HS2 high-speed rail link ‘white elephant’ MP claims

From: BBC News

A proposed £32bn national high-speed rail link was described as a “white elephant” during an MPs’ debate.

Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom made the claim adding that HS2 was “out of date before it is even completed”.

Liberal Democrat Dr Julian Huppert said the project was “a cold, hard necessity which we cannot afford to ignore”.

The line would first connect London to Birmingham, then to Manchester and Leeds and include stops in the East Midlands and South Yorkshire.

Ms Leadsom, whose South Northamptonshire constituency would be affected by the line, said she was against plans for a scheme that she thought was “unjustifiable and eye-wateringly expensive”.

“If this route was going from Truro to Paddington or from Leeds to Edinburgh, I would still be here today defending the taxpayer,” she added.

Coventry North-West MP Geoffrey Robinson (Labour) was also opposed to plans and said: “It’s the largest capital project this country will ever have engaged in and it is money, frankly, that could better be spent elsewhere.”

Successful economy

Transport Minister Theresa Villiers backed HS2 to defuse the “passenger capacity time bomb” on the West Coast Main Line and denied the scheme was only about cutting the London to Birmingham journey time to 49 minutes.

“It’s about delivering the inter-city transport links that are absolutely crucial for the future success of our economy.”

Labour’s shadow rail minister John Woodcock argued HS2 was “a vital lifeline of economic growth”.

“We will be failing future generations if we pass up the opportunity to employ the most advanced technology available,” said the Barrow MP.

A petition against the scheme has been delivered to Downing Street with 108,000 signatures.

Stop HS2 campaigners assembled at Old Palace Yard, opposite the House of Commons, to protest against the plans.

The line would also run through rural parts of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire.

On This Day: 5 October 1999

At least eight people are confirmed dead and 160 injured after two trains collided near Paddington Station in west London at the height of the morning rush hour.

Thirty-nine people are seriously injured, with three critically ill and 11 in intensive care.

There are thought to be some 200 with minor injuries.

Many more passengers could still be trapped in the wreckage, said Chief Inspector Brian Gosden of British Transport Police.

Hospitals across the capital are taking in casualties. St Mary’s Hospital has cancelled all out-patient appointments to treat most of the wounded.

The walking wounded are being treated at a local school and Sainsbury’s supermarket.

A Thames Trains 0806 BST from Paddington to Bedwyn in Wiltshire collided with the incoming 0603 BST Great Western 125 express train from Cheltenham at 0811 BST.

Carriages came off the track and one train burst into flames. A massive column of smoke could be seen across west London.

Up to 30 ambulances, 12 fire engines and 70 firefighters rushed to the scene.

Mark Rogers, a passenger on the 0806, said: “There was an almighty crash and the train rolled over and over, first onto its roof and then onto its side.

“One woman I saw thrown out of the window and she was trapped beneath the train. She was at least very severely injured.

“It is absolute pandemonium. ”

Mr Rogers said the carriage behind the driver had been “ripped apart like a sardine can” and was lying over the top of the 125 Great Western train.

“It is chaos. There are doors and broken glass lying everywhere.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “I am absolutely appalled by what is a truly dreadful tragedy.”

Transport Secretary John Prescott has promised a public inquiry into the crash and praised the “swift efforts of all the emergency services”.

Conservative Transport spokesman John Redwood said: “We need a proper inquiry and we need some answers for the future.”

The trains collided on the same stretch of line as the Southall rail crash in 1997, in which seven people died and 150 were injured.

Health and Safety Executive inspectors are at the scene.

 

What’s Happened Since The Crash Occurred

Investigations revealed how 31 people died and dozens were injured because of a head-on collision when one of the trains passed a red signal.

Public inquiries were headed by Scottish judge Lord Cullen. He made dozens of safety recommendations and concluded Railtrack, the company then in charge of rail infrastructure and its investment, had failed to respond to earlier warnings about signalling problems.

He also criticised the Health and Safety Executive’s Rail Inspectorate and recommended an independent Rail Industry Safety Body.

Another inquiry comparing the Ladbroke Grove disaster with the 1997 Southall crash recommended implementing sophisticated safety technology.

Thames Trains was fined a record £2m in April 2004 for breaking health and safety laws. The court was told the train driver had not been warned about problems with the signal at Ladbroke Grove and had not received adequate training.

In December 2004 the Paddington Survivors’ Group complained that many of the safety recommendations made after the crash in 1999 had still not been implemented.

A year later, in December 2005, the Crown Prosecution Service said no individuals would face criminal charges over the crash as there was “insufficient evidence” to provide a realistic prospect of conviction”.

In October 2006, Network Rail admitted health and safety breaches concerning the siting of the signal. It received a record fine of £4 million for its part in the crash on 30 March 2007.

On This Day: 4 October 1976

British Rail began its new 125mph High Speed Train (HST) service today. The first London-Bristol service arrived three minutes early.

The Inter-City 125 has been introduced to provide a regular high speed service between Cardiff, Bristol and London.

British Rail will extend the HST service to other major cities over the next two years.

Powered by two diesel motors the Inter-City 125 has recorded a top speed of over 140mph in trial runs, making it the fastest diesel-powered train in the world.

Intercity 125s are still used by First Great Western 35 Years Later

Most other countries have developed electrically powered high-speed trains.

The cost of electrification on Britain’s network was considered prohibitive so the diesel-powered 125 is a new product from existing technology.

In the absence of an official ceremony by British Rail to mark the occasion, few passengers were aware they were making history this morning as the first 0805 left Paddington on time.

New features

But most travellers did appreciate some improvement in comfort. The carriages feature aircraft-like seating, with sliding electric doors at each end.

Hot food is served quickly from an on-board kitchen with the aid of a state-of-the-art microwave oven.

Rail bosses are hopeful the improved service, which has been introduced without a rise in fares, will bring in more business.

Increased fares over the last two years have been linked to a fall in passenger traffic of 15 to 20%.

A Few Interesting Facts about the introduction & history of the Intercity 125

 

When the service was launched a single adult ticket between Bristol and London cost £5.

The month before the launch the train driver’s union Aslef demanded that trains be manned by two drivers when travelling at speeds in excess of 100mph.

British Rail estimated this would cost them £300,000 in over-manning.

The introduction of the Inter-City 125 made significant reductions in journey times across the UK and led to a marked surge in passenger numbers.

Variations of the 125 were sold to Australian railways.

Intercity 125s are still in operation although the faster, electrically powered Inter-City 225 has emerged as its successor.

In March 2006 the government announced the 125 would be phased out of service – although some companies, like First Great Western, say they are investing millions of pounds to keep them going for at least another decade.

Network Rail publishes recommendations to tackle overcrowding at stations

Network Rail today published an analysis of passenger congestion at stations along with a toolkit of potential measures for the industry to address congestion at stations around the network.

Congestion can affect passengers at smaller stations as much as at the big termini in major cities. The report – the Network Route Utilisation Strategy: Stations – recommends that action is taken to identify the measures needed to relieve passenger congestion at 11 stations by 2019.

The stations identified in the report are:

London

Victoria, Fenchurch Street, Charing Cross, Clapham Junction, Wimbledon and Surbiton.

Outside London

Liverpool Lime Street, Basingstoke, Bristol Parkway, Preston and Watford Junction.

Paul Plummer, Network Rail’s group strategy director, said: “A successful railway station should add to the passenger experience as well as support the economic, social and environmental benefits of rail. As more and more people choose to travel by rail, it’s vital that passenger congestion is tackled or some stations risk becoming victims of their own success.

“Working with our partners from across the rail industry, we have identified a number of stations that would benefit from cost effective measures to reduce congestion and improve the travelling experience for passengers.”

The list excludes stations where congestion-tackling measures are already in place, such as Paddington and Farringdon in London.

NR also listed 12 stations with long-term plans which would deal with congestion, but which might not be fully committed or developed.

These 12 stations are: Barking in east London, Bristol Temple Meads, Chelmsford, Derby, Finsbury Park, Glasgow Queen Street (High Level), Leeds, Liverpool Central, London Euston, Manchester Piccadilly (west side platforms), Manchester Victoria and Tottenham Hale.

Today’s publication takes in to account comments received following the publication of the draft route utilisation strategy for consultation in May 2011.

Commuter rail fares to rise by up to 13% with more to come

From : Evening Standard

London commuter rail fares will rise between eight and 13 per cent from January.

An eight per cent increase will add £320 and 13 per cent an extra £500 to an annual ticket currently costing around £4,000.

It will be the first stage in a three-year price increase after ministers changed the regulations allowing rail companies to charge more.

Similar rises will be levied in 2013 and 2014. The increases will confirm for years to come that the UK has the highest fares in Europe. Under new rules the rail operators are allowed to increase regulated commuter fares by plus three per cent of the Retail Prices Index for this month.

It is expected to be five per cent – meaning eight per cent increases at least.

In addition, operators will be allowed to “juggle” the fares on individual routes – charging up to five per cent more on some lines, providing they make up for that by reducing fares on other routes to maintain the average increase across the franchise of eight per cent.

An eight per cent increase will mean commuters from Swindon to Paddington (currently paying £7,024) will have to fork out an extra £562, from Brighton an additional £256 (currently £3,200), from Colchester £331 (£4,140), Portsmouth £313 (£3,920) and Hastings £316 (£3,956).

A 13 per cent rise would mean: from Swindon an extra £913, Brighton £416, Colchester £538, Portsmouth £509 and Hastings £514.

Gerry Doherty, leader of the TSSA transport union, said: “Commuter fares will jump because the Liberal Democrats abandoned their pre-election pledge to cut fares.”

“Rail passengers will face fare rises of well over 20 per cent by 2014 because they have been betrayed by the Deputy Prime Minister.