transport

US president blasts long-delayed project to link Los Angeles and San Francisco as a ‘boondoggle’ and a ‘train to nowhere’.

United States President Donald Trump has pulled the plug on $4bn in funding for a long-delayed high-speed rail line in California, blasting the project as a “boondoggle” and a “train to nowhere”.

Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday that he had “freed” taxpayers from the “disastrously overpriced” proposed railway linking Los Angeles and San Francisco, which has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.

“This boondoggle, led by the incompetent Governor of California, Gavin Newscum, has cost Taxpayers Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we have received NOTHING in return except Cost Overruns,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, using a nickname he commonly deploys to mock the state’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

“The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will.”

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy accused Democrats of wasting taxpayers’ money and said federal money was not a “blank cheque”.

“It’s time for this boondoggle to die,” Duffy said in a statement.

Newsom slammed the Trump administration’s move as illegal and said the state would put “all options on the table” to oppose the funding cut.

“Trump wants to hand China the future and abandon the Central Valley. We won’t let him,” Newsom said in a statement.

The 1,249km (776-mile) rail line, which was approved by California voters in a 2008 plebiscite, was initially envisaged for completion in 2020 at a cost of $33bn.

The project’s estimated cost has since ballooned to $89bn to $128bn, with services not expected to begin until 2033 at the earliest.

The US currently does not have a high-speed rail service, but a 354km (220-mile) high-speed link between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is scheduled to begin operations in 2028.

The airport, which has not been operational since the group seized Mosul in 2014, will have a main terminal and VIP lounge.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has inaugurated the northern city of Mosul’s newly restored airport, more than a decade after it was destroyed in a series of battles to dislodge the now vanquished ISIL (ISIS) group.

“The airport will serve as an additional link between Mosul and other Iraqi cities and regional destinations,” the prime minister’s media office said in a statement on Wednesday.

Al-Sudani’s flight landed at the airport, which is expected to become fully operational for domestic and international flights in two months. Wednesday’s ceremony was held nearly three years after then-Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi laid the foundation stone for the airport’s reconstruction.

Airport director Amar al-Bayati told the AFP news agency that the “airport is now ready for domestic and international flights.” He added that the airport previously offered international flights, mostly to Turkiye and Jordan.

In June 2014, ISIL seized Mosul, declaring its “caliphate” from Iraq’s second biggest city after capturing large swaths of Iraq and neighbouring Syria, imposing hardline rule over millions of people, displacing hundreds of thousands and slaughtering thousands more.

Nouri al-Maliki, who was the Iraqi prime minister at the time, declared a state of emergency and said the government would arm civilians who volunteered “to defend the homeland and defeat terrorism”.

At its peak, the group ruled over an area half the size of the United Kingdom and was notorious for its brutality. It beheaded civilians, massacred 1,700 captured Iraqi soldiers in a short period, and enslaved and raped thousands of women from the Yazidi community, one of Iraq’s oldest religious minorities.

A coalition of more than 80 countries led by the United States was formed to fight the group in September 2014. The alliance continues to carry out raids against the group’s hideouts in Syria and Iraq.

The war against the group officially ended in March 2019 when US-backed, Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured the eastern Syrian town of Baghouz, which was the last sliver of land ISIL controlled.

The group was also defeated in Iraq in July 2017 when Iraqi forces recaptured Mosul. ISIL then declared its defeat across the country at the end of that year. Three months later, the group suffered a major blow when the SDF took back the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, its de facto capital.

The airport, which was heavily damaged in the battle, has not been operational since the initial fall of Mosul.

It now includes a main terminal, a VIP lounge and an advanced radar surveillance system, al-Sudani’s office said, adding that it is expected to handle 630,000 passengers annually.

India’s aviation agency tells airlines to investigate fuel switch locks on several Boeing models, including 787s and 737s.

India has ordered its airlines to examine fuel switches on several Boeing models following last month’s deadly Air India crash.

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Monday said it asked the airlines to investigate fuel switch locks on several Boeing models, including 787s and 737s.

The precautionary moves by India and several other countries came despite the plane maker and the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) telling airlines and regulators in recent days that the fuel switch locks on Boeing jets were safe.

The locks have come under scrutiny following the June 12 crash of an Air India jet, which killed some 260 people – the worst such disaster on Indian soil.

A preliminary report on the crash by Indian authorities did not offer any conclusions or apportion blame for the disaster, but indicated that one pilot asked the other why he cut off fuel, and the second pilot responded that he had not.

The report noted a 2018 advisory from the FAA, which recommended, but did not mandate, operators of several Boeing models, including the 787, to inspect the locking feature of fuel cutoff switches to ensure they could not be moved accidentally.

In recent days, the Air India Group started checking the locking mechanism on the fuel switches of its 787 and 737 fleets and has discovered no problems yet, a source familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency on Monday.

About half the group’s 787s have been inspected and nearly all its 737s, the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity since the source was not authorised to speak to the media. Inspections were set to be completed in the next day or two.

Precautionary checks

The Air India crash preliminary report said the airline had not carried out the FAA’s suggested inspections, as the FAA’s 2018 advisory was not a mandate.

But it also said maintenance records showed that the throttle control module, which includes the fuel switches, was replaced in 2019 and 2023 on the plane involved in the crash.

In an internal memo on Monday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out.

Some airlines around the world have been checking relevant switches since the 2018 advisory, including Australia’s Qantas Airways and Japan’s ANA.

Others said they had been making additional or new checks since the release of the preliminary report into the Air India crash.

Singapore Airlines said on Tuesday that precautionary checks on the fuel switches of its 787 fleet, including planes used by its low-cost subsidiary Scoot, confirmed all were functioning properly.

Flag carrier Korean Air Lines also said on Tuesday it had proactively begun inspecting fuel control switches and would implement any additional requirements the Ministry of Transport may have.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was headed to London from Ahmedabad in western India when it crashed, killing all but one of the people on board as well as 19 people on the ground.

A truck collided with a minibus carrying day labourers, two of whom were 14-year-old girls, to their workplace.

A truck has collided with a minibus carrying workers on a road in Egypt, killing 19 people, most of them teenage girls, according to local officials.

The collision occurred as the workers were heading to work in the early hours of Friday morning on a regional road in the city of Ashmoun in the Nile Delta province of Menoufia, north of the capital Cairo.

The truck collided with the minibus as it carried the labourers to their workplace from their home village of Kafr al-Sanabsa, according to the state-owned newspaper, Akhbar al-Youm.

Most of the workers were teenagers – two of them just 14 – according to a list of the names and ages published by the state-owned daily, Al-Ahram. Egyptian media has dubbed the crash victims “martyrs for their daily bread”.

Some 1.3 million minors are engaged in some form of child labour in Egypt, according to government figures, and accidents often involve underage labourers travelling to work in overcrowded minibuses in rural areas.

Only three people survived the crash on Friday, according to a statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Labour, and they were transferred to the General Ashmoun Hospital.

Egypt’s Labour Minister Mohamed Gebran has ordered authorities to compensate the families of the deceased with up to 200,000 Egyptian pounds (about $4,000) each. Each injured person will also receive 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($400).

Menoufia provincial governor, Ibrahim Abu Leimon, said the cause of the crash would be investigated. Preliminary reports suggest excessive speeding may have been a key factor.

Abu Leimon also called on the country’s Ministry of Transportation to reassess safety measures on the regional road. In April, five members of a single family died in a two-car collision on the same road.

Deadly traffic accidents claim thousands of lives every year across Egypt.

In October 2023, 35 people were killed, at least 18 of whom burned to death, in a “horrific collision” involving a bus and several cars on the Cairo-Alexandria desert road, according to Al-Ahram.

EUROSTAR passengers were stuck for up to seven hours yesterday after two people were hit by trains.

The operator warned that delays and disruptions will continue into this morning.

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Trains in both directions between London St Pancras International and Gare Du Nord in Paris were either cancelled or delayed for hours.

It followed two separate fatalities, the first between Lille and Paris and around 5pm.

The second person was hit between Lille and Arras, according to local media.

Eurostar posted on X this morning to say trains will be running, but there area a “few cancellations” and “a lot of passengers travelling”.

“So the situation might still be difficult.”

Yesterday, there were massive queues at both the UK and French railway stations.

Many furious passengers who were stuck for hours took to social media to demand compensation.

One train, due to leave London at 2.31pm, was supposed to arrive at 5.57pm.

But it was delayed for four hours and didn’t get in until nearly 10pm.

Another frustrated passenger said they were on a train from London to Paris but they were stuck on it for seven hours.

Naomi Sanger, from Snodland, told KentOnline she boarded the 4.31pm at Gare Du Nord but it never left and she was left stranded at the station.

She posted on X that the food and drinks supply was running out, and the air con was not working.

In a statement on X, Eurostar said: “Due to a person struck by a train near Lille Europe, we are expecting delays and cancellations to our services this evening.

“We advise changing your journey for a different travel date.”

On Wednesday, Eurostar travellers were also hit by delays after a person was hit on the rails in France.

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Footage shows Pakistani citizens evacuated from Iran fleeing the country as the Israel-Iran conflict deepens. Pakistan shut all crossings with Iran indefinitely on Monday, raising concerns the conflict could destabilise the nuclear-armed nation.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he wanted a return to a tariff-free agreement for civil aviation.

Airbus has struck a deal with Vietnamese budget airline Vietjet for up to 150 single-aisle jets at the Paris Air Show as the aviation industry’s hopes to return to a tariff-free trade agreement were given a boost by United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

The French planemaker announced the deal on Tuesday.

Airbus is the main supplier of jets to Vietnam, accounting for 86 percent of the planes currently operated by Vietnamese airlines. The export-dependent Southeast Asian country is under pressure from Washington to buy more US goods.

Vietjet Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao said the scale of the airline’s orders was backed by plans to develop a major aviation hub in Vietnam, which Airbus says has seen its aviation market grow by 7.5 percent a year.

A deal for 150 A321neos could be worth around $9.4bn, according to estimated prices provided by Cirium Ascend.

The agreement was the latest in a flurry of business announced by Airbus at the world’s biggest aviation trade fair in Paris, France.

Airbus has made gains against its chief competitor Boeing as airlines reconsider purchases of the US-made jets amid ongoing tariff threats in recent months. In May, budget airline Ryanair threatened to pull orders of Boeing aircraft amid tariff threats.

A tariff truce?

Duffy said he wanted civil aviation to return to a 1979 zero-tariff trade agreement, in one of the clearest signs yet that the administration of US President Donald Trump might favour such a move. However, Duffy added that while the White House was aware that the US is a net exporter in aerospace, it was also dealing with a complex tariff situation.

“Now, again, you look at what free trade has done for aviation. It’s been remarkable for them. It’s a great space of net exporters,” Duffy said. “And so the White House understands that, but if you go over there and you see the moving parts of what they’re dealing with, it is pretty intense and it’s a lot.”

Trump’s sweeping 10 percent import tariffs are a headache for an industry already battling supply chain challenges and facing fresh turbulence from last week’s deadly Air India crash and conflict in the Middle East.

In early May, the US Commerce Department launched a “Section 232” national security investigation into imports of commercial aircraft, jet engines and parts that could form the basis for even higher tariffs on such imports.

Airlines, planemakers and several US trading partners have been lobbying Trump to restore the tariff-free regime under the 1979 agreement.

Boeing was having a subdued show and parking announcements while focusing on the probe into last week’s fatal crash of an Air India Boeing 787 and after it racked up huge deals during Trump’s recent tour of the Middle East.

Attention turned to another big Airbus customer, AirAsia, long associated with buzzy show finales and looking at buying 100 A220s, with Brazil’s Embraer seeking to wrest away the deal after losing a key contest in Poland, delegates said. Airbus was also expected to reveal Egyptair as the airline behind a recent unidentified order for six more A350s.

Even so, Airbus’s hopes of using the event as a showcase for its first significant deal with Royal Air Maroc faded after the airline postponed plans to announce a larger Boeing deal, delegates said.

Boeing and GE Aerospace are scaling back their public activities following the fatal crash of an Air India jetliner, with the planemaker’s CEO cancelling his trip to the Paris Airshow next week and GE postponing an investor day.

More than 240 people were killed when an Air India Boeing 787 jet bound for London crashed moments after taking off from the city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, authorities said, in the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a message to staff on Thursday evening that he and Boeing Commercial Airplanes boss Stephanie Pope had cancelled plans to attend the Paris Airshow “so we can be with our team and focus on our customer and the investigation.”

The airshow, which runs from June 16 to June 20 at Le Bourget, is the global aviation industry’s largest trade show, where typically many aircraft orders are placed by airlines.

Ortberg had been due to attend for the first time as Boeing CEO since being appointed to lead the company out of a series of back-to-back safety, industrial and corporate crises.

Aircraft engine maker GE Aerospace, whose engines were in the Boeing 787 plane, had planned an investor day on June 17, coinciding with the show.

GE said the briefing had been cancelled and it would put a team together to go to India and analyse data from the crashed aeroplane.

“GE Aerospace’s senior leadership is focused on supporting our customers and the investigation,” the company said. It said it planned to give a financial update later this month.

Safety experts stressed it was too early to speculate why one of the world’s most modern airliners should crash shortly after takeoff. Accidents in that phase of flight are rare, said Paul Hayes, safety director at UK consultancy Cirium Ascend.

The Indian investigation of the crash is currently focusing on the engine, flaps and landing gear, Reuters reported on Friday, citing an unnamed source, as the country’s regulator ordered safety checks on Air India’s entire Boeing-787 fleet.

Under global aviation rules, India will lead the probe with support from NTSB investigators in the United States, who will, in turn, liaise with Boeing and GE on technical matters.

The reduced attendance plans came as delegates said the crash had cast a sombre mood over the airshow, putting in doubt several order announcements and putting safety back in the spotlight alongside concerns about US tariffs.

The world’s largest aviation trade expo, running from June 16 to 20 in Le Bourget, usually gives aircraft and arms manufacturers a key stage to showcase deals and sets the tone for a global supply chain already under pressure from shortages.

Boeing shares were down Friday, falling 3.8 percent, while GE Aerospace was down 2.4 percent.

Fewer deals

Boeing has cancelled some events and is unlikely to make any commercial order announcements at the show, though it will press ahead with low-key briefings on other topics, delegates said.

One key expected announcement had been a potential order for dozens of Boeing jets, including the 787 from Royal Air Maroc. But the airline plans no announcement at the show, and this will also affect Airbus, which had been expected to sell it some 20 A220s, industry sources said.

None of the companies had any comment on specific deals.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury on Friday expressed condolences over the accident, and the world’s largest planemaker was expected to observe a muted tone surrounding what had been expected to be a busy week for orders to meet high demand.

One delegate said business would continue but with fewer of the high-profile news conferences and in-person announcements associated with the industry’s biggest commercial showcase.

Another said some order announcements could be delayed until later in the year as a mark of respect for victims.

“The show will be a lot more sombre, less celebratory,” said a delegate involved in planning one such announcement, speaking anonymously because the plans have not been publicly revealed.

“The show will go ahead as planned, but it will be more subdued and with less cheerleading,” the delegate said.

Footage shows the only known survivor of the Air India Flight AI171 crash, 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, limping along a road near the wreckage as a medic helps him. Police say he leapt from emergency exit row 11A moments before the plane with 242 people on board crashed.

AN urgent manhunt has been launched after a lag escaped from prison.

Liam Slater is reported to have absconded from HMP Hatfield in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, on Sunday – with police warning members of the public not to approach him.

The 33-year-old was last seen boarding a train to Leeds at Stainforth Station at 8.46pm.

Cops say he has links to Wetherby and Seacroft in Leeds.

They want to hear from anyone who has seen or spoken to Slater recently.

A South Yorkshire Police statement added: “If you see Slater, please do not approach him but instead call 999.

“If you have any other information about where he might be, you can contact us online or by calling 101.

“Please quote incident number 818 of 18 May 2025 when you get in touch.”

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The mandate that the DoT challenged was a key part of former US President Joe Biden’s plan to address climate change.

The United States Department of Transportation (DoT) has declared that former President Joe Biden’s administration exceeded its authority by assuming a high uptake of electric vehicles in calculating fuel economy rules.

With that declaration on Friday, the DoT paved the way for looser fuel standards and published the “Resetting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program” (CAFE) rule. A future separate rule from the administration of President Donald Trump will revise the fuel economy requirements.

“We are making vehicles more affordable and easier to manufacture in the United States. The previous administration illegally used CAFE standards as an electric vehicle mandate,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement.

The department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in writing its rule last year under Biden, had “assumed significant numbers of EVs would continue to be produced regardless of the standards set by the agency, in turn increasing the level of standards that could be considered maximum feasible,” it said Friday.

A shift away from Biden policies 

In January, Duffy signed an order directing NHTSA to rescind fuel economy standards issued under Biden for the 2022-2031 model years that had aimed to drastically reduce fuel use for cars and trucks.

In a release last year, the DoT, then led by Pete Buttigieg, put in place a required fuel economy to increase by 2 percent for cars made between 2027 and 2031.

At the time, the DoT said it would help save consumers upwards of $600 on gas every year. It was also part of the Biden administration’s plan to address climate change.

“These new fuel economy standards will save our nation billions of dollars, help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and make our air cleaner for everyone. Americans will enjoy the benefits of this rule for decades to come,” then NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman said at the time.

In June 2024, the NHTSA said it would hike CAFE requirements to about 50.4 miles per gallon (4.67 litres per 100km) by 2031 from 39.1mpg currently for light-duty vehicles.

The agency last year said the rule for passenger cars and trucks would reduce gasoline consumption by 64 billion gallons and cut emissions by 659 million metric tons, cutting fuel costs with net benefits estimated at $35.2bn.

Late on Thursday, Senate Republicans proposed eliminating fines for failures to meet CAFE rules as part of a wide-ranging tax bill, the latest move aimed at making it easier for automakers to build gas-powered vehicles.

Last year, Chrysler-parent Stellantis paid $190.7m in civil penalties for failing to meet US fuel economy requirements for 2019 and 2020 after paying nearly $400m for penalties from 2016 through 2019. GM previously paid $128.2m in penalties for 2016 and 2017.

Stellantis said it supported the Senate Republican proposal “to provide relief while DoT develops its proposal to reset the CAFE standards … The standards are out of sync with the current market reality, and immediate relief is necessary to preserve affordability and freedom of choice.”

GM declined to comment.

Train veers off the tracks in Russia’s Bryansk region after ‘illegal interference’ caused a bridge to collapse, officials say.

A passenger train has derailed in Russia, killing at least seven people and injuring 30 others, after colliding with a bridge that collapsed because of what local officials described as “illegal interference”.

The incident took place late on Saturday in Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, there are seven fatalities,” Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said in a post on Telegram.

“Thirty victims, including two children, were taken to medical facilities in the Bryansk Region,” Bogomaz said, adding that two were in serious condition.

The driver of the train was among those killed, according to Russian news agencies.

Rosavtodor, Russia’s federal road transportation agency, said the destroyed bridge passed above the railway tracks where the train was travelling.

The railway vehicle – which was going from the town of Klimov to the Russian capital, Moscow – veered off the tracks when it collided with the collapsed bridge near the village of Vygonichi, according to the RIA news agency.

The area lies some 100km (62 miles) from Russia’s border with Ukraine.

Rescuers were searching for passengers trapped inside the damaged train, while emergency accommodation was set up at a school in Vygonichi, RIA reported.

Moscow Railway, in a post on Telegram, said the bridge had collapsed “as a result of an illegal interference in the operation of transport”.

It did not elaborate further.

Russia’s Baza Telegram channel, which often publishes information from sources in the security services and law enforcement, reported, without providing evidence, that according to preliminary information, the bridge was blown up.

Explosions have derailed multiple trains, most of them freight trains, in Russian regions near Ukraine as fighting between Russia and Ukraine continues.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Two hours after the bridge collapse was reported, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that Ukraine’s air defence units were trying to repel a Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital.

Earlier on Saturday, Russian drone and missile attacks killed at least two people in Ukraine, officials said.

Since the start of Russia’s invasion three years ago, there have been continued cross-border shelling, drone strikes and covert raids from Ukraine into Russia’s Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions, which border Ukraine.

United States President Donald Trump has urged Moscow and Kyiv to work together on a deal to end the war, and Russia has proposed a second round of face-to-face talks with Ukrainian officials next week in Istanbul.

Ukraine is yet to commit to attending the talks on Monday, saying it first needs to see Russian proposals, while a leading US senator warned Moscow it would be “hit hard” by new US sanctions.

The ruling comes as US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is set to pause federal funds to New York state.

New York City has won a temporary reprieve in its legal battle against the administration of US President Donald Trump, which had threatened to withhold federal funding from New York state unless the city ended its congestion pricing programme.

United States District Judge Lewis Liman held the hearing on the matter on Tuesday and granted a temporary restraining order that will allow the programme to keep running until at least June 9 as the administration and state-level officials battle over the future of congestion pricing.

A day earlier, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said he believed the federal government would withhold government approvals in the state, which would have frozen contracts for highway and transit projects.

Congestion pricing is likely to move forward indefinitely despite the federal administration’s objections because the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) – New York City’s mass transit system, which is operated as a state-level agency – “showed a likelihood of success”, according to the judge.

The courts said this is because the plan was already reviewed by state, local and federal agencies, according to the New York Times newspaper.

“Congestion relief is perfectly legal and thoroughly vetted. Opponents exhausted all plausible arguments against the programme, and now the increasingly outlandish theories are falling flat, too,” Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director for the Riders Alliance, a transportation advocacy group, told Al Jazeera.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul called the judge’s decision “a massive victory” for New York commuters.

“So here’s the deal: Secretary Duffy can issue as many letters and social media posts as he wants, but a court has blocked the Trump Administration from retaliating against New York for reducing traffic and investing in transit … Congestion pricing is legal, it’s working and we’re keeping the cameras on,” the governor’s office said in a statement.

“It’s really upsetting that it came to this point to begin with. We should not be in a position where the federal government is trying to stop New York state from enacting its own policy and trying to blackmail New York state when it doesn’t follow their [the US Department of Transportation’s] lead,” Alexa Sledge, communications director for the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, told Al Jazeera.

New York state launched the programme in January. Drivers have to pay congestion pricing tolls of $9 per day for driving during peak times in parts of Manhattan. The state made the programme in an effort to cut congestion in the nation’s most populous city as well as raise funds for NYC’s mass transit system.

“New York state should be able to make their own laws, and they should be able to run their own streets. And so hopefully, this can be the end of this,” Sledge said.

Meeting its goals

Since the programme began earlier this year, it has fulfilled many of its goals. Within a month of congestion pricing, subway ridership increased by six percent, and bus ridership by nine percent. Traffic decreased by 11 percent.

In March, the MTA forecasted that congestion pricing would bring in $500m in revenue for the system, which will fund a swath of new transit-system projects including station upgrades and zero-emissions buses. At the time, a Siena College poll found that 42 percent of New Yorkers wanted to keep the programme, while 35 percent wanted to get rid of it.

Neither the MTA nor the US Department of Transportation was immediately available for comment.

A UK train station undergoing a multi-million renovation has revealed plans to open a new pub.

Carlisle’s train station upgrade is part of a wider £27million redevelopment called the Gateway Project.

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This includes a new public square, car park and entrance.

But recent plans suggest the train station’s current Grade-II listed waiting room could be turned into a pub.

Once used by first class passengers, it even welcomed Queen Victoria.

Currently used for storage, it will instead be converted with a new mezzanine floor.

Images revealed by Seed Architects show the restoration of some of the original 1880s interiors as well as a bar area and seating.

Network Rail said: “The platform 4 first class waiting room has remained largely in use since it opened in 1880, albeit with a number of changes in how it is operated.

“The most recent operation was as a public house, which unfortunately closed due to its poor commercial offering.

“A mezzanine level is to be added within the west end of the space, this will provide a new perspective to view the heritage features not seen before, enhancing the architectural space.

“This will bring a new aspect of the space allowing users to enjoy the room from a different perspective and introducing a modern element into this unique space.

“[But] without harming it and adding potential value to be translated economically, what will guarantee its continuity to be looked after properly.”

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Outdoor seating also hopes to be added as part of the restoration.

The £27million redevelopment hopes to start this year, and be completed by 2027.

Around £20million of the funding is backed by both the UK and Scottish Governments as part of the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal

The ambitious project hopes to encourage “more visitors to the city”.

Cumberland Council Leader Mark Fryer added: “This is excellent news for Carlisle.”

Carlisle Station fist opened in 1847, costing £53,000 at the time – £4.6million in today’s money.

It no welcomes around two million passengers a year with trains to London and Manchester as well as Edinburgh, Liverpool and Newcastle.

A £160million new train station is set to open in the UK that will be the first of its kind in the country.

And here is another train station with its own pub.

Sun Travel’s favourite train journeys in the world

Sun Travel’s journalists have taken their fare share of train journeys on their travels and here they share their most memorable rail experiences.

Davos to Geneva, Switzerland

“After a ski holiday in Davos, I took the scenic train back to Geneva Airport. The snow-covered mountains and tiny alpine villages that we passed were so beautiful that it felt like a moving picture was playing beyond the glass.” – Caroline McGuire

Tokyo to Kyoto by Shinkansen

“Nothing quite beats the Shinkansen bullet train, one of the fastest in the world. It hardly feels like you’re whizzing along at speed until you look outside and see the trees a green blur. Make sure to book seat D or E too – as you’ll have the best view of Mount Fuji along the way.” Kara Godfrey

London to Paris by Eurostar

“Those who have never travelled on the Eurostar may wonder what’s so special about a seemingly ordinary train that takes you across the channel. You won’t have to waste a moment and can tick off all the top attractions from the Louvre to the Champs-Élysées which are both less than five kilometres from the Gare du Nord.” – Sophie Swietochowski

Glasgow to Fort William by Scotrail

“From mountain landscapes and serene lochs to the wistful moors, I spent my three-hour journey from Glasgow to Fort William gazing out the window. Sit on the left-hand side of the train for the best views overlooking Loch Lomond.” – Hope Brotherton

Beijing to Ulaanbatar

“The Trans-Mongolian Express is truly a train journey like no other. It starts amid the chaos of central Beijing before the city’s high-rises give way to crumbling ancient villages and eventually the vast vacant plains of Mongolia, via the Gobi desert. The deep orange sunset seen in the middle of the desert is among the best I’ve witnessed anywhere.” – Ryan Gray

Videos show the moment a Mexican Navy training ship crashed into New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, resulting in the deaths of two crew members and injuring dozens more. Eyewitnesses describe seeing people dangling from the snapped masts of the sailing vessel, the ARM Cuauhtémoc.

The strike leaves hundreds of thousands of commuters in New Jersey and New York without rail access.

New Jersey’s commuter rail engineers are on strike after negotiations for higher wages failed to materialise, leaving trains idle for commuters in the third-largest transit system in the United States for the first time in more than 40 years.

The strike began on Friday after The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represents 450 NJ Transit engineers who drive the agency’s commuter trains and agency management, broke off talks late Thursday after an unsuccessful 15-hour bargaining session.

The labour clash came weeks after negotiators had agreed on a potential deal in March, but the union’s members voted overwhelmingly to reject it.

NJ Transit has said it cannot afford the pay rises that the engineers are seeking because 14 other unions that negotiate separate labour contracts with the agency would demand the same, higher wage rates for their members.

The union pushed back on the gripe and has said that “NJT claims it doesn’t have the money to pay engineers a salary in line with industry standards, but somehow found a half-billion dollars for a new and unnecessary headquarters.”

New Jersey Transit opened a new headquarters earlier this year.

The union has said it is simply aiming to raise the engineers’ salaries to match those at other commuter railroads in the region.

“They [rail engineers]  have gone without a raise for six years and have been seeking a new contract since October 2019,” the union said in a statement.

NJ Transit says the engineers currently make $135,000 on average and that management had offered a deal that would yield an average salary of $172,000. But the union has disputed those figures, saying the current average salary is actually $113,000.

The parties have exchanged accusations of bad-faith bargaining.

The strike means that hundreds of thousands of daily passengers in New Jersey and New York are without service. NJ Transit said its rail system began its shutdown at 12:01am local time Friday.

In a news conference, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and NJ Transit’s Chief Executive Officer Kris Kolluri told reporters talks had paused but that management remained willing to resume negotiations at any time.

“We must reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and affordable,” Murphy, a Democrat, told reporters. “Let’s get back to the table and seal a deal.”

Murphy and Kolluri said the US National Mediation Board had reached out to both sides to propose reopening talks on Sunday morning, or sooner if the parties wished.

The union statement made no mention of when talks might be restarted. Protests began at several locations across the rail system, including NJ Transit’s headquarters in Newark, Penn Station in New York City, and the Atlantic City rail terminal.

The governor and the NJ Transit CEO also outlined contingency plans for dealing with the work stoppage, the first transit strike to hit New Jersey since a three-week walkout in 1983.

Workers urged to stay home

The looming strike had already prompted the agency to cancel trains and buses to MetLife Stadium for pop star Shakira’s concert last night and again for this evening.

In an advisory, NJ Transit encouraged commuters to work from home starting on Friday if possible.

The agency said it would increase bus services on existing lines and charter private buses to operate from several satellite lots in the event of a rail strike but warned buses would only be able to handle about 20 percent of rail customers.

Kolluri said last week that the union was “playing a game of chicken with the lives of 350,000 riders”.

“We have sought nothing more than equal pay for equal work, only to be continually rebuffed by New Jersey Transit,” Tom Haas, the union’s general chairman, said earlier this week.