Over 50,000 passengers from across the UK had their say on rail travel which put Grand Central at the top of the league compared to the rest of the train operating companies. 

Passengers were satisfied with their value for money fares, extra space for luggage, more legroom as standard, how we deal with delays and the availability of staff to help during travel.

The average passenger satisfaction figures for other long distance operators was 86 per cent.

As well as rating Grand Central the top performing operator the Passenger Focus survey also shows how much passengers appreciate...

Rail industry suppliers and sub-contractors can look forward to faster payment and improved payment terms thanks to Network Rail’s new Fair Payment Charter announced on Friday (27 January 2012)

The charter has been signed by thirty of the biggest construction and engineering companies operating in Britain today, a move which will speed up payment and increase liquidity throughout the supply chain as Network Rail delivers £7bn of renewals and enhancements over the next two years.

The Fair Payment Charter ratifies Network Rail’s recent decision to shorten the time it takes to pay suppliers from 56 days to 21 days, and also commits Network Rail’s suppliers to make payment to their first-tier subcontractors within seven days of receiving payment.

This means the time from submission of a main contractor’s application to receipt of payment by the first-tier supplier is now...

He says the link to Scotland "will happen" and has the potential to be up and running before the London-Birmingham link.

Network Rail have already published their figures showing their estimate of journey times from London to Glasgow reduced to a little over two hours with a new high-speed link, less than half the current time.

Earlier this month phase one of the £33 billion high-speed rail network connecting London and Birmingham was given the go-ahead by the Government and should be running by 2026. (see our story “£33bn High Speed Rail line approved” 11 January 2012)

Passengers on Britain’s busiest rail route could benefit from faster, more frequent trains, less crowding and better connections if the first phase of the proposed high-speed rail line between London and Birmingham goes ahead as planned.

Those are the conclusions of a report published last week (Thursday 19 January 2012) by Network Rail and Passenger Focus, which sets out the improved level of service passengers on the West Coast Main Line could experience thanks to the extra capacity and 125mph trains which would become available if long-distance services migrate to High Speed 2.

One of the biggest groups to benefit would be commuters travelling between Northampton, Milton Keynes, Watford Junction and London, where the worst overcrowding is forecast in the coming years as demand for rail continues to grow. Initial analysis suggests as many as twelve trains per hour could operate on this section of the route in the busiest peak hours.

Other key beneficiaries would be...

 Network Rail have announced (Friday 13 Jan 2012) new framework agreements of up to seven years to deliver railway signalling projects worth approximately £1.5bn. These are part of wider reforms to Network Rail’s infrastructure business, with a greater focus on partnership with suppliers and a restructuring of the way the company delivers capital projects.

Network Rail intends to award framework agreements to Invensys Rail, Signalling Solutions and Atkins, which cover the majority of signalling renewals and enhancements across England, Scotland and Wales. The agreements are expected to commence on 2 April and will operate for the remaining two years of control period 4. They can be extended by Network Rail to cover the whole of control period 5 (2014-19).

The new framework agreements form the backbone of Network Rail’s programme to modernise and maintain safety-critical railway signalling systems and are designed to deliver the efficiency savings required across the company’s signalling work bank over the next seven years through further reductions in unit costs.

Simon Kirby, Network Rail managing director, infrastructure projects, said: “Network Rail is continuing to drive down the costs of Britain’s railway and is committed to meeting tough efficiency targets. As the number of passengers and companies that rely on Britain’s railway continues to rise, the safety-critical systems we use to run a safe and efficient railway are more important than ever.

Regulated fares rose by an average of 6%, although operators were allowed to use the 'flex', which had been suspended in 2010 by former transport secretary Lord Adonis. This process means that some fares can be increased by an additional 5%, so long as others are kept low to give the permitted average, across a range of fares for each operator.

This month's increase of regulated fares was going to be based on the formulae of RPI + 3%, but this was reduced to RPI + 1 per cent by the Chancellor in his Autumn Spending Statement, in which he provided £290 million to keep the rises down.