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August 2024

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Liverpool Manchester rail plan announced will cut journey time in half

Plans for a new rail line between Liverpool and Manchester and revamped train stations have been revealed.

A new line will link Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Piccadilly , via revamped stations at Warrington Bank Quay and Manchester Airport.

If the new plans come to fruition, the journey time between Liverpool city centre and Manchester Airport, now well over an hour, will be cut to 25 minutes.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram, Liverpool City Region Mayor, said the plans will boost the economy of the North West and increase opportunities for businesses and residents.

An underground station at Manchester Piccadilly is also envisaged along with improvements to Liverpool Central, the busiest underground tube station outside London.

Announcing the plans at the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum in Leeds, Mr Rotheram said it was 200 years ago this week when the first board meeting of the Liverpool and Manchester Rail Company was held.

Six years later the world’s first inter-city rail line was completed, between the two cities.

But Mr Rotheram said the journey time between the two cities today is comparable to the time it took in the early days of steam.

Mr Rotheram said: “It won’t be like HS2 and promise after promise and nothing delivered.

“This is going to happen. We’ve got the budget, we want to increase that but also we genuinely have the best interests of the cities of Liverpool and Manchester and Liverpool city region and Manchester city region at heart.”

Last year, the Government finally confirmed the northern leg of the high speed rail link to Birmingham and London would be scrapped, saving around £36 billion.

The Government promised some of the money would instead be spent on other transport projects in the north of England.

Mr Burnham added: “The economy gets bigger if you build the railway in the right way.

“Steve and I have had confirmation from the Government that £17 billion is still in the plan, the integrated rail plan, to deliver this new railway.”

Mr Burnham said the £17 billion of public money is only a “starting point” and the board will be a public and private sector partnership.

He added: “This was the first railway in the world. Why can’t we now have an ambition around it being the most innovative, the greenest railway in the world as we bring it through, 200 years later?

“It’s going to be a really exciting project to work on and this is what true levelling up always should have been, isn’t it?

“This is us, doing it for ourselves, setting our own ambition, where hopefully UK Government enables, so finally all the pain of the debate around railways, we’ve kind of ended up at the right station.”

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UK Bank Holiday weekend travel: all the disruption on motorways and train services you need to know about

This weekend is expected to be one of the busiest for travel in years, so make sure you plan ahead

Bank holidays are perfect for a quick staycation , camping trip or a long overdue visit to your parents. But when almost everyone in the country is off work on the exact same days, it's bound to cause some queues. And, apparently, this year’s late May Bank Holiday is set to be the busiest on UK roads in years. 

According to the RAC, there will be more than 20 million ‘leisure trips’ made by car between this Friday and next Monday. That’s not to mention all the folks travelling by train, bus or coach. So, here’s all the delays and disruptions to keep in mind if your taking a trip this bank holiday. 

The M25 clockwise between junction 7 for the M23 and junction 21 for the M1 is expected to get particularly congested. If you’re travelling on this stretch of road, expect to see delays of an hour and half or more in the late afternoon on Friday. 

As we get into Saturday afternoon, long delays are expected on the M25 anticlockwise towards the M23. 

In the middle of the day on Saturday, the M25 southbound is likely to get clogged up, with the drive between J16 north of Bristol and J25 for Taunton in Somerset set to take an hour longer than normal. 

Other motorways

The A14 eastbound towards the east coast and the M3 and A34 towards the south coast are likely to become chock-a-block on Saturday afternoon. 

And with Wembley hosting the FA Cup final on Saturday and the Championship play-off on Sunday, routes from the north along the M1 and M6 and on the M3 from the south are set to get busier than usual. So, make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to get to your destination. 

Avanti West Coast 

Due to work on the West Coast mainline, there will be a replacement bus service for Avanti West Coast services across the whole weekend, with passengers being updated closer to the time of travel. 

There’s also engineering work happening between Oxenholme and Carlisle and between Carstairs and Motherwell .

Cross Country

Engineering work means that Cross Country trains won’t be stopping at Motherwell on Saturday or Sunday and there will be replacement buses between Motherwell and Edinburgh . 

Work elsewhere will also affect services between  Reading and Newcastle, Birmingham New Street to Manchester and Leeds to Plymouth . 

East Midlands Railway

Early morning on Sunday, May 26 there will be a replacement bus along the route between Derby, Nottingham and London St Pancras but normal service will resume as normal later in the day. 

Grand Central 

Due to early morning engineering work in the London Kings Cross area on Sunday, the 09.49am London Kings Cross to Sunderland will be delayed by ten minutes. It will run to normal timings for all other stations.

Great Northern

Work at London Kings Cross on Sunday means no Great Northern trains will run between King’s Cross and Finsbury Park before 6am. There will be a bus replacement for Finsbury Park / Potters Bar and Letchworth Garden City and Peterborough before 9.30am.

The 6.40am service from London to Cambridge will also be moved to a bus. 

Great Western Railway

Some timetable changes have been made to early morning and late evening services on Saturday and Sunday. Keep an eye on your emails if you've booked a journey going through Westbury and Castle Cary, Oxford and Evesham or Reading and Bedwyn . 

Greater Anglia 

There will be replacement buses between Witham and Billericay on Saturday and Sunday thanks to work between  Shenfield and Witham . On both days, services between Romford and Shenfield will be retimed and trains from London Liverpool Street are running 15 minutes earlier than usual. 

On Monday services that normally run via Seven Sisters will run via Tottenham Hale instead and there will be a replacement bus service for journeys between Ipswich and Lowestoft . 

Engineering work at Motherwell is going to affect LNER routes between London and Glasgow Central . On Saturday the 06:48 train from Glasgow Central to London Kings Cross will start from Edinburgh at 08:00.

Across the long weekend, replacement buses will run between Motherwell and Edinburgh , connecting with train services and from Glasgow Central, you should use other services between Glasgow Central and Edinburgh.

There are also several changes and cancellations to trains between London Kings Cross, York, Leeds and Edinburgh on Sunday. 

Lumo’s Monday 8.27pm service from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh will terminate at Newcastle . 

South Western Rail 

There are no changes to services on Saturday and Monday. Engineering work on Sunday will see London Waterloo to Reading services diverted between Clapham Junction and Virginia Water.  London Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside services will be diverted after Twickenham and will terminate at Hounslow and  London Waterloo to Woking via Staines services will terminate at Hounslow. 

Stansted Express 

Due to engineering work between Cheshunt and Seven Sisters, the 11.30pm and 11.45pm Stansted Airport to London Liverpool Street services will stop at Tottenham Hale instead of Seven Sisters on Sunday and Monday. 

Early morning engineering on Sunday means that there will be a bus replacement between Broxbourne and Stansted Airport from 9.10 onwards. 

Transpennine Express

The Motherwell engineering work means there replacement buses will run between Oxenholme Lake District and Carlisle. 

Work in the Huddersfield area on Saturday and Sunday is also expected to cause disruption. There will be an amended and reduced train service between Manchester and Leeds, with trains diverted to run via Hebden Bridge with extended journey times. 

Transport for Wales 

More engineering work going on across Wales means there will be several bus replacements. They include between Shrewsbury and Crewe, Cardiff and Rhymney, Treherbert and Pontypridd and Chester and Manchester Piccadilly / Manchester Airport .

No trains are running between Cardiff Queen Street and Coryton but you’ll be able to use your ticket on Cardiff bus services to complete your journey.

For more specific details and check live updates for your day of travel, keep an eye on the National Rail site . 

Did you see that  National Express is launching loads of new faster coach services across the UK ?

Plus:  12 years after being knocked down, this historic pub has been rebuilt brick-by-brick . 

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Woman finds 50 vintage cars hidden in a crumbling barn in the middle of a forest

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People devote their lives to vintage cars, burying their heads in bonnets to repair them, or driving hundreds of miles to rallies.

Their popularity has soared in recent years. So too has their value.

But some are discarded, left to rust and decay.

One British forest hides a whole graveyard of vintage cars – 50 of them in total, including Mercedes, Ford and Riley One-Point-Five.

Ashley Urbex, an explorer from Milton Keynes , first heard of the treasure trove from a friend and knew she had to investigate.

In a crumbling barn of tilted wooden beams and a sheet metal roof caved in at one corner, she found them.

Through the overgrowth of this Nottinghamshire forest sits a ‘stunning’ collection of old cars ‘just sadly left to rot’.

Among them are an old Daimler, Rover 2300, Riley One-Point-Five, MG MGA, Triumph GT6 mk3, Austin 8, Hillman Hunter, Vanden Plas, Mercedes 220, an Austin Morris Mini and several Fords.

‘Most of the cars unfortunately were rotting and in bad condition’, the 26-year-old explorer said.

‘A lot rusty and decaying away, a lot of weather damage.

‘Some better than others, covered to a degree from the weather.

‘But with the barns falling apart on top of the cars, unfortunately this has caused damage.’

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Ashley shared the discovery on her TikTok account, @ashleyurbex, where the video has gained more than 35,000 views.

In the clip, she can be seen walking around the old motors before giving viewers a look around some of their rotting interiors.

The explorer said: ‘It was a struggle to get to some of the cars due to the location being overgrown and the barns falling apart.

‘But we ended up being here for a couple of hours as there were so many cars to see.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

For more stories like this, check our news page .

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Ukraine-Russia war: Latest updates

Scroll down to catch up on all the main developments and analysis of the war in Ukraine.

Friday 24 May 2024 14:44, UK

• Big picture: What you need to know this week

While we are not running our usual updates, here is a rundown of the main events:

Vladimir Putin is ready to halt the war in Ukraine with a ceasefire that recognises current battlefield lines, four Russian sources have told the Reuters news agency.

Three of those sources claimed the Russian leader had expressed frustration about what he views as Western-backed attempts to hinder ceasefire negotiations.

"Putin can fight for as long as it takes, but Putin is also ready for a ceasefire - to freeze the war," a senior Russian source who has reportedly worked with Mr Putin and has knowledge of top-level conversations in the Kremlin, told Reuters.

Read more here...

Zelenskyy visits Kharkiv

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has travelled to the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which has been facing intensive Russian air attacks. 

The Ukrainian president met senior military leaders and travelled to the site of a major printing house - a day after it was destroyed in a Russian missile attack that killed at least seven people. 

Further developments :

• Russian forces have had partial success near the village of Ivanivka in the east of Kharkiv region, the Ukrainian military said. Ukraine's general staff said 10 battles took place, with one successfully repelled and more ongoing near the villages of Petropavlivka, Ivanivka, Stelmakhivka, Nevske and Druzhelyubivka;
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to Spain on Sunday, Spanish radio station Cadena SER reported. The Ukrainian president postponed visits to Madrid and Lisbon earlier this month because of intense fighting in Kharkiv;
• Vladimir Putin is planning to visit North Korea, Russian state news agency RIA said.

Our live coverage will remain paused today, but let's catch you up on where things stand and on any updates overnight.

• Russia said 35 rockets and three drones were fired into Belgorod and overnight, claiming to have destroyed all of them;
• Blasts were heard in Kherson as Russia shelled the city, said its regional governor Roman Mrochko;
• The leader of Russia's Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, met  Vladimir Putin and offered to send more fighters to the frontline;
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a fresh plea for upgraded defence systems to protect Ukraine's cities against guided bombs, which he described as the "the main instrument" now used by Moscow';
• A Russian airstrike on Ukraine's northeastern city of Kharkiv yesterday destroyed a cafe, damaged a nearby residential building and set a petrol station ablaze, with local officials saying ten people were wounded.

As we've not been providing rolling coverage of the war in Ukraine today, here is a quick update on what's been happening since this morning. 

One of the most significant new stories is the UK accusing China of providing or preparing to provide lethal aid to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine. 

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told a news conference this morning that US and British defence intelligence had evidence "lethal aid is now, or will be, flowing from China to Russia and into Ukraine".

He called this a "significant development".

We also heard from the Kremlin this morning, which said "in-depth dialogue" was needed to reduce rising tensions between Russia and the West - particularly with regards to nuclear issues. 

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused the "collective West" of refusing to engage with Russia despite the potential dangers. 

Here are more of the top stories: 

• Russian forces have taken over the village of Klishchiivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, close to the city of Bakhmut, according to Russian news agencies 
• At least nine people have been injured in a Russian air attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv
• Russia accused Ukraine of using a drone to attack a non-nuclear facility at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, causing no critical damage
• Moscow said it is bolstering its efforts to protect its energy infrastructure from drone attacks
• Six children were handed over to Ukraine by Russia and reunited with their families, after a deal was brokered by Qatar. 

We're pausing our coverage of the Ukraine war for the moment.

Scroll through the blog below to catch up on today's developments.

Vladimir Putin has praised the late president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, and said he was a "reliable partner".

Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan border over the weekend along with his foreign minister and seven others.

Speaking on the leader, Mr Putin said he was "a man of his word" who carried out any agreements the pair made.

"He was truly a reliable partner, a man sure of himself, who acted in the national interest," Russian news agencies quoted Mr Putin as telling Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia's lower house of parliament.

"He was, of course, a man of his word and it was always good to work with him. What I mean is if we came to an agreement on something, you could be sure the agreement was carried out."

The Kremlin leader asked Mr Volodin, who will be attending memorial events in Iran, to pass on "words of our sincere condolences in connection with this tragedy".

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has strengthened political, trade and military ties with Iran in a deepening relationship that the US and Israel view with concern.

Heavy fighting in the Pokrovsk area in eastern Ukraine has forced Ukrainian troops to engage in "manoeuvres," the Ukrainian military's general staff have said.

Their report said Pokrovsk, northwest of the Russian-held city of Donetsk, remains the front's "hottest" sector.

"In some areas, the situation requires our troops to engage in manoeuvres," the general staff report reads.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has referred to the region and adjacent areas as "extraordinarily difficult" in his nightly video address.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said allies are taking too long when it comes to decisions on military support for Ukraine.

In an interview with Reuters, the Ukrainian leader said every decision which everyone came to was "late by around one year".

"But it is what it is: one big step forward, but before that two steps back. So we need to change the paradigm a little bit," he said.

"When we're quick, they fall behind. And then there's a gap - six, eight months of unpassed (aid) packages, and then two-three months of supplies - and a year goes by. We would like not to lose the advantage."

Mr Zelenskyy also said Ukraine had never used Western weapons on Russian territory.

A senior Russian diplomat has said that the EU plan to channel profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine would have "unpredictable" consequences, according to the TASS news agency.

According to TASS, Kirill Logvinov, Russia's acting permanent representative to the EU in Brussels, told Russia journalists: "The only predictable thing is that those in the EU will be obliged sooner or later to return to our country what has been stolen."

For context : In March the European Commission proposed transferring to Ukraine profits generated by Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe.

The plan would see 90% channeled through the European Peace Facility fund to buy weapons for Ukraine. 

The rest would be used for recovery and reconstruction.

Russia's defence ministry has said it has begun a round of drills involving tactical nuclear weapons. 

The exercises were announced by Russian authorities this month in response to remarks by senior Western officials about the possibility of deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine.

It was the first time Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, although its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises.

According to the ministry's statement, the first stage of the new drills include nuclear-capable Kinzhal and Iskander missiles.

The maneuvers are taking place in the southern military district, which consists of Russian regions in the south.

A Moscow court has ordered a Russian journalist who covered the trials of the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and other dissidents must  remain in custody pending an investigation and trial on charges of extremism.

Antonina Favorskaya was arrested in March. 

She is accused of collecting material, producing and editing videos and publications for Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which had been outlawed as extremist by Russian authorities, according to court officials.

Today, Moscow's Basmanny district court ordered that she remain in custody until at least 3 August.

Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokeswoman, said earlier that Ms Favorskaya did not publish anything on the foundation's platforms and suggested that Russian authorities have targeted her because she was doing her job as a journalist.

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