In The News | 20th February 2023 | Latest Rail News
Click here to hear the latest rail news for Monday 20th February 2023
InTheNews: The latest rail news for Monday 20 February 2023
According to a survey, more than 100 million journeys have been made on London Underground’s new Elizabeth Line since it opened last May.
An article on the BBC website says the YouGov survey found that 45 per cent of the capital’s residents had also used the line from Reading, Berkshire, to Abbey Wood and Shenfield in Essex.
The poll, conducted last month, found that the 18-24 age group was the most likely to have used the new line, which runs through tunnels built as part of the Crossrail project.
It added that the proportion of users who made great effort to use the railway fell to 25 percent from 37 percent in July 2022, suggesting that it has become more and more a part of people’s daily lives is.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has been turned away from over 100 potential candidates for the role of HS2 chair, Construction News can reveal.
An article in Construction News said the government last week promoted HS2 deputy chairman Jon Thompson to the position, which had been vacant for two years after former chairman Allan Cook left HS2 in February 2021.
Now a Freedom of Information (FoI) request has revealed that the DfT has approached 157 people to apply for the £200,000-a-year post.
However, only 29 applications were received before the deadline last June, with five people interviewed during the two-year period when HS2 had no chair.
Construction has begun on a new collections building at Locomotion in Shildon which will greatly expand the visitor attraction and create one of the world’s largest collections of historic rolling stock.
Scheduled to open in November 2023, the ‘New Hall’ will house a further 46 vehicles from the national collection, including carriages, wagons and locomotives, and will celebrate the North East’s role in the development of the railways.
Planning permission for the building was granted in June 2022 and representatives from Locomotion, Durham County Council and contractor Nationwide Engineering toured the site earlier this month as work began.
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A puppy spotted on the tracks of a busy London railway was rescued by a trainee who was in the middle of a train driving lesson.
An article on This is Local London says Stefan Hug, from east London, only started learning to drive a train in January but was forced to halt a southern train from Beckenham Junction to London Bridge on Wednesday morning after he lost the small black puppy running next to the train.
The 32-year-old, who was accompanied by his driving instructor Kevin Timmins, said dogs were a rare sight on the tracks but the skills he learned in the classroom “made a quick impact” when he started his first rescue mission at work graduated .
Photo credit: National Railway Museum
