Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Tuesday, 31st May 2022
InTheNews: The latest rail news on Tuesday, 31st May 2022
HS2 Ltd has today announced the start of construction on the railway’s first and longest viaduct with the launch of an enormous 700 tonne bridge-building machine at an event attended by the HS2 Minister, Andrew Stephenson MP, just outside London.
Stretching for more than two miles (3.4km) across a series of lakes and waterways between Hillingdon and the M25, the Colne Valley Viaduct will also be the longest railway bridge in the UK.
The start of construction is the latest major milestone in the delivery of the HS2 project, which is designed to improve rail links between London, Birmingham and North, help level-up the economy and provide a low carbon alternative to car and air travel.
Transport leaders were accused of overseeing a “farce” as ScotRail scrambled to find extra trains for thousands of football fans ahead of Wednesday night’s World Cup clash between Scotland and Ukraine.
An article in The Scotsman says the operator announced on Twitter that additional late-night services had now been scheduled for after the evening match in Glasgow following fears of supporters being left stranded because of ongoing rail chaos, despite an assurance last week from a key minister that plans were already in place.
ScotRail tweeted: “We said we’d do our best to put on extra late-night services for supporters going to the Scotland vs Ukraine World Cup play-off at Hampden on Wednesday and we’ve been working hard to do that. We’ve managed to schedule these extra services.”
Balfour Beatty has announced that it has won a circa £50 million contract for upgrade work on London Underground’s Piccadilly line.
This is the first package that has been let under the ‘London Underground High Voltage (HV) Power framework’, which saw Balfour Beatty join the framework earlier this year.
This framework will run for six years, and has the possibility to extend for another two.
The number of people taking their lives on the London Underground has dropped by 44 per cent in the past five years, and a member of the London Assembly has paid a warm tribute to Underground staff.
An article on Rail News says new data has been published following a written question to the Mayor of London from Labour’s transport representative on the Assembly, Krupesh Hirani. He said there had been ‘life-saving’ suicide prevention training and that the heroic efforts of staff deserved ‘our enduring praise’.
London Underground’s internationally recognised Suicide Prevention Programme training encourages station staff to intervene if they believe someone is contemplating ending their life, and act accordingly.
Interventions from Transport for London staff doubled between 2017 and 2021, reaching a total of 2,225.
Photo credit: HS2 Ltd
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