NEWS
Rail fare rises capped for two years
Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that rail fares will be capped at RPI+1% again for the next two years, despite ministers insisting in June that it would remain at RPI+3% as planned.
The cap applies to regulated rail fares, and the same formula will apply to London buses and the Tube.
The DfT said the reduction had been funded from savings identified in the department’s budget. ATOC welcomed it as a “positive move”. For more reaction, see pages 14 and 80.
NR meets freight performance order
The ORR has confirmed that Network Rail has met the terms of the freight performance order issued earlier this year.
‘Network Rail caused delay
freight services’ has improved markedly since January 2012, and the company is ahead of this year’s regulatory target.
In a letter to Network Rail, DB Schenker and freight associations, the ORR thanked the company for its efforts.
Sandwich placements launched
Network Rail is highlighting the focus on general management available in its graduate scheme, with 40 places available this year.
Over 100 places are available in total, across finance, information management, property, strategic planning, contracts and procurement, project management and engineering.
For the first time, Network Rail will also take on sandwich placements across
the business, with 16
graduates joining each year on a paid placement after the second year of their degree course.
More on recruitment and training on pages 26-33 and 72-75.
6 | rail technology magazine Oct/Nov 12
London-Oxford line approved
A new rail link between London and Oxford has finally been approved.
The £130m project will involve a short section of new track south of Bicester, 10 miles of dilapidated track being upgraded, and two new stations – a replacement at Bicester and one in north Oxford at Water Eaton.
It is the second phase of Evergreen3, Chiltern Railways’ 20-year infrastructure project to improve its services. This phase had been held up by conservation concerns, but now transport secretary Patrick
McLoughlin
has approved a Transport and Works Act order meaning it can go ahead, as long as bats living in Wolvercote Tunnel are protected.
The project opens up a route to High Wycombe closed since the 1960s and is the first new rail link
between London and a major UK city in 100 years.
Oxford station will get two new platforms, and Islip station will also be upgraded.
The projected Oxford-London
journey time on the new route is 66 minutes. Going via Reading into Paddington currently takes around 55 minutes direct – but the extra capacity will be a huge benefit for passengers. There will be two services an hour once the line is open in 2015. The new link will also cut Oxford-Bicester journey times, from 25 minutes to 14.
Graham Cross, business
development director at Chiltern Railways, said: “We are pleased to have been granted the power to proceed with this significant railway investment, which will benefit thousands of commuters
to New signalling power approach designed
The new class 2 distribution system to power Network Rail’s signalling
looks set to save
around 33% of the copper previously used, cutting both costs and carbon.
The new system uses a two-
core cable instead of three and is being used in the Reading resignalling scheme.
Mark Southwell, Network Rail’s IP signalling programme director, said: “Simply put – the whole system of power transmission had to be redesigned, from the transformers to the switchgear.
“Normal three-core cable has steel strands wound through it to protect it from rodent damage and other hazards – which also means that any fault will find its way to all the equipment it connects.
“A new form of armour had to be developed, along with double or reinforced insulation for signal housing and switchgear.
“Our engineers were also able to integrate identification features within the cable to allow it to be uniquely identified to Network Rail, helping to deter cable theft.”
Network Rail’s technical director Steve Yianni said: “Using a class 2 signalling power system had always been thought of as impossible, or at least very difficult, but we proved it could be done.”
Revenue support payments hit £451m railways.
Rail franchises are receiving £451m in financial support, new figures show, up 50% from £291m in 2009-10.
The rise in revenue support,
revealed in a written answer to Lib Dem peer Lord Bradshaw, was attacked by RMT which describes the system as “corporate welfare” that could be spent directly on improving the
The franchises receiving revenue support are: FGW, Virgin West Coast, FCC, Southeastern, South West Trains, East Midland Trains and CrossCountry. Southern will enter revenue support from September 20, 2013.
A DfT spokesperson said: “Revenue share and support
mechanisms are standard in all rail contracts…[It] allows the Government and the train companies to share the benefits and risks of operating services.”
and businesses in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.”
Campaign group Railfuture’s Thames Valley branch warmly welcomed the extra capacity and resilience the new route brings, and says it will enhance the case for an extensive upgrade of Oxford station.
The Oxford-Bicester Town section also forms part of the western section of the East West Rail project to provide an outer orbital railway north of London.
For more visit
www.chiltern-
evergreen3.co.uk
Below: Oxford North Junction
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