Enjoy the latest news, in-depth features and much more, all from your favourite monthly modern railway magazine.
New HS2 fleet - short on detail
■ Train weight and seating claims confused
■ UK gauge ETR1000 likely
■ Mystery pantograph highlighted
Operators face ongoing new train woes
■ Alstom: Class 701 joins record lateness club
■ CAF: trams suffer weld failures
■ Hitachi: low availability compounds cracking issues
■ Stadler: passenger’s favourite tries maintainers
Celebrating community achievement
Projects large and small featured at the annual Community Rail Awards in December
Daydream believers
Does the emphasis on railway reform mean we may lose focus on short-term challenges?
Time to signal change
ALAN WILLIAMS challenges current disruptive and increasingly unaffordable methods of resignalling and suggests how lesser-used lines, and particularly single-track lines, might be cost-effectively signalled in the future
The safety dance
The creation of Great British Railways is the opportunity to simplify the organisations called into existence by fragmentation, not least in the safety industry
Passenger traffic recovery - LNER shows the way
■ 20 points clear of next franchised long-distance TOC
■ ECML open access operators also recovered strongly
■ Greater freedom of action with OLR?
New fleet for the DART
TONY MILES describes the new Alstom fleet ordered for commuter services in Dublin
Branch line revolution or one-day wonder?
Our columnist questions the longevity of the Restoring your Railway initiative
Curzon Street transforms Birmingham
High Speed 2’s station in central Birmingham is set to transform the city’s rail architecture while recognising its history. ANDY RODEN examines the plan for this major architectural statement on Britain’s new railway
Commonwealth Ambition
MALCOLM HOLMES, Executive Director at West Midlands Rail Executive, and DENISE WETTON, Central Route Director at Network Rail, tell PHILIP SHERRATT how this summer’s Commonwealth Games will be a major milestone in the region’s post-Covid recovery
Table-toppers improving
Reliability growth in New Train TIN-watch is slow, but there are more graduates on the horizon
New Year, New Network
Following the resumption of regular services, what difference will the Dartmoor line make to the community in Okehampton?
Freight EMU operations poised for growth
RAIL OPERATIONS (UK) Ltd’s Orion subsidiary began rail freight services on 23 November, when the company’s first Wembley to Shieldmuir (Glasgow) run for Royal Mail was made.
Gosforth gets ready for new Metro fleet
The first phase of the rebuild of the Tyne and Wear Metro depot has been completed
Process delays £4m fleet sanding pilot
■ Salisbury highlights lack of urgency
■ Dual Variable Rate Sander offers adhesion-agnostic braking
■ Four months spent haggling over Class 323 fitment contract
■ Earlier ScotRail bid rejected
Reasons to be cheerful – part two
In the January 2009 issue I thought I would lighten the mood by listing the best things about the UK railway. Thirteen years on, it seems a good time to try that again
ECML upgrade: DfT jumps the shark
◾ IRP forecasts imply London to Edinburgh 3hr 35min timing
◾ Other timings equally improbable
◾ Benefits of 140mph overstated
◾ Final infrastructure upgrades completed by 2037
Signalling – competition review hits market reality
◾ ETCS focused
◾ Siemens the dominant player
◾ Limited new entrants available to challenge incumbents
◾ Hitachi sweeps up alternative potential ETCS suppliers
Rail is green - but do passengers care?
Transport Focus has investigated attitudes towards sustainable transport. Chief Executive ANTHONY SMITH questions whether simply being ‘green’ will be enough to persuade people out of their cars
North of England rails against disintegrated plan
Integrated Rail Plan lets down the North of England, says our columnist
Trackwatch - January 2022
A digest of the main changes on Network Rail, London Underground and Northern Ireland Railways infrastructure during October 2021; compiled by Martyn Brailsford of the Branch Line Society (www.branchline.uk).
Threat of ‘managed decline’ without TfL funding
Fleet replacements would be postponed and enhancements abandoned
MML wires may soon reach Wigston
TRANSPORT SECRETARY Grant Shapps announced investment of £249 million in the Midland main line on 18 November as he published the Integrated Rail Plan.
