In The News: 16th July

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Train travel in the north and Midlands is often slower than by car because of the poor state of the railway, according to an official report featuring in The Times.

The National Infrastructure Commission has found that trains in some parts of the country operated at half the speed of those in the southeast, where investment is highest.

In its report, published yesterday, it acknowledged that there had been ‘major programmes of rail investment’ across the country in recent years but that this has ‘primarily focused where rail use was close to capacity, particularly in London’.

Boris Johnson has pledged a revolution in rail travel in the north and Midlands to coincide with the building of HS2.

The Rail Supply Group has published the actions to be taken to support the best possible recovery of businesses supplying the rail industry, outlining three Act Now priorities.

Unveiling the details, Chair Philip Hoare said that the ‘longer-term resilience requires swift, decisive action’.

Click here for more details.

Rail operators are continuing to dump human sewage from train toilets on to tracks despite a promise to stop.

An article in the Daily Mail features comments from the RMT union that says eight major operators are still using dated toilets which flush outside.

Network Rail said a few train companies have been given more time. The alternative would have been to remove certain carriages from use, putting services under further strain.

Finally, and several of the papers feature the story of the Banksy art work, painted on a Circle Line train, carriage, that was removed by cleaners.

The street art icon unveiled a video earlier this week which showed him spraying images of rats on the inside of the carriage – his take on the coronavirus pandemic.

While Transport for London initially said the artwork was removed because it breached a strict ‘no graffiti’ policy, it was later claimed it was cleaned by a cleaner who had no knowledge of its significance.

Photo credit: Banksy

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