BRITISH open-access inter-city operator Hull Trains has unveiled photos of the first completed body shell for the new Class 802 trains which from December 2019 will replace the fleet of class 180 DMUs on services from London Kings Cross to Hull and Beverley.

WEST Midlands Trains (WMT) and Vivarail have officially signed a contract for the supply of three Class 230 D-Train multiple units, which will begin running on the Bedford - Bletchley Marston Vale line in December following their extensive rebuild at Vivarail’s Long Marston depot in Warwickshire.

NETWORK Rail (NR) has commissioned Costain to develop enhanced warning technology called Meerkat to reduce the number of incidents at passive footpath and bridleway level crossings across Britain.

BRITISH train operator Great Western Railway (GWR) launched its new fleet of Hitachi class 802 bi-mode trains on August 17 with a media run from Penzance to Exeter.

PASSENGER numbers on London’s Night Tube service grew to 8.7 million customers in its second year, up from 7.8 million in 2016-17. A report released by London First and EY on August 17 showed the increase in demand means Night Tube helped to generate an additional £190m for London’s economy last year, a contribution that has increased by almost £20m from its first year of operation.

THE head of Britain’s Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents operators and infrastructure manager Network Rail (NR), has called for major changes to the role of the private sector in passenger rail to deliver more for customers, communities, taxpayers and the economy.

FOLLOWING the launch of Britain’s first battery-powered trams in the West Midlands in April, Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) is tendering for 18 new LRVs, with the option to purchase a further 32 in future part of extensions to the tram network at the heart of a £3.4bn investment in the region’s transport network over the next decade.

BRITISH passenger operators have agreed to publish more real-time information to enable tech firms to develop better travel apps under new plans announced on August 8 by rail minister, Mr Jo Johnson, and Rail Delivery Group (RDG) chief executive, Mr Paul Plummer.