Ironically some passengers, usually those without tickets, complain when onboard staff are far from inactive when it comes to checking tick-ets.

So, keep faith in yourself and your abilities, regardless of your religious beliefs, safe in the knowledge that the silent majority of passengers and colleagues appreciate what you do.

I wish all Rail Announcement readers a peaceful Christmas and 2015.

Jonathan Webb Editor

[email protected]

Rail Announcement 2 News

Driver Mills remembered in loco naming

DB Schenker and Virgin Trains joined to-gether at Crewe station on December 2 to honor the memory of driver Jack Mills and his assistant David Whitby who were attacked trying to defend their Royal Mail train from robbers on August 8 1963.

Both from Crewe, Jack having lived in Newdigate Street, they took over 1M44, the Glasgow to London Euston mail train, at the station at around 00.30. From Crewe it would make a number of stops to pick up more mail bags on its way south.

What neither men knew was that at around the time their train left Crewe a gang of rob-bers were in position near Leighton Buzzard preparing to stop the mail train and steal over £2 million pound that had been locked in the carriage behind class 40 D326.

As 1M44 approached Leighton Buzzard station the robbers altered Leighton Buzzard signal boxe’s intermediate home and distant signals, controlled by lever 4, from green to red and from green to yellow. Upon spotting the yellow distant signal in the distance driver Mills began to apply the brakes, but was tak-en aback when he heard the AWS bell ring, indicating a clear aspect. The bell rang again as he approached the home signal at Sears Crossing, which was displaying a red aspect. After bringing his train to a halt, and noticing that Cheddington’s distant signal was at green further down the line, driver Mills was con-vinced that there was a signal fault.

As soon as the train stopped David Whit-by climbed down from the footplate and

and made his way to the signal post tele-phone. As soon as he got there he noticed the wires had been cut and moments later was grabbed and bundled down the embankment. Jack Mills was unaware of any of this as he stood up in the cab to stretch his legs. Sud-denly a masked figure appeared in the cab doorway and Jack grabbed him by the throat, trying to push him off the footplate steps, but before he could manage it another robber en-tered the cab from the other door and coshed him over the head, causing him to fall uncon-scious to the floor.

Now handcuffed together Jack and David were bundled into the engine department as the driver brought along by the robbers attempted to move the train a short distance down the line in order that the money bags could be unloaded. However, due to the gang not sealing the vacuum brake pipe when they uncoupled the first two carriages from the rest of the train, the driver was unable to release the brakes. At this point driver Mills was dragged on to the footplate and, after the robbers had plugged the hose, ordered to move the train.

This was the last train Jack ever drove and he suffered years of ill health after the ordeal. His son John, who also followed his father on to the railways, said that after the robbery “ he (Jack) began to sway and his hand never stopped shaking”. When driver Mills returned to work he was put on light duties, including handing out overalls , and later suffered from stress induced shingles. Jack died in 1970 from bronchial pneumonia.

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Although not beaten by the robbers, David Whitby also never fully recovered and died aged just 34 from a heart attack. David’s sister Nancy Barkley said : “My brother was 25 and he had led a very sheltered life. He was never the same after the robbery. He was so quiet – never the same.”

During the ceremony at Crewe station a new-ly repainted DBS 90036, a locomotive that has travelled between Glasgow and London hundreds of time, was named Driver Jack Mills by Crewe and Nantwich MP Edward Timpson and watched by Jack’s grandson Ian who was later presented with a replica name-plate.

After the naming a plaque was unveiled to Jack and David on platform 12, near to their former booking on point.

Ian Mills, grandson of Jack Mills, with 90036 at Crewe station. Picture Jonathan Webb

Nancy Barkley and Pete Waterman unveil the plaque at Crewe station.


Chancellor announces that Pacers are to go

Chancellor George Osborne has announced in his autumn statement that a new fleet of trains will replace the much derided Pacer vehicles.

According to his statement invitations to ten-der for the next Northern and TransPennine Express will be published in the near future, with the new franchise, subject to a business case being developed, expected to deliver an increase of at least 20% in capacity.

Mr Osborne said: “ I can confirm today that we will tender for new franchises for North-ern Rail and the TransPennine Express - re-placing the ancient and unpopular Pacer carriages, currently operated by Northern, with new and modern trains.”

Details of what type of rolling stock, such as whether it will be diesel or electric , has yet to be decided. Further electrification of the northern rail network will be required If an all electric fleet is ordered.

At this stage it is unclear if there will be con-ditions attached to the Pacer replacement programme. When the Department for Transport invited expressions of interest in the Northern franchise in June it stipulated that all bidders must include plans to enable all Pacer vehicles to be withdrawn and sug-gested that in order to justify investment in new trains that higher fares or withdrawing relatively unpopular rail services might have to be considered as a trade-off.


Heathrow Express prepares for Crossrail battle

Although some four years away before Cross-rail services start running to Heathrow Air-port, Heathrow Express is preparing to fight in order to defend its market share in taking passengers from London to Europe’s biggest airport.

Taking 15 minutes, but at a cost of £21, Heathrow Express is fighting its corner by saying that the only alternatives are taxis, which typically cost three times more and take three times as long, and that Crossrail services are likely to be crowded and not offer a newspaper or onboard staff.

Heathrow Express has now signed a deal with British Airways , as part of an expanding ambition to tie in as many carriers as possible to offer Heathrow Express passengers onward travel.

This initial arrangement is a tripartite deal, which sees BA flyers from the west and Wales offered a rail ticket included in the price.


First TfL ticket office closures announced

In a move guaranteed to inflame already fragile relations between TfL and the unions, TfL has announced the first six, out of a total of 256, ticket offices to close over the next 18 months.

The closures, TfL and Mayor of London Boris Johnson claim, are needed as a result of less and less passengers using ticket offices, as the popularity of Oyster increases. This was the reason given by Johnson’s predecessor Ken Livingstone back in 2007, when Oyster was just four years old. The main difference be-tween now and then is that Livingstons only proposed the closure of 40 ticket offices and Johnson responded by telling the public that , should he become Mayor, no ticket offices would close.

The other big difference is that Livingstone pledged that no job losses would occur, whereas up to 950 people will lose their jobs, saving TfL £50 million a year, with TfL’s latest cost cutting measures.

Although TfL states that around 200 staff will be required to run the 24 hour all night week-end tube service due to start next year, saying that brings the overall reduction in staff num-bers to just 750, there is no guarantee that the 200 night staff will come from the people losing their jobs under the ticket office clo-sures. For example, how many staff, currently working day shifts will want to work all night on the platforms? Also, many of the jobs being cut are supervisory roles, so moving to another position could result in a substantial pay cut.

First to lose their ticket offices in February will be Upminster Bridge, Chigwell, Roding Valley, Shepherd’s Bush, South Wimbledon and Theydon Bois.

Anxious to avoid the word closure, TfL is de-scribing the closures as “ticket hall scheduled transformations”

Transport for London says that 85% of ticket offices will close by the end of 2015, with the rest closing by April 2016.

Many of the former ticket offices will be con-verted into retail units, which TfL deem to be more profitable compared with selling tickets and help plug TfLs huge funding gap caused by a reduction in funding from central gov-ernment.


GBRf says more electrification is needed

GB Railfreight MD John Smith has told MPs at the Commons transport select committee that more electrification schemes are urgently needed if freight operators are to be encour-aged to invest in electric traction.

Mr Smith told the committee that parts of the ‘electric spine’ between Southampton and Nuneaton are a step in the right direction in helping the freight sector, but added that electrifying the Birmingham to Nuneaton route would be a next logical step and was worth of being given priority.

Previously Mr Smith has called for the rail network to be upgraded in the north east, especially around areas which are still con-trolled by semaphore signals using absolute block working, and for the doubling of the route into Felixstowe docks.

He said: “At the moment, the majority of electrification schemes support the passen-ger network. With freight, there are certain markets that suit electric haulage, such as intermodal, but there is a need to prioritise electrifying the routes that serve them.“Prioritising the electrification of specific strategic corridors, such as Birmingham to Nuneaton, will help incentivise the industry to invest in electric locomotives. Intelligent electrification is important if the Government is to encourage the modal freight shift from road to rail.”

The appearance of Mr Smith in front of the committee is part of its current inquiry “In-vesting in the Railway”, which is examining Network Rail’s investment plans.


Welsh government looks at not for profit rail option

The current Arriva Trains Wales franchise, which runs until 2018, could be succeeded by ‘not for profit’ company.

Welsh transport minister Edwina Hart said that the Welsh government was examining the possibility as a “key part of our approach to delivering a more effective integrated transport system. This company will, in its first instance, concentrate on providing ad-vice and technical expertise to drive forward the linked projects of the Metro, specifying and procuring the next Wales and Borders Franchise and the Valleys Modernisation and Electrification Project.”

The minister continued by saying : “I do intend to go for a not-for-dividend model in future when we have the powers devolved to us. Work will commence on that. They are likely to establish an arms-length company. Eventually the Metro will become a subsidi-ary of that company.”

However, the minister suggested that there may first need to be an extension to the ATW franchise.


Fares to rise by 2.2%

The Rail Delivery Group has announced that rail fares, both regulated and unregulated, will rise by an average of 2.2% from next month.

Regulated fares, including season tickets and walk-up fares, will increase by 2.5% - July’s retail price inflation figure - following the suspension by the government of the usual RPI plus 1% formula.

This mechanism that allows for regulated fares to rise by more , on the condition that the average rise is no more than the regulat-ed increase, has been suspended, as it was in 2009 ahead of the last general election.

According to the RDG 97p out of every £1 from the fare box pays for services and rail investment, with train operators retaining 3p.

Passenger groups were quick to react to the latest increase , saying that is still ahead of wage growth and that the consumer prices measure of inflation should be used for cali-brating fare increases.

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Passenger numbers continue to rise

The Office of Rail Regulation has announced that the number of passenger journeys on franchised rail services reached 407.7 million between July and September this year, a 4.4% increase on the same quarter last year. Ac-cording to the ORR this is the highest num-ber of journeys recorded in a quarter since the present series of data collection com-menced in 2002-3.

In the franchised London and South East sector a total of 284.1 million journeys were recorded (an increase of 4.3% since last year) with the franchised long distance sector re-

cording 33.6 million journeys (an increase of 3.5%) and 90 million journeys (an increase of 5.5%) in the franchised regional sector.

Open access operators saw the biggest rise with a recorded 540,000 passenger journeys, an increase of 16%.


DfT’s procurement policy called ‘confusing’

The Commons Committee of Public Ac-counts has heavily criticised the Department for Transport for it allowing taxpayers to take all the financial risks for the procurement of new Thameslink trains from Siemens and two fleets from Hitachi for the East Coast and Great Western Main Lines, in contracts worth a total of £10.5 billion.

The committee, which is chaired by MP Mar-garet Hodge, described the DfT’s approach as both “confusing” and “poorly managed”.

Ms Hodge went on to further savage the DfT’s attitude by saying : “The Department has no previous experience of running a procurement of this kind, let alone two with a combined value of £10.5 billion. Yet it has chosen to break with its previous approach of leaving it to rolling stock companies and train operators to buy trains, transferring risk away from the rail industry back to government.“This means that if passenger forecasts are wrong and fewer new trains are needed in future taxpayers will have to pick up the bill.

“The only way the Department can limit this risk is by requiring train operating companies to use these new trains to run their services regardless of whether they best fit the services they would like to offer.

“We are concerned that the Department did not appear to have looked at whether there were better ways of achieving its objectives. For example, it could have addressed the lack of incentives that mean train operating companies do not have an interest in buying trains which minimise maintenance costs to

to Network Rail.

“Furthermore the Department’s decision to take over the procurement has led to confu-sion over the respective roles and responsibil-ities of government and the industry which need to be clarified.”

Concern was also expressed at the poten-tial cost of the Hitachi Intercity Express fleets , along with early management of the IE Programme. Following an internal DfT spending review the Hitachi led consortium Agility Trains reduced its bid by 38%, which “raised questions” within the DfT regarding the original tender and whether it had been “inflated”. The report states : “ Agility Trains’ offer of a large unsolicited reduction at a late stage in the procurement process, when it was the only bidder, demonstrates that the procurement process was poorly managed and that the Department’s oversight of the likely programme costs was weak.”

There was also heavy criticism of the DfT in the way that value for money had been “undermined” by the invitation to tender for anything between 500 and 2000 trains, along with uncertainties about the forms of traction and in a particularly stinging attack said : “ The Department began the procure-ment without a clear idea of how many trains would be needed, which routes they would run on and what form of power would be re-quired. In addition, the Department decided in 2009 to electrify the Great Western main line which significantly changed the require-ment. Its specification therefore is gold plated to handle both diesel and electrified options


and this is likely to mean higher prices and higher fares.”

The DfT has responded by saying: “ IEP and Thameslink are making excellent progress and are on track to deliver very good value for taxpayers and improved services for pas-sengers. They are also creating thousands of new jobs across the UK rail industry.”

The new Northern line timetable introduced on December 14 allows up to 26 trains an hour to run through central London.

Prior to this the maximum frequency was up to 22 trains an hour and 20 back in 2006.. According to Transport for London the new timetable increases capacity by 20% com-pared to 2006, allowing an additional 11,000 passengers to be carried during the morning and evening peaks.

The extra capacity is as a result of the com-missioning of the new Thales SelTrac com-munications-based train control signalling system. This includes automatic train control and is a replacement for signalling which dated back to the 1960s. These latest im-

system. This includes automatic train control and is a replacement for signalling which dated back to the 1960s. These latest im-provements mean that journeys are now 18% faster and that off-peak services are also more frequent.

The £383 million Northern line upgrade scheme is scheduled for completion at the end of this month, with TfL planning to enhance the Northern line even further with a second upgrade package which is sched-uled for completion in 2022. London Un-derground will, by using the new signalling system, additional rolling stock and changes to services through Kennington, be able to run 30 trains an hour on all of the line’s main branches during peak periods.

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Signalling upgrade allows for more Northern line services


New direct London services from Blackpool and Shrewsbury.

Following the launch of the winter timetable both Shrewsbury and Blackpool now have direct rail services to London.

Shrewsbury benefits from two daily services in each direction, departing from Shrewsbury at 06.39 and 15.24, which call at Telford Cen-tral, Wellington, Wolverhampton, Birming-ham New Street, Birmingham International, Coventry and Rugby (morning service only). The return services depart London Euston at 10.23 and 18.23.

Blackpool North meanwhile has just one service to London Euston , departing at 05.25, calling at Kirkham & Wesham, Poul-ton-le-Flyde, Preston, Wigan North Western, Warrington Bank Quay, Crewe and Nunea-ton. The return service departs at London at 16.33.

To mark the occasion a naming ceremony was held at Shrewsbury station in which Toni Williams, who won a competition to name a Virgin Voyager, named 221117 The Wrekin Giant.

Wolverhampton based driver Barry Wintrip at Shrewsbury station after arriving with the 10.23 from London Euston.

Toni Williams names 22117 The Wrekin Giant.


Vivarail’s D-train plans for D78 vehicles

Vivarail has acquired all 150 District line D78 driver motor cars along with enough vehicles to form 75 units.

The majority of D78s are still in service on London Underground’s District line, but are due to be replaced by 2016.

Funding for the purchase of the 300 redun-dant vehicles is from the Railroad Develop-ment Corporation and is thought to be in the region of around £2 million, the scrap value of the rolling stock.

Vivarail is offering the choice of two, three or four car sets, with a demonstrator expected to be ready by the end of May. This will initially run on the Long Marsden test track.

Power for the rebuilt trains will be provided by two underfloor diesel generator rafts, with each fully enclosed raft housing a 3.2 litre, five cylinder 200 horsepower Ford Duratorq/Puma turbocharged and intercooled diesel engine, a type currently in use in the Ford transit van and Land Rover Defender.

The top speed of the converted D78s will remain at 60 mph, with the front cab door-way being replaced with a vertical member attached to the headstock below and to hor-izontal members leading to the cantrail be-hind the cab.

It is envisaged that the D-train will be a viable alternative to the soon to be scrapped class 142 Pacers, with simulations illustrating that a two car D-train will be able to shave six minutes off some journeys currently being operated by class 142s.


East Coast contract signed

Following the expiry of the legal ‘standstill’ period , the Department for Transport has confirmed that it has signed the East Coast contract with Inter City Railways, a joint ven-ture between Stagecoach Group and Virgin Trains. The eight year franchise was an-nounced last month, but could not be legally completed until the ‘standstill’ period had finished.

Inter City Railways beat both First Group and a consortium of Keolis and Eurostar to win the much sought after franchise. The new train operator will pay the government approximately £2.3 billion in premiums , or £3.3 billion taking into account adjustments for inflation, and will invest £140 million in enhancing stations and the current fleet of trains before the first of the 65 new Hitachi built Intercity Express Trains enter service in 2018, with the whole fleet being in service by 2020.

ICR hopes to operate new direct services from London to Middlesborough, Hudder-sfield and Sunderland and will shortly begin talks with the Office of rail Regulation and Network Rail with a view to getting permis-sion. It will also seek permission to increase the number of services to Edinburgh, Leeds, Lincoln, Stirling, Shipley, Bradford and Har-rogate.


Eurostar bidders revealed

A consortium of companies including 3i, Predica and GIC have emerged as bidders for the UK government’s 40% stake in Eurostar.

This latest development follows reports that French state-owned rail operator SNCF, which has a 55% stake in Eurostar, is con-sidering exercising its pre-emption purchase rights to block certain offers.

It’s been reported that a second consortium is being led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund CIG and a Chinese bidder, along with several others, are also competing for the UK’s stake , which is expected to raise around £300 million.

Although SNCF cannot block any deals it is able to offer a premium on any final bids for the UK’s 40% stake. in the group. At this stage it is not clear which bidder might meet op-position from SNCF but it is speculated that it might object to Chinese bid. This follows a recent huge political backlash in France when the socialist government sold a 49.9% stake in the Toulouse Blagnac Airport in southwest France to a Chinese-led consortium.

Eurostar declared an operating profit of £54 million for last year and dividends of £18.6 million.

The sale is expected to go ahead early next year.


Access for all

Access for All funding worth £60 million has been announced for 26 stations across the network.

Transport Minister Baroness Kramer said that the funding will enable step-free access to the stations along with an accessible route into the station and between each platform.

The successful stations were nominated by the rail industry based on passenger num-bers and the needs of the local community along with the proximity to facilities such as schools and hospitals.

Costing and design work for each station will now carried out, with all work due for completion by 2019. By this time over £520 million will have been invested in providing step-free access at 215 stations, with over 1,000 other stations benefitting from smaller scale enhancements.

This latest round of funding includes Stech-ford station near Birmingham. This busy station has long been noted for its lack of ac-cessibility, with steep flights of stairs from the booking office to the platforms and a bridge between platforms with no ramps.

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Northampton station to open next month

Following months of delay and meetings, which have not always been good tempered, it has been announced that the new station buildings at Northampton will open to pas-sengers on January 12.

It is believed that the delay was as a result of contractual issues regarding the power sup-ply.

The opening will allow much of the current site to be demolished and a new car park to be constructed.


Cross City line boost for Redditch

Birmingham’s Cross City line to Redditch has seen a huge improvement with the introduc-tion of the new timetable on December 14.

The frequency on the Longbridge to Red-ditch section has increased fro two to three per hour , thought to be the most frequent service in Redditch’s history, following the completion of a 3km track doubling project, which included the construction of a second platform at Alvechurch.

December 2016 will see further enhance-ments with weekday services will increase to four an hour and some services will be extended to a relocated Bromsgrove station, which is currently under construction. The new station, which is due to open in late 2015, will have four platforms , step-free ac-cess and a 350 space car park.

Work to electrify the route between Barnt Green, where the Redditch line branches off from the main Gloucester route, to Broms-grove will commence in February 2015 and continue to spring 2016.


£200m investment in rail over Christmas

The Christmas shutdown will see over 11,000 engineers on site at more than 300 rail proj-ects across the rail network in work costing more than £200 million.

The West Coast Main Line will see major work at both Stafford and Watford Junction, along with extensive work at Reading and London Bridge.

On the WCML the London Euston to Hemel Hempstead section will close after the last train on Christmas Eve and remain closed until 29 December, with the Stafford to Crewe section remaining closed until 28 De-cember.

During this period Watford Junction signal box will be abolished as part of the £81 mil-lion post-West Coast Route Modernisation project to provide a more reliable railway between Milton Keynes and London Eus-ton and will build on the track renewals and overhead line enhancements that have al-ready taken place.

The Stafford area, the final remaining bottle-neck on the WCML, bridge and track work will be carried out at Norton Bridge, with signalling and overhead line renewal taking place at Stafford. This will see new signalling gantries erected at the north end of the sta-tion as a prelude to the abolition of Stafford number 4 and 5 signal boxes in August next year, with control passing to Rugby Regional Operating Centre..

At London Bridge two new platforms will be

commissioned and new track laid as part of the Thameslink project.

Other schemes making progress during Christmas will be the new station at Broms-grove, with track being reconfigured and excavation work ahead of construction.

New overhead power equipment will be installed on the approaches to London King’s Cross to link the new Canal Tunnels, which connect the East Coast Main Line with the Thameslink route through London St Pan-cras. This work will enable trains from Pe-terborough and Cambridge to run through London to the south coast from 2018.

Over on the Crossrail project the new Stock-ley flyover will be commissioned. The com-pletion of this bridge, the largest single span bridge to have been installed on the Great Western railway since the days of Brunel, will allow Heathrow Connect and Heathrow Ex-press services to join the Great Western Main Line without causing delays to other services on this busy route.

A new viaduct will also be commissioned to the west of Reading station, enabling in-ter-city services to avoid being delayed by freight and slower passenger services. This is one of the final sections of the project to re-move the pinch point around the station area.

On the Shrewsbury to Hereford route im-provements will be made to a railway bridge near Ludlow. This £7.7 million scheme will see the removal of a speed restriction through


the area.

At Wimbledon the first of seven weekend closures will take place to replace a junction near the station.

Moving north , the festive season will see a bridge replaced at Dewsbury, work on New-castle’s King Edward Bridge, track enhance-ments around York station and track im-provements on the Doncaster to Leeds route.

In Scotland over 500 engineers will be at work over Christmas and the new year de-livering more than £2 million worth of im-provements.

Most of this work is in connection with the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Pro-gramme. This includes demolishing the roof of Carmuirs Tunnel during the Christmas pe-riod and installing a new one over New Year.

Parts of the £16 million signalling upgrade on the Edinburgh to Fife route will also be taking place, including replacing signals on the Forth Bridge. The new signalling will be commissioned in the spring.

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HS2 appeal rejected

A legal challenge to HS2 has once again been rejected , with the Court of Appeal siding with the High Court’s previous judgement that a Strategic Environmental Assessment was not necessary prior to safeguarding di-rections being made to protect the planned route for Phase One of HS2.

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “The courts have once again rejected a legal challenge against HS2 as they have done on repeated occasions. The government has now won 20 out of 21 challenges to the project. The House of Commons has approved the hybrid Bill in a vote of 452 to 41. I invite in-terested groups to work with us to make HS2 the very best it can be, and not waste more public money on costly and fruitless court cases.”


Railway prepares for bad weather

be based at strategic locations to provide pas-sengers with advice and information.-During extreme weather staff will patrol known problem areas and clear junctions and tunnels of snow and ice.

5. Stations and depots:

-Ensuring that depots have sufficient stocks of shovels, salt and de-icers.-Preparing equipment such as steam jets and hot air blowers at depots.

The Rail Delivery Group has set out plans to improve the industry’s resilience to snow, ice and flooding.

Although the RDG admits that bad weather will always impact on the rail network it says that the key focus will always be on running services as long as safety standards are not compromised.

Some of the measures include:

1. Tracks:

-The operation of empty trains through the night to help keep tracks clear and freight proving runs in the morning following severe weather conditions to ensure that routes are clear.-Having flood defence systems on standby to protect tracks and signalling equipment.

2. Trains:

-Fitting some rolling stock with snow ploughs and hot air blowers along with jets for heated anti-freeze in order that rails can be quickly deiced.

3. Signals and points:

-Attaching heating and NASA grade insula-tion to points located in critical locations to prevent the formation of ice.-Fitting protective covers to 4,000 points and 2,500 point motors to keep snow out and pre-vent damage by ice falling off passing trains.

4. Staff:

-During times of severe disruption staff will


JR Kyushu to be listed in 2016

The Japanese government has approved the stock listing of Kyushu Railway Co, all of whose shares are effectively held by the state.

Created by the privatisation of Japan’s rail-ways in 1987 JR Kyushu is now entirely held by the state-backed Japan Railway Construc-tion, Transport and Technology Agency.

Although its rail operations are loss making, the company has diversified into property and restaurant ventures enabling it to make a profit.

Privatisation saw the creation of one freight and six passenger train operators, with JR Kyushu receiving a management stabilization fund of ¥387.7 billion, which was given to the company as part of the process. JR Kyushu has been using this money to make up for losses from its rail operations. Retention of the fund is now a focal point of any negotia-tions and the government has indicated that JR Kyushu may keep the money on condition that it maintains services over its rural routes.

It is envisaged that listing will happen in 2016.


Rail crash site preservation plans revealed

Parts of the nine story flats at Amagasaki that were struck by a speeding train in April 2005, killing 107 people and injuring 562 others, are to be better preserved as a reminder to staff of the importance of such an accident never happening again.

JR West has presented its final proposal to survivors and bereaved families, saying that preservation work will take around 3 years to complete.

The train operators interim proposal, re-vealed in July, involved the first four floors of the building being preserved in a staircase pattern, with each floor being smaller than the one below. To protect the site from the weather a domed roof would be built, along with a wall alongside the track. A hedge would also be planted around the entrance to prevent Fukuchiyama Line passengers from seeing inside.

Although many bereaved families agreed with the interim proposal JR West has de-cided to enlarge the skylight windows and lower the hedge height in the final proposal after considering a number of requests for the accident site to be preserved in a brighter atmosphere.

It has also been decided to make a section of the wall alongside the track transparent, letting train staff see the crash site on the first floor.

On April 25 this year, the anniversary of the crash, around 950 bereaved relatives visited the site, laying flowers and offering prayers to the victims.

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France invests €450m in 99 projectsThe French government has announced that it will be providing €450m to fund 99 urban transport projects with an estimated total cost of €5∙2bn. Included are 15 light rail projects along with four metro lines. It is envisaged that 50,000 jobs will be created.

Invites went out to local authorities to put forward proposals that would encourage a

modal shift away from the private car and improve connectivity. The government has said that it will on average provide 16% of the cost as long as construction work commences before the end of 2017.


Construction of Shinkansen lines to be speeded up to boost local economies

The Japanese government is to speed up con-struction of a number of Shinkansen routes to help rejuvenate local economies.

Initially planned to open in fiscal 2025, a section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line from Kanazawa to Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture will be brought forward by three years. The Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto to Sapporo section of the Hokkaido Shinkansen line is likely to open in fiscal 2030, five years ahead of sched-ule. Opening of a section from Takeo Onsen, Saga Prefecture, to Nagasaki on the Kyushu Shinkansen line, initially planned for fiscal 2022, will be brought forward as much as possible.

It is envisaged that bringing these rail proj-ects forward will boost local economies, with the government coordinating an increase of up to ¥10 billion in addition to the ¥72 billion in state funds already dedicated to the proj-ects each year.

Currently talks are revolving around whether room should be left for the inclusion of future income generated by the sale of stocks from the Kyushu Railway company.

Talks between the government and ruling parties are now at a very delicate stage with regard to negotiations on how to secure the ¥540 billion that will be needed.

As a part solution to the financial quandary the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency, an independent administrative agency that handles the con-struction of lines and other elements, may decide to borrow ¥200 billion from financial institutions.

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