Train punctuality is a very important topic within Network Rail these days. The ORR (Office of Rail Regulation) has stated that it will fine the company £1.5 million for every 0.1% that the PPM (Public Performance Measure) falls below 92% for long distance routes at the end of March 2014. As...

Paris and London are Europe’s largest cities after Moscow and rank amongst the world’s greatest. Although both are quite different, their size and populations are similar. Physicists in Brazil have compared the two cities for accessibility using a computer model of their street and underground networks. This showed that Paris...

When London Underground’s Victoria Line opened in 1968, it measured 21km long and was the first metro in the world to have Automatic Train Operation (ATO). This was a revolutionary step and the system was designed under the guidance of the legendary London Underground signal engineer, Robert Dell. Using different...

Traditionally, a significant proportion of switches and crossings (S&C) for UK tramway and urban railway systems (and for the mainline UK rail network) are manufactured from cast austenitic- manganese steel (AMS). This has been used owing to its good resistance to abrasion, high work hardening capacity on impact and...

One of the many initiatives being undertaken by Network Rail as part of their plans to electrify the Great Western Main Line (GWML) is the design and construction of a £35 million high-output train currently being built by the German plant suppliers, Windhoff. Network Rail also announced in March this...

At last, we now know that the Great Western Main Line Railway (GWML) is going to be electrified. It was way back in 1977 that the Parliamentary Select Committee on Nationalised Industries recommended considering electrification of more of Britain’s rail network. Two years later, British Rail presented a range...

With 235 route miles, Glasgow boasts the UK’s largest electrified network outside London. Since the introduction of the Blue Trains on the 50 miles of the north Clyde electrics route in 1960, it has progressively expanded with the latest addition, the Airdrie to Bathgate line adding a further 32...

UKPN Services is keenly aware that a reliable and progressive rail network is only as good as its electrical infrastructure. Its credentials are well established and include the landmark construction of section 1 and 2 of High Speed One, a £130 million joint venture with Network Rail to upgrade...

The Liverpool to Manchester Railway, constructed by George Stephenson and opened on the 15 September 1830, is credited with being the world’s first twin-track inter-city passenger railway on which all trains were timetabled and ticketed. Therefore it was only fitting that, in November 2010, the Government should announce that...

Been banging your head against a brick wall lately? Are you utterly convinced that changing railway technical standards is well nigh impossible? Have you been encouraged to get back in your box? Well, take heart. There’s one guy who is not only still out of his box, he has...

For those in the signalling or rolling stock professions, it is all too easy to think of track maintenance as an old-fashioned undertaking, devoid of modern technology and dependent on technicians with jacks, spanners and shovels. However, this perception is totally wrong. Civil engineering track maintenance equipment has developed...

For those working on heavy rail, the way streets absorb tram infrastructure to show only running rails is impressive indeed. Even more impressive is that some streets are now absorbing the tram’s power supply as well, the result of a drive by the major tram manufacturers to make trams...