Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Thursday, 19th May 2022
InTheNews: The latest rail news on Thursday, 19th May 2022
Vastly reduced rail services across Scotland are likely to last for weeks or longer, Scotrail has warned.
An article in The Herald says almost 700 services across the country will be cut from Monday due to a pay dispute which has seen drivers opt not to work overtime.
ScotRail, which was nationalised last month, has been in talks with the drivers’ union Aslef, which has rejected a 2.2 per cent pay offer.
David Simpson, ScotRail service delivery director, insisted that the decision to reduce services was “temporary”, and blamed the disruption of driver training due to the pandemic for the lack of drivers.
Rail bosses have explained why they won’t be funding an underground station at Manchester Piccadilly as part of HS2 – claiming its ‘£5 billion cost’ and the disruption it would cause outweigh the benefit.
That’s according to an article in the Manchester Evening News that says Northern leaders have long-warned that an overground station will ‘blight’ a huge swathe of the city centre, damage the economy and limit future capacity on our congested rail network.
But in November, with the release of the government’s Integrated Rail Plan (IPR), it became clear that warnings from politicians and engineers alike had not been heeded when a preference was stated for a surface level ‘turn back’ station.
And this week, they provided an explanation, with High Speed Rail director general Clive Maxwell claiming it would be too costly to go underground when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee.
A 140-year-old funicular railway at a seaside resort is reopening after essential engineering works.
An article on the BBC website says the Victorian Tramway, which climbs the steep cliff from Scarborough South Bay seafront closed for work in January.
Owner Amy Bartle said the tramway is “an important part of Scarborough’s landscape” and will be taking passengers again from Friday.
The Tube map has been redrawn to include the Elizabeth line – the biggest change to the map in recent history.
An article in the Evening Standard says the £20 billion cross-London line, which opens to the public next Tuesday, is shown as a white line with a double purple border – the same regal colour used for its roundels and other features.
A Transport for London spokeswoman said the “double purple” line – rather than a solid colour, as used for the Underground lines – “helps to reinforce… that it’s not a Tube line”.
Photo credit: ScotRail
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