in brief...
Nine years of growth for ScotRail ScotRail has beaten passenger records for the ninth consecutive year. Latest figures show the train operator carried 83.3 million customers in the year to March 31 2013 - up 2.6 per cent on last year’s record breaking 81.1 million. Passenger number have now risen by 33 per cent since ScotRail’s franchise began in 2004. Steve Montgomery, ScotRail MD said: ‘We are connecting even more communities, helping to grow the economy and encourage people out of their cars.’ Transport Minister Keith Brown said: ‘Many of our current and upcoming developments, as well as recent announcements to bear down on fares, will see further improvements and I look forward to seeing a continuation of the trend.’
Reading remodelled in record time Bechtel and Network Rail have completed the most ambitious part of an £895 million programme to remodel Reading railway station and the surrounding track. The upgrade, which was started late at night on March 28th and finished early morning on April 8th, was the biggest simultaneous commissioning of new track, signalling and infrastructure works in Network Rail’s history. ‘In just ten days, we worked with NR to complete work that would normally take 20 weeks to do,’ said Bechtel’s global rail MD Amjad Bangash.
c2c most punctual Toc New figures for National Express operator c2c show that 97.2 per cent of trains were on time in March, which means c2c has topped the punctuality table for the year to 31st March 2013 with 97.5 per cent of trains arriving on time - a better performance than any other UK Toc has ever recorded. The company has launched a
campaign to reduce delays caused by passengers falling ill.
RMT goes global
The RMT has agreed a ‘Trans- Atlantic Alliance’ with the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) to, among other things, ‘advance a global strategy promoting the right of workers to organise unions.’ The RMT says the alliance will ‘send shivers down the spine of union- hostile operators like First Group
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and Stagecoach’. ‘Our members face many of the same employers and the same wrong-headed government policies,’ said TWU International president, James Little.
Waterloo is busiest station Waterloo has retained its position as the busiest station in Great Britain ORR figures show. Station usage statistics for the year to March 2012 estimate that there were 94,045,510 entries and exits - an increase of 2.5 per cent compared with the previous year. London Victoria came second with 76,231,290 (a 3.6 per cent increase) and London Liverpool Street third with 57,106,502 (up 2.4 per cent).
Eight of the top ten busiest
stations were located in London, with Birmingham New Street eighth with 31,213,842 (up 26.4 per cent) and Glasgow Central tenth with 26,639,418 (up 6.8 per cent).
DLR breaks 100 million mark This year’s one hundred millionth passenger was recorded travelling on the 25 year-old railway, on 31st March. The number breaks all previous records and exceeds the numbers being carried by some mainline services. Head of planning, Robert Niven,
said: ‘This caps a magnificent year which saw us carry 7.2 million people during the Olympics - double what we would normally carry.’
Grandparents go the extra mile Britain’s over-60’s are travelling more often and further to visit family and friends according to ATOC. An analysis of passengers using a Senior Railcard - which offers discounted travel to over-60’s suggests a growing trend in older people embracing a more active retirement. Over the past six years, the number of people using a Senior Railcard has increased by almost 50 per cent to a record 1.1 million in 2012; journeys made with this card have risen by 74 per cent to more than 25 million in 2012, and the average distance travelled is now 71 miles, 15 per cent further than in 2006.
First Great Western announces fewer announcements Following Transport Minister Norman Baker’s request for Toc’s to curb ‘excessive announcements’, the
Network Rail ‘deeply sorry’ for safety crossing death
Network Rail and one of its signalmen have been fined for failing to ensure the safety of a woman killed when a train hit a car at a level crossing. Jane Harding, 52, died when the car she
was in was struck at Moreton-on-Lugg, Herefordshire, in January 2010. Birmingham Crown Court heard signalman Adrian Maund, 43, had raised safety barriers shortly before the crash.
He was fined £1,750, while Network Rail
was given a £450,000 fine. Maund was also ordered to complete 275 hours of unpaid work. The jury was told Network Rail had failed
to install an automatic barrier locking system at the site when improvements were made in 2009, due to its expense. The court heard the equipment would have cost an extra £40,000, although NR said the true cost could be 10 times as much. Prosecutors said Maund had raised
the barriers after mistakenly thinking the Manchester Piccadilly to Milford Haven passenger service had already passed. Phillip Mott QC said he had been distracted after a farmer rang the signal box for a second time asking if it was safe to walk his sheep over another crossing further up the track.
More to do Mrs Harding’s husband Mark who was driving the car and sustained injuries, said: ‘If Jane’s passing is to have any meaning, it will be that in future, rail and road users will be placed at the forefront by those in the rail industry whose responsibility it is to ensure the general public’s safety at level crossings.’ Network Rail was ‘deeply sorry’ for Mrs Harding’s death. Spokesman Kevin Groves said: ‘We made a mistake. We’ve rectified that mistake since the accident. Our engineers went away and invented a new piece of kit which we’ve fitted to Moreton and 40 other crossings, and there’s more to do that we will be finishing off in the next 12 months. ‘We thought the risk of this happening
was very low. There are hundreds of these crossings and they have been in service for 50 years and this is the only fatal accident that has ever been recorded.’
Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA said the crash had been ‘entirely avoidable’. The Arriva Trains Wales service also hit
another car being driven in the opposite direction, although the two passengers escaped with minor injuries. Network Rail was also ordered to pay
£33,000 towards prosecution costs, while Maund was told to pay £750.
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