Overcrowding, strikes, and rising costs of travelling

Today marks the end of another week, but the start of a new newsletter from To The Trains — This Week on the Railway — exclusively for Inside Track subscribers.

There's a good chance the format will be adjusted over the coming weeks, but the basic premise will remain largely unchanged. The goal is to provide you with a rapid-fire snapshot of what's happened on Britain's railways over the past week.

Shall we begin?

THE BUDGET: Was the major event this week, with a few implications for the railway. We covered what Reeves said in her statement on Wednesday. In short, it was a lot of reaffirmed commitments, but hardly any new information.

Regulated rail fares will rise by 4.6%, meanwhile the government seeks to increase the annual fee of most Railcards to £35 (up from £30).

HS2 will run to Euston, it has been confirmed, although this came out in briefings in the weeks prior to the Budget.

EARLY BOARDING AT EUSTON: Speaking of Euston... Passengers will now be able to board some Avanti West Coast services earlier than before. Continuous boarding is in place for London Northwestern Railway services, too. The move comes in response to concerns about overcrowding at the station.

ETCS TESTS SCHEDULED: As part of the East Coast Digital Programme, traditional, line side signals are being replaced by an implementation of the European Train Control System (ETCS). This is an in-cab signalling system with track and route information fed directly to the drivers.

ETCS is already in operation in a couple of places around the UK, including along the Cambrian line in Wales and between Paddington and Heathrow on the Elizabeth line. Outside the UK, it is used heavily in Belgium and Switzerland, as well as on a handful of other continental European routes.

On Saturday 30 November and Sunday 1 December, there will be disruption to Thameslink and Great Northern services between Potters Bar and St Neots and Royston, and between Hertford North and Stevenage.

EAST KILBRIDE–GLASGOW: A branch off the Glasgow South Western Line is set to be electrified over 16 weeks as part of a £140 million investment. At the same time, new stations will be built at East Kilbride and Hairmyres, a new entrance to Clarkston station, and new accessible footbridges at Busby and Giffnock stations.

The main electrification efforts will take place between Saturday 25 January and Sunday 18 May 2025, with the full works due to be completed by December 2025.

BACK IN SERVICE: Trains have resumed running between Stourbridge and Langley Green, after the stretch of track was closed to replace 64 sleepers and improve drainage. Level crossing equipment was upgraded at Cradley Heath.

STRIKE, NO STRIKE: London Underground industrial action planned by the RMT union for the coming weeks have been suspended. ASLEF strikes, however, will still go ahead.

No Tube services are expected to run on Thursday 7 November and there will be severe disruption to services on Tuesday 12 November.

PADDINGTON IN PADDINGTON: STUDIOCANAL, the studio behind the Paddington films, collaborated with Great Western Railway on a special livery to celebrate the upcoming release of the latest instalment in the series — Paddington in Peru.

Last but not least, FREE TRAVEL FOR REMEMBRANCE: Serving military personnel and veterans have been able to travel for free this weekend and will again next weekend (10–11 November) to attend services of remembrance. Eligibility is proven by travelling in uniform, presenting MOD-issued ID, or presenting a Veterans Railcard or Oyster card.

And that more or less brings us up to date — we'll see you this time next week.

Our next explainer article is in the works, which will be on ETCS (similar to this one on AWS), as progress is made to install and test it across the southern stretch of the East Coast Main Line. In the meantime, we'll be keeping our eye on the industry for news to report.