Transport Insights

The transport stories you won't see in the industry-friendly media

Author

Chris Ames

Tag: rail

  • Navel gazing to start immediately

    The transport secretary has said that detailed design work on a replacement Bradford Interchange station “starts immediately”, despite the need to work out whether it will be a new station or a terminus “over the next year or so”.

    RAIL magazine reports:

    Heidi Alexander was speaking at a business conference in the city on Wednesday after it was announced a replacement for the 1973-built terminus would be opened in the 2030s.

    Confirming that the new station would be on the site of today’s, Alexander said: “I’m delighted that the detailed design work starts immediately.”

    But her speech and the Department for Transport (DfT) announcement that preceded it very carefully said nothing about whether the new station would replace today’s terminus with another, or whether it would be the through station that local supporters want.

    Alexander told the Telegraph & Argus:

    We need to do a bit more work on the design of the station and the associated rail network to work out if this will be a through station or whether it will be a turn back station, which is how Bradford Interchange works at the moment.

    Over the next year or so Network Rail need to do a piece of work to look at this issue very carefully.

    It might be that new viaducts need to be built and that could have implications for adjoining properties and for the local community, and we need to think through the implications of that.

    (more…)

  • Will the new station be same as the old station?

    Another day, another overblown announcement from the new-ish government – this time that a new rail station for Bradford “will improve connections, support economic growth and set the foundations for new homes, jobs and opportunities across the North”.

    The substantive announcement is that:

    the government has today confirmed a new station at Bradford Interchange

    Beyond that, it seems to be a lot of over-promising and wishful thinking. Claims that

    Bradford’s connections with some of the North’s largest cities, including Leeds, Manchester and York, will be transformed as passengers will be able to benefit from more frequent trains, improved journey times and reliability

    are undermined by the decision to rebuild an existing dead-end station, which might make the through trains that everyone agrees are needed more difficult than a new site.

    The BBC reports:

    It is understood that a decision has not yet been made on whether trains will be able to travel through the new railway station, or change direction and reverse out, as is currently the case.

    Note that the Department for Transport is using an image (below) that implies a through station.

    And what exactly has been announced? The BBC carries a comment from the (Reform) leader of Bradford Council that the funding will unlock the next stage of work, which appears to be engineering studies. Is the announcement just funding to plan a new station at some point

    in the 2030s

    as the announcement puts it?

    In addition:

    (more…)

  • Why all the noise?

    Could there be a stronger signal that Andy Burnham has run out of ideas and isn’t any different from Keir Starmer than the pathetic announcement that passengers have been “reminded of rules” about noise and antisocial behaviour on public transport?

    The actual news is that:

    Today, guidance was issued for local authorities to support their new powers to crackdown on loud music, littering, vaping and threatening behaviour on buses – including being able to issue fixed penalties of up to £100 for those who cause trouble.

    And there’s a big PR campaign for rail.

    But let’s look at the claim that:

    The powers for authorities on bus enforcement were made possible by the Bus Services Act 2025, meaning all local transport authorities across England are able to set and enforce their own local rules.

    You only have to read a few paragraphs further to find out that transport authorities across England are not able to set and enforce their own local rules:

    The legal power for all local transport authorities in England to crack down on nuisance behaviour on buses came into force on 5 August 2026. Today’s guidance will help them put these new local rules into practice, with each byelaw needing sign-off from the Secretary of State before it can be enforced.

    It’s part of Burnham’s agenda to devolve powers to the local level and where the power remains centralised, it seems the approach is to lie.

    The other part of Burnham’s agenda is to overstate the significance of a limited amount of nationalisation and the announcement tries rather too hard to pretend that what is happening on the railways – where enforcement powers have been around for years – is something to do with the consolidation of train operating companies under government control:

    The rail campaign will end the patchwork of current campaigns across different rail operators, helping create a clear, consistent message across the network. Most operators will feature messaging across websites, social media, in carriages and at stations, and will include posters and announcements. The campaign demonstrates how, under public ownership, train operators can push for a more joined-up operation to focus in on passenger experience to effectively tackle antisocial behaviour.

    Did you say “most operators”?

    A quote attributed to transport secretary Heidi Alexander carries the lie and the contradiction in a single sentence:

    … we’re empowering local leaders to shape bus services around the needs of their communities and taking advantage of publicly owned train operating companies

    So, not only are you not empowering local leaders, but you will still have a patchwork of rules on buses and on rail.

    Why all the noise?

  • Stuck in the past

    Rail magazine has an interesting story about new rail services that should be able to run on electrified (overhead) lines instead partly running on diesel because the very, very old infrastructure cannot cope with the additional demand for power.

    Avanti West Coast has confirmed that it’s running one of its new additional Liverpool services using diesel traction under the wires for a large part of the route because of power supply issues between Weaver junction and Crewe.

    Rail explains that the new May timetable includes two additional services to and from Liverpool, for which Avanti is using a bi-mode Class 805 Evero set, which can run on diesel or electric power.

    The trains are reported to be running from Runcorn to Lichfield Trent Valley under diesel power, with the trains switching to electric traction from Lichfield to Euston.

    The service from London to Liverpool is said to be unaffected and can use electric traction.

    Rail explains the problem:

    (more…)

  • Hendy: Our PAYG upgrade is long overdue

    There’s more good news, bad news on the rail ticketing front with Greater Anglia adding contactless technology to the 20 stations that were due to get it at the end of last year but which were put back to the summer.

    But, although the delay isn’t as bad as it was predicted to be, the whole programme to spread Transport for London’s (TfL) pay as you go (PAYG) beyond London is still years behind and less than halfway complete.

    Out of 233 stations that should have had the technology by the end of 2024, only 103 have now been delivered by TfL.

    Rather embarrassingly for rail minister Lord Hendy (who used to head TfL), he keeps saying the same thing about the upgrade being long overdue, even as he tries to sing its praises.

    In November, it was announced that 50 stations would go live the following month – the first tranche of a second phase. Hendy said:

    Rail ticketing is far too complicated and long overdue an upgrade to bring it into the 21st century.

    In December, it was announced that only 30 stations had been delivered:

    PAYG contactless will be rolled out to a further 20 stations, including Stansted and Southend airports, on Greater Anglia route during Summer 2026 after issues were identified in testing.  

    These are the 20 stations that have now had the technology implemented. Hendy said:

    Rail ticketing is long overdue an upgrade to bring the rail network into the 21st century.

    He is surprisingly frank on this: the upgrade is long overdue and, as I reported in November, there is no target date for adding the remaining 130 stations.

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  • Expect delays on delay repay changes

    Ministers have made headlines with the announcement that rail passengers will be able to claim Delay Repay compensation directly from third party retailers, but without saying anything about when it will happen.

    The BBC has reported:

    Train Delay Repay rule changes to make claims easier

    But the story begins:

    Train travellers who buy discounted tickets using railcards will face additional checks, as part of a trial to crack down on ticketing fraud starting in April.

    If the trial is successful, the plan will save £20m a year in lost revenue, while preventing confused passengers from being prosecuted for fare evasion, the Department for Transport says.

    Followed by:

    A separate scheme will also make it easier for passengers who buy their tickets from third-party retailers such as Trainline to claim compensation for late or cancelled services under the Delay Repay scheme.

    The confusion is entirely the result of the Department for Transport bundling two slightly related announcements together.

    (more…)

  • As you were

    It’s a sign of how desperate the government is for good news that today the Department for Transport (DfT) has issued a press release in which the prime minister claims that not putting up rail fares “will put more money in working people’s pockets”.

    It is indeed good news that fares have not gone up at the beginning of this month and if the DfT says this is the first freeze for 30 years, I am happy to believe them, although they seem to be happier pointing to increases under the Tories than last year’s increase.

    British rail tickets for Standard off-peak travel day return for disabled. Image shot 11/2008. Exact date unknown.

    Here’s what Keir Starmer is claimed to have said:

    This freeze – the first since the 90s – will put more money in working people’s pockets. By keeping costs down we are making journeys more affordable for millions of people – putting train travel back into the service of passengers, not profits.

    I’m not sure how not charging people more is actively putting money in their pockets and of course the government takes the revenue risk on rail fares under National Rail Contracts.

    Meanwhile, the DfT says:

    With transport costs making up 14% of household spending, this cost-cutting move is providing real savings for passengers

    This is true but a bizarre thing to say all the same. Transport costs may make up 14% of household spending but rail fares could be as low as 1% of spending in the average household.

    It’s also quite funny that the DfT has used a picture (above) of old fashioned orange magnetic stripe tickets to illustrate the story – the ones the whole industry is trying to move away from. Just for fun, I left the caption in.

    But the DfT also rather stupidly refers to:

    building on the expansion of successful Pay As You Go and fares trials across the country

    In fact, the whole process of expanding pay as you go in the South East beyond London is and continues to be, a shambles.

    Of 50 stations that were due to go live in December, 20 (on Greater Anglia Routes) had to be delayed.

  • Deliberately worsening the service

    Many people working in this week or so between Christmas and New Year are having to wait longer for trains, not because of engineering works, but because the service has been intentionally made worse, despite Labour’s claim to be putting passengers first.

    For example, trains to and from London from where I live in Epsom have been cut from one every fifteen minutes in the rush hour to one every half hour – and that goes for both Southern trains to and from Victoria and SWR trains to and from Waterloo.

    As far as I can tell, in at least the case of Southern, there is no impact from engineering works; the company is just choosing to save money by running fewer trains, based on assumptions that fewer people will be travelling.

    Those people are not paying any less to have a worse service and the peak time charges have not been waived.

    And the trains are still overcrowded.

    Another problem is that if you cut the frequency of the trains and then cancel one, as Southern did yesterday, a fifteen-minute wait can become an hour.

    This says a lot about the state of our railways today, with cost-cutting instead of an attempt to run the best service possible. A total lack of imagination about the benefits of giving customers a service where they feel valued.

  • No pledge of more cash as climate change wrecks rail routes

    I’ve previously raised the question about whether the government is putting sufficient cash into our transport networks to fund climate change adaption, with ministers often just saying they are putting in more money rather than asserting that it’s enough.

    But a new written parliamentary answer from transport minister Keir Mather doesn’t even bother to address the question of whether there will be more money.

    Asked by Sarah Dyke, Liberal Democrat MP for Glastonbury and Somerton:

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will provide additional funding to help mitigate ongoing soil moisture deficit effects for railway companies.

    Mather gave a long and rambling reply on behalf of Heidi Alexander that began with a description of the problem…

    The Department for Transport funds Network Rail to operate, maintain, and develop the nation’s railway infrastructure. As the climate changes, we expect to see hotter, drier summers, and therefore we will expect to encounter more instances of soil moisture deficit.

    (more…)

  • Rail electrification shelved, Alexander confirms

    The transport secretary has confirmed that Labour has no plans for further electrification of the rail network, for affordability reasons, once again giving the lie to the rail minister’s claim that the government is giving rail funding it needs.

    The FT (paywall) reports Heidi Alexander as telling the Rail Industry Association summit that any further electrification is “not affordable right now” and that the government is “only supporting projects that are fully costed and affordable”.

    She said:

    We are keeping further electrification of the line under review, which I believe is the responsible thing to do.

    Alexander also said this had “allowed us to make commitments elsewhere,” the FT reported.

    It’s not clear whether her comments go further than what she said in July when claiming that the government was “greenlighting over 50 rail and road projects”.

    She told MPs in relation to the midland main line electrification scheme phase 3:

    The costs of the scheme were substantial, and we had to prioritise other schemes that deliver more tangible benefits to passengers sooner. However, we will keep the electrification scheme under review as part of our pipeline of projects for future funding.

    But because of ministers’ double speak where “under review” appears to mean shelved and “greenlighting” to mean not shelved, it seems to have been clear for some time that Labour has shelved electrification to spend money on other things.

    But what is clear is that Labour is not “backing rail with the funding needed”, as rail minister Lord Peter Hendy claimed.

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