Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Thursday, 6th July 2023
InTheNews: The latest rail news on Thursday, 6th July 2023
The University of Birmingham and a consortium of Welsh universities have been awarded £15 million by the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF) to establish a new world-leading railway research and innovation centre in South Wales.
The UKRPIF investment will enable the University of Birmingham, working with Cardiff and Swansea Universities, to establish a new Centre of Excellence for Railway Testing, Validation and Customer Experience at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) site, currently under construction.
The funding is part of £30 million announced through UKRPIF to establish two new world-leading railway research and innovation facilities, with the other being a new Centre of Excellence for Railway Through-Life Engineering in Goole.
Ticket offices at railway stations across the UK will be closed permanently, it has been confirmed.
An article on The Mirror website says the plans unveiled by government today bring forward proposals from Rail Delivery Group (RDG) – an industry body representing private railway operators – to axe up to 1,000 offices.
While face-to face counters will remain at some of the busiest stations, London Waterloo, Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham New Street are among those confirmed in the long list of cuts.
It comes despite warnings that the move will likely prompt more industrial action, increase crime rates and make travelling difficult for the vulnerable and elderly.
A second set of proposed changes to the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill, which includes the relocation and redesign of some tunnel assets, has been introduced to Parliament.
The article on Ground Engineering says the bill, which seeks powers to extend and operate High Speed 2 (HS2) to Manchester, was submitted to Parliament in January 2022.
The Crewe to Manchester stretch of HS2 forms the western leg of phase 2b of the high speed network, while the stretch from the West Midlands to East Midlands Parkway will form the eastern leg.
Part of a historical railway line in West Yorkshire is to be removed over road safety concerns.
An article on the BBC website says the “Nagger Line” in Stanley near Wakefield was built in the 1700s to transport coal from local pits.
Now the track is to be lifted after Wakefield Council received complaints of damage to cars crossing the line.
The authority is hoping to move some of the the rails to a nearby field and install a display board outlining their history.
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