In The News | 4th January 2022 | Latest Rail News

Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Tuesday, 4th January 2022

Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Tuesday, 4th January 2022

ScotRail has been forced to make temporary changes to its timetable due to staff shortages.

The article on Glasgow Live says the rail operator is reporting hundreds of staff absences due to positive COVID tests, workers awaiting results or having to self isolate.

It is one of several operators effected by staff absence, with the Rail Delivery Group telling the BBC that around one in ten rail staff are off work.

The biggest track upgrade at Leeds station in 20 years is now complete, as Network Rail deliver a more reliable railway for passengers.

Between Saturday 25 December 2021 and Monday 3 January 2022, more than 200 railway staff successfully remodelled the track layout between platforms 4 and 6. The new layout improves the way trains move in and out of the station which will help to reduce delays.

Further upgrades included installing over 1,500 metres of new electric wires and renewing over 200 metres of track to improve reliability. Platform 7 was also extended, allowing longer trains to serve the platform.

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A national rail strike looms this week as one of the leading rail workers’ unions is warning it may urge its members to pause work over job cuts.

An article on City A.M. says the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) said rail workers faced losing their jobs this year just as the cost of living crisis spirals.

The union is calling for an extension to a no compulsory redundancy agreement to safeguard employment for those wishing to stay in the rail industry and warned that a national rail strike in 2022 was “very much on the cards”.

A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group told the paper “it is necessary to change the way the network is run and the rail network cannot take more than its fair share from the public purse”.

Congratulations to the railway workers recognised for their efforts in the Queen’s 2022 New Year’s Honours list.

Laura Shoaf, from West Midlands Combined Authority, received a CBE, TransPennine Express’s Richard Holliday, a BEM and Network Rail’s Milla Mazilu, Akthar Hussain and Vince James awarded the BEMs.

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Photo credit: Network Rail

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