All the evidence shows voters want Labour to shift to the left — but initial signs from Andy Burnham are worrying on that front, cautions DIANE ABBOTT
A FIERY freight train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, involving hazardous materials in tank cars, was a direct result of Norfolk Southern Railway’s cost-cutting which led to little maintenance and an undiscovered safety problem, the top organisation for rank-and-file railroaders says. And corporate greed to satisfy Wall Street led to the cuts, it adds.
The wreck could have been worse, Railroad Workers United (RWU) added, had the 9,300-foot-long train not had a three-worker crew, rather than the single worker — the engineer — the nation’s big Class One freight railroads, including Norfolk Southern, have advocated for years.
The three crew members decoupled the locomotives and moved them to safety, preventing an even bigger disaster if the fire reached them. One crew member could not have done so.
The HS2 debacle exposes what happens when public infrastructure is handed to private contractors – especially when set against China’s state-led high-speed rail success, says CARLOS MARTINEZ
PHILIP ENGLISH says military spending will not create the jobs young people need — instead, build an economy based around needs, not profit
Two-hundred years ago, on September 27 1825, the world’s first passenger railway line was opened between Stockton and Darlington. MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, reflects on the history – and the future – of Britain’s railway industry


