Railnews Magazine August 2013 Vorige editie

Railnews for August went to press just after the Appeal Court had supported the Government’s handling of the HS2 project, and the judges’ decision makes our lead story. But we had already decided to launch a new section in this edition covering the principal news from elsewhere in Europe, and so our first ‘Euronews’ page includes the tragic accidents which have occurred near Paris and Santiago. Nearer home, there is the surprising withdrawal of Siemens from the competition to build rolling stock for Crossrail, the restoration of services on the line near Doncaster which was wrecked by a landslip earlier this year, the growing controversy concerning ‘zero-hours’ contracts and what they could mean for the safety of track workers, the effects of the July heatwave and storms on the railway network, an update on electrification in north west England and, in a related story, new pictures of the remarkable factory train which will start work on electrifying the Great Western Main Line next year. Finally, our series of stories with a natural history theme continues – after our reports of seagulls making themselves at home on the railway in Newcastle and Plymouth, and how Network Rail has been protecting newts at Norton Bridge, now a station in Manchester has bees in its bonnet. This, and much more, is in Railnews for August.