Most rail infrastructure is in excess of 150 years old and does not offer comparable levels of resilience to modern engineered solutions. Ever increasing extreme weather events has also put heightened strain on Britain’s historic railway. This webinar on 18th February (11am) is aimed at Engineers, Designers and Contractors and...

Britain’s nine light rail systems record almost 300 million journeys each year. Their high capacity provides urban connectivity that drives economic growth as shown by the Docklands Light Railway has shown. Manchester’s Metrolink was also the catalyst for MediaCity in Salford. Unlike buses, trams attract motorists from cars and...

Proving that not all railway projects take an age to be completed, Network Rail recently designed, planned and delivered platform extensions at three stations in Sussex in a little over three months. The works undertaken during three 52-hour possessions at Goring-by-Sea, Lancing and Cooksbridge provide a perfect example of the...

Over Christmas, a substantial amount of work was delivered in and around Bristol’s Temple Meads station. This included important elements of the long-term Bristol Rail Regeneration programme, which is itself linked into Bristol City Council’s Temple Quarter Regeneration. As part of its wider regeneration programme, Bristol City Council is developing...

Helping passengers travel easily and efficiently on public transport is a complex task, and one which has been made considerably more difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic. The global health crisis has had a major impact on our transport networks, with passenger confidence in public transport having been severely affected.  Rail...

Back in pre-COVID times, when life felt normal but hectic, Rail Engineer published an article about Network Rail’s plans to spend £1.2 billion upgrading the East Coast main line. It outlined a hugely ambitious scheme that has taken some time to plan and organise, coupled with an alliance of...

Introducing Greater Anglia’s new Aventra trains into service In August 2016 Abellio was awarded a long-term franchise to run the Greater Anglia network from October 2016 for nine years to 2025. The big surprise was the commitment to replace the entire fleet of trains between January 2019 and October 2020....

Although rail maintenance facilities have a high concentration of people, the safety of depot workers does not have the same focus as there is for track workers.  “Yards, depots and sidings account for 20% of all workforce harm - with 29% of fatalities in the last five years occurring in...

Exeter St. David’s goods yard was a reasonable size when it was first established back in the 1840s. But then it soon started to be nibbled away. By 1864, additional platforms were constructed for the adjacent station, as a result of the arrival of three more railway companies.  Nothing much...

Rail Engineer’s recent feature on hydrogen trains mentioned plans to produce a hydrogen demonstrator train in Scotland, but it went to press before the announcement of the contract award. As this initiative has much of interest, in both the train and the UK’s decarbonisation strategy, we hope readers will...

Being the leading force in bespoke rail plant has always been a passion for rail contractor QTS Group. Founded in 1992 by managing director Alan McLeish, the company has brought a selection of world-first machinery to the rail industry and now employs over 500 staff and has offices around...