It’s that time again – the countdown to the RailStaff Awards has begun, and although 2023’s event set the bar impossibly high, this year it will be bigger and better than ever! The RailStaff Awards recognise those who go the extra mile, whether that’s supporting their co-workers, making the railway...

Pre Metro has proposed the Stourbridge Dasher be considered to connect Dudley sooner rather than later, which could save taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds while delivering enhanced connectivity and economic revitalisation. The Stourbridge Dasher is being proposed as a cost-effective replacement for Phase 2b of the Wednesbury and Brierley...

State of the Art – Since 1980 Visit Us – Innotrans – Stand 265b – Hall 25 Overview SEKISUI Rail Technology, part of Sekiui Chemical is a leading manufacturer of synthetic rail products. In 1980 Fiber-Reinforced Foamed Urethane (FFU) Synthetic Sleepers was invented in partnership with the Railway Technical Research Institute (Tokyo, Japan). FFU Synthetic...

It’s that time again – the countdown to the RailStaff Awards has begun, and although 2023’s event set the bar impossibly high, this year it will be bigger and better than ever! The RailStaff Awards recognise those who go the extra mile, whether that’s supporting their co-workers, making the railway...

In 2018, the opportunity to electrify East West Rail (EWR) at low cost as it was built was lost when then Transport Minister declared that neither electrification nor diesel trains were needed as EWR will have “a completely new generation of low-emissions trains.” Despite commitments in the Integrated Rail...

A recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO), titled ‘HS2: update following the cancellation of phase 2’, has concluded that the Department for Transport (DfT) does not know how to maximise the benefits of HS2 now that phase 2 to Manchester has been cancelled. It notes that most...

Whatever your political views, it is undeniable that the new Labour government has a different approach to its predecessor. Here, we consider what this might mean for the nation’s railways, which were not a key factor in the election campaign. The transport promises A cash-strapped new government has far greater priorities...

Under current plans, in about seven years’ time HS2 trains from Old Oak Common (OOC) will join the West Coast Main Line (WCML) at Handsacre Junction just north of Lichfield. These trains will replace most of the WCML long distance trains that currently start at London Euston as this...

West Midlands Trains (WMT) is the operator of suburban services radiating from Euston as well as operating inter-urban services from Euston to Crewe and Birmingham New Street to Liverpool Lime Street under the London Northwestern Railway brand (LNR). In addition to suburban services radiating from Birmingham New Street under...

At last year’s Railway Challenge, the chief judge, Bill Reeve announced that without doubt it had been the best challenge yet. This year he said the same thing, and the scores showed that this was no mere repetition. Indeed, this year’s challenge was the first in which all the...

Sunday 2 June was a good day for residents of the Levenmouth area as, after 55 years, they got their railway back. The first public train services between Leven and Edinburgh were celebrated by a street fair and funfair on the promenade. The day before, a special train ran...