Railnews Magazine

The Labour Party has published its proposals for creating Great British Railways, called ‘Getting Britain moving’. GBR would be a ‘directing’ rather than a ‘guiding’ mind, as Keith Williams had proposed. During the first five-year term of a Labour Government the core periods of the passenger contracts will have expired, and they could then be ‘folded in’ to GBR.

The plan was welcomed by many, but the private sector group Rail Partners said: ‘Nationalisation is a political rather than a practical solution which will increase costs.’ However, Labour says its proposals could save more than £2 billion a year.

ASLEF has been staging strikes again this week, and they have affected most of the passenger railway in England over three days of ‘rolling’ walkouts. Tram engineers in London are also striking, in a dispute over pay parity with similar engineers on the Underground.

There was new hope for the Alstom works in Derby, which had been threatened with closure. It now seems likely to receive an order for 10 Elizabeth Line trains. The number of passengers on the line rose by 40 per cent in the last quarter of 2023, compared with a year earlier.

In other news, trains started running again on the Cumbrian Coast Line between Lancaster and Barrow-in Furness on 22 April, after a derailment had blocked the line a month earlier, more than 800 projects were planned by Network Rail during the two bank holidays in May, and the first freight locomotive in the Class 66 fleet to be fitted with ETCS has moved on to dynamic trials.

The government has promised a new tram system for Leeds, using money released by the cancellation of HS2 to Manchester, and this month’s feature looks at the future for tramways in Britain.

Railnews for May is out now.