Transport for London (TfL) has announced that the Elizabeth line is on track to open in the first half of this year. TFL is coming to the end of the first phase of its Trial Operations ahead of starting the next phase including large-scale exercises across the new railway...

Future rail engineers are being encouraged to apply for a place on the Arkwright Engineering Scholarship, the application deadline for which has been extended to 21 January. Now in its 30th year, the Arkwright Engineering Scholarship is one of the most respected schemes of its type in the UK with...

Hitachi Rail and Intermodal Telematics (IMT) have agreed an exclusive long-term partnership that will add IMT’s monitoring sensors to Hitachi’s existing digital freight service. The agreement will allow Hitachi to offer rail freight companies a solution that provides real time monitoring to improve efficiency and safety. With global supply chains...

Neil Cross, National Sales Manager at Anderton Concrete, discusses the upcoming trends and key market drivers facing the rail industry throughout 2022 Over the last 12 months, Anderton Concrete has seen a significant increase in demand for precast concrete solutions, including its Network Rail approved troughing and bespoke precast. While...

A major rail upgrade in Manchester is now complete after Network Rail improved track and signalling equipment to boost reliability. Across seven days, between Saturday 25 December 2021 and Monday 3 January 2022, more than 100 railway workers installed four new track components – used to direct trains – completed...

Network Rail thanks passengers and local residents for their patience and understanding over the festive period while it has completed important rail upgrades. Over the Christmas and New Year break, Network Rail’s team of engineers has been hard at work completing £22m worth of essential upgrades across its Western region...

In 1964, Japan pioneered its Shinkansen service which showed how a dedicated high-speed rail network provides a large increase in capacity with all trains running at the same speed. The first such European line was France’s LGV (Ligne à Grande Vitesse) between Paris and Lille, which opened in 1981....

Poor adhesion is in the news following the collision between two trains at Salisbury Tunnel Junction on the evening of 31 October. The RAIB has said that analysis of the South Western Railway train’s OTDR indicated that wheel slide was present, both when the driver applied service braking and...

The UK Government heralded its recently published Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) as the biggest ever public investment in Britain’s rail network that will deliver faster, more frequent and more reliable trains in the North and Midlands. However, as explained below most of these claims are fictitious. Transport for the North...

Glasgow’s Subway comprises a four-foot gauge double track in a circular 10.5km tunnel and is the world’s third-oldest underground railway (after London and Budapest). When it opened in 1896, there was no rail connection to the surface, so cars were lowered into the tunnels from the depot above. Although trains...

If you’ve not been following what’s been happening in the world of very light rail (VLR) it is easy to get confused. In Issue 191 (July/Aug 2021), David Shirres described, among other things, the establishment of a VLR National Innovation Centre (VLRNIC) at Dudley and the cost/disruption challenge when...

Behind every train service is a maintenance regime, upholding safety, value, and reliability. However, while every operator will have a maintenance strategy, few are fully optimised. And, from cost savings to sustainability, the potential benefits of optimisation are far greater than you might think. One of the most expensive aspects...