| 20/06/2013 | New £7m Stratford Parkway railway station opens [BBC News] |
| A £7m railway station has opened near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.
The new Parkway station has been built at Bishopton, near the M40, next to an existing park-and-ride facility.
Warwickshire County Council said the opening coincided with new timetables that would see later services running to and from the town.
Programme manager, John Harvey said: 'At the moment the last train leaves Stratford at 21:30 BST, from Sunday the last one will leave at 23:30 at night.'
Services on a Saturday would also increase from every hour to half-hourly, Mr Harvey said.
The new services will be operated by London Midland over the next three years. |
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| BBC News | |
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| 18/05/2013 | Metro-North Trains Collide in Connecticut; Dozens of Injuries Are Reported [New York Times] |
| Two Metro-North Railroad trains collided after a derailment near Fairfield, Conn., at the height of the evening rush on Friday, injuring 60 people, 5 of them critically, and snarling transit corridors in the Northeast, the authorities said. |
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| 16/05/2013 | Ilkeston train station bid wins £4.5m investment [BBC News] |
| A new railway station is to be built in a Derbyshire town after the scheme got government backing.
The proposed £6.5m station in Ilkeston is one of four schemes that successfully applied for money from a £20m Department for Transport fund.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said the scheme had been awarded £4.5m from the New Station Fund.
The station will open in 2014 and will connect Ilkeston to Northern Rail's Sheffield to Nottingham route. |
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| BBC News | |
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| 16/05/2013 | Patrick McLoughlin defends High Speed Rail 2 as 'right for Britain' [Telegraph] |
| The High Speed Rail 2 project is 'right for Britain', the Transport Secretary has insisted, after a devastating report by Whitehall’s spending watchdog said its economic benefits are not clear. [From Mark Bartlett] |
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| Telegraph | |
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| 15/05/2013 | Cairngorm funicular railway walks plan talks [Scotsman] |
| HIGHLAND councillors are considering proposals to allow guided treks between the Cairngorm funicular railway’s top station and the Cairn Gorm plateau to remain permanently. |
Way to go. Looking out from the base station of the Cairngorm Mountain Railway in September 2012.
[Peter Todd 17/09/2012] | 
Railcars about to pass on the scenic Cairngorm Mountain Funicular Railway on a crisp and pleasant day in the Autumn of 2001.
[John Furnevel //2001] |
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| Scotsman | |
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| 14/05/2013 | Free wi-fi for 25 Scottish railway stations [BBC News] |
| Free wi-fi access is to be introduced at 25 of Scotland's busiest railway stations before the end of the year.
The move is the latest stage in the Scottish government's plan to ensure travellers have free, wireless internet across the rail network by 2019.
ScotRail began introducing free access on its flagship Edinburgh to Glasgow route last year and it is now being rolled out across express trains. |
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| BBC News | |
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| 14/05/2013 | Borders rail link: £150m plan for Penicuik spur [Evening News] |
| A VITAL £150 million rail line connecting Penicuik to central Edinburgh could be reopened for the first time in half a century.
Heriot-Watt University has been asked to carry out a feasibility study into opening ten miles of rail line that would allow passenger trains to run into Penicuik off the new Borders rail link.
At least six miles of the potential route have been preserved as a rail corridor and already crosses the City Bypass, meaning the project could come in cheaper than early estimates of £150 million.
One option being considered is for the rail link to connect Penicuik to the new Shawfair station being built on the 35-mile Borders rail route running from Waverley to
Tweedbank.
The feasibility study requested by Midlothian Council is due to be completed next year.
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Despite closure to passengers in 1951 Penicuik remained open for goods traffic for another sixteen years, due mainly to the surviving paper mills along the Esk valley. The branch eventually closed completely in 1967, as the final withdrawal notice bears witness.
[Jim Peebles 27/03/1967] | 
The derelict station building at Penicuik with the goods shed beyond, seen here in December 1976. Closed to passengers in September 1951 the last freight called here in April 1967 [see image 29992]. No trace of the station site remains, with the area shown in the photograph now occupied by a housing development.
[Bill Roberton /12/1976] | 
View north along the trackbed of the Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin Railway in February 2011 between Loanhead and Gilmerton. The substantial modern bridge spanning the abandoned route carries Edinburgh^s A720 City Bypass and was brought into use with the new road in late 1988. Final closure of the railway route, latterly serving Bilston Glen Colliery, occurred 6 months later, following closure of the colliery itself. [See image 32922]
[John Furnevel 21/02/2011] |
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| Evening News | |
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| 13/05/2013 | Joining the Borders railway dots after 40 years [BBC News] |
| The Borders Railway Project will connect the Borders with Edinburgh for the first time in 40 years.
The scheme involves the construction of seven new stations, the laying of 30 miles of track and dealing with 137 bridges along the way between Waverley station and Tweedbank.
Hugh Wark, from Network Rail, said it is partly thanks to the good work of the Victorians whose bridges and viaducts still stand today.
BBC Reporting Scotland's Cameron Buttle has been given special access to the works which stretch from Edinburgh to Galashiels. |
The ‘terminus’ of the Borders Railway in October 2012 - the southern end of the turnback siding near Newcraighall. [See image 38338]
[David Spaven 09/10/2012] | 
View south over Hardengreen Roundabout on 16 February 2013, with tree clearance in progress. A bridge will span the gap to the embankment on the far side.
[Bill Roberton 16/02/2013] | 
Looking south east along the trackbed of the Waverley route on 1 March 2013 towards the site of Tweedbank station, planned terminus of the Borders Railway. In the background the Eildon Hills stand just beyond the town of Melrose.
[John Furnevel 01/03/2013] |
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| BBC News | |
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| 12/05/2013 | Railway holds poignant tribute [Northumberland Gazette] |
| A poignant act of remembrance was held at a heritage railway development in honour of three soldiers killed in an Afghanistan roadside bomb attack.
Over the Bank Holiday weekend at the Aln Valley Railway’s Alnwick Lionheart site, a locomotive named Penicuik was decorated with a wreath, flags and poppies, donated by the Alnmouth and Alnwick branch of the Royal British Legion. [With thanks to Stuart Rorrison]
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| Northumberland Gazette | |
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| 11/05/2013 | Russian train blast hurls wreckage to sixth floor apartment [BBC] |
| A fire on a freight train carrying a highly flammable chemical cargo has injured dozens of people in Russia.
The 71-car train caught fire as it passed through Belaya Kalitva station in the Rostov-on-Don region near the Ukrainian border.
The ensuing blast injured at least 50 people and sent wreckage flying six storeys high. |
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| BBC News | |
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| 10/05/2013 | Railway line on track to open [Argus] |
| A railway line could be reopened more than 40 years after it was closed after Government ministers intervened.
With more and more people commuting from Sussex to London on the trains, transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has asked Network Rail to look at reopening the Lewes and Uckfield route.
It comes after years of campaigning by politicians and locals who believe the move will ease congestion on the Brighton to London mainline. |
The old station at Barcombe Mills, between Lewes and Uckfield, viewed over the level crossing following a snowfall in the winter of 1974, almost 5 years after closure.
[Ian Dinmore //1974] | 
The derelict station at Isfield, Sussex, in the winter of 1974, almost 5 years after closure. View south towards the level crossing and the former through route to Lewes. [See image 40376]
[Ian Dinmore //1974] |
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| Argus | |
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| 08/05/2013 | Thousands claim free London Midland train tickets [BBC News] |
| A train operator has given away 127,000 free tickets to more than 25,000 passengers as compensation for cancellations and delays last year.
Between October and the end of December almost 1,000 London Midland trains were disrupted due to driver shortages.
The government told the operator to offer a £7m package of benefits, which included season ticket holders getting five days of free travel passes.
London Midland said it had rectified the driver shortage. |
London Midland EMU 350245 arriving at Birmingham International on 17 May.
[Peter Todd 17/05/2011] | 
A large number of commuters heading for the platform 2 exit at Tamworth Low Level station on 4 April after disembarking from the London Midland 17.47 stopping service to Euston.
[David Pesterfield 04/04/2012] | 
London Midland 170632 arrives at Wolverhampton on 28 April 2010 with the 0847 hrs Shrewsbury to Birmingham New Street service.
[John McIntyre 28/04/2010] |
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| BBC News | |
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| 08/05/2013 | Letting off steam at North Yorkshire Moors Railway party [Gazette & Herald] |
| RAILWAY buffs and tourists packed Pickering at the weekend for the 40th anniversary celebrations of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
Some of the leading steam locomotives in the country, headed by the Sir Nigel Gresley, arrived in the town to mark the milestone.
The line-up included the B1 Mayflower, The Green Knight, Southern Class S15, Thompson Class B1, as well as the Sybilla Class 25 diesel. |
60007 Sir Nigel Gresley arrives with a train at Pickering on 1 October 2009.
[Colin Miller 01/10/2009] | 
BR Class 4MT 4-6-0 no 75029 ^The Green Knight^, built at Swindon in 1954 and bought by the NYMR in 2005, simmers in the late September evening sun at Whitby, while awaiting its departure time with a train for Grosmont. Definitely looking much better than it did for much of 2010... [see image 28429].
[John Steven 01/09/2012] | 
No. 29, resplendent in 12 hour old lining and lettering and No. 62005, immaculate in BR black, held at Levisham with the NYMR 40 year Anniversary Special on 1st May 2013. The combination of 29^s Philadelphia chime whistle and 62005^s North Eastern shrieker, echoing from the valley sides and across the moors was enough to raise the (few remaining) hairs... and no doubt the ghosts of 40 years NYMR running.
[Brian Taylor 01/05/2013] |
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| Gazette & Herald | |
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| 07/05/2013 | National Railway Museum looks to improve food facilities for visitors [The Press] |
| THE National Railway Museum in York is planning to use shipping containers to improve its food facilities for visitors.
The huge cargo-holders will be stacked in the south-east garden of the museum, if proposals are approved by City of York Council.
The museum wants to construct, adapt and refurbish the containers so they can operate as an outdoor pizza service and ice-cream kiosk, complete with sliding doors.
Its management also hopes to move its old-style Valiant railway carriage to the garden area so it can become a Victorian tearoom. [From Richard Buckby] |
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| The Press | |
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| 04/05/2013 | Stags and hens face dry train as drink ban gets green light [Herald] |
| A FRIDAY alcohol ban is being trialled on an East Coast morning train between Aberdeen and Newcastle after a spate of anti-social behaviour.
Passengers will be forbidden from drinking alcohol on the 9.52am service from Aberdeen from next Friday.
The trial will run for four weeks, from May 10 until May 31, and will only apply to a section of the route running between Aberdeen and Newcastle – a journey of roughly four hours.
The service is popular with stag and hen parties travelling from Scotland to Newcastle for a long weekend, with the same route also used on Friday evenings by oil workers travelling home for their two-week shore leave.
A spokesman for East Coast, the main operator on the East Coast mainline that connects Aberdeen and Edinburgh to London King's Cross, said it was taking action after a number of recent incidents where rowdy passengers had caused disruption to other travellers. |
On a dull and overcast 19 May 2011, the 09.52 East Coast Aberdeen - Kings Cross HST runs into Inverkeithing station with power car 43314 leading.
[Colin Miller 19/05/2011] | 
The National Express East Coast 09.52 Aberdeen - Kings Cross HST rushes through Drem station on 13 December 2007.
[John Furnevel 13/12/2007] | 
The 09.52 Aberdeen-Kings Cross NXEC service climbs away from Inverkeithing Tunnel on 5 February, a view only possible since clearance of vegetation last year.
[Bill Roberton 05/02/2009] |
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| Herald | |
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| 04/05/2013 | Train crash: Toxic chemicals on fire near Belgium's Ghent [BBC] |
| Two people died and 14 were injured when a train carrying toxic, flammable chemicals derailed and caused a major fire near the Belgian city of Ghent.
The train was travelling from the Netherlands to Ghent's seaport when it derailed as it changed tracks between the towns of Schellebelle and Wetteren at about 02.00 (00.00 GMT).
Six of the train's 13 cars derailed and three caught fire, setting off a series of explosions. [From Mark Bartlett] |
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| BBC News | |
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| 02/05/2013 | Commonwealth Games railway station set to reopen [Scotsman] |
| THE transport hub for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games will re-open to rail passengers in Dalmarnock in three weeks’ time - six months late because of a surprise find beneath the station.
Network Rail said trains would call again at the east end station from Monday, 20 May, 11 months after it was closed for an £11 million upgrade, which will be completed this autumn.
Work on a new station building was delayed after the remains of the original station, built in 1895, were found buried beneath the current one. It had re-opened in 1979 after being closed for 15 years. |
334 022 stands at Dalmarnock on 9 August 2008 on a southbound service.
[David Panton 09/08/2008] | 
Platform 2 Level 2 leaving Dalmarnock - February 2007.
[Colin Harkins 17/02/2007] | 
Entrance to Dalmarnock station, looking north along Swanston Street towards Dalmarnock Road on a Sunday morning in April 2007.
[John Furnevel 01/04/2007] |
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| Scotsman | |
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| 02/05/2013 | North Yorkshire Moors Railway celebrates 40th anniversary [BBC News] |
| The volunteer-run North Yorkshire Moors Railway has put on a special event to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its reopening.
Carrying over 350,000 passengers a year the line runs between Pickering and Whitby and features a selection of steam and diesel locomotives. |
Ex-SR Schools class 4-4-0 no 30926 Repton drifts into Goathland in July 2007 with a train for Whitby.
[Bruce McCartney 09/07/2007] | 
Clear the way! No 7 whistles for the level crossing with a Grosmont - Pickering train at Levisham on 1 October 2009.
[Colin Miller 01/10/2009] | 
Southern Railway Schools Class 30926 ^Repton^ sets off from Whitby with the 1100 hrs service to Pickering on 22 October 2009. This is one of the services operated throughout by the North York Moors Railway but using the national network between Whitby and Grosmont.
[John McIntyre 22/10/2009] |
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| BBC News | |
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| 01/05/2013 | World's oldest railway tunnel hidden by a rockery for 36 years is discovered 10ft underground in a back garden [Mail] |
| Archaeologists have discovered a 220-year-old railway tunnel believed to be the oldest in the world.
The historic Fritchley Tunnel, in Crich, Derbyshire, can be traced back to 1793, two years earlier than the previous record holder.
The discovery was made after they linked the tunnel to a now-defunct railway, used by industrialists to transport limestone to an ironwork factory. |
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| Mail | |
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| 01/05/2013 | Some train stations used by 'fewer than 30' people [BBC News] |
| Some of Britain's mainline train stations are being used by fewer than 30 people a year, a new study suggests.
Teesside Airport station, in Darlington, had just 14 passengers between 2011-12.
Surrey's Dorking West had 16 passengers, while Denton in Greater Manchester had 30.
First Great Western, which runs services through Dorking West, say there is 'an anomaly' in the calculations and the figure is wrong.
The estimates are based on station exits and entrances in the 12 months ending March 2012. They have been compiled by transport consultants Steer Davies Gleave for the Office of Rail Regulation. |
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| BBC News | |
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| 30/04/2013 | Flying Scotsman restoration hold up costing NRM millions [The Press] |
| A FORMER boss of the National Railway Museum has hit out at the “awful” management of the Flying Scotsman restoration.
Andrew Dow, who was head of the NRM in the early 1990s, has spoken out about the stalled restoration project, which began in January 2006 and was scheduled to last one year and cost about £750,000.
The museum has spent £2.89 million so far, and an independent engineering report earlier this year identified that further repairs were needed at substantial cost. A tender for the work was issued yesterday. |
4472 Flying Scotsman on display at a steam gathering at Princes Risborough in October 1986.
[Peter Todd 12/10/1986] | 
4472 Flying Scotsman on the turntable at Ferryhill shed in May 1964.
[John Robin 16/05/1964] | 
4472 Flying Scotsman runs north through Tweedmouth station on 9 May 1964 with Pegler^s Pullman en route from Doncaster to Edinburgh. Tweeedmouth shed (52D) can be seen in the rear right of the photograph. The locomotive spent the following 9 days in Scotland on railtour duty and returned south light engine on 18 May. It was during this visit that the initial work on the Terence Cuneo painting of 4472 on the Forth Bridge was undertaken.
[Robin Barbour Collection (Courtesy Bruce McCartney) 09/05/1964] |
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| The Press | |
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| 29/04/2013 | Train derails at low speed at gala event [Leicester Mercury] |
| A train derailed at low speed during a Great Central Railway gala event over the weekend.
The incident happened during a shunting operation at Quorn on Saturday, the second day of the three-day event Swithland Sidings. [With thanks to Richard Buckby]
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| Leicester Mercury | |
| YouTube Video of derailment | |
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| 27/04/2013 | Midlothian rail depot plan [Midlothian Advertiser] |
| PLANS to create a rail depot in Midlothian were revealed this week.
Network Rail’s scheme to develop the former Millerhill Marshalling Yards was approved by Midlothian Council’s planning committee.
The project in Whitehill Road, Dalkeith, involves the formation of a train maintenance, cleaning and stabling depot and the laying of new railway lines. For full story, see this week’s Advertiser
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| Midlothian Advertiser | |
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| 26/04/2013 | Plockton reputation ‘damaged by school pupils’ [Scotsman] |
| IT IS known as the idyllic Highland village to which tourists make a beeline and where the BBC drama Hamish Macbeth was set.
However, the reputation of the west coast settlement has been bismirched by loitering and litter-dropping school pupils at its railway station, which have triggered a deluge of complaints to community leaders.
The station is on the Inverness-Kyle of Lochalsh line that Michael Palin has hailed as one of the world’s greatest railway journeys.
Now British Transport Police (BTP) have moved to stamp out the anti-social behaviour by enlisting youngsters from Plockton High School, which adjoins the station, to help with its upkeep by looking after its plants and picking up litter.
In a ceremony today, a plaque was unveiled by Highlands MSP Jean Urquhart to mark the station being “adopted” by a committee of pupils.
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In a ceremony at Plockton station a plaque was unveiled by Highlands MSP Jean Urquhart to mark the station being ^adopted^ by a committee of pupils from Plockton High School. - see news item.
[John Yellowlees 26/04/2013] | 
Celebrations at Plockton station on 26 April 2013 in connection with the adoption of the station by pupils of nearby Plockton High School - see adjacent news item.
[John Yellowlees 26/04/2013] |
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| Scotsman | |
| BTP | |
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| 25/04/2013 | Super freight trains set for Scots railways [Scotsman] |
| HALF mile long “supertrains” - the longest ever - are planned for Scotland as part of an expansion of the Mossend freight railhead in Lanarkshire by operator PDS.
The firm is to lodge plans this summer for a siding long enough to accommodate 770-metre freight trains, compared to the 600m longest trains at the moment.
Britain’s longest passenger train, the 16-carriage Caledonian Sleeper, is a quarter of a mile long, or some 400m. [From Dave Scott] |
A class 37 brings a freight into the south end of Mossend yard in the 1980s.
[John Furnevel //] | 
A class 47 at the head of a rake in Mossend yard during a sunny evening in 1989. The Chivas tanks (first two vehicles) are probably destined for Keith.
[Ewan Crawford //1989] | 
View south over a busy looking Mossend Yard on 29 October 1991.
[Bill Roberton 29/10/1991] |
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| Scotsman | |
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| 25/04/2013 | West Coast Main Line to receive major improvement work [Network Rail] |
| Work on the West Coast Main Line will be carried out this summer 2013 to increase the speed that trains can travel. Four major rail junctions will also be replaced. The work will improve the reliability of the infrastructure and the punctuality of train services on Britain’s busiest mixed-use railway line. The £18m improvement scheme will be completed over nine days from Saturday 13 July 2013 to Sunday 21 July 2013 when four life-expired junctions will be replaced and three miles of track re-laid. [From Mark Bartlett] |
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| Network Rail | |
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| 24/04/2013 | New platform designed to bring heritage railway into Northallerton [Northern Echo] |
| A HERITAGE railway could soon be hauling trains into the county town of North Yorkshire.
Plans to build a new temporary railway platform at Romanby, Northallerton, for the Wensleydale Railway are expected to be given the go-ahead by local councillors.
The platform – made of scaffolding and boarding - would be on railway land to the south-east of the line, accessed via Springwell Lane.
And it would allow the Leeming-based railway to realise its long-held dream of taking services into Northallerton. [From Richard Buckby] |
The level crossing that took the Northallerton - Garsdale line across the old A1. View east at Leeming Bar in 1982.
[John McIntyre //1982] | 
Hawes station. N.E.R. 0.4.4T 67331 arriving from Northallerton.
[G. H. Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. //] | 
The race track is the unofficial name given to Britains longest straight stretch of main line, being that part of the ECML covering the 30 miles or so betweeen Northallerton and York, of which two thirds is almost dead straight. View is from the down platform at Northallerton on 3 October 2008 as a Freightliner class 66 heads south towards York with coal hoppers.
[John Furnevel 03/10/2008] |
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| Northern Echo | |
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| 24/04/2013 | Freight train plan for Fleetwood [Fleetwood Weekly News] |
| The group behind plans to revive Fleetwood’s railway says the link could provide a freight service which would take pressure off one of Wyre’s most congested roads.
Poulton and Wyre Railway Society has produced a business plan outlining proposals for weekday diesel passenger service linking Fleetwood with Poulton, and eventually a weekend steam heritage service.
But the opening of the railway line between Fleetwood and Poulton could also open up possibilities of companies located along that route using carriages to carry industrial loads. |
BR Standard class 2 2-6-2T no 84018 in the sidings at Wyre Dock junction, Fleetwood, on 29 June 1963. The photograph is taken from alongside the signal box with the now-demolished Fleetwood power station in the right background. Fleetwood shed (24F) from which the locomotive was withdrawn in April 1965, stands directly behind the camera. Official closure took place in February 1966. [With thanks to Mark Bartlett]
[K A Gray 29/06/1963] | 
West Coast diesels 37685 and 47760 swing left towards Layton and Blackpool at Poulton where the disused tracks of the Burn Naze and Fleetwood line can be seen on the right. The light engines were heading for Blackpool North behind a steam hauled (5690 Leander) special from Bridgnorth that was to be diesel hauled back to Kidderminster.
[Mark Bartlett 02/10/2010] | 
View north towards Fleetwood from the end of the double track section 600 yards north of Poulton-le-Fylde Junction [See image 19029]. The line is classed as ^not in regular use^ - an understatement in view of the pallisade fence that crosses the trackbed below the bridge from which the photograph was taken. That said, signals and trackside cabinets are still in place, but vegetation is now taking hold.
[John McIntyre 28/09/2009] |
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| Fleetwood Weekly News | |
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| 22/04/2013 | Liverpool Lime Street underground station shut for refurbishments [BBC] |
| The underground station at Liverpool Lime Street has been closed for four months to allow refurbishment work to take place.
The lower-level platform at the station will be shut until 22 August, during which time no Wirral services will stop at the station.
A Merseyrail spokesman said passengers for Wirral should use Moorfields, James Street or Liverpool Central instead.
The work will not affect services to Lime Street's main station. [From Mark Bartlett] |
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| BBC News | |
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| 20/04/2013 | Gleneagles Station set for further Ryder Cup boosts [Perthshire Advertiser] |
| Gleneagles Station is to be boosted with new facilities in time for next year’s Ryder Cup.
Thousands of pounds is to be pumped into the station makeover which will see new facilities, including a toilet and waiting rooms, for the prestigious golf event.
This week’s Transport Scotland announcement is in addition to millions of pounds that Perth and Kinross Council is investing in a new road scheme for the station, which is also earmarked for the 2014 event. |
Running slightly late, the 1711 to Glasgow Queen Street departs Gleneagles on 16 June, formed by 170 410.
[David Panton 16/06/2009] | 
View south along the down platform at Gleneagles on 12 April.
[Bill Roberton 12/04/2012] | 
View of Gleneagles on 4 July 1964, its last day as a junction. Comrie train hurries in while 44850 waits with a northbound connection on the main line.
[John Robin 04/07/1964] |
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| Perthshire Advertiser | |
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