Network Rail will switch the large screen at London Euston back on tomorrow night. The screen had displayed advertisments but was left blank after protests about congestion and overcrowding which reached the transport secretary. It will now display travel information, and Network Rail said it was making the change in response to feedback from passengers who had called for a large ‘focal point’ on the concourse providing information about train services.
Rail minister Lord Hendy will face the Commons Transport Committee tomorrow morning, when he is expected be questioned about railway renationalisation, HS2, the project to improve London Euston, Great British Railways and reforms to fares and ticketing, as well as other matters. The former Network Rail chairman was appointed rail minister after the General Election in July.
National Rail timetables will change from Sunday. Among the changes, some Sunday trains on East Midlands Railway will be accelerated by as much as 28 minutes and there will be more trains on the EMR route between Crewe and Newark Castle. Northern will be running more electric Class 323 trains, four-car trains between Blackpool North and Manchester Airport will be lengthened to six cars, and services between Blackpool North and Liverpool Lime Street will use four-car Class 331 units. Southeastern will run an extra 44 weekday services, including more London Cannon Street ‘rounders’ on the Woolwich and Sidcup lines and 27 extra off-peak services between London Victoria and Orpington.
Platform 4 at Cleethorpes has reopened following a £1 million refurbishment which is intended to ease congestion at the Lincolnshire station. The upgrade included repairs to the platform walls and the installation of drainage, lighting and track. A waiting shelter has also been added.
A nationwide heritage hunt has been launched to discover the person with the longest-serving railway family. The search for the longest, continuous cross-generational railway family in Britain is part of the celebration of 200 years of the modern railway next year, which has been inspired by the launch of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. Railway 200 will celebrate railway people and also help with recruiting the next generation of staff. At the top of the railway family tree so far are father and son Mike and Andrew Lamport whose railway lineage dates back to 1846.