Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Wednesday, 28th September 2022
InTheNews: The latest rail news on Wednesday, 28th September 2022
Post-Brexit border checks have slowed the speed at which Eurostar passengers pass through London St Pancras on their way to Paris, reducing the terminal’s capacity by one-third, according to the cross-Channel rail company’s boss.
An article in The Guardian says the rail operator’s chief executive, Jacques Damas, said central London had only avoided the kind of chaos and queues seen at Channel ports this summer because Eurostar was running fewer trains.
He said the additional border checks now required, with UK nationals having to have their passports stamped, was adding at least 15 seconds per passenger.
In London St Pancras International, even after upgrading the border gates, and with all booths staffed, the operator could only process a maximum of 1,500 passengers an hour, compared with 2,200 before the Brexit transition period ended, Damas said.
Damas outlined Eurostar’s problems in a letter to the Conservative MP Huw Merriman, the chair of the Commons transport select committee, who had requested an explanation for Eurostar cutting back services to Kent stations and stopping its direct Disneyland Paris route from London next year.
Engineers are due to join thousands of railway workers on strike in an ongoing dispute over pay.
An article on the BBC website says Unite said about 350 of its members on Great Western Railway (GWR) would walk out on Saturday.
Thousands of rail workers across the country will be striking on the same day, causing disruption to services.
Rail is experiencing a boost in popularity among City and business travellers seeking to avoid so-called ‘travel dead time’.
Trainline told City A.M. in an exclusive interview yesterday evening that more than eight in ten of business travellers in the UK indicated that maintaining productivity is a major consideration.
A further 44 per cent said that the ability to stay productive in-transit has become more important since the pandemic and widespread introduction of hybrid, more flexible work patterns.
The next meeting of the Northern Evidence Academic Forum will take place today at 12pm where academics will be discussing the wider impacts of transport on people and communities.
The forum, set up by Transport for the North (TfN), brings together the region’s policy and decision-makers with the researchers who have the data that could help shape and enhance transport projects.
Photo credit: Richard Clinnick
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