In The News | 31st March 2023 | Latest Rail News

Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Friday, 31st March 2023

InTheNews: The latest rail news on Friday, 31st March 2023

A £10million feasibility study into expanding the Borders Railway to Carlisle is due to get “underway imminently”.

The article on the ITV website says Penrith and the Border MP Dr Neil Hudson discussed the plans at Parliament with Scotland Minister, John Lamont.

There have been calls for the service to be extended past Tweedbank to Carlisle taking in towns and villages including Longtown, Hawick and St Boswells.

The UK government has allocated £10 million for a feasibility study into expanding the line which is due to get “underway imminently” with talks already taking place and campaigners increasingly optimistic about the future of the project.

HS2 tunnel boring machine Dorothy has completed her second drive, boring under Warwickshire woodlands, breaking through at the Long Itchington Wood Tunnel south portal yesterday.

An article on the Construction Index says launched in November 2022, it has taken just four months for the 2,000-tonne TBM to complete its second bore, making this the first complete twin-bore tunnel on the HS2 project.

The 1.6km (1 mile) twin-bore tunnel runs under Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire, a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Scotland’s Railway is preparing for an intense 10-day programme to install a 5,000-tonne bridge on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) at Ravenscraig in North Lanarkshire.

The £16.9 million project is being delivered through an agreement between North Lanarkshire Council and Network Rail, to construct a new road under the railway line as part of the ongoing regeneration of the former steelworks site.

For the last 10 months, Network Rail and STORY Contracting engineers have been casting the bridge at Network Rail’s compound next to the WCML and are now preparing to move it into position from April 1 to April 10.

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A 200-mile-long (322km) ultra-marathon through a dark, unused railway tunnel begins today.

The article on the BBC website says the ultra-marathon takes place in Combe Down tunnel in Bath, which is the longest foot tunnel in the UK.

Participants of the event must repeatedly run out and back on the one-mile stretch of underground road within 55 hours to complete the challenge.

The challenge is described as a “mind-bending test of extreme endurance and sensory deprivation”.

Photo credit: HS2 Ltd

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