Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Tuesday, 19th July 2022
InTheNews: The latest rail news on Tuesday, 19th July 2022
Record breaking temperatures has brought Britain’s travel network to a halt, with Network Rail issuing a ‘do not travel’ warning, hundreds of trains cancelled, and delays at Luton Airport after its runway melted.
An article on the Mail Online says Transport Secretary Grant Shapps today admitted the UK’s infrastructure ‘could not cope’ with the extreme weather – as the country braced for potential highs of 43C this afternoon.
Network Rail advised no one to travel on services leaving north from London today after pictures emerged of rails that had buckled in the heat, and several train companies are running significantly reduced services across the country.
An article on Metro says Network Rail engineers are painting train tracks white in a bid to cool them down so they don’t buckle in the heat.
The story says engineers have already reported finding problems at Vauxhall, in London, where rails that have become 48 degrees in the sun have warped.
In other news, and Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, says the government has more than trebled investment for TransPennine Route upgrades (TPU) to in excess of £9 billion, aimed at slashing journey times, cutting carbon emissions by up to 87,000 tonnes a year and laying the foundations for Northern Powerhouse Rail.
Funding has been boosted from an original sum of £2.9 billion.
The increased spending will pay for complete electrification of routes and full digital signalling to increase capacity for passenger and freight services between Huddersfield and Westtown in Dewsbury, doubling tracks from two to four.
Scotland’s Railway’s first new electrical feeder stations is now in place. The first of several, it is part of a £120 million programme backed by the Scottish
Government to improve the resilience and reliability of the infrastructure and to support additional electrically powered passenger and freight traffic.
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