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.

Picture courtesy Rail Images | www.railimages.co.uk

Plans for a £33bn high-speed rail network have finally been approved by the government (Tuesday 10 January 2011)

Transport Secretary Justine Greening said she had agreed to a new "railway revolution in Britain".

"A modern and reliable and fast service between our major cities and international gateways befitting the 21st Century will transform the way we travel and promote Britain's economic and social prosperity," she said in a statement to the House of Commons.

The British Chambers of Commerce said the plan would be welcomed by "businesses up and down the country".

Critics of the scheme say the route will be a "white elephant" cause damage to the environment and dispute figures showing projected benefits of up to £47bn

Ms Greening said there would be extra tunnelling along the 140-mile first phase in an attempt to offset environmental concerns.

Phase one of HS2, between London and Birmingham, should be running by 2026, later extending to northern England, she said.

That will be followed by a second phase of the Y-shaped route reaching Manchester and Leeds by about 2033.

Chief executive Anthony Smith said they should not have to keep paying for a "fractured, inefficient industry".

The annual rise will see the average price of regulated fares, which include season tickets, increase by 6%.

ATOC (Association of Train Operating Companies) said money raised through fares helped pay for better services.

The average rise for all rail tickets - including unregulated fares such as advance and business tickets - is 5.9%.

However Passenger Focus has highlighted routes which have seen higher-than-average rises compared with January 2011. These include season tickets between:

Chester and Crewe - 10.6% increase

Llandudno and Bangor in Gwynedd - 10.6% increase

Port Talbot Parkway and Swansea - 8.7% increase

The redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station took a major step forward over the Christmas break as engineers successfully completed several large projects in and around the station. It is now just one year to go until the first phase of the project will complete when a new station concourse opens to passengers.

One of the most challenging pieces of work was the installation of new sections to extend the Navigation Street footbridge at the west end of the station. Working from Christmas Day through to 27 December, engineers used a 700 tonne crane to lift out an old section of the bridge and install the new sections while the station was closed to passengers. When the extended bridge opens at the end of 2012, it will provide access to Platform 12 for the first time and create a new station entrance on Hill Street.

Chris Montgomery, Network Rail project director said...

Earlier this year, Chinia's fastest operational locomotive was able to cover the 824-mile trip between Beijing and Shanghai in five hours maintaining an average speed of 165mph and reaching a record-breaking top speed of 200mph.

That record looke like it will be short lived as CSR Corp, China's state-owned train maker, has now unveiled a prototype train capable of reaching speeds up to 310 miles (500 kilometres) an hour. The latest test model has a maximum tractive power of 22,800 kilowatts, compared with 9,600 kilowatts for the Beijing-Shanghai CRH380 trains.