In The News: 8th September

Click here to listen to the latest news on Tuesday, 8th September 2020

Tens of millions of pounds is being invested into Manchester’s railway signalling system to improve journeys for passengers and freight.

Equipment which is nearly 40 years old will be replaced as part of the Great North Rail Project.

The £36 million work by Network Rail will install the latest digital technology to improve reliability and safety on this important route into Manchester.

The upgrade started in August and will be complete in autumn 2021.

Click here for more details.

Network Rail’s work to reopen the railway at Stonehaven has started this week as it works to carefully recover the carriages involved in the tragic accident.

The ScotRail service derailed on August 12 after striking a landslip with the devastating loss of three lives – driver Brett McCullough, conductor Donald Dinnie and passenger Christopher Stuchbury.

Specialist engineers will use a 600-tonne crawler crane to carefully lift the derailed carriages from the railway over the coming days.

Teams from Network Rail have constructed a new 900-metre road and temporary bridges over the surrounding farmland to bring the specialist lifting equipment to the site.

Click here for more details.

Shares in transport operator FirstGroup jumped yesterday after The Sunday Telegraph revealed buyout funds were circling parts of its US operations.

According to an article in The Daily Telegraph, the group climbed 10.7p to 50.5p, leading risers on the FTSE 250.

Finally, and the number of passengers using major public transport hubs rose yesterday to the highest since the start of the pandemic as more pupils returned to school amid a government push for employees to return to workplaces.

An article in The Guardian says Network Rail, which runs the UK’s 20 busiest stations, says more people entered rail hubs during the morning peak period than had done so at any time since the start of the lockdown.

Footfall in major stations increased by 12 per cent yesterday compared with Friday.

Photo credit: Network Rail

Click here to listen to the rail headlines from previous days.

Download article