Latest news with #Pendolino
Scotsman
03-05-2025
- Scotsman
The London-Glasgow rail record attempt postponed by signalling fault
Sign up for the latest news and analysis about Scottish transport Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Rail campaigners have condemned the failure to speed up Glasgow-London rail journeys after Avanti West Coast was forced to postpone its attempt to break the record next week because of a signalling fault. The train operator had hoped to better the three hours 52 minutes fastest time set 41 years ago after failing in a previous attempt in 2021 by just 21 seconds. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It has decided to postpone the bid until around September because of signalling problems just north of Euston Station in London that have forced trains to run at reduced speed. An Avanti West Coast train arriving at Glasgow Central in June 2021 just 21 seconds behind the record | The Scotsman The announcement was met with frustration by campaigners, who want journey times between Scotland and England's biggest cities reduced to encourage more passengers to switch from air. They pointed to the contrast with the 125mph east coast main line (ECML), where some of LNER's Edinburgh-London services are due to be accelerated to just over four hours from December. Avanti's Pendolino trains take around four-and-a-half hours between Glasgow and London. They are capable of 140mph, but are limited to the west coast main line's (WCML) speed limit, also 125mph. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The record was set in 1984 by British Rail's Advanced Passenger Train, which travelled at up to 160mph despite the line's then 110mph limit. Avanti's record attempts are limited to 125mph. The Advanced Passenger Train of the type which set the London-Glasgow record in 1984 | Andrew Grainger/National World HS2 was due to reduce London-Glasgow/Edinburgh journey times to three hours 37 minutes, with its trains continuing north on the WCML. But they will now take longer than that following the line from London being curtailed from Manchester to the West Midlands. Malcolm Reed, a former chief executive of Transport Scotland who later advised Avanti predecessor Virgin Trains, said: 'The record attempt cancellation is yet another example of how the WCML is failing to deliver the promises that were made to the west of Scotland at the time of the upgrade programme at the beginning of the century. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Instead, we now have a service that is slower than it was 15 years ago and notoriously prone to cancellation. Contrast this with the ECML, which has been improved incrementally, but effectively over many decades. 'Glasgow is left with a slower version of the London service that was introduced almost two decades ago.' Paul Tetlaw, rail policy adviser to sustainable transport campaigners Transform Scotland, said: 'Journey times on the WCML require major improvements to allow rail to compete with air on this key route and to match those on the east coast route. 'The failure so far to improve the route serves to highlight the lack of any government strategic long-term planning for rail while other countries surge ahead.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In a joint statement, Avanti and track and signalling body Network Rail said: 'We are very disappointed we cannot go ahead next week as planned. Succeeding in setting a new record comes down to a matter of seconds, so we're working hard with signalling specialists to find a safe fix.
The Independent
12-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Why do the train companies have different rules about compensation?
Q Why do train operators have different limits on what constitutes a delay for the purposes of compensation? Chris R A Bluntly, because they can. The concept of giving stipulated refunds of a proportion of a fare paid, calibrated according to the delay, was created in the mid-1990s. This coincided with rail privatisation. As the wider railway industry fragmented, individual train operators made their own decisions – and, like so many relics of the great rail sell-off, the conflicting systems have endured. By way of illustration: if your Edinburgh-London train arrives 20 minutes late, you get 25 per cent of the single fare back on Avanti West Coast. But state-run LNER and Lumo, the 'open-access' operator, will give you nothing until the delay reaches half an hour, when it's 50 per cent. When the delay reaches an hour, you get your fare back on all of them. Another open-access firm, Grand Central, is much less generous: nothing for delays of up to an hour, and then only 50 per cent for the first hour of lateness. Unsubsidised operators are less inclined to pay out than state-directed firms, which hand back millions every week in 'delay repay' refunds – straight from the taxpayer. A proportionate refund is better than the mad air passengers' rights rules, according to which you may have paid only £15 but 'win' £220 when you arrive three hours late because of the airline. Rail operators generally have a 'no fault' attitude, paying out regardless of the cause of the delay. Even so, I have a couple of concerns about the fairness of the system. The people who get the highest refunds are often business travellers whose fares are paid by their employer; do first-class travellers deserve (say) 10 times as much as those in standard class on the same train? And a half-hour delay on the UK's longest rail run, the 13-hour trip from Aberdeen to Penzance, is probably less significant and stressful than a 30-minute hold-up on your journey to work. But the payout for the former could easily be 20 times more than the latter. Unifying the rules would at least make the system clearer for passengers. We shall see if Great British Railways, when it is finally running the whole show, makes 'delay repay' a priority. Personally, I would rather the organisation focused on improving punctuality instead of fixing the compensation system. Q You just wrote about Virgin possibly starting trains through the Channel Tunnel. But didn't Virgin already make a mess of a UK train line and then walk away with the taxpayers picking up the tab? Louise R A No, more or less the exact opposite happened. Let me first set out a brief history of Richard Branson's involvement with rail. During privatisation in the late 1990s, the music and airline entrepreneur launched Virgin Trains. On the West Coast Main Line in particular, his train firm revolutionised the experience – delivering the promised new tilting train, the Pendolino, with a top speed of 140mph (though infrastructure limitations kept the fleet restricted to 125mph). The key links between Manchester, Birmingham and London accelerated and became more frequent, trebling the number of passengers. In 2019, the franchise was handed over to Avanti West Coast. In the interim, though, Virgin Trains also ran on the East Coast Main Line between London and Edinburgh. It was granted the franchise in 2015 for eight years, but – as you say – 'walked away' after just three years, having lost, along with its partner Stagecoach, an astonishing £200m on the deal. For every day that Virgin Trains East Coast existed, taxpayers benefited by £175,000. The company had overbid due to passenger growth forecasts that turned out to be hopelessly optimistic. The Stagecoach/Virgin bid was predicated on Network Rail enhancing the infrastructure by eliminating bottlenecks to allow the train operator to run many more services – which didn't happen as promised– and on continued steady growth in demand. In the second half of 2016, passenger numbers actually went into decline as the economy wobbled after the Brexit referendum. After Virgin threw in the towel, the government picked up the franchise and still runs it as LNER. Branson's interest in breaking Eurostar's monopoly on the London-Paris route is rooted in more certainty. With modern high-speed infrastructure, there is less of a potential downside. The main hurdle is the required new rolling stock: finding funding for trains, and slots with manufacturers to build them. But as the bearded billionaire proved as early as 1970 – when he launched Virgin Records – competition cuts prices and boosts quality. I hope he succeeds. Q You wrote about the prospects – and problems – of expanding international train services from London St Pancras. I agree the current Eurostar terminal is often extremely crowded. So why not bring back Eurostar's original London terminal at Waterloo? Could it be pressed into service? Paul G A When Eurostar launched passenger trains from London to Paris through the Channel Tunnel in 1994, the hub was a purpose-built £140m terminal. It was attached to the western side of what was then the UK's busiest rail station, Waterloo. Unlike the rest of the terminus, it was designed on two levels – with four platforms at concourse level, and all the palaver that goes with an international Channel Tunnel train beneath the tracks. Space for ticketing, the security search, a waiting area and inbound border control was created. Trains emerged from Waterloo heading southwestwards, and a special curve was built to carry Eurostar trains over to the southeastern-bound line from London Victoria, following 'classic' (ie not high-speed) tracks to the Channel Tunnel. Yet the Waterloo Eurostar terminal had only a brief 13-year career before the High Speed One rail link opened to London St Pancras International. At the time, the Channel Tunnel rail firm contemplated keeping Waterloo open for leisure services such as Disneyland Paris, the ski train and Marseille (all routes, incidentally, that have since been scrapped). But Eurostar decided to put all its eggs in the St Pancras basket. This week Robert Sinclair, who runs St Pancras station and the HS1 line, told me there is enough platform capacity at the hub to treble passenger numbers – and that deft reworking could allow for more processing space. That is just as well, because Waterloo is extremely unlikely to provide extra capacity. The former Eurostar platforms have been adapted for South Western Railway services to the suburbs, while the space beneath them is now a shopping and entertainment hub called The Sidings. To repurpose it as an international rail station would require ripping out the world's biggest Brewdog pub and a large Wetherspoon's. Even then, finding space on the old rail lines for trains to thread through to the Channel Tunnel would be a nightmare – as would the time penalty of adding an hour to journeys. Q I have been looking at Florida holidays for the summer and have been astounded by their price. Around £7,000 for 10 days for a family of five, £2,000 more than we budgeted, and that isn't including park passes. Is this likely to change? Do you have any recommendations for alternatives for a family of five? Claire G A The cost does not surprise me: for peak summer in Florida, I reckon on up to £1,000 per person for each direct return airfare, with accommodation and a rental car for 10 days easily swallowing up £2,000. Prices may come down. Airlines are talking about 'softness' in the aviation market. If you are prepared to route yourself indirectly, for example via Dublin or somewhere in Canada, those airfares may tumble. Accommodation, too, is likely to become cheaper. President Trump has so inflamed many Canadians that the normal summer flow south across the border for vacations is much diminished. Hotels and villa owners know that there is only one way to fill rooms, and that is to cut prices. The same applies to rental cars. So you could just watch and wait. A better plan, though, is to choose a European destination. I have been in Florida in July and August, and frankly, it reminded me of the Noel Coward line: 'Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.' Too hot, too humid, too crowded for my taste. May I steer you first to PortAventura near Salou on Spain's Costa Dorada? I was there when it opened in 1995, and it remains a firm favourite 30 years on. I like this stretch of the Mediterranean coast. Salou is a cheap and cheerful resort; the nearby port of Cambrils feels like 'real' Spain and offers excellent restaurants; and if you want to explore more widely, there are frequent (and inexpensive) trains to the cities of Tarragona and Barcelona. You should find a suitable package holiday for about £700-£800 per person from almost any UK airport, including flights (with baggage), transfers and decent accommodation. For something different, and less expensive, consider Europa-Park – near the German town of Rust, south of Strasbourg in France. Packing everyone into the car and taking the ferry will not begin to stretch your budget, and you could build in some extra sightseeing, for example in the Black Forest.
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Wooster woman celebrates 100th birthday, reflects on journey from Nazi Germany
More than 120 family members and friends gathered at St. Mary School gymnasium March 1 to celebrate the 100th birthday of a Wooster woman whose life began in Berlin, Germany, during one of history's darkest times. 'My mom was born in Berlin, Germany, where they were very wealthy,' said Karen Pendolino, about her mother, Rita Clarke. 'But her father was Jewish and she was Lutheran, and when she was 14, Hitler came to power. She remembers hiding her father. After a year of trying, they were finally able to buy their way out of Germany.' The family fled to Pittsburgh where they had relatives. 'At that time, you had to be sponsored to come into the country,' Pendolino said. 'The family sponsoring you had to prove that you wouldn't be a hardship on the United States.' Once in America her mother was able to build a new life. 'She went to college at the University of Pittsburgh, where she met my aunt, who's turning 100 soon, and they became very good friends,' Pendolino said. 'That's also where she met my dad.' The couple eventually moved to Wooster, where her father took a job at the former Apple Creek State Hospital. They raised 10 children, first living on Mill Street before settling into a big white house along US Route 250, where she remained for 65 years. 'She is always strong, always loving,' Pendolino said. 'She had such a rich life, with all the history she lived through.' At the birthday celebration 120 people came together, nine of them were her children, along with numerous grandchildren, 11 great-great-grandchildren and family friends, some of whom traveled from across the country to be there. 'We had family from California, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and more,' Pendolino said. 'It was incredible to see so many people come together to celebrate her.' The night was filled with laughter and memories. 'She wasn't allowed to take her wealth with her when they left Germany,' Pendolino said. 'They had to leave most of their things behind. But they took what they could and were able to get out.' Despite the struggles her mother built a life of love, family and community in Wooster. 'We were so blessed to have this moment with her,' Pendolino said. 'To have her surrounded by the people who love her, celebrating a full century of life. It was truly special.' This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Rita Clarke's 100th birthday honored in Wooster with family, friends
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Yahoo
Three teens charged in armed assault
Three teens are facing multiple felony and other charges after allegedly entering a Willow Street apartment armed with shotguns and assault rifles and assaulting the occupant early Wednesday. Nicholas Robert Roseberry, 18; Joseph Alan Weigle, 18; and Terry Lee Frye III, 19, remain in Crawford County jail, Saegertown, in lieu of $200,000 bail each after being arraigned Wednesday before Magisterial District Judge Samuel Pendolino. Roseberry, who resides in the 16100 block of Maple Drive, Saegertown; Weigle, who resides in the 8900 block of Johnson Road, Meadville; and Frye, who resides in the 10400 block of Paden Road, Meadville, were charged by Meadville Police Department following an incident in the 500 block of Willow Street at approximately 2:20 a.m. The three men allegedly entered a unit in Fairview/Fairmont Apartments, Roseberry carrying a 12-gauge shotgun and Weigle and Lee carrying AR-15-style rifles, according to court documents and a report from city police. Once in the apartment, Roseberry ripped a hunting rifle from the hands of the occupant, threw him to the ground and kneed him in the head, according to the criminal complaint filed by police in the case. After the assault, Roseberry and Frye pointed their weapons at the man before leaving. Responding police arrived at 2:22 a.m. to find that Roseberry had fled out of a back door, police reported. Weigle and Frye were arrested at the scene while Roseberry was apprehended at the apartment complex at 4:38 a.m. All three men face felony charges of burglary and criminal trespass. Roseberry and Frye both face an additional felony charge of robbery. All three men face misdemeanor charges of simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime and recklessly endangering another person. Roseberry also faces a second misdemeanor count of simple assault. All three men face summary charges of harassment and disorderly conduct. A preliminary hearing for the three defendants was scheduled for before Pendolino on March 5.
