Blog – Passenger Railway Challenge
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27 November 2017
"It's the best thing that's happened to our area in a long time..."
These are the words of John Ellis, who lives near Bradford - just a short walk from the newly opened Low Moor Station. The original station at Low Moor was closed as part of the Beeching Cuts in the 1960s. After years of...
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13 November 2017
You're familiar with that piece of orange card that train companies have been using for well over 30 years - but is it time for ticketing to get smart? And what would truly smart ticketing mean for passengers? Guest blogger Andrew Steele is Director of Corporate Strategy at SilverRail. He's...
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28 September 2017
Arguments about regional inequalities in rail spending have festered for years. While these traditionally focus on economic and social consequences, the decision to axe major electrification projects shows why environmental impacts matter and need to be addressed.
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15 August 2017
Today we learned that rail fares will rise 3.6 per cent in January making it the biggest rise for five years. To put it into context, that means an average rise for commuters coming into London of £146; for commuters coming into Bristol an extra £72; and for commuters working in Birmingham an...
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05 July 2017
Last week, on a hot summer’s evening, a group of rail campaigners gathered at St Pancras Station. After meetings, lots of email exchanges and careful drafting and redrafting, we had a final version of our six-point Better South Eastern Charter and were ready to hand it in to Department for...
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05 July 2017
Building a new train station costs a fortune and takes an age. How can we make things quicker and easier so the worthwhile projects actually get built? We've just written a new guide which aims to do precisely this, helping good projects get on track.
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09 May 2017
Campaigner Jo Rossi, a part-time commuter, wrote this blog about how discriminatory rail fare structures affects her - and thousands of other women and men too. This campaign features on Mumsnet.
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28 March 2017
This week, the Government announced that the SouthWest Trains franchise will be taken over by First-MTR. South West Trains Watch hopes the new franchise will improve journeys for passengers in the region.
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06 December 2016
It was billed as the great re-privatisation of the railways with the market ushered in to reign supreme over the tracks. But anyone hoping the Secretary of State was going to take a chainsaw to Network Rail or even summon the dark spirit of Railtrack will be disappointed.
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15 November 2016
When Sophie Barber turned 16, her rail fare went up by 77%! Unhappy that she now had to pay an adult fare just to get to school, she took action and together with her friend Emily Stott, started the Childfare campaign. In this blog, Sophie reveals how the campaign started.