The great and good of the British Rail Industry descended on Birmingham’s NEC last night (Thursday 28 November), to celebrate the 2024 RailStaff Awards. More than 1,000 guests gathered to honour the exceptional efforts of the employees who go the extra mile and excel in their roles. From rail managers...

It’s been another fantastic year at RailStaff Awards HQ. We thank everyone who nominated someone special and voted for them. From apprentices to customer service representatives, rail engineers to training managers, a wide array of job roles is represented in the submissions for the 20 award categories. With the voting phase...

All major political parties agree about the need to grow the economy, yet they differ on how this can be done. Some argue that tax cuts enable people to spend more and allow companies to retain more profits for reinvestment. However, overreliance on this policy can have dire economic...

In December, the Labour Party commissioned a Rail and Urban Transport Review (RUTR) to examine how a future government could accelerate connectivity within and between the UK’s key urban areas. This was led by Juergen Maier CBE, former Siemens CEO and vice chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership. He...

Less than a month after the publication of the Rail and Urban Transport Review (RUTR) came the ‘Opportunity through Connectivity’ (OtC) report which was published on 13 September. This reinforces the RUTR’s conclusions by emphasising the importance of rail connectivity, the need for more effective project management, and better...

Garforth station’s new footbridge opened in July, replacing a 190-year-old North Eastern Railway cast iron structure. An additional link span also connects the station to Aberford Road. Work to complete the lifts is now almost complete, and this will give rail passengers a safe, step-free option at the station...

The Health and Safety at Work Act gives inspectors powers to issue prohibition and improvement notices. Prohibition notices are issued when it is considered necessary to stop an activity that involves risk of serious personal injury. Such notices must state the cause of this risk and the legislation that...

One of the highlights of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Eastern European Rail Tour in May/June 2024 was a journey from Austria’s Vienna Hauptbahnhof over the Semmering pass to Mürzzuschlag Bahnhof for a visit to the offices and southern portal of the Semmering base tunnel which is under construction. When...

Nigel Keightley Since 1980, Sekisui has engineered and manufactured synthetic wooden baulks made from Fibre-reinforced Foamed Urethane (FFU) and, in 2014, Network Rail engineers installed the first FFU baulks and cross-sleepers as replacements for traditional hardwood on Military Canal & Blockhouse bridges in Kent (Rail Engineer 209, Aug/Sept 2024). Since...

The song ‘We’ll keep a welcome in the hillside’ comes to mind as I take a taxi up a Welsh valley to the miner’s welfare hall at Onllwyn, 15 miles northwest of Swansea. This is the base for my visit to the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) which is...

Rail engineers face considerable pressure to maintain high levels of asset resilience in the face of a warmer, wetter climate placing unexpected pressures on ageing and over-stretched infrastructure. While the desire to upgrade or replace assets may be strong, the capacity to do so cannot possibly meet the demand,...

Rail operators often find that they have need for temporary staff, especially at times of great change. Since the award of its contract in 2017, Southwestern Railway (SWR) has ordered new Alstom (née Bombardier) Arterio Class 701 trains and had proposed that they, together with the refurbished Class 442...