In The News: 30th July

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A rail firm is rolling out a new service where passengers can use an app to order food directly to their seats as a new safety measure.

The news that LNER says it will be the UK’s first train operator to offer such a service when it launches a trial next month, features in several of today’s national newspapers.

The Let’s Eat At Your Seat app will allow customers to order refreshments without having to visit an onboard shop.

If the trial is successful, the service could be rolled out across LNER’s entire fleet later this year.

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South Western Railway ran a special ‘fact-finding’ train, to investigate the potential re-opening of the Fawley branch line in Hampshire, after more than 50 years since regular passenger services ceased.

It follows the successful submission to the Department for Transport’s ‘Restoring your Railway Fund’ by Hampshire County Council.

This funding will allow the council to carry out a feasibility study into re-opening the line for passenger services once more.

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An £81 million scheme by Network Rail to renew infrastructure in the Hither Green area of South London has reached halfway.

The work will lead to a much-improved railway for passengers, while also marking the end of London Bridge Area Signalling Centre as an operational location.

The project means the whole main line from Charing Cross and St Pancras International to Chislehurst is under the control of Three Bridges Rail Operating Centre near Gatwick, signalled from modern WestCAD workstations.

Plans for a world leading rail testing centre in South West Wales have progressed further, with the submission of an outline business case as well as local approval for the land.

The centre would create a world leading facility for research, development and testing of rail technology and the facilities would include a 6.9km, 110mph rolling stock test oval, with overhead line electrification.

The Welsh Government has now called on the UK Government to ‘act at speed to play its part’ in the delivery of the project.

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Photo credit: LNER

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