Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Friday, 16th September 2022
InTheNews: The latest rail news on Friday, 16th September 2022
Elizabeth line trains are to run through the night between London and the Home Counties this weekend to help people pay their respects to the Queen.
That’s according to an article in the Evening Standard that says Transport for London says that services on the line’s western and eastern branches, from Paddington to Reading and Liverpool Street to Shenfield, will operate round the clock from tonight and on Saturday and Sunday.
There will be one train an hour overnight on both sections.
Mourners left stranded overnight after visiting the Queen’s coffin have been sleeping in empty ‘welfare’ trains in central London after missing the last service home.
An article on the Mail Online says the vacant carriages are being kept at a number of stations specifically for helpless well-wishers following visits to the Palace of Westminster, where the monarch is lying in state until the morning of her funeral on Monday.
It is estimated the number of people set to make the trip could hit more than 350,000, with the queue reaching five miles overnight as mourners waited up to nine hours to pay their respects.
In other news, new transport minister Kevin Foster has said the Department for Transport will continue to support the rail industry in the battle against the impact of severe weather caused by climate change.
Labour’s Sam Tarry, MP for Ilford South, submitted a Commons written question, asking if the government will undertake a review of standards and engineering of rail infrastructure, in the context of more severe summers and less severe winters brought about by climate change.
At a time when the UK rail industry is in dispute with trade unions over pay, the Association of American Railroads has announced that tentative agreements have been reached with trade unions that will avert a potential strike in advance of a deadline that had been set for today.
The article on Rail Insider says the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen together represent around 60,000 employees.
The agreements, which are subject to ratification by the unions’ membership, provide rail employees with a 24 per cent wage increase during the five-year period from 2020 through 2024, including an immediate payout on average of $11,000 upon ratification.
Photo credit: Network Rail
