Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Monday, 20th February 2023
InTheNews: The latest rail news on Monday, 20th February 2023
More than 100 million journeys have been made on London Underground’s new Elizabeth Line since it opened last May, according to a survey.
An article on the BBC website says the YouGov poll suggested 45 per cent of the capital’s residents had also used the line from Reading, Berkshire, to Abbey Wood and Shenfield in Essex.
The poll, which was conducted last month, found those in the 18-24 age group were most likely to have used the new line, which runs via tunnels built by the Crossrail project.
It added the proportion of users who went out of their way to use the railway had fallen from 37 per cent in July 2022 to 25 per cent, suggesting it had become more a part of people’s daily lives.
The Department for Transport (DfT) was rebuffed by over 100 prospective candidates for the role of HS2 chair, Construction News can reveal.
An article on Construction News says last week the government promoted HS2 deputy chairman Jon Thompson to the role, which had been vacant for two years after former chair Allan Cook left HS2 in February 2021.
Now a Freedom of Information (FoI) request has revealed that the DfT approached 157 people about applying for the £200,000-a-year position.
However, it received only 29 applications before the deadline in June last year, with five people being interviewed during the two-year period when HS2 was without a chair.
Construction has started on a new collection building at Locomotion in Shildon that will significantly expand the visitor attraction and create one of the world’s largest collections of historic railway vehicles.
Due to open in November 2023, the ‘New Hall’ will house an additional 46 vehicles from the national collection including carriages, wagons and locomotives and will celebrate the North East’s role in the development of the railways.
Planning permission for the building was approved in June 2022 and representatives from Locomotion, Durham County Council and building contractors Nationwide Engineering toured the construction site earlier this month as work got underway.
A puppy spotted on the tracks of a busy London railway has been rescued by a trainee who was in the middle of a train driving lesson.
An article on This is Local London says Stefan Hug, from east London, only started learning to drive a train in January but was forced to stop a Southern service from Beckenham Junction to London Bridge on Wednesday morning after seeing the small black puppy running alongside the train.
The 32-year-old, who was accompanied by his driving instructor Kevin Timmins, said dogs are a rare sight on the railway track but the skills he learned in the classroom quickly “kicked in” as he completed his first rescue mission on the job.
Photo credit: National Railway Museum
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