Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Thursday, 4th March 2021
The latest rail news on Thursday, 4th March 2021
A £59 million investment has been committed towards the construction of five new railway stations in the West Midlands as part of the UK Government Budget.
An article on insider media limited says the government will also provide £50 million to develop proposals for transport improvements around the HS2 Birmingham Interchange Station.
Also on the railways, the measures mentioned included up to £30 million for the Global Centre for Rail Excellence in Wales and more than £40 million of funding to reinstate passenger services on Okehampton to Exeter rail line.
The Chancellor announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will be extended to September and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will continue with a fourth and fifth grant.
Alstom Transport UK, Hitachi Rail, Siemens Mobility and Thales Transport & Security have been shortlisted by HS2 to deliver state-of-the-art signalling and control systems.
The contracts, worth a combined total of £540 million, cover the design and build of the signalling systems that will control trains travelling at speeds of up to 360km/h between London, Birmingham and Crewe.
Finally, and a cat had a lucky escape at London Euston station after it was spotted on the roof of an Avanti West Coast train which was about to speed to Manchester.
Wide-eyed and terrified, the cat was seen curled up on top of the 125mph Pendolino service at 8.30pm on Tuesday night while it was stationed at a platform.
Fortunately, the misplaced moggy was seen before the train was meant to set off half an hour later.
The train was replaced and a bin was pulled up beside the carriages to give the scared cat its own special platform on which to disembark.
Photo credit: Network Rail
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