Fraud allegations emerge at Deutsche Bahn railway project November 25, 2021 Allegations of fraud dating back to 2016 have now emerged and involve German railway giant Deutsche Bahn, which from 2010 owns UK-based bus company Arriva. A couple of employees alleged at the time that senior staff misused corporate funds and participated in a fraud scheme while working on a new underground railway station in Stuttgart, [...]
Govia to face £73m legal claim over overcharged fees November 24, 2021 Rail giant Govia Thameslink Railway – which operates the Gatwick Express and Thameslink, as well as Great Northern and Southern services – will face up to £73m in legal claims after being sued for overcharging rail journeys. Set to be filed this week at the Competition Appeal Tribunal by consumer campaigner Justin Gutmann, the class [...]
Transport charity calls on the government to abolish Friday rail peak fares November 12, 2021 Transport charity Campaign for Better Transport is calling on the government to abolish the Friday peak rail fares to encourage people to go green and travel by train. Instead of relying on 2040 road-based targets, the government should make rail as a key component of its decarbonisation plan, discounting seasonal tickets and freezing rail fares [...]
Off to Scotland for £15: Lumo launches London-Edinburgh service October 21, 2021 Low-cost rail service Lumo inaugurated this morning its first London to Edinburgh service, with an inaugural train departing at 10.45am from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverley. Passenger operations will officially begin on 25 October and will aim to create 13 million additional passengers in the next decade. With prices starting from £14.90, Lumo’s had [...]
Southeastern and South Western passengers cleared to make £93m compensation claim October 19, 2021 Rail passengers are free to seek compensation for overcharging by Southeastern and South Western rail franchises. London’s specialist competition court has ordered that the claims, issued on behalf of millions of rail passengers, can now proceed to trial. The Competition Appeal said that both rail franchises failed to make ‘boundary fares’ sufficiently available to consumers. [...]
Paper rail tickets to be ripped up across South East England October 17, 2021 Ministers are set to scrap paper rail tickets across South East England in favour of contactless payments. The contactless payments will be integrated into London’s Oyster card system. Transport officials reportedly want to expand pay-as-you-go smartcards in a pre-emptive strike against trade unions. The unions are opposing the potential closure of ticket offices across the [...]
UK railways prepare for 2m passenger slump as budget cuts loom October 13, 2021 UK railways are preparing for a 2 million passenger fall as, post-Covid commuting patterns have changed, prompting rail companies to start swinging the axe on jobs. Forecasts prepared by the railway industry’s Covid forecasting group for Network Rail highlighted that, in the worst case scenario, numbers will only go up to 60 per cent of [...]
New London-Edinburgh rail service to offer £15 tickets September 7, 2021 A new train service will offer one-way tickets from London to Edinburgh for less than £15, it was announced today. First Group-owned Lumo will begin running services on the east coast mainline from 25 October. The 100 per cent electric service is a bid to encourage people to take the train rather than fly between [...]
East Coast rail upgrade set for at least a year’s delay August 24, 2021 One of the biggest upgrades to the UK rail network in recent years will be delayed for at least a year due to the emergence of a number of issues. The £1.2bn East Coast upgrade, which will add nearly 40 services a day to the London-Edinburgh network, is due to open in May 2022. But [...]
Hitachi to buy Thales’ rail signalling division in £1.4bn deal August 4, 2021 Thales and Hitachi are entering exclusive negotiations on the sale of Thales’ railway signalling business valued at €1.66bn (£1.4bn). Thales is carving out its Ground Transportation Systems Global Business Unit (GTS), which the company says employs 9,000 people across the world. GTS’s rail technology also offers train control systems and face collection services. It benefits [...]