Yesterday saw Scotland launch a massive nationwide crackdown which hopes to address the ongoing issue of fatalities and injuries on the country’s level crossing network.
The new scheme comes just months after a horrific crash claimed the lives of an elderly couple last September. In that incident, Margaret and Angus MacKay, both aged 81, were killed along with Mr MacKay’s 66-year-old brother at an unmanned crossing which has no barriers but a small set of warning lights.
A further incident occured just this month near Halkirk in Caithness where a train was slammed into by a van as it crossed the rail [...]

Thousands of stranded passengers just before Christmas and hundreds of holidays ruined has not apparently affected the standing of the Eurostar boss who oversaw the chaos. An estimated 100,000 people were caught out by the closures brought about by heating defects and cold weather.
Eurostar is expected to announce this week the appointment of CEO Nicolas Petrovic to the post of head of the company’s rail operations on January first where he will replace incumbent Richard Brown. Petrovic will not only have a new title but a six-figure increase in his salary with his new role paying around £400,000 per annum.
However, [...]

After an agonising wait, the delays that have affected some 30,000 passengers utilising the Eurostar Channel Tunnel should finally be over today. However, the company has acknowledged that thousands of people are unlikely to make it home in time for Christmas.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has demanded that services are operational by Tuesday, having ordered French rail head Guillaume Pepy to get traffic moving again and to install measures to prevent similar incidents occurring again. Traffic has been suspended between London and Paris as Eurostar undertakes testing to determine the cause of five tunnel breakdowns on Friday evening, leaving some 2,000 [...]

There will be no Eurostar services today – for the third day running – as Eurostar continues to undertake a range of tests and upgrades on its train fleets.
Today will see a continued cancellation of services as weatherproofing upgrades continue after five trains have broken down over the weekend. Thousands of passengers were trapped inside the Channel Tunnel in freezing conditions on Friday and Saturday.
The cause of the problems has apparently been identified by the group and hopes are they will addressed by day’s end. The severe French snowstorms have created onboard dramas not seen on the trains before with [...]

The east-Cheshire town of Knutsford is looming as a key player in the calls for improvements to rail links in the area, with better promotion of the Mid Cheshire line seen as one badly in need of more comprehensive promotion says a rail partnership organisation.
The Mid Cheshire line, which runs from Cheshire to Manchester, has been in operation since the 19th centrury and services many small settlements on the route which is also known as the Cheshire via Altricham line and Manchester via Stockport line.
Mid Cheshire Community Rail Partnership group spokesperson Sally Buttifant outlined plans for improvements at the Knutsford [...]

Capgemini UK Plc has been has its long term contract for outsourcing IT provisions for The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) for a further 10 years. The extension which will last till 2019 has been signed by the Rail Settlement Plan Ltd in conjunction with the provider and is worth an estimated £18.5 million.
The scope of the agreement covers support for Infrastructure and Application Management in addition to IT infrastructure, primarily for technology that supports the rail networks reservation systems.
The move has been welcomed by the Managing Director for the Rail Settlement Plan Steve Howes, who claimed that the [...]

At 5.13am this morning a revolution in British rail travel as an early whistle will sound out in the darkness signalling the departure of a historic journey.
Britain’s first high-speed commuter train will have hit the dizzying heights of a top speed of 140mph as it flies across Kent from Ashford to eventually dock at London’s St Pancras station. The 58 mile journey will take a mere 37 minutes. Transport Secretary Lord Adonis and Dame Kelly Holmes will be two of the high profile passengers on the inaugural journey.
Lord Adonis has said that the new offering will ultimately see Britain connected [...]

Britain’s largest and busiest commuter train service, Stagecoach Group Plc, has announced that its first half profit has fallen by 13 percent due to the reduced demand for travel brought about by the recession in addition to rising fuel and pension costs.
Net income for the group fell by £60.6 million to a total of £98 million at 8.4p per share. This represents a decline from the £69.4 million, or 9.6p per share, from the same period last year according to a statement released by the Scottish based company in a statement released today.
On a positive note, group sales were up [...]

The Scottish public agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has announced that it has allocated some £4 million in funding over the next three to four years for the iconic Cairngorm funicular railway.
HIE claimed that its investment would see the site brought up to an appropriate standard that would enable bids from new contractors hopefully from the private sector. Car parking changes for the railway service have also been proposed by HIE.
The agency took over responsibility for the operation of the funicular railway at Cairngorm’s ski resort in May 2008 and the latest announcement comes at a time when the [...]

Massive changes have been called for in the services offered by Irish Rail ahead of the Malahide viaduct reopening tomorrow by a railway passengers group.
Rail Users Ireland said in a statement that while they welcomed the viaduct’s reopening, they also warned against being sucked in by the back-patting Irish Rail organisation who has trumpeted their achievement in completing the project in just three months. The group points instead to the fact that the viaduct should never have collapsed in the first place and that Irish Rail knew well in advance of the dangers but failed to be sufficiently concerned to [...]