In May 2025, some 40 young and not so young engineers toured four countries experiencing contrasting ways of delivering rail transport and station enhancements. Visits to the major works at Amsterdam and Stuttgart stations were described in Issue 215 (Jul-Aug 2025). This was your writer’s fifteenth tour, his first taking place in 1982. On each trip, new relationships are created, old ones rekindled, and a learning experience provided to all. For example, some members had never visited a bogie manufacturing plant before and one of the visits was a first for the whole group.
The eight-day tour covered the Netherlands, Germany, passing through Belgium en-route to France. Group member Tim Fairbrother kept score: five hotels (plus sleeper train), 10 sites visited (it should have been 11, see later), 19 trains over 1,946km with 25.5 hrs travel time, 16km by trolleybus, 293km by coach, about 15km on rubber-tyred metro, and lots of walking too.
The Netherlands
Three days were spent in the Netherlands visiting the station work at Amsterdam, Utrecht’s Transport Museum which told the story of railway development in a country where ground conditions are distinctly unfavourable, and Maasvlakte Rotterdam, the newest part of that city’s port. This was built on land reclaimed from the North Sea. The port visit included the Portlantis exhibition which used virtual reality and other media to explain the port’s work and employment opportunities, followed by a trip on a small leisure boat which was utterly dwarfed by the commercial ships.
Netherlands Railway’s infrastructure manager (the equivalent of Network Rail) is ProRail and we spent a day at RailCenter, a training and certification assessment facility in Amersfoort hearing presentations from its representatives and meeting some railway suppliers.
RailCenter is a non-profit organisation which delivers the Dutch equivalent of PTS and technical training on signalling and track assets. An extensive range of track and signalling equipment was seen during a site tour which included infrastructure inspection vehicles at Eurail Scout.
The Netherlands is a small country interconnected by electric rail services and ProRail’s challenge is to accommodate demand growth forecasts of 25-50% for freight and 30% for passenger. ProRail is exploring digitalisation, data driven solutions, FRMCS, robotics, ERTMS, ATO, and upgraded power supply as means to deliver growth. Netherlands’ railways are electrified at 1.5kV dc and despite using double contact wires, this is a restriction for increasing capacity. That said, the current national priority is to roll out ETCS, with the challenge to ensure that by the time a route is equipped, all trains that might use it also have ETCS.
The RailCenter site includes a 5G FieldLab. Thomas Huffmeijer explained that this is a real physical railway environment with access to a private 5G test environment which includes three antennas – one inside and two ‘in the track’ – as well as workplaces with 5G connection and monitoring options. Some of the developments under way or being considered are shown in Table 1.
Peter Boom from Haskoning facilitated our visit and presented the emerging ProRail vision on digitalisation, including Building Information Management (BIM) and Digital Twins. The concept is that proper application of BIM can be the basis of constructing Digital Twins. He presented use cases for Digital Twins optimising traction power analysis, capacity management of a freight shunting yard, and controlling people flows at a station.
Rolf Dollevoet introduced the work of the Technical University of Delft. Its mission is:
- Building a university wide scientific community for advanced railway research.
- Becoming the national centre for railway research with international exposure.
- Educating engineers to solve challenges in various railway disciplines.
Its current research portfolio is organised under three main themes of increasing capacity, improving asset management and reducing CO2 /energy footprint. Projects include: conversion to 3kV DC, ATO, managing climate change, and smart use of data. Track-train integration is a good example of the University’s work. This includes analysing axlebox vibration data from 12 trains that cover ProRail’s network, adhesion monitoring, and thermal imaging.
Utrecht is a hub station for the whole network and had always constrained network capacity. RailCenter’s simulation team explored many options for improvement. The existing layout maximises flexibility but uses a large number of points and crossings and constrains speed to 40km/h in and around the station. The modelling established that more capacity could be achieved with fewer switches (280 down to 80) while permitting speed to increase to 60-70km/h. More signals were required, but trains could brake more smoothly. Intensive monitoring had taken place since implementation to verify the results of the modelling.
Sleeper
A trip from Amersfoort to Munich Hauptbahnhof on an Austrian Railways’ Nightjet sleeper train didn’t go to plan. The train departed on time, hauled by a new Netherlands Railways’ Siemens Vectron loco. But, having settled into the train, soon there was a harsh emergency brake application (coaches fitted with magnetic track brakes). Soon we moved off, but this was followed by another emergency brake, and another – nine in all. Eventually the loco was declared a failure, and a German loco was added to the front, leading to the train being three hours late by the time it arrived at Nuremberg.
To recover some of the lost time, that train was routed away from Munich Hbf forcing the group to change to a suburban train at Munich Pasing and, sadly, missing the planned visit to the Knorr Bremse’s research centre in Munich. We travelled on to Stuttgart partly on the newly opened high speed line from Ulm. The DB ICE4 train had comfortable seats and rode extremely smoothly, notably better on both counts than contemporary UK trains! At Stuttgart we saw the almost complete new underground station and its tunnels as described in last month’s magazine.
Alstom Siegen
Wednesday: on to Siegen for a visit to Alstom’s specialist bogie plant, an integrated Project Engineering, R&D, Testing and Manufacturing facility on one site. The Siegen team carries out design and development of complete bogie systems with support provided for the whole bogie lifecycle. It has a capacity for 3,000 bogies/year (roughly 50:50 new and overhaul). During a factory tour we were shown a whole range of bogies, from tiny light rail bogies to massive freight loco examples. One unusual type seen was the gauge changing bogie used on Swiss Golden Pass trains between Montreux to Interlaken which passes a metre/standard gauge changing system at Zweisimmen.
The team is clearly proud of its Flexx EcoTM bogie, a refined development building upon British Rail’s 1980s Advanced Suburban Bogie. It is used extensively in the former Bombardier product range. Nearly 5,500 Flexx EcoTM bogies have been manufactured or are on order for the UK’s Aventra EMUs, for example. Also for the UK, around 3,300 two-piece flexible frame bogies were built for London Underground’s Victoria line and sub-surface fleets.
Another Siegen development is the use of one-piece SGI cast iron frames. We were told that good casting designs can be lighter than a fabricated frame as, for example, material thickness can be optimised for the stresses in a particular location. The bogies for the forthcoming HS2 trains were described as being “Flexx Eco’s big brother” with one-piece frames and 920mm diameter wheelsets.
Our tour included production and training areas followed by the test hall where first off bogies are subject to systematic tests to ensure they work as designed. One interesting feature was a workstation used to test new recruits. This is unusual because none of the components are to the correct dimensions and do not correspond with the provided instructions and drawings. It is possible to assemble the parts, but the objective of the test is to find people who will stop assembly and report issues to the supervisor. Those who complete the assembly without a word fail the test!
Alstom Siegen has a strong relationship with the University of Siegen. Most of its students do significant work experience at the Alstom site and it supplies most of Alstom Siegen’s engineering recruits. All new engineers have to experience assembly and servicing of both clean and dirty bogies.
Wuppertaler Schwebebahn
Thursday took us to Wuppertal Oberbarmen, from where we travelled to Wuppertal Vohwinkel on the Schwebebahn for presentations and a tour of the workshops. The Schwebebahn is a 120-year-old suspended monorail system which was originally chose as it could operate over the town’s river, the only space available. Its main characteristics are shown in Tables 2 and 3, while the basic configuration of the monorail system is shown above.
The railway is over 120 years old and received an extensive upgrade over the period 1995 to 2014 to deliver more frequent services, enhancing the capacity of this important urban passenger line. Some of the track, viaduct, and bridge structures were replaced, stations were upgraded, and lifts installed together with ramps to allow people in wheelchairs to board the trains. Station and structures renewal had to be carried out very sensitively as Wuppertal is very proud of the railway’s heritage and wishes to retain its look and feel.
New trains, telecommunications, and signalling have also been introduced. The trains are formed of two interconnected vehicles, supplied by Vossloh Kiepe with three phase AC traction drives and spring applied friction brakes. Service braking is carried out entirely by the regenerative brake with the motors powered into reverse to stop the train when the regenerative brake fades. The friction brake is used to hold the train and for emergencies. The trains were built to include ETCS cab signalling.
Alstom provided ETCS level 2 Automatic Train Protection (ATP) with track/train communication via the railway’s voice and data TETRA system, unlike GSM-R used elsewhere. We were told that there was quite a lot of work to optimise the system to allow drivers to brake efficiently into stations. This involved setting the limit of movement authority into the station 10 metres beyond the stopping point.
The trains are operated by the driver who has in-cab CCTV that receives images from platform cameras via infrared links, soon to be replaced by Wi-Fi.
We toured the workshops which are on two levels. Running maintenance and stabling is carried out on the top level alongside the running tracks whereas heavy maintenance is performed at a lower level. A vehicle lift moves cars to and from the lower level when required.
The Schwebebahn still maintains one of the original 120-year-old trains known as the Kaiserwagen. We saw new bogies for this vehicle in the final stages of construction. These are fully welded, unlike the original riveted structures, so to maintain the look and feel of the original design, a very large number of false rivet heads have been attached!
Lille
After a journey to Solingen on a 1959 trolleybus (including running on an IC engine over an earthed section), we travelled by three trains to Lille via Cologne and Brussels Midi. In Lille some of the team visited Lille Opera to see Faust by Gounod, another first for many of our party.
Friday was spent at SNCF’s rolling stock heavy maintenance facility in Hellemmes on the outskirts of Lille including a journey on Lille’s VAL light automated rubber tyred metro.
Hellemmes employs 300 engineers, technicians, and operators providing industrial production for SNCF’s northern engineering cluster. During the workshop tour, we were shown a variety of passenger coaches both double deck and single deck, TGV and suburban fleets. Throughput of mid-life vehicle overhauls is facilitated using ‘robots’, remote-controlled miniature transporters, to lift vehicles and move them around the workshop, after bogies are removed.
The site is also home to SNCF engineering development teams in specific technical areas. We visited the computer simulation facility where virtual train environments enable proposed TGV software releases to be piloted, reducing on-train testing. SNCF’s policy is that suppliers are responsible for new train software for the first three years and then transfer all source code to SNCF which manages upgrades and bug fixes thereafter.
The computer team is responsible for strategy, identifying emerging technology, training, development of standards, and software development (see table 4). It acts as ISA for all SNCF Voyageurs’ development and is certified as a software auditor against standards EN 50657 and EN 50716. The team undertakes R&D both for SNCF and as part of European railway research, including next generation TCMS (NG-TCMS) with aspirations for trains from different suppliers to couple and work together and for a remote facility control for a NG-TCMS train.
Hellemmes also enhances fleet performance, with impressive real-time remote diagnostics triaging that feeds into operational decision-making, supported by technical investigations. They close the feedback loop back into new train specification, embedding performance improvements. Overall, SNCF is much more involved with the design and support of its fleets than is typically the case in the UK today.
Eurotunnel
Our journey home from Lille was by coach. If this seems odd for a railway tour, it enabled a privileged tour behind the scenes at Eurotunnel’s Coquelles facility. Following presentations about operation and maintenance, we visited the tunnel mouth and walked some way into the service tunnel, before touring the site by coach and visiting the maintenance workshop.
Presentations covered the basics of Eurotunnel (see Panel) and some of the challenges ahead to increase revenue, reduce cost, and deal with equipment and infrastructure that is ageing.
Eurotunnel welcomes the initiative to increase uses of the tunnel by, for example, increasing competition for Eurostar. It is also taking action to cope with the forthcoming introduction of European ESTA electronic entry/exit system which threatens to increase processing time at the borders.
There is a great deal of emphasis on asset management both to reduce maintenance hours to enable more trains to operate and to help manage ageing infrastructure. For instance:
- Video inspection of tunnels using trainborne cameras reducing the access time needed compared with manual inspection. This involves a small truck fitted with numerous high resolution photographic and thermal image cameras which runs every fortnight on an open wagon to monitor the tunnel and OLE. It would take a year to survey the 100km of tunnels manually.
- Rails are replaced every seven years (optimised for wheel/rail interface), but the track system has absorbed some 3 billion gross tonnes and resilient track base components are deteriorating. Renewal is planned and vibration analysis is being used to identify failed pads.
- For the rolling stock, laser wheel profile measurement is being introduced together with wheel flat detection which can also check wheelset loads and uneven wagon loads. A mid-life refurbishment of passenger vehicles is planned which is expected to deliver a 30-year life extension.
There is also extensive research and development activity, illustrated in table 5.
After the Eurotunnel tour we boarded out high floor coach and experienced the delights of passport control for coach travellers using the Channel Tunnel: exit coach, queue to have exit stamp on passport, rejoin coach, drive 50 metres, exit coach, queue for British passport control, rejoin coach and drive to train. Quite why the two border control teams can’t occupy the same building as at St Pancras International is a mystery.
Tour members sitting in the front seats of the coach were impressed by our coach driver’s manoeuvring skills to get our coach onto the enclosed single deck shuttle train. And so, the 2025 Technical Tour unusually ended on British soil at Folkstone Central station.
Eurotunnel highlights
The holding company Getlink includes subsidiaries of Eurotunnel itself: Europorte, a private freight operator in France and which provides maintenance at port rail facilities, Eleclink providing a 1GW power cable though the tunnel for electricity import/export, and CIFFCO, a private railway training centre for Eurotunnel and others.
Eurotunnel has approximately €1.6 billion annual revenue and carries around 1,000 trains/day, transporting 2.2 million passenger vehicles, 8 million passengers and, 1.2 million trucks annually. Eurotunnel’s main external customer, Eurostar, carries some 11 million passengers each year.
Loading and unloading shuttle trains needs space. This is very limited in Folkstone – only 150 hectares – whereas Coquelles has some 650 hectares. This is the reason why maintenance facilities are concentrated in France. There are 800 employees in Folkstone and double that number in Coquelles.
There are stringent security arrangements at Coquelles which includes 35km of fences to manage. Coquelles also has a 200-truck parking lot. Temporary truck driver facilities – food/drink/showers, and so on – were provided during the covid pandemic emergency phase, which met a general unsatisfied need and are to be replaced by permanent facilities.
There is 200km of track to maintain of which 100km is in the tunnels themselves. Maintenance is only possible two nights per week or 700 hours per year.
There are nine 800-metre-long passenger trains which are half single, half double deck and 15 freight trains with 32 wagons and one amenity car. Each train is operated with two Bo-Bo electric locos. Train maintenance is carried out in a 900-metre maintenance shed; routine maintenance is one day/month for passenger trains and, two days/month for freight trains.
Conclusion
A good summation was provided by Alexander Stark, an engineering apprentice and one of the youngest tour members.
He said: “The tour had a large range of people of varying levels of experience and age groups. This was a great way to learn, given everyone’s shared passion and knowledge for the railway. The visits were diverse and relevant, and we were lucky to have been able to visit some of these places. A huge thanks to the organisers. I’d recommend it and will try and get myself on the tour again next year!”
Your writer, more than 50 years older than Alex echoes his comments. Every year provides opportunities to see something new; every day is still a learning day!
With grateful thanks to sponsors, Angel Trains, Eversholt Rail, and Porterbrook Leasing; also to several generous individuals who sponsored the participation of some of the young members.
