#runcorn-and-helsby

#runcorn-and-helsby

The announcement that the world snooker championships would remain at Sheffield's Crucible theatre until 2045 was not just a surprise... it was a major relief for a neglected northern giant.

British Steel operates the last two remaining blast furnaces in the UK but it is still economically controlled by the Chinese company, which bought it out of insolvency in early 2020.

Just about everything that could happen did. I live in LA, I did the Staples Center - home of the Lakers. That was an important building to people, but it was nothing like Everton.

The main focus of the project is replacing the existing timber decking on the walkway, which has reached the end of its useful life. It will be replaced with glass-reinforced plastic panels, a more durable material designed to withstand heavy passenger use and last for many years.

Sit down with Hannah Bowler and the Story Catchers and Network Rail team where they discuss their wins at The Drum Awards for Marketing EMEA for their 'You vs Train' campaign. Hear about the success of the campaign, how changing behavior was its ultimate goal, and how they reached difficult target audiences.

"Those panels really only last about 40 years maximum. These panels were covered in lichens, so the station was very, very dark."

A new campaign is aiming to collect 50 objects that sum up Englishness in an effort to move the conversation away from reductive arguments over whether to hang a St George's flag or not. Supported by the Green party politician Caroline Lucas, the musician and campaigner Billy Bragg, and Kojo Koram, a law professor, the A Very English Chat campaign hopes to tackle England's growing social divisions and political polarisation.

During the 22-day closure, Southeastern trains into central London will continue to run, but many trains will be diverted to alternative terminals. Most services that would normally use Charing Cross will instead run to London Victoria, London Cannon Street or London Blackfriars, with some trains terminating at London Bridge.

Take these gates at Polegate station. They are equipped with a barcode reader, a place to tap a card, and even a slot for inserting a ticket. However, it all appears to have come to naught, and the gates opened wide. Windows is slumped in the corner like someone on the last train home after a night out that involved drinking too much booze.

Of the UK's top 10 datacentre projects, only one - at East Havering in Essex, with projected capacity of more than 600MW - is in the London area. The remainder, totalling just under 4GW, are spread north from Oxfordshire, to Lincolnshire, North Wales, the north east and Scotland, most being sites that can tap into offshore wind or nuclear power.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

Our transport is always being upgraded to make travel smoother, our neighbourhoods are always getting new homes and community spaces, and fresh cultural offerings like restaurants and theatre shows are always popping up. So naturally, 2026 will be full of new openings. We've put together a list of all of the most exciting new projects set to alter London over the next 12 months.

Garrington Property Finders' annual ranking is described as an impartial, objective ranking based on publicly available data across 18 categories, including proximity to open space, National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the number of listed and period homes, air quality, and crime figures. A wide range of data sources is used, including those provided by the Office for National Statistics, the Department for Levelling Up, and Natural England.

The national rail bridge that spans Balham High Road, next to Balham station, has been given a deep clean and a new lighting scheme to improve its appearance. The bridge is the latest to benefit from Wandsworth Council's £2m schedule of improvements to rail bridges and underpasses, which is being funded by its contributions from local property developers.

The station needs upgrades to handle projected passenger demand as new housing is built nearby, but the current design wouldn't be able to accommodate it. The main problem is that the station is elevated high above the streets but has a long staircase to use. As a result, the two lifts are under unusually high use as people understandably avoid the stairs. That means the lifts are also often in need of repairs due to their higher-than-average use.

The UK government has not said when the money will be made available or over what period. It had already announced 445m for rail projects in Wales at last June's spending review, and has now explained that money will go towards building each of the seven stations. Initial work on five of the south east stations will begin later this year, with construction on two of them beginning in 2029. While no timescales have been announced, it is expected that Magor and Undy will be the first station to be completed.

Three of London's mainline terminus stations have announced more dates for the Railway 200 themed heritage tours that they were running last year. The tours will run once a month from January to March next year at London Bridge, Victoria, and Waterloo stations and will be led by Network Rail and historian-author Rachel Kolksy. They will last around two hours and involve walking around each station and the surrounding areas. The tours will cost £25 per person and dates are below. London Bridge station Tickets

Working Arts Club was always going to exist outside of London because class issues in the art world are systemic not geographic,

LNER has unveiled the name and interior design of a new fleet of long-distance trains, which will be the first to carry the new Great British Railways branding when it launches in a few years time. LNER says demand on its East Coast Mainline route has continued to grow since the pandemic, with more than 24 million passengers travelling in 2024-25.

Fiona Twycross, the heritage minister, is to be congratulated for finally giving London's Southbank Centre Grade II listing (Campaigners welcome long overdue' listing of brutalist Southbank Centre, 10 February). I remember being shocked when I first saw it in the 1960s, but it has become a remarkable symbol of the zeitgeist. Its grey concrete and its childlike composition together express the fatalism and despair of a nation in economic and political decline.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has confirmed on January 23rd the operators that will deliver the first phase of its new bus franchising system, bringing buses back under public control for the first time since deregulation in the 1980s. The move places Liverpool among a small group of English regions outside London to adopt a franchised public transport model, fundamentally changing how local bus services are planned, funded and delivered.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

The new trains are the first of a fleet of 94 new trains being built in Yorkshire at the moment, and will eventually replace the Piccadilly line's existing 50-year old rolling stock. However, before passengers can ride the new trains, they need hundreds of hours of testing and assurance that they will work as expected. And testing has been underway ever since the first train arrived in London last year.