With intercity services transferring to a new high speed line, significant extra space would become available on the existing network, meaning towns such as Milton Keynes, Northampton and Rugby could become much better connected to London.

The Department for Transport and HS2 Ltd have already established that an extra 11 services could be run on the West Coast Main Line every hour once the first phase of HS2 is built from London to the West Midlands. Completion of the second phase to Manchester and Leeds could deliver similar improvements for commuter locations on the East Coast Main Line such as Luton, Bedford and Stevenage.

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Picture courtsey Alvey & Towers | www.alveyandtowers.com

Bigger freight trains have started full operations between Southampton and the West Midlands following the completion of a multi-million pound rail upgrade, providing a welcome £374m boost for the economy and helping to keep down the cost of everyday goods in shops across Britain.

(The business case for the scheme shows a Net Present Value of £374m and a Benefit Cost Ratio of 4.21, which represents high value for money.)

Rail transports over 100m tonnes of goods worth around £30bn every year and this scheme allows freight trains to move food, clothing, electronics and other consumer products, around Britain in a quicker, cheaper, greener and more practical way using the larger, modern containers preferred by many global shipping firms. It is estimated that the upgrade would also remove up to 50,000 container lorries a year from the roads, easing traffic jams and helping reduce the billions of pounds road congestion costs the economy annually.

The Department of Transport have shortlisted four companies by for the Intercity rail franchise for 14 years - from April 2012 to 2026.

The service, which runs from Glasgow through the North West and the West Midlands to London Euston.
Shortlisted firms include Scottish based FirstGroup and Stagecoach, together with Dutch firm Abellio and an alliance of the French transport companies Keolis and SNCF.

Abellio is a company controlled by the Dutch operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen.
Stagecoach, based in Perth, has run the service as part of Virgin Rail for the past 14 years. Virgin Rail is 49% owned by Stagecoach and 51% by Virgin Group.

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

According to Network Rail a new high speed line would free up much needed capacity allowing more and faster services giving more seats to commuters to operate on the route’s southern section between Rugby and London, and would also allow more room for rail freight, the report finds.
Paul Plummer, Network Rail’s director of planning and development said: “The west coast is vital to Britain’s economy. The success of the west coast since its modernisation has brought many challenges, and our strategy sets out a range of options to provide extra capacity and a better value railway.
“There is broad consensus that Britain needs a high-speed network to provide better, faster journeys for passengers and create the extra capacity we need. This strategy provides more evidence, if it were needed, that Britain must have a high-speed future.” (see our story “High speed line essential to West coast route” 19 December 2010)
David Cameron has said that the High Speed 2 line, which will be a Y shaped route and extend to Manchester, Leeds and  Scotland, can help to close the north-south divide and promote regeneration.
However concerns are being raised that HS2 would 'actually damage' the economy by making direct links to London slower and less frequent.

Some senior MPs conducting an inquiry into the proposal have warned that they are prepared to recommend against it going ahead.

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Nexus, which owns, manages and is modernising the Tyne and Wear Metro system, has scooped two prizes at the prestigious UK Rail Business Awards in London.

Nexus won in the station excellence category for the £20m Haymarket redevelopment in the centre of Newcastle and in the PR category for the campaign to win all-party support for the £385m Metro: all change modernisation programme.

Nexus were also finalists in the Internal Communications category for the Be up-to-date programme surrounding the bid process for the Metro operating concession and mobilisation of the new contract, which was awarded to DB Regio.

The UK Rail Business Awards attract entries from right across the railway industry and the competition is always of a very high standard.

Nexus were up against rail operators from across the country at the ceremony, which was held at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane in London on Thursday February 17.

Hart who was 37 at the time was a self employed builder covering on average 40,000 miles a year in pursuit of business.

During his trial, the jury were told he fell asleep at the wheel after staying up all night chatting on the phone to Kristeen Panter, a Scunthorpe woman he contacted through an internet dating agency.

Hart planned to meet her for the first time on the night of February 28. At 6am that morning he was driving a Land Rover pulling a trailer when, for reasons that have never be conclusively explained, he swerved off the M62 motorway at Great Heck near Selby, North Yorkshire, just before a bridge over the East Coast Main Line.

At Hart’s trial it was claimed he fell asleep at the wheel of his vehicle, something Hart has always denied. What cannot be disputed was that the crash it caused.

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