Network Rail completes Waterloo upgrade and London Bus Tender awards

Network Rail held engineering works over the August bank holiday which saw the completion of the Waterloo upgrade works. This has enabled South Western Railway to have longer trains serving London Waterloo station.

From Network Rail

Network Rail has now fully reopened Waterloo station after completing one of the largest and most complex upgrades in the station’s history.

However, due to safety critical work to test the signalling taking slightly longer than planned early this morning, we are expecting disruption to the morning rush hour. Network Rail apologises to passengers for any delays to their journey and asks them to check before they travel this morning.

FirstGroup and MTR purchase Crossrail style trains for South Western Railway franchise

Bombardier has signed a contract with FirstGroup and MTR worth nearly £900 million to build Aventra trains for their new South Western Railway franchise. These new trains are to be built at Bombardier's rail vehicles production site in Derby, England.

From Bombardier

Contract for 750 cars is the largest AVENTRA train order ever

AVENTRA train designed to help FirstGroup and MTR deliver greater passenger capacity and comfort on the South Western network

First and MTR wins South Western railway franchise

More bad news for Stagecoach!

Stagecoach have already lost London Bus routes 5, 15 and 115 to Go Ahead Blue Triangle and now they have lost the South West Trains franchise to First and MTR.