In The News | 2nd December 2020 | Latest Rail News

Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Wednesday, 2nd December 2020

The latest rail news on Wednesday, 2nd December 2020

Crossrail has been handed a further £825 million in an attempt to complete the heavily delayed project, with warnings that more cash may be needed before it is opened.

The article in The Times features the announcement yesterday that the Department for Transport had agreed a loan with the Greater London Authority to finish the east-west line through the capital.

The move takes the cost of the project to almost £18.5 billion – about £4 billion more than the budget drawn up a decade ago.

Ministers agreed to the loan after it emerged last month that the scheme could be mothballed without further funding.

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Britain’s least used railway station has been revealed as Berney Arms in Norfolk, which served just 42 passengers last year, according to an article in The Guardian.

Despite its location, it only achieved bottom spot in the rail regulator’s passenger charts after losing 90 per cent of its patronage because of 10 months of engineering works in 2019-20.

At the other end of the scale, Britain’s busiest railway station remained London Waterloo, for the 16th consecutive year, with almost 87 million entries and exits, followed by Birmingham and Glasgow Central.

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Stoke-on-Trent is set to benefit from £29 million from the government’s Transforming Cities Fund, helping to revolutionise the city’s transport network and how residents get around, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced today.

The plans for the funding include a dramatic revamp of the area around Stoke-on-Trent train station, where a brand-new transport hub is to be created.

Further works are planned at Longton train station, with the installation of lifts, facilities to support cyclists and new passenger-waiting shelters.

Finally, and people in Hull and East Riding can travel safely on Hull Trains from tomorrow as the rail operator resumes services after a temporary pause.

The team is preparing to welcome passengers back on board its Paragon trains as the open access operator reintroduces a limited timetable in time for the Christmas period and student travel window.

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Photo credit: Hull Trains

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