Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Wednesday, 18th August 2021
The latest rail news on Wednesday, 18th August 2021
UK train passengers can expect the largest fare rise in a decade.
An article on City A.M. says increases are usually linked to the previous July’s Retail Prices Index measure of inflation, which was confirmed as 3.8 per cent for July 2021 by the Office for National Statistics today.
Although no announcement has been made on what will happen to fares next year, ticket prices in England and Wales rose by an average of around 2.6 per cent in March, representing RPI for July 2020 plus one per centage point.
A repeat of this in England and Wales would see fares rise by an average of 4.8 per cent, which would be the largest increase since 2012.
Over the last four weekends more than a mile of new railway track has been laid along the Trent Valley Line railway as part of a £2.6 million Network Rail investment.
The improved railway lines reopened on Monday providing smoother, faster and more reliable journeys for passengers.
More than 500 railway workers carried out the essential work over a total of 240 hours.
Govia Thameslink Railway has trained almost 3,000 customer-facing colleagues from Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express in ways to improve the service they give disabled and older passengers on the railway.
The disability equality courses were delivered by experts who are disabled themselves and use trains frequently.
Sessions explored the barriers customers face, how to offer assistance and how to communicate effectively. This gave station and train customer service staff a unique insight into the challenges disabled customers face.
London North Eastern Railway (LNER) has announced the restoration of historic toilets at Newcastle Central Station, believed to date back to the 1890s.
Following the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, the number of train services serving Newcastle Station decreased and platform 12 was rarely used.
Thanks to increased services and passenger numbers in recent decades, LNER has restored the toilets in partnership with the Railway Heritage Trust.
Photo credit: Network Rail
