Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Wednesday, 15th June 2022
InTheNews: The latest rail news on Wednesday, 15th June 2022
One of Britain’s biggest transport companies, the Go-Ahead Group, has accepted a £650 million takeover bid from a consortium of the Australian bus operator Kinetic and the infrastructure specialists Globalvia.
An article in The Guardian says Go-Ahead, a leading provider of UK bus services and the operator of the UK’s biggest commuter rail network, Govia Thameslink Railway, said its board unanimously recommended the offer to shareholders, after receiving two approaches from buyers.
It is the latest British transport company to become a takeover target, along with Stagecoach and FirstGroup.
A deal would be expected to be completed in October, should shareholders accept the terms.
The first of Avanti West Coast’s new fleet of trains has entered static testing at Hitachi Rail’s Newton Aycliffe factory in the North East of England.
In a major milestone for the £350 million project, carriages from a Class 805 bi-mode train are being coupled together to mark the start of the extensive testing programme ahead of the planned entry into service in 2023.
All basic functionality of the train, from brakes to engines, doors to toilets, will be put through their paces prior to the start of dynamic testing later in the year, when the trains will move under its own power for the first time.
Metrolink’s pay-as-you-go contactless system hit a major new milestone following one of the busiest weekends in transport history for Greater Manchester.
More than ten million contactless journeys have now been made on Metrolink since its initial launch in July 2019.
The record number was reached on Saturday (11th June), in a week that saw a series of high-profile events across Greater Manchester, as an estimated 400,000 music-lovers hit the region to see some of the world’s biggest musical acts perform, including four consecutive nights of Ed Sheeran at the Etihad Stadium and Parklife taking place at Heaton Park.
An escaped calf has been spotted standing on a railway platform in Glasgow.
An article on the BBC says ScotRail’s CCTV caught the young bull walking around Pollokshaws West station on Monday evening.
A spokeswoman for the train operator said: “We’re not sure if this customer was trying to find out how to get to ‘Cowdenbeef’ or not.”
Photo credit: Avanti West Coast
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