Presently, people travelling internationally through Eurostar crossing UK, had to buy Eurostar tickets on their website and UK domestic tickets on a different website. Now, thanks to Fujitsu, Eurostar tickets for international and domestic journeys can be bought on the Eurostar’s website and also on seven train operator’s systems in the UK.

So, in essence, travellers plying from France, Italy or any other European destination can buy all their tickets together as one fare on Eurostar.com.

The different rail operator’s networks that are integrated are Chiltern Railways, East Midlands Trains, First Capital Connect, Hull Trains, London Midland, National Express East Coast and Virgin Trains.

Before this year ends, Fujitsu plans on extending the integration to several smaller UK cities with bigger cities like London and have through-fares to the rest of Europe.

Jamel Chandoul, head of distribution and commercial systems, Eurostar said: “This is one of a number of key customer service initiatives designed to make the whole travelling experience for passengers as easy as possible. With this new ticketing system many travellers can now book their entire journey from their local mainline station to Continental Europe through one joined-up service – making their Eurostar experience even better.”

This linkage is a welcome change for many of those travelling into UK through Eurostar from other European states. They are guaranteed on connections between different train networks and need not face any ambiguity in train travel.

via Press Release

The suggestion by the department of transport to run trains throughout the year including weekends, bank holidays and festivals received a major boost with unions backing the plan. Weekends and holidays are usually scheduled for engineering work on the trains and tracks and if the daily trains become a reality, then the engineering work might have to take a back seat or find a narrow slot when the trains aren’t running.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union (RMT) didn’t provide a cold shoulder as was expected but instead insisted on extra compensation on weekends and holidays.

Probably UK is one of the very few places around the world which stops all necessary transit means on weekends and holidays. Other countries run their services round the clock, throughout the year. It’s high time that UK gets in the groove of the present world and plan their maintenance work as and when needed.

Earlier this year, trains halted on New Year’s break after a scheduled maintenance job was left incomplete. This should be a good indicator that the present system isn’t modernized enough and still needs plenty of rework.

Train drivers are like everybody else. They eat, drink and do all things that a commoner does. Come Christmas and the New Year’s Day, they are bound to drink heavily and have a hangover in the morning, just like a common man. If the rules don’t permit high alcohol levels in blood while working, should there be a problem calling off work the next day? People in administration don’t think on the same lines and instead impose fines on the rail company for not running routes due to shortage of staff. Is there justice?

Network Rail system on the west coast connecting England and Scotland faced several delays and cancellations owing to shortage of at least 20 specialists between Christmas and around the New Year’s Day. The government decided to impose fines amounting to £20 million for the irregularities in its services.

The train company has rich alcohol limits imposed on its employees. Rail workers will not be allowed to work if their blood contains 80 milligrams alcohol for every 100 milliliters of blood. This has prompted rail workers to call off work as they were fearful of losing their jobs after turning into work.

I honestly don’t see a solution to this problem. It’s not right to ask rail workers not to drink excessively during holiday season and at the same time, they are expected to work the following day. Rail companies should consider hiring workers who are teetotalers or at least non-alcoholic to work especially around the Christmas season.

National Express(NE) East Coast, a subsidiary of NE has begun operations today after winning the tender in August this year. The East Coast Main Line connects England and Scotland. The tender was awarded to NE after GNER had failed to satisfy the contract.

Here’s some blast from the past: National Express has bagged the contract to run rail services between London and Scotland. They were awarded the contract by the department of transport after GNER failed to pay the government an assured sum of £1.3bn. GNER, a US based firm had run into financial troubles which resulted in non payment to the treasury to run the rail services.

NE has made commitments to the transport authority regarding continuous improvements and growth on this route during the signing of the contract. It has promised to provide free internet on its trains as we had reported earlier.

Also making news is the introduction of TransPennine Express which began its operation today between Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. This route was earlier held by Virgin Trains(VT) and a change in the Cross Country franchise had created significant disparity between the authority and VT.

There seems to be no moral parity with trains in the UK. While new infrastructure and trains are getting added internationally, domestic train fares are being raised from the New Year ’s Day. The average jump is expected to be around 5% which may sound minute but some routes have faced raises up to 15%. The association of train operating companies (Atoc) has sensed that more commuters have started using trains and this is the best time to cash in.

A weekly season ticket from Hayes in Kent to London will rise by 14.5% from £24.80 to £28.50. A similar ticket from Bexleyheath into the capital will go up from £25.10 to £28.50 or 13%, and for commuters in Ashford, Kent, a London-bound journey will rise by 10.5% from £78.30 to £86.50 a week.

The reason for the rise in fares is far from acceptability. Atoc states that the increase is done to fund improve infrastructure and invest on trains. We all know why the fares go up: higher profits.

Many families who live on a tight budget will be worst hit by the rise; also commuters who have no choice but to travel by trains. The rail companies have far more to offer with better service and quality amenities owing to the rise.

via BBC