Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Wednesday, 5th April 2023
InTheNews: The latest rail news on Wednesday, 5th April 2023
A multi-million-pound Northern Rail project has been completed after three years of work, which included installing 725km of electric cable.
An article on the Telegraph and Argus website says the train operator began work on upgrading 233 of its older trains in 2020 to fit them with the same digital facilities as the 101 new units that were introduced to the service in 2021.
The trains have all had Wi-Fi installed, HD CCTV cameras, live passenger information screens, passenger counting, while 17,200 USB charging sockets have been implemented across the old fleet.
Northern workers managed to get through 512,000 nuts and bolts, 4,000 circuit relays, 6,800 circuit breakers, 1,200 antenna mounting plates and 725km of electric cable during the project.
Passengers planning on using the West Coast main line this Easter are being reminded to travel either side of the bank holiday with major improvements to a railway junction in Watford closing Euston for four days.
Network Rail is investing £10.8 million to upgrade track and overhead lines on the West Coast South route to improve future journeys between London and Crewe.
The main focus for engineers will be the final phase to overhaul Watford junction which first began three years ago.
All trains will start and finish at Milton Keynes between Good Friday (7 April) and Easter Monday (11 April) with rail replacement bus services connecting passengers with other main lines for onward travel into London.
Work is finally underway to finish the refurbishment of the Llandaf railway station canopy – three years after it began. The upgrade to platform one at Llandaf station — which heads into the city centre — started before the pandemic but work has only just resumed.
An article on Wales Online says the refurbishment finally started again in March and is on track to be completed in June. The station, on the edge of Llandaff North, is one of the most used in Cardiff with over 260,000 station entries and exits last year, according to the Office of Rail and Road.
Los Angeles has started to blast loud classical music at one of its downtown subway stations in a brazen attempt to deter homeless people and crack down on crime.
An article on the Mail Online says LA Metro operations and security, in cooperation with local law enforcement, started playing piano sonatas, symphony orchestra pieces and concertos by Vivaldi, Beethoven and Mozart on repeat in the Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro station in January.
It was part of a safety pilot program that also includes adjustments to security cameras and lighting, as well as the addition of more officers and ‘Transit Ambassadors’ who connect homeless people in the subway system for resources.
Photo credit: Northern
