Innehållsförteckning för Issue 994 från RAIL

stefanie.foster@bauermedia.co.uk @stefatrail JUST when we all thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse from this government, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced at the Conservative Party conference on October 3 that HS2 is to be scrapped beyond Birmingham. This is a catastrophic mistake for the country, and economic sabotage of a kind that in all likelihood will be impossible to recover from. It is the very opposite of long-term strategic thinking. HS2 will now end at a junction in a field near Lichfield, where the trains will join the existing West Coast Main Line to reach the North. The disastrous consequence is that all of HS2’s benefits are lost north of Lichfield. None of the WCML capacity that would have been released by express trains moving onto HS2 will now be…

Yorkshire will receive several rail improvements if the Department for Transport’s promises turn into reality. DfT is pledging to electrify the line to Hull from Leeds and from Sheffield, with associated line speed improvements cutting journey times for Leeds-Hull from 58 minutes to 48. It says the improvements will also allow two fast trains per hour (tph) to run to Leeds and 2tph to Sheffield. It is also promising to electrify “the line between Leeds and Sheffield”, although it doesn’t say whether it means the route via Barnsley or via Moorthorpe. However, it promises that it will give passengers “a choice of three to four fast trains an hour” with journey times cut from 40 to 30 minutes. There’s also a promise to electrify the Hope Valley line between Manchester…

LABOUR is under pressure to “be bold” and guarantee that HS2 will be built in full, after the party said its decision on the project would be subject to review. Addressing Labour’s annual conference, which is likely to be the final gathering of the party faithful before the next General Election, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “When it comes to getting things built and projects delivered, Britain has become the sick man of Europe with HS2 coming in at ten times the cost of the French equivalent. “That is why our Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh will commission an independent expert inquiry into HS2 to learn the lessons for the future.” Her comments came after party leader Sir Keir Starmer said he could not “stand here and commit to reversing…

Eurostar says that increased capacity to check passengers at London St Pancras means that it now caps very few trains. The increases feature more border police examining passports, more automatic check-in gates, and a ‘SmartCheck’ facial recognition scheme that allows passengers to pass only one rather than two passport checks. Earlier this year, Eurostar admitted that it could not run full trains from St Pancras because checks took too long, which led to queues of passengers around the station. Now, Chief Executive Gwendoline Cazenave says that while passenger numbers remain challenging, with more than 18,000 per day, very few trains remain capped. Speaking at the launch of Eurostar’s new advertisement campaign in London on October 9, she could not commit to relaunching services from Ebbsfleet and Ashford station (and Calais…

NETWORK Rail will close the West of England line for 21 days this autumn to enable track replacement and stabilising of earthworks. Local rail users have raised concerns about bus replacement services, but acknowledge that the work has to be carried out to tackle prolonged poor performance on the route. The line will initially close from November 6-10 between Yeovil Junction and Axminster. Engineers will work on the cutting next to Crewkerne Tunnel, where a landslip blocked the line in October 2021. Six-metre soil nails will be drilled into the earth just outside the tunnel entrance, and new drainage will be installed. Fom November 25-December 10, the line will close between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction. Track will be replaced around Tisbury, Gillingham and Sherborne. Nick Hurrell, of the Salisbury to…

THE first High Speed Train Class 43 power cars have landed in Mexico and been reliveried into the grey and dark blue colours of the state-owned national rail operator. Their role has not been divulged, but initial suggestions are that they are likely to be used on normal service trains on various routes. So far 43022, 43158 and 43170, plus several trailers, have been exported from Great Yarmouth to Mexico. RAIL understands that at least 43022/170 have been repainted. Indications are that more vehicles are due to follow overseas, with 43040/172 moving to Great Yarmouth on October 3. A week later, 43009/010/016/192 moved from Laira to Ely Papworth and then on to Great Yarmouth, pending their shipment abroad. Unconfirmed industry sources suggest that these are expected to be moved to…

Great Western Railway has cancelled many of its London-West Country Night Riviera Sleeper services until early 2024, to allow Network Rail to occupy the route between Totnes and Plymouth to proceed with its resignalling and capacity enhancement programme. There have been no overnight trains between Monday and Thursday, and on Saturdays, since September 24, with early and late evening services also affected. Fridays and Sundays are the only days when the normal timetable is running, because of the high demand. However, there will be a two-week pause between October 31 and November 12, while separate rail improvements take place in Cornwall. Replacement buses run to and from Plymouth, leaving earlier to ensure onward connections.…

New XC finance chief CrossCountry has appointed Harj Singh as its new finance director. He began his career at National Express Group before serving as MD of a residential developer, and then initially joining XC on secondment in an interim role. Northern seeks COO Northern has commenced recruitment for a new Chief Operating Officer. It follows the announcement in August that current COO Tricia Williams will be taking over as MD from Nick Donovan in spring 2024. SYSTRA’s new office Transport and infrastructure engineering company SYSTRA has opened an office in Ireland, in Cork’s Docklands area at Lapps Quay. It will be managed by director John Paul FitzGerald. LU’s best garden Morden station has beaten 56 rivals to win London Underground’s 2023 best garden competition.…

Development of two new railway stations on the Walsall to Wolverhampton line will continue, after a deal was agreed with a new contractor. Ground preparation works on both the Willenhall and Darlaston railway station sites were paused last month after Buckingham Group went into administration in August. Kier, a leading UK infrastructure services, construction and property group, has since acquired the Group’s rail contracts. Transport for West Midlands, part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and the organisation leading the project, has reached agreement with Kier to continue the development - meaning work can now resume. An update on the project, presented to the WMCA Board on October 13, says that the pause in work and the refresh of the construction contract following the takeover means that both the…

Two days of Tube strikes were suspended after the RMT union said it had “won concessions”, although it still remains in dispute on some aspects. Walkouts by 3,000 members at London Underground stations on Wednesday and Friday October 4 and 6 were called off, after what the RMT described as “significant progress” made by RMT negotiators and London Underground Limited (LUL) representatives. After talks at ACAS, the RMT said it has “managed to save key jobs, prevent detrimental changes to rosters, and secure protection of earnings around grading changes”. It added: “The significant progress means that key elements have been settled, although there remain wider negotiations to be had in the job, pensions and working agreements dispute.” RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said: “I congratulate all our members who were…

The last-built Class 90, also the final mixed-traffic locomotive completed at Crewe Works in November 1990, is to be preserved as a static exhibit in its home town. Fire-damaged 90050, which has been dumped at the back of Crewe Basford Hall for many years having also been heavily stripped for spares, is now on its way to Crewe Heritage Centre. Agreement has been reached with operator Freightliner for it to be moved, to be cosmetically restored. It is currently officially only regarded as on loan, and there is no prospect of a return to main line service. There has been talk of 90050’s rescue for some time, because its historical significance is recognised. But it has suffered badly from the elements after 19 years out of use. It was laid…

THE new Headbolt Lane railway station in Knowsley opened on the Kirkby branch of Merseyrail’s Northern line on October 5, moving the terminus for services approximately 0.8 miles to the North West. Merseyrail 777142 worked the very first passenger service from Headbolt Lane to Liverpool Central, departing on time at 0539. The unit then worked the return service from Liverpool Central at 0610, after which it worked between Liverpool Central and Headbolt Lane for the remainder of the day. The first Northern services to Blackburn departed on time at 0653, operated by 150126 and 156428, working in multiple. The relatively low-key opening was attended by Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, who declared: “We have a brand-new station serviced with brand-new lines and new publicly owned trains. “We’ve invested £80 million in…

The story of the railway footbridge is a story of prevention of trespass and protection of passengers. But these functional and often overlooked structures offer a fascinating social as well as design history. Until the 1870s, these structures were generally only found at major stations, some junction stations, or busy suburban locations. Before this, smaller stations often made use of boarded crossings located at platform ends. When footbridges started to appear with greater frequency across the rail network, they were initially constructed of timber. But from the 1890s many timber bridges were replaced by iron or steel examples (something that makes timber examples especially rare). DR JOSEPH BRENNAN offers a pictorial tour of significant and sometimes quirky footbridges that can be admired by today’s passengers. STAMFORD Stamford station in Lincolnshire…

WELCOME to the RAIL Crossword. In RAIL 993, you will have read Greg Morse’s excellent feature on why we still need Red for Danger -L T C Rolt’s classic book on rail accidents and the lessons learned from them. One of the horror crashes recalled in the feature was the one at Clapham in December 1988. Greg has just published The Clapham Train Accident: Causes, Context and the Corporate Memory Challenge, and now two successful solvers can win their own copy of this compelling book, courtesy of Pen and Sword Transport (www.pen-and-sword.co.uk). Clapham was a pivotal point in British railway history. Much technology had been invented and applied to accident prevention by 1988… and much more was to come. The Clapham Train Accident (hardback, 256 pages, retail price £25) considers…

PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak cancelled all High Speed 2 projects beyond Birmingham on October 4, and pledged to spend the money saved on local transport projects- including an £8.3 billion fund for repairing potholes on Britain’s roads. He and his ministers had spent the days before his speech to the Conservative Party’s annual conference ducking questions about HS2’s future, insisting that they had made no decisions. But when Sunak’s announcement finally came, it was quickly followed by a Department for Transport White Paper that listed alternative spending options, many of which are already under way, including a slew of bypasses and other road schemes. While Sunak said HS2 would run all the way to Euston, rather than terminating at Old Oak Common, it later emerged that Euston would only have…

Labour should “acknowledge the successes of privatisation” and offer a “proper mix of public and private finance” rather than full public ownership, a party grandee has said. Peter Snape, a career railwayman who served in the House of Commons from 1974 to 2001 before joining the House of Lords, said public ownership would entrench Treasury domination of railway decision-making. “This is the Labour Party conference. We rely on a standing ovation if we talk about the public ownership of the railway, and returning the railway industry to democratic control,” he told a Labour conference fringe meeting organised by the Railway Industry Association and Rail Partners. “But I have to tell you that I took the same view as my late father, as far as working on the nationalised railway was…

Hours of heavy and persistent rain on Friday and Saturday October 6-7 caused at least six days of major disruption to Scotland’s railways. The severe weather also closed major and minor roads (some motorists had to be rescued by helicopter), meaning that rail replacement services could not be provided. It also resulted in the East and West Coast Main Lines being shut on the Saturday as a precaution, with no trains north of Newcastle and Preston. Disruption continued on the Sunday, with the following routes closed: ■ West Highland Line between Glasgow and Oban/Fort William.■ All services between Edinburgh and Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, and Inverness.■ All services between Glasgow and Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, and Inverness.■ All services between Kyle of Lochalsh and Inverness. The West Highland Line ran on Thursday…

Urgent repairs to Plessey Viaduct, between Cramlington and Morpeth on the East Coast Main Line (ECML), are causing major disruption. During planned engineering work over the weekend of October 8-9, Network Rail discovered that the parapet had moved. Work was stopped and specialist structural teams attended the site to assess repair options. Due to the location, design of the viaduct and the heavy machinery needed, moving the parapet back to its original location was not viable. As this issue of RAIL went to press, NR structural engineers and external specialists were working on different options to repair the viaduct. Fortunately, despite its appearance, the structure of the viaduct has not been affected and trains are still running on one line, with a reduced service. Some trains are not stopping at…

HS1 Ltd, which operates the London to Folkestone international rail link, has launched what it calls a “manifesto for growth in the UK’s rail sector and on the HS1 line”, ahead of next year’s General Election. In an unusual move, it sets out nine key priorities and details specific policy interventions a future government can take to “ensure the sector can recover, to lead the UK’s effort to deliver economic growth and decarbonise the transport industry”. HS1 Ltd holds a 30-year concession to own and operate High Speed 1 and its stations (St Pancras International, Stratford International, Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International). In July 2017 HS1 Ltd was acquired by a consortium comprising funds advised and managed by InfraRed Capital Partners and Equitix Investment Management. The manifesto outlines nine key…

The 150-year-old, 320-yard Pensford viaduct that carried the Bristol-Frome line through the Chew Valley until 1964 has been restored by National Highways Estate over the past five months. The water-damaged parapet on the 16-arch Grade 2 Listed structure has received major attention. Stump Cross bridge, on the same route into Shepton Mallet, has also been taken over by NH. A notorious place for fly-tipping, it is being renovated to become part of a planned 32-mile rural corridor for cyclists and walkers from Clevedon.…

Transport for London intends to step up its redevelopment of stations and the takeover of car parks for housing, as it attempts to finance its investment plans and balance the books in the face of cuts in government support. The creation of a new financially independent property company- Places for London (PfL) - is intended to exploit its property portfolio, which includes sales and rents. Locations have been identified for 20,000 new homes to be built by 2031, and work has already started at some sites for more than 3,350 of these. Controversy has surrounded some of the schemes, which local authorities and commuters have seen as putting money-making before travel. Recently completed works are at Blackhorse View, with work starting at Wembley Park, Barkingside and Greenwich. Future places for…

National Highways has hit some snags with the compulsory removal of infill from the masonry overbridge at Great Musgrave in Cumbria, after new cracks discovered on the underside were blamed on the restoration procedure. The HRE Group - an alliance of engineers, sustainable transport advocates, and greenway developers - says there is cracking to the original bricks, and some of the original mortar has fallen out. The problems came to light when campaigners took photographs of the work carried out by contractors before the deadline completion date of October 11. National Highways says they were trespassing on a private site. HRE spokesman Graham Bickerdike said: “Given that National Highways continues to stress that infilling is ‘fully reversible’, we’re obviously disappointed that the concrete removal process has resulted in damage to…

FREIGHTLINER has launched a range of new short-haul routes which would previously have not been viable. The operator’s 25 new container services a week include a train linking Felixstowe and Daventry, and another between Southampton and Cardiff. Both are new short-distance routes that were previously thought impossible in the face of low-priced competition from lorries. “Felixstowe to Daventry is the shortest. It would normally be considered too short for rail,” said Freightliner Chief Executive Tim Shoveller. “The road route is the A14. It’s dual-carriageway all the way. How can rail compete with that? We have to go via London - it’s not the direct route that lorries take. “It’s an experiment. We thought we would innovate. Let’s see if we can get some intermodal boxes that are going from the…

Contributions for by far the UK’s most published column by the same author - now in its 42nd year -are most welcome from all sources. Personal observations, society magazines, website printouts and live links, transport group newsletters and media cuttings (with dates, please) are sought to maintain topicality. Please email your contributions direct to hj@howardjohnston.co.uk, or rail@bauermedia.co.uk WESTERN Bristol: Empty space at Temple Meads station will be revived as shops and public areas when roof repairs are completed, but not before the scaffolding comes down at the end of 2026. New anti-terrorist ramming barriers will also be installed next spring, and derelict rooms along Station Approach turned into toilets. Edginswell: There seems to be little movement on the proposed new station between Paignton and Newton Abbot and next to Torbay…

AS the Transport Focus consultation on ticket office closures reached its deadline of September 1, you could be forgiven for hearing sighs of relief across Scotland and Wales. Only a handful of stations outside England will be affected by the Department for Transport’s mandate to train operating companies. The majority are operated by ScotRail and Transport for Wales -both now owned in the public sector and (more significantly) both outside of the DfT’s purview, reporting instead to the devolved administrations in Edinburgh and Cardiff. This leaves elderly and disabled passengers without the burden of navigating complex websites and ticket machines, rail unions without job losses to negotiate, and reluctant industry managers without a significant headache. The maintenance of booking offices in Scotland and Wales has also allowed SNP and Labour…

REGULAR readers will know that I am a Labour supporter. But my political allegiance has nothing to do with the anger I feel over events at the Conservative Party conference. While clearly the scrapping of much of HS2 was the most significant event, the conference started badly for anyone who believes in the integrity of politicians. The use of red herrings such as Labour’s purported support for ‘meat taxes’ and forcing people to share cars brought down politics to a new low - the kind of tactics that Orwell highlighted in his writing. And Mark Harper comes out of this particularly badly. Our Secretary of State for Transport is supposed to have some understanding of the need for balance between the transport needs of the nation and the environmental consequences…

PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak could not better have destroyed High Speed 2 than if he had dragged a Schwellenpflug across it. That’s the rail-mounted giant hook that German troops used in the Second World War to tear apart railway sleepers, as they retreated towards their eventual defeat. It left the railway behind them unusable. Make no mistake, Sunak is not just cancelling HS2 north of Birmingham, he’s making sure that a future government cannot resurrect it -because he’s pledged to return land bought for the tracks from Birmingham to Crewe and Manchester, as well as the stump towards the East Midlands, and remove planning protection from it. He’s cut Euston station back to six platforms- just enough for the basic services of eight trains per hour now planned. And by…

FARES AND TICKETING Counter staff: online offerings confuse the ticket buying process In response to the various correspondents in RAIL 989, here is my view from ‘behind the glass’. I have no truck with the examples of ‘bored young lady’ (Carlisle) or ‘head-scratching staff’ (Bolton), but some context needs to be applied to both these examples and the closure programme in general. I try to be as proactive and helpful to my customers as I can, but the system frequently conspires against this. Firstly, let’s take Advance tickets. The original concept of the ticket, as introduced by BR, was to sell seats on quieter trains by encouraging passengers to plan in advance. To me, turning up a few minutes prior to a train departure expecting to buy an advance ticket…

Some final thoughts from the team at RAIL @RAIL Send contributions to: rail@bauermedia.co.uk Following on from the explanation of the Latin name ‘Renatus’ for refurbished Class 321 units (RAIL 988), David Staines ponders: “Where else has ancient classical language been used on the modern (or perhaps not so modern) railway?” He notes: “The Southern Region used numeric-alpha abbreviations for EMU descriptions where the three letter codes went some way to describing the stock. For example, 4-SUB was four-car suburban and 5-BEL five-car Brighton Belle. “At the other end of the scale the ex-LT 1923 Tube stock which entered service on the Isle of Wight in 1967 was made up into units designated either 3-TIS or 4-VEC. This made no sense whatsoever until the two types were coupled together to run…

PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak’s HS2 alternative - Network North - quickly attracted criticism for errors following publication on October 4. Among its plans included in the initial press releases from the Department for Transport (DfT), but dropped from subsequent releases, was this: “The Leamside Line, closed in 1964, will also be reopened.” When challenged about its disappearance, on BBC1’s Laura Kuenssberg show on October 8, Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper said: “We’re going to start working on a business case so if the North East Mayor decides to deliver that, he knows he has the funds to do so.” He said the Leamside Line was an example of the sort of things on which local mayors could spend money released to them by government, following its cancellation of…

Funding for Network North is coming from cancelling the northern legs of HS2, with the Department for Transport saying that this releases £36 billion - to be spent as £19.8bn in Northern England, £9.6bn in the Midlands, and £6.5bn nationally. “Together these investments will benefit far more people, in far more places, far more quickly - building a new Network North,” it said However, RAIL understands that DfT was not planning to spend significant amounts on HS2’s Manchester leg, for example, until towards the end of this decade. RAIL asked DfT how much former HS2 money would be spent on transport projects in the next two to five years. No substantive answer came, with the DfT only saying: “We expect all funding allocated over the next five years to be…

Reducing costs was the key theme at East West Rail’s inaugural Trackathon event at Milton Keynes on September 29. The other main aim at the event, which brought together more than 50 suppliers and innovators, was to pass on ideas to other major construction projects. While no contracts are currently in the offing, companies were able to show off their ideas. They included a cable management system using 100% recycled plastic with a 50-year design life, 3D concrete printing with 30% less materials, self-healing technology, and automated rolling stock inspections. EWR is also keen to speed up its earthworks programme, use recycled materials, and eliminate supply bottlenecks - including a lack of locomotives that it reckons could rack up to £3 million a week in unnecessary bills.…

The TSSA union has elected Maryam Eslamdoust as its new General Secretary. She becomes the first woman and first person of colour to become General Secretary in any railway union. Elected with 47% of the votes cast, she takes over from Interim (Joint) General Secretary Peter Pendle, who said: “TSSA is a great union, and it has been an honour to serve the members. I look forward to watching TSSA grow and flourish under Maryam.” Eslamdoust said: “Together, let’s strengthen our union and ensure a laser focus on members’ jobs, pay, terms and conditions. “I ran a campaign to fix the internal issues in our union and focus on protecting jobs and pay for our members. Our members are the lifeblood and purpose of this union and their interests will…

Network Rail is to pay almost £1 million in damages in an out-of-court settlement to seven people affected by the Carmont rail crash on August 12 2020. Train driver Brett McCullough (45), conductor Donald Dinnie (58), and passenger Christopher Stuchbury (62) died in the Aberdeenshire derailment on a day of torrential rainfall. Law firm Digby Brown acted for two people who lost loved ones, and five passengers. It follows a separate criminal prosecution when NR was fined £6.7 million after it admitted health and safety failings over the crash, which happened after an HST hit a landslip. Digby Brown says its clients’ civil actions have all been settled. “Specifics cannot be discussed,” said the law firm. “However, the total sum recovered was nearly £1m with all damages rightly reflecting the…

LEAF fall, leading to a severe wheel flat that was undetected, is the most likely cause of a derailment that closed the lines from Carlisle to Newcastle and Settle for seven weeks last autumn. Five bogie wagons, each carrying 80 tonnes of cement, derailed at Petteril Bridge Junction (Carlisle) on October 19 2022. One ended up in the River Petteril (RAIL 969). An investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch established that the leading wheelset on the ninth tank wagon, a VTG-owned JPA, had stopped rotating, leading to a very large wheel flat. This most likely occurred after normal braking for a 30mph limit, in an area affected by leaf fall. Most freight wagons are not fitted with wheel slide protection equipment. Examination of the wagon’s brakes found no faults…

Contracts worth some £84 million for a “novel” train dispatch system (TDS) for HS2 are on offer. The Invitation to Tender was published prior to the cancellation of the Birmingham to Manchester section of HS2 (Phase 2b). The TDS is described as “a novel combination of platform CCTV and safety software with a bespoke user interface”. A network of cameras link to central control rooms that will monitor the 400-metre-long platforms to ensure that passengers have safely entered the trains before the signal is given to close the doors and leave the station.” The TDS will be built into each of the new stations, with the value of contracts estimated to be £58m for Phase 1 and up to £84m when including Phase 2b and Gap Detection. The Phase 1…

THE gloves were off at the Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester on October 2, with Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper spending much of his speech attacking Labour and the unions. “The choice is clear: Labourbacked strikes or Conservative investment,” he told delegates. “Either we make the hard but necessary long-term decisions to get a financially sustainable modern railway, or we follow Labour’s lazy ideological approach, forking out yet more money from the public purse for no benefit to passengers.” Harper also pointed to the Conservatives’ record in government, adding: “We’ve invested over £100 billion to transform services, with millions of passengers across the country travelling on new trains on upgraded tracks. In 13 years, Labour electrified just 63 miles of railway track. We’ve delivered over 1,200 miles.”…

National Highways lost another battle on October 2 when it was ordered to restore another bridge by removing infill, this time in East Anglia. West Norfolk Borough councillors voted unanimously to restore Congham Bridge, on the former M&GN King’s Lynn-Fakenham line (closed in 1959). One acknowledged that the move would create a further expense for the taxpayer, but said it was worth it, adding he hoped it “might mean less bonuses for National Highways bosses”. The Government-owned agency carried out the infill work two years ago at a cost of £126,000.…

Services were cancelled on the Marches Line between Shrewsbury and Hereford on September 30, after a Transport for Wales Class 150 diesel multiple unit struck parts from a defective freight train coupling, puncturing a fuel tank. There were no injuries. The incident occurred between Marshbrook Level Crossing and Church Stretton. It involved a Margam-Dee Marsh freight, dragging up ballast and ripping several sleepers. The route had only just reopened after 17 days of work inside Dinmore Tunnel, near Leominster.…

Luton station upgrade The replacement of storm-damaged canopies and installation of a footbridge and three passenger lifts has begun at Luton station, and will take until spring 2025 to complete. Services should not be affected. Gloucester refurb Improvements to Gloucester station, including the forecourt, subway, and installation of better lighting, were stepped up on October 5 with the closure of the southern car park. The total scheme is due for completion next year. New property head Northern has appointed a new Head of Property to oversee management of its 500-plus station estate. Jayne Breen was previously Head of Engineering Services and Train Presentation Delivery Manager. Bee-friendly station Local schoolchildren have helped with bee-friendly planting at Halesworth station on the East Suffolk Line. Plant pots, compost and watering cans were donated…

Opinion Industry Insider THE northern leg of HS2 that was intended to serve Manchester and the East Midlands has been cancelled in its entirety, resulting in the planned expenditure of £36 billion being redirected to alternative projects. The Phase 1 section to serve Birmingham Curzon Street will continue to be built, and a firm decision has been reached that the London terminus will be at Euston rather than Old Oak Common, although the capacity at Euston will be reduced from 11 to six platforms. Similarly, a smaller station will be needed at Birmingham, given the reduced train services to be offered. It has, though, emerged that the extension of the line to Euston will no longer be the responsibility of HS2 Ltd. Instead, a Euston Development Zone is…