|
| 03/07/2009 | Central station car park to make way for airport rail link [Network Rail Article] |
| Glasgow Central station is about to see its biggest improvements for passenger services in more than 100 years with the creation of two new platforms. |
Looking along the site to be occupied by the extended current platform 11a at Glasgow Central station. This short platform currently terminates at buffer stops outside the train shed to the right of the arch in the centre background. Following excavation and associated reconstruction work, GARL services leaving from the extended platform will exit the station through the arch on their way to Glasgow Airport.
[John Furnevel 09/09/2007] | 
Grand entrance. Platform 11a at Glasgow Central in Sept 2007. After removal of the buildings in the centre of the picture this platform will be realigned and rerouted through the arch and into the train shed (taking over an area currently occupied by the station car park) it will eventually become the platform used by Glasgow Airport Rail Link services. Responsibility for the GARL project was recently handed over from SPT to Transport Scotland.
[John Furnevel 09/09/2007] | 
Its a long walk to the concourse from platform 11a at Glasgow Central, where passengers are seen disembarking from a class 334 EMU on 3 August 2007. Plans are currently in hand to realign and extend this short platform back into the station, following which it will handle trains operating on the planned Glasgow Airport Rail Link. Work on the required structural alterations is due to commence by mid 2009.
[Michael Gibb 03/08/2007] |
|
| Network Rail Article | |
|
| 02/07/2009 | Station on right track with passenger numbers [Press & Journal] |
| A NEWLY reopened Aberdeenshire railway station has exceeded expectations after just a month. |
170 417 heads off for Aberdeen on 19 June after a stop at Laurencekirk.
[David Panton 19/06/2009] | 
One of the waiting room displays at the reopened Laurencekirk station, photographed on 18 June 2009.
[David Panton 18/06/2009] | 
Scene at Laurencekirk station on 18 June 2009, a month after repening. The station name is rendered in the style it was at closure in 1967. A nice touch.
[David Panton 18/06/2009] |
|
| Press & Journal Item | |
|
| 01/07/2009 | No way to run a railway [The Telegraph] |
| The collapse of the National Express rail franchise raises fresh questions about the Government's transport strategy |
The NXEC 0910 Edinburgh - Aberdeen passing Aberdour in winter sunshine on 6 January 2008
[Bill Roberton 06/01/2008] | 
The 1400 Kings Cross - Aberdeen HST in NXEC colours prepares to exit Kings Cross and head for Gasworks Tunnel on 19 December.
[Michael Gibb 19/12/2007] | 
The 0950 Aberdeen - Kings Cross National Express East Coast service about to leave Haymarket station and enter Haymarket Tunnel on 20 December 2007.
[John Furnevel 20/12/2007] |
|
| The Telegraph | |
|
| 01/07/2009 | Analysis: Taxpayer loses out in broken system [The Times] |
| The second failure in three years of what is supposedly Britain’s highest-earning rail franchise suggests there may be a serious flaw at the very heart of the rail industry’s complex privatised structure. |
|
| The Times | |
| Statement by Secretary of State for Transport | |
|
| 01/07/2009 | Runaway train rolls out of depot [BBC News] |
| A driverless runaway train derailed after it rolled out of its depot on Merseyside. [From Mark Bartlett] |
Aspinall L&YR class 21 0-4-0ST no 51206, fitted with spark-arresting device, standing outside Bank Hall shed, Liverpool in 1960. The diminutive Pug, built at Horwich Works in 1891, spent most of its 71 years shunting in Liverpool Docks, before finally returning to Horwich for disposal in 1962. Bank Hall shed itself closed in 1966 and the site is now occupied by Kirkdale EMU depot.
[Robin Barbour Collection [Courtesy Bruce McCartney] //1960] | 
View north over Kirkdale EMU depot, Liverpool, built on the site of the former L&Y Bank Hall steam shed. This is now a Merseyrail facility.
[Ewan Crawford //] |
|
| BBC News | |
|
| 30/06/2009 | Rail work leads to faster train journeys [Network Rail Article] |
| A major piece of work on the Settle – Carlisle line will mean Network Rail can remove a 30mph speed restriction that has been in place for nearly 40 years. |
Unusual track fastenings looking south at Kirkby Thore.
[Ewan Crawford 03/07/2006] | 
A southbound Voyager on the Settle and Carlisle line, photographed passing the junction for the British Gypsum plant at Kirkby Thore in May 2006.
[John Furnevel /05/2006] | 
A Drax - Kirkby Thore gypsum train approaching Kirkby Stephen through the rain in November 2004, approximately 18 miles short of its destination.
[John Furnevel /11/2004] |
|
| Network Rail Article | |
|
| 29/06/2009 | National Express turns down bid [BBC News] |
| Rail and bus operator FirstGroup has said it has had a takeover bid for rival National Express rejected. |
Having just left Kinghorn tunnel, the 09.50 Aberdeen - London Kings Cross NXEC service passes Pettycur Bay. A steeply graded branch once dropped to the shore at the left of the train to serve a bottle works. The Forth Bridge stands in the left background.
[Bill Roberton 03/09/2008] | 
Silver NXEC HST set crossing Markinch Viaduct with 1S12 on 23 August 2008.
[Brian Forbes 23/08/2008] | 
DVT 82205 leading the NXEC 0750 Glasgow Central - London Kings Cross service, about to commence its journey on 9th May 2008.
[Graham Morgan 09/05/2008] |
|
| BBC News item | |
|
| 28/06/2009 | Overdue UK bullet train enters service amid cuts [Bloomberg] |
| June 29 (Bloomberg) -- Britain’s first “bullet trains” enter service in London today, bringing high-speed travel to the world’s oldest rail network. Government spending cuts prompted by the global recession may stunt plans to extend the project. |
|
| Bloomberg Item | |
|
| 28/06/2009 | Whatever happened to the age of the train? [Sunday Herald] |
| ONE OF the great railway journeys of the world is the 393-mile route from Edinburgh to London King's Cross, still evoking some of the glamour of the halcyon era of the steam train. Yet it is no secret that National Express, the current operator on the East Coast Main Line, is in a desperate financial situation and its franchise operation hangs by a very slender thread. |
Looking west towards the main station at Newcastle Central on 17 October 2006. A GNER (remember them?) Edinburgh - London service stands at the platform.
[John McIntyre 17/10/2006] | 
55010 The Kings Own Scottish Borderer arriving at Berwick with a Waverley - Kings Cross train in August 1981.
[John Furnevel 10/08/1981] | 
A GNER morning arrival from Kings Cross stands at Waverley platform 21 in December 2004.
[John Furnevel /12/2004] |
|
| Sunday Herald Item | |
|
| 26/06/2009 | Network Rail publishes 2008/9 annual report [Network Rail Article] |
| Network Rail today publishes its annual report for the year 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009, a year in which the company delivered record levels of investment, strong financial performance with healthy profits reinvested in the railway and train punctuality at a new all time high.
|
|
| Network Rail Article | |
|
| 25/06/2009 | Ardrossan drivers asked 'Would it kill you to wait?' [Network Rail Article] |
| Network Rail’s dedicated community safety team will today hold a series of ‘Don’t Run the Risk’ awareness events at Britain’s most misused level crossings in support of a European level crossing day of action. In Scotland, motorists at Ardrossan Harbour level crossing will be targeted by the Network Rail team, supported the British Transport Police, North Ayrshire Council and the rail industry regulator, the ORR.
|
Ardrossan Harbour box on its last day. Oddly this box was left out of the Ayrshire resignalling for a short while. The level crossing was receiving some final attention. By the end the box contained an almost completely white (redundant) lever frame. The (nearly) Trotters Independent Traders van in the background is a BR vehicle of the time.
[Ewan Crawford //1989] |
|
| Network Rail Article | |
|
| 25/06/2009 | Queen Street on track for multi-million pound revamp [Scotland on Sunday] |
| GLASGOW's Queen Street Station is to undergo a multi-million pound expansion, Scotland on Sunday has learned.
The landmark – which dates back to 1842 – will get new and longer platforms and, sources suggest, an airport-style passenger terminal.
|
170470 and 170402 at the buffer stops at Glasgow Queen Street^s platforms 4 & 5 on 5th May 2009
[Graham Morgan 05/05/2009] | 
Glasgow Queen Street station, 2005.
[John Furnevel //2005] | 
Queen Street, August 1981, with the 1535 to Aberdeen (L) and 1530 to Edinburgh awaiting departure.
[John Furnevel /08/1981] |
|
| Scotland on Sunday Item | |
|
| 25/06/2009 | Calls for £25bn transport boost [BBC News Article] |
| An integrated road, rail and air hub should form the heart of a £25bn Scottish transport "revolution", a think tank says. |
|
| BBC News Article | |
|
| 24/06/2009 | Network Rail unveils £5m Gourock station proposals [Network Rail Article] |
| Network Rail has submitted plans for a new £5m train station at Gourock to Inverclyde Council. |
View from the buffer stops at Gourock in March 1966 as a DMU prepares to leave for Glasgow.
[Colin Miller 22/03/1966] | 
The station concourse at Gourock on 6 May 2009. The ticket office, toilets and staff accommodation are in Portakabins outside, pending station refurbishment.
[David Panton 06/05/2009] | 
334 018 waits in the rain at Gourock platform 3 on 6 May 2009.
[David Panton 06/05/2009] |
|
| Network Rail Article | |
|
| 24/06/2009 | Probe call over passenger figures [BBC News Article] |
| The public spending watchdog considers investigating First ScotRail after it overestimated passenger numbers. |
156433 waits at Platform 8 of Glasgow Central with an East Kilbride service on 13th February. This is the first Class 156 to have the new Saltire markings applied following last years extension of the First Group franchise by the Scottish government.
[Graham Morgan 13/02/2009] | 
New station signage at north entrance to Mount Florida station in August 2008. This is part of the agreement (including the new Saltire livery) announced by the Scottish government in April, that the First Scotrail franchise was to be extended to 2014. If you look closely the First Scotrail and SPT logos have gone... it now has the Saltire with the wording ScotRail, Scotlands Railway.
[Colin Harkins 23/08/2008] | 
Side of First ScotRail North Berwick line unit 322481 on 28 Dec 2006.
[John Furnevel 28/12/2006] |
|
| BBC News Article | |
|
| 23/06/2009 | Historic Kings Cross restoration - Stage 1 completed [Network Rail Article] |
| The first stage of Network Rail’s £450m full-scale redevelopment of King's Cross has been completed, with the official opening of the Eastern Range – a previously neglected Victorian building that has been brought back in to service. |
The NXEC grey liveried HST set stands in the winter sunshine at Kings Cross on 19 December preparing to embark on its 530 mile journey with the 1400 service to Aberdeen.
[Mike Gibb 19/12/2007] | 
Kings Cross seen looking south west from above Gasworks Tunnel in July 2005. The station^s Eastern Range building is on the left with the clock tower of Mr Barlow^s Magnum Opus in the right background.
[John Furnevel /07/2005] | 
Night scene at Kings Cross in the early 70s, looking back towards the station along platform 8 with empty stock about to leave platform 7.
[John Furnevel //] |
|
| Network Rail Article | |
|
| 23/06/2009 | Walkout at second power station [BBC News Article] |
| Workers at the Cockenzie Power Station join unofficial strike action in support of sacked oil workers in Lincolnshire. |
A coal train arrives at Longannet Power station. The coal stockyard can be seen over to the left.
[Ewan Crawford //] | 
An EWS class 66 has turned north off the ECML just east of Cockenzie with a loaded coal train in the summer of 2002 and is heading through the yard towards the power station discharge shed in the top left of the picture.
[John Furnevel //2002] |
|
| BBC News Article | |
|
| 23/06/2009 | Portobello station campaign builds up head of steam [Evening News] |
| A RAILWAY station in Portobello, which has not been in use since the 1960s, could be reopened under ambitious proposals being put forward by local campaigners |
The bricked-up subway that led from Christian Path on the south side of the ECML to the island platform of Portobello station. June 2009.
[David Panton 03/06/2009] | 
The little house in Station Brae. Sitting behind trees, in a small yard, off a busy road stands the old Portobello station house. The former island platform was reached via a subway through the embankment in the background, once accessible from both sides of the line (See image 14165).
[John Furnevel 10/04/2007] | 
Freight workings at Portobello. N.B. 0.6.2T 69222.
[G. H. Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. 18/10/1952] |
|
| Evening News Item | |
|
| 22/06/2009 | Repairs required on Kilmarnock-Carlisle route [Network Rail Article] |
| Passenger services between Kilmarnock and Dumfries are being restricted to between 07:30 and 18:30 each day to allow for repairs at the Enterkin Burn Viaduct in Dumfriesshire.
As a result, ScotRail is running a revised timetable between Glasgow Central and Carlisle over the coming weeks while Network Rail engineers carry out structural repairs to the Victorian-built viaduct.
|
|
| Network Rail Article | |
|
| 20/06/2009 | Summer run for Sir Nigel Gresley on NYMR [Whitby Gazette] |
| VISITORS to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway are in for a treat this summer, as the iconic steam engine, 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley will be in operation on the Moors Railway, starting from Sunday |
Sir Nigel Gresley^s eponymous A4 Pacific no 60007 passing Bristol East goods, a mile out of Temple Meads, with a special on 3 December 2008.
[Peter Todd 03/12/2008] | 
A-4 No 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley descends Kinbuck bank towards Dunblane in July 1965 with the 13.30 Aberdeen to Glasgow train.
[GW Robin 27/07/1965] | 
Running tender first, B1 61264 brings a morning train from Pickering past Grosmont shed on 3 April 2008. Receiving attention on the left is A4 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley.
[John Furnevel 03/04/2008] |
|
| Whitby Gazette Item | |
|
| 19/06/2009 | Copper stolen from police station [BBC News Article] |
| Railscot note: This item arrived at Railscot via the news feed, based on the keyword 'station'. Nothing to do with railways as it happens - just couldn't resist the headline. Ed |
|
| BBC News Article | |
|
| 18/06/2009 | Families rail against noisy freight trains [Dunfermline Press] |
| A FLOOD of compensation claims have been submitted from fed-up residents affected by the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine (SAK) all-night freight train service.
|
EWS 66083 takes the first coal train from Hunterston along the newly reopened line between Stirling and Longannet power station on 5 April 2008. In the right background a freighter standing off Longannet Point is about to enter Grangemouth docks.
[John Furnevel 05/04/2008] |
|
| Dunfermline Press Item | |
| Stirling Observer Item | |
|
| 18/06/2009 | South sub line prepares for modernisation [Network Rail Article] |
| Network Rail will undertake a £1m modernisation of the Edinburgh South Suburban freight rail route this summer. |
After leaving the sub at Craiglockhart Jct on 18 March, DRS 66423 comes off the spur to join the Edinburgh - Carstairs line at Slateford Jct and is about to run through the station with a train of EWS ballast trucks.
[Bill Roberton 18/03/2008] | 
Looking west at the Edinburgh skyline as trains diverted over the sub meet on the bridge across Duddingston Park South road on 2 April 2006. Niddrie West Junction is in the foreground.
[John Furnevel 02/04/2006] | 
8598 and 8528 passing Morningside Road SB with a freight in the summer of 1971.
[John Furnevel 20/07/1971] |
|
| Network Rail Article | |
|
| 17/06/2009 | End of the line for Central Station loitering [Network Rail Article] |
| Network Rail, supported by the British Transport Police, is launching a crackdown on anti-social behaviour and loitering at Glasgow Central. |
View east along Gordon Street on 9 September under the canopy at the main entrance to Glasgow Central.
[John Furnevel 09/09/2007] | 
No,no madam, they^ll be much bigger than this one... Rail staff publicise the forthcoming Glasgow-London electric services at an exhibition at Glasgow Central station in the Spring of 1974.
[John McIntyre //1974] | 
Approaching Glasgow Central station from the east, heading along a crowded Argyle Street on a warm and pleasant Saturday afternoon in July 2005.
[John Furnevel /07/2005] |
|
| Network Rail Article | |
|
| 16/06/2009 | Why we all need a little railway romance [The Times] |
| Train companies want to reopen some long-since extinct local lines. Hallelujah! We can learn a lot from rail history |
Some Day My Prince Will Come.... daydreaming alongside the entrance to Rutherglen station, 15 August 2006.
[John Furnevel 15/08/2006] |
|
| The Times | |
|
| 14/06/2009 | Final chance for a unique walk [Network Rail Article] |
| Ramblers, walkers, rail enthusiasts – in fact anyone who fancies stretching their legs in a somewhat unusual venue – are being invited to walk over a railway viaduct on what is claimed to be one of the most scenic railway lines in the country. |
Southbound Sprinter leaves Ribblehead with that viaduct in the background to the right.
[Ewan Crawford 02/04/2008] | 
With mist rolling in off the fells, a pair of 158 DMUs heads south over Ribblehead viaduct towards Leeds on 10 August 2008.
[John McIntyre 10/08/2008] | 
The last post...Ribblehead, November 2004
[John Furnevel /11/2004] |
|
| Network Rail Article | |
|
| 13/06/2009 | Train operators call for disused lines to reopen [Telegraph] |
| The Association of Train Operating Companies is due to give unprecedented backing to the restoration of disused track and the reintroduction of passenger services on other routes which currently only carry freight. |
The City of Ripon, once served by long distance trains including the Queen of Scots, saw its station closed along with the rest of the Harrogate – Northallerton line in 1967. The impressive 1848 building, the entrance to which is said to echo that of nearby Ripon Cathedral, has long since been converted to residential accomodation and is seen here on 24 April 2009. A powerful lobby continues to press for the re-establisment of train services to Ripon utilising much of the former 12 mile link from Harrogate, although any future station would be located further south nearer the town centre on the other side of the River Ure.
[John Furnevel 24/04/2009] | 
Freightliner 66596 photographed at Ashton Gate on 6 March 2009 heading back along the former Portishead branch towards Bristol Temple Meads with a loaded coal train from Portbury import terminal.
[Peter Todd 06/03/2009] | 
Looking north over the level crossing in Station Road, Isfield, Sussex in 1974. The view is towards Uckfield, to where the line was cut back in 1969, resulting in the closure of Isfield station. On a brighter note the site is now the HQ of The Lavender Line preservation group, while there is growing pressure for the reopening of the through route between Uckfield and Lewes.
[Ian Dinmore //1974] |
|
| Telegraph item | |
| BBC News item | |
|
| 12/06/2009 | Network Rail IT chief voted best in UK [Network Rail Article] |
| Britain's largest and most influential companies have voted Catherine Doran, Network Rail’s IT chief, as ‘the UK’s most influential technology leader’.
|
Network Rail^s IT Director Catherine Doran. Recently voted UKs most influential technology leader by some of Britain^s largest companies. June 2009.
[Courtesy NR /06/2009] |
|
| Network Rail Article | |
|
| 12/06/2009 | Freight firm says council should have known of noise [The Herald] |
| THE freight company at the centre of a row over running night-time trains past residential areas has hit out at the council behind the re-opened railway line for failing to inform the public about its effects. |
EWS 66 004 passes through Alloa on its way back to Hunterston on 4 March with Longannet empties, dwarfing the 3-car 170 at the station platform forming the next service to Glasgow Queen Street.
[David Panton 04/03/2009] | 
EWS 66197 passes Kilbagie on 20 January 2009 with a Hunterston-Longannet coal train on the direct route via Stirling and Alloa.
[Bill Roberton 20/01/2009] | 
A Longannet coal train on the direct route via Stirling and Alloa about to run over Cambus level crossing on 22 December 2008 behind EWS 66159.
[John Furnevel 22/12/2008] |
|
| Herald item | |
|
| 12/06/2009 | Honour for 92-year-old rail woman [BBC News item] |
| A 92-year-old Somerset station master has been appointed MBE for her services to the rail industry in the county. |
Early morning at Stogumber before the first train of the day on the West Somerset Railway. Like other WSR stations this is an excellent period piece.
[Mark Bartlett 15/09/2008] |
|
| BBC News Item | |
| Western Mail item | |
|
of the 10 latest new items.
RSS Feed of news items.
Just for fun: a KML version of the 10 latest new items.