All articles by Rail Business UK – Page 10
-
Rail Business UKUnion calls for leadership to protect railway staff and passengers from riots
UK: Train drivers’ union ASLEF has written to all passenger train operators and Network Rail to calling for ‘clear, unequivocal action and leadership from the whole rail industry’ to protect staff and the travelling public from the ‘far right thuggery and rioting in our towns’. On ...
-
Rail Business UKFreight operator says HVO is the only alternative to electrification
UK: ‘Until a firm commitment is made to electrification of the UK network, hydro-treated vegetable oil is the only credible solution to rail freight decarbonisation’, according to DB Cargo UK’s Chief Sales Officer Roger Neary. ’More services could be operated with HVO if the right policies ...
-
Rail Business UKRoute Availability Calculator launched to simplifying train planning
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board has launched a Route Availability Calculator to streamline and simplify the ‘time-consuming and complex’ calculations to assess vehicle compatibility with a route Users input a vehicle’s axle distances and axle loads, and the calculator on the RSSB website then ...
-
Rail Business UKRail Skills Academy to set young people up for careers in railway maintenance
UK: A Rail Skills Academy programme is being launched to help to combat the skills shortage and lack of diversity in the rail industry as part of the legacy programme for the East Kilbride Enhancement Project. The academy will be delivered by QTS Training on behalf ...
-
Rail Business UKCouncil remains ‘absolutely committed’ to Portishead railway reopening
UK: North Somerset Council says it remains committed to reopening the Portishead to Bristol line, despite the government’s cancellation of the Restoring Your Railway programme. Rail schemes within the programme will now be subject to review by the Secretary of State for Transport. In early 2023 ...
-
Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
This week’s round-up of business news from the UK railway industry.
-
Rail Business UKDfT projects review commissioned and Restoring Your Railway Fund scrapped
UK: Secretary of State for Transport Louise Haigh has commissioned an internal review of the Department for Transport’s capital spend portfolio, following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ July 29 statement in the House of Commons about unfunded public spending.
-
Rail Business UKCall to retain cash payment at stations
UK: Great British Railways must retain cash payment options, watchdog Transport Focus has said, because some passengers in the most deprived areas could be disadvantaged if they had to use other payment methods. In its Is Cash Still Important On Today’s Railway? report, Transport Focus says ...
-
Rail Business UKHedgehog sleeper designed to reduce embedded carbon
UK: Network Rail’s Wales & Western region and Dutch manufacturer Lankhorst Engineered Products have developed a composite sleeper made of made of 90% recycled materials which they say involves 90% less embedded carbon in production than wooden equivalents and 78% less than concrete. The design based ...
-
Rail Business UKA whole-industry approach is needed to get young people to use trains for life
UK: Young people want to travel more by rail, but train operators need to provide reliable services, value for money and consistent amenities if they are to attract the next generation of travellers and retain them as customers for the next 20 years, First Rail Managing ...
-
Rail Business UKCrossCountry cuts services to catch up on driver training
UK: CrossCountry is cutting services from August 10 until November 9 in an effort to reduce on-the-day cancellations while it catches up on a post-pandemic backlog of driver training. On July 29 the operator said prolonged industrial action across the rail industry had prevented it from ...
-
Rail Business UKNorthern awards station passenger information systems contract
UK: Train operator Northern has awarded Sella Controls a contract to supply, install and commission 269 customer information displays as well as long line public address systems at 68 stations. Design work is under way, with the first installations planned for this summer. The current equipment ...
-
Rail Business UKSamaritans to continue railway suicide prevention programme
UK: Network Rail has reappointed Samaritans as primary delivery partner for its strategy to prevent suicide on the railway. The charity has been partnering with Network Rail since 2010. The new contract awarded following a tender runs from September 2024 to March 2027. ‘The programme ensures ...
-
Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
This week’s round-up of business news from the UK railway industry.
-
Rail Business UKCancellation of HS2 Phase 2 may force demand management on trains north of Birmingham, NAO says
UK: The cancellation of Phase 2 of High Speed 2 means the programme will now not address the capacity issues on the West Coast Main Line north of Birmingham, according to the National Audit Office. The NAO warns that improving existing infrastructure may be expensive and ...
-
Rail Business UK‘TBM in a can’ plan makes progress at HS2 site in west London
UK: Construction of HS2 Ltd’s Green Park Way ventilation shaft at Greenford in west London has entered a crucial phase, as preparations ramp up ahead of the arrival and subsequent recovery of four tunnel boring machines at the site. The TBMs are excavating the 13·5 km ...
-
Rail Business UKInnovation funding supports sustainable decommissioning of HS2 worksites
UK: HS2 Ltd is to work with SMEs Infinitive Group Ltd and Material Index as part of its efforts to sustainably ‘deconstruct’ worksites along the 225 km of high speed railway being built between London and the West Midlands. The two companies will work with the ...
-
Rail Business UKGovernment introduces bill to take passenger train operations into the public sector
UK: The legislation envisages that the direct award of a contract to a public sector operator would become the default, rather than a last resort.
-
Rail Business UKTrain operator says WhatsApp service has saved 1 277 h of employee time
UK: Train operator Northern says its entirely AI-operated Whatsapp enquiry service has received 8 000 messages from customers in the first year of operation, which has freed-up 1 277 h of employee time. People can ask for live train times, service updates and disruption information, as well ...
-
Rail Business UKActing Chair appointed at Network Rail
UK: Network Rail’s senior non-executive director Mike Putnam has been appointed as Acting Chair of the infrastructure manager, replacing Lord Peter Hendy who has been appointed as Minister of State at the Department for Transport. The process of appointing a successor to Hendy will begin in ...