Heritage railways face ‘existential threat’ & New Transport Secretary takes the helm | Ep 62

Heritage railways face an existential threat as Autumn Budget tax changes will cost some more than £200,000 a year! We speak to Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway General Manager and Acting Chair of the Heritage Railway Association Paul Lewin to find out just how challenging things have become for steam and heritage railways.

Heidi Alexander becomes the new Transport Secretary following the shock resignation of Louise Haigh.

The Public Ownership Bill to nationalise Britain’s railways receives Royal Assent.

And Richard finds out more about Britain’s latest open access operator Go-Op.

In this episode:

00:00 Intro
01:00 Heritage railways under threat
22:01 Heidi Alexander is new Transport Secretary
29:09 Public Ownership Bill
30:28 Integrated National Transport Strategy call for ideas
35:02 Go-Op interview
42:23 Thanks to Super Thanks and Members
46:19 Railway News Round-Up
46:25 HS2 Euston tunnel boring machines unveiled
48:07 Northern conductors reject rest day working offer
49:23 Northern and TransPennine Express school commute discount
49:48 South Western Railway Arterio launch
51:11 Network Rail HSTs test ETCS on the East Coast Main Line
52:15 The Quiz
55:31 Class 175 DMUs for Great Western Railway

Subscribe: If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. Better still, hit that subscribe button. It supports the channel and means you'll be notified whenever we publish something new.

Membership: If you want to see even more from Green Signals, including exclusive content, become a member and support the channel further too.
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GreenSignals/join
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/GreenSignals

Green Signals:
Website - http://www.greensignals.org
Newsletter - http://www.greensignals.org/#mailing-list

Follow:
X (Twitter) - https://twitter.com/greensignallers
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/green-signals-productions-ltd
Instagram - https://instagram.com/greensignallers

Credits:
Photos and video - Shutterstock, Parliament UK, HS2 Ltd, South Western Railway, Network Rail
Presenters - Nigel Harris (@railnigel on X) & Richard Bowker CBE (@SRichardBowker). General Manager: Stef Foster (@stefatrail)