The
Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said an extended focus was now required in the coming months to ensure improvements are fully delivered for passengers and freight.
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In May 2020, the ORR found Network Rail had identified the main causes of poor performance and had started to develop remedial action plans but lacked delivery timescales.
HS2 will go all the way to Leeds despite ‘mounting costs’
Photo: Steve Parsons/PA Wire
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed the
HS2 rail project will go all the way to Leeds after
fears over mounting costs had prompted speculation over the full scheme going ahead.
Balfour Beatty rail workers threaten strike action after ‘empty’ pay offer
The head of the TSSA union said strike action among Balfour Beatty workers on a £1.5bn Network Rail contract is “a certainty” – unless the contractor increases its offer of a pay rise.
Balfour employees on the central rail system alliance – which covers development, design and delivery of track renewals and crossings, as well as associated infrastructure works across the London North West, London North East and East Midland routes – have been offered a 2 per cent pay rise from April this year, but nothing in relation to the previous year.
Balfour Beatty is involved in publicly funded contracts to improve Britain’s rail network.
Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) have voted overwhelmingly for strike action because the company has refused a pay rise for 2020.
The union said that the company has handed out nearly £2 million in bonuses to senior managers and made profits of almost £50m.
TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said: “Our brilliant members have shown huge commitment and sacrifice during this past year and have made their voices heard over their shoddy treatment by Balfour Beatty.”
He said the union would be happy to negotiate through the arbitration and conciliation service ACAS.
The creation of a new public sector body to oversee Britain’s railways will simplify a system that is “too complicated”, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.
Great British Railways (GBR) will own and manage rail infrastructure, issue contracts to private firms to run trains, set most fares and timetables, and sell tickets.
It will absorb Network Rail in a bid to end what the Department for Transport (DfT) branded a “blame-game system” between train and track operations when disruption occurs.
Mr Shapps said during the 2018 timetable fiasco there was no “Fat Controller” in charge of the system, referencing the Thomas The Tank Engine stories.
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