Rail Improvment Conference
The Windsor Link Railway will be represented at the Rail Improvement Conference. […]
Rail liberalisation debated in Europe
This cheesy video aside, the EU Commission is doing good work to liberalise the European rail industry. At the beginning of this year, they announced long-awaited proposals for the 4th Railway Package. Despite the unimaginative name, the proposals could lead to dramatic changes in the industry, such as removing factors hampering competition and preclude the restructuring of the railway sector and improvements of rail service quality and efficiency. They've been supported in this by Robert Zile, the ECR spokesman in the European Parliament Transport [...]
Rail’s second chance
The Centre for Policy Studies has published a paper on Rail’s Second Chance arguing that more competition on the railways produces better profits for operators and lower fares and higher satisfaction for passengers. […]
Manchester United
The Economist has published an article on the Northern Hub, in Manchester. This is how it starts. FOR £33 billion and a 20-year wait, Britain is to get a high-speed rail line connecting London to the north of England. For £32 billion-odd less than that sum, it gets the Northern Hub. Far less controversial or glamorous — the funding process was a bit like a church-roof appeal at first, says Chris Fletcher of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce — the project is a terrific [...]
Transport Minister confirms WLR satisfies HLOS
The Transport Minister, Theresa Villiers, has now confirmed that the WLR 'as a way to meet the HLOS requirements which I have outlined'. "The High Level Output Specification (HLOS) for rail that we published on 17 July asked the rail industry to develop plans to build a new rail link from the Great Western Mail Line to Heathrow to enhance rail access to the airport from the Thames Valley and the west. The HLOS amounts to an invitation to the rail industry, overseen by [...]
RBWM publishes Local Transport Plan
At the full council meeting last week the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead approved its new Local Transport Plan. This is a very thick document but the relevant section, on page 73, lists three options for a new rail link connecting Heathrow to the borough. One of these is Slough's WRAtH scheme; the second is the Airtrack scheme, now promoted by Wandsworth and other London boroughs as Airtrack Lite; and the third is the Windsor Link Railway (phase 2), for a more general [...]
Rail Regulator confirms WLR ‘in the mix’
The Office of the Rail Regulator (ORR) has today confirmed that the Windsor Link Railway proposal should be considered in developing a potential solution to satisfy the recently announced requirement for a connection from Heathrow to the west. Yesterday, the Secretary of State for Transport said in her High Level Output Statement (HLOS) ... to develop plans to build a new rail link from the Great Western Main Line to London Heathrow Airport to enhance rail access from the Thames Valley and the West [...]
£500m put aside for Heathrow link
The government has announced that £500 million has been put aside for a western rail link to Heathrow. The sum has been added to the High Level Output Specification (HLOS) for the rail industry. This isn't, however, quite the support for the WRAtH solution that Slough BC is claiming. As WLR revealed previously, the government and the HLOS supports the principle of a link not the precise route. This means that the money can be spent either on Slough's proposal (missing out Windsor and [...]
DfT confirms WLR phase 1 in-line with policy
The Department for Transport has now responded to Network Rail's request for guidance on the Windsor Link Railway. It confirmed that phase 1 of the proposal (connecting Slough to Staines via Windsor) is in-line with policy. They said, assuming WLR requires no taxpayer funding, "We have no objection whatsoever to you continuing to work with the relevant parties to take forward the proposal." Also in-line with established practice for a scheme promoter, the DfT confirmed the WLR remains responsible for developing its business case [...]
Air-Lite gets more support
Well done to Wandsworth Council for getting more support for their Air-Lite scheme. The news today is that they have secured the support of both Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham. WLR would expect them soon to get the support of Wokingham, Bracknell and Surrey councils. That would mean that of all the boroughs in the East Berkshire LEP, only Slough would be backing the more expensive, competing link direct to Slough from Heathrow. Network Rail have said that there would only be one western [...]