UK RAIL NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF
Smartcard touch in
South West Trains has launched a passenger pilot of the new
national rail smartcard. A number of season ticket holders are tak-
ing part in the trial between Staines and Windsor.
Smartcard equipment is being installed at the stations.
Further ITSO smartcard schemes have been specified for other rail
franchises.
Sound as a pound
From the New Year passengers can visit more destinations with
East Midlands Trains for a £1.
In an extension of its megatrain.com budget rail service, tickets
go on sale now to a number of new destinations. Thousands of
megatrain.com tickets, priced from just £1 (plus 50p booking fee),
are already available for travel to London St Pancras, from Sheffield,
Chesterfield, Derby, Nottingham, Loughborough and Leicester.
And from 5th January passengers will be able to use mega-
train.com tickets to travel with East Midlands Trains from Sheffield,
Chesterfield and Nottingham to Peterborough and Norwich.
New bullet trains
West Japan Railway and JR Kyushu have unveiled the next gen-
eration of high-speed trains to run on Shinkansen routes.
JR West, which operates Shinkansen routes has launched the S-
1 model which will see service on the Shin-Osaka and Kagoshima-
Chuo lines. A further 29 train sets are planned.
Christmas working for rail staff Tripartite merger for Siemens
Siemens Transportation Systems has merged with two other
Siemens businesses to create the new Siemens Mobility Division
As recession-bound Britain Says Robin Gisby, director end - 27 and 28 December - • Liverpool Street to Ilford – in the UK.
shuts up shop for the holiday operations and customer ser- we will still be carrying out a track and overhead line work The new division will be led by managing director, Gordon
season railway staff will be vice, ‘Passengers will be bene- handful of substantial • Glasgow – signalling and Wakeford. Steve Scrimshaw will lead the rolling stock business.
hard at work on both the fiting this Christmas from improvement projects that track remodelling Steve White continues as rolling stock service director.
infrastructure and running more services as a less inten- are needed to help build a • Milton Keynes – signalling Says Gordon Wakeford, ‘I am delighted to be leading this new
more trains. sive work programme is better, more reliable railway, work from London Bridge division in the UK. It is vitally important that the previous
This Christmas and New Year delivered. Recent big invest- taking advantage of this rela- and New Cross Gate Transportation Systems business continues to focus on winning
there is a less intensive pro- ment in major schemes is tively quiet time for travel on • East London Line extension business and delivering safe reliable and efficient ‘Mobility
gramme of improvement works now starting to pay divi- our railways.’ work and Thameslink Solutions’ to its customers. I am very confident that the team we
planned as major projects, such dends. Although our activity Principal improvement works upgrade. have will further strengthen its UK market position.
as west coast route modernisa- this year is significantly down include:
tion draw to a close. More ser- on previous years and is con- • Clapham Junction – major
vices will run as a result. centrated on just one week- track renewals
ICE chief backs rail
‘I firmly believe the High Speed change, and especially meeting on High Speed Two cheered rail
rail option is the most attractive carbon dioxide targets. We have engineers and contractors visit-
one,’ said Jean Venables, got to urgently change the way ing the packed show. Supporters
president of the Institution of we look at transport… and that of the high speed rail option –
Civil Engineers speaking at the means integrating airports with with connecting line to
Civils 2008 exhibition. rail and roads. I firmly believe Heathrow – argue this will obvi-
‘Engineers need to get at the the high speed rail option is the ate the need for domestic flights
heart of infrastructure policy most attractive one.’ between London, Birmingham,
making, and particularly those Venables’ endorsement of Tory Manchester and Glasgow free-
policies that are going to make proposals to shelve Heathrow’s ing up space for international
a real impact on climate third runway and concentrate flights.
Christmas Glasgow bonus
Glasgow Central receives Central will improve reliability carrying out renewals and
special attention this of the rail network in the west upgrades which will bring fur-
Christmas as Network Rail of Scotland. We have invested ther improvements to relia-
focuses on completing the over £85m in recent years bility. Christmas is the qui-
£85m resignalling project and upgrading the signalling at etest period of the year for rail
the commissioning of a new Central Station and its integra- travel, so it makes sense that
£200m signalling centre in tion with our new signalling we carry out our major engi-
Cowlairs, North Glasgow. centre is a key step in the neering work during this peri-
Says David Simpson, route ongoing improvements to the od. We have worked closely
director for Network Rail in network.’ with train operators to min-
Scotland, ‘The work we are Mr. Simpson also said, ‘In imise the inconvenience to
undertaking at Glasgow Perth and Kilwinning, we are passengers.’
December 2008 | RailStaff | 3
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