All articles by Rail Business UK – Page 132
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Rail Business UKSiemens’ Lincoln Bogie Service Centre obtains RISAS certification
UK: Siemens has received its first certification under the RISAS assurance scheme, covering work on wheelsets, bogies and suspension components undertaken at its site in Lincoln. Run by safety and standards body RSSB on behalf of the rail industry, RISAS aims to provide economies of scale through a single assessment ...
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Rail Business UKRoad-rail vehicle equipped with illuminated exclusion zone
SAFETY: Contractor Keltbray is equipping 14 Colmar road-rail vehicles with high-intensity blue directional lights from Road Rail Plant Ltd which clearly illuminate a 10 m exclusion zone when the machinery is operating. In May 2017 the company installed LED lights which provide spot markers, but the new system provides a ...
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
The Rail Delivery Group has announced that the 26-30 Railcard will be available to all 26 to 30 year olds by end of the year. It will be sold for £30 through a smartphone app, and will offer one-third off fares, subject to time restrictions and minimum fares. Network Rail ...
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Rail Business UKRegulator approves £35bn Network Rail spending plan
UK: On October 31 the Office of Rail & Road published its final determination approving infrastructure manager Network Rail’s £34·7bn spending plan for the next five-year funding cycle. This is a key part of the Periodic Review 2018 process, through which ORR sets out what Network Rail is ...
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Rail Business UKRail in the October 2018 UK budget
UK: Northern Powerhouse Rail, East West Rail and the Docklands Light Railway are among the beneficiaries of funding allocations in the budget presented to parliament by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond on October 29. The budget allocates a further £37m for development of the Northern Powerhouse Rail concept for ...
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Rail Business UKVivarail Class 230 DMU entry into service delayed
UK: The three two-car D-Train diesel multiple-units which Vivarail is producing for London Northwestern Railway will not enter service in December as had been planned, the supplier announced on October 30. The Class 230 DMUs are being produced using the bodyshells and bogies from former London Underground D78 metro trains. ...
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Rail Business UK
Signalling changes reduce delays where road traffic uses rail alignment
UK: Network Rail has made 'innovative' changes to the signalling system to reduce delays to road traffic at Stromeferry, where a section of the Inverness – Kyle of Lochalsh line has been paved to enable it to be used by road traffic while Highland Council carries out works on a ...
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
Chiltern Railways is to operate an Oxford Parkway to London Marylebone via Bicester Village service on December 26, when services do not normally run. ‘Although it’s unusual for the railway to be open on Boxing Day, we’ve found this service to be very popular with our customers’, said Commercial Director ...
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Rail Business UKEurostar deploys interactive robot at St Pancras station
EUROPE: Eurostar passengers in the departure area of London St Pancras station can now interact with a humanoid robot to find more information about their journey. Eurostar expects this to be particularly popular with families. The Pepper robot from SoftBank Robotics was supplied by Robots of London. It uses a ...
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Rail Business UKEurostar to expand Amsterdam service next year
EUROPE: Cross-Channel high speed operator Eurostar expects to launch a third daily train between London and Amsterdam in June 2019, reflecting the initial success of the route which was launched with two trains per day in April this year. Eurostar reports that it has already carried more than 130 000 ...
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Rail Business UK‘Transformational’ plan to remove Croydon railway bottleneck
UK: On November 5 Network Rail is to begin a six-week public consultation on the proposed Croydon area remodelling scheme. This aims to improve punctuality, reduce journey times and increase capacity through a major bottleneck on the London – Brighton line. If approved, the scheme would see lines in the ...
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
An 18-month £140m modernisation of Liverpool Lime Street station has been completed. Platforms across the station have been completely remodelled, two new platforms have been built, and extensive signalling enhancements completed. On October 12 the Department for Transport published guidance on rail safety rules, technical standards, authorisations, certificates and train ...
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Rail Business UKCross Country direct award option left open
UK: The Department for Transport has published a prior information notice which would enable it to directly award a contract for the operation of Cross Country services for a maximum of 60 months from the end of Arriva’s current contract in October 2019. Arriva originally won the Cross Country franchise ...
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Rail Business UKStudy to look at adapting Bordeaux station to handle London trains
EUROPE: The four infrastructure managers responsible for the high speed lines between London and Bordeaux have agreed to study the feasibility of adapting Bordeaux Saint-Jean station to handle international passengers traveling to and from the UK. SNCF Réseau, Eurotunnel, Lisea and HS1 said the October 10 agreement was a key ...
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Rail Business UKWales & Borders to offer the ‘best passenger rail service in the UK’
UK: The KeolisAmey joint venture took over from Arriva Trains Wales as the operator of Wales & Borders services with the start of the new franchise on October 14. The 15-year Operations & Development Partner contract was awarded by the devolved Welsh Government’s Transport for Wales agency, and is ...
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Rail Business UKBatteryFLEX Desiro EMU conversion proposed
UK: An engineering assessment has found that there is a ‘positive case’ for fitting Siemens Desiro Class 350/2 electric multiple-units with batteries to enable off-wire operation, Porterbrook Leasing said on October 15. The company is holding discussions with battery chemistry specialists with a view to producing a demonstrator unit. The ...
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Rail Business UKNetwork Rail agrees Sussex traffic management strategy
UK: Network Rail has confirmed its intention to directly award Hitachi Rail Europe a £30m contract to supply a traffic management system for the Sussex area of its South East Route and the East London Line. NR has identified traffic management as a priority for investment under its Digital Railway ...
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Rail Business UKWorld rail freight news round-up
Marking 10 years of direct intermodal trains between China and Germany, Deutsche Bahn has established DB Cargo Eurasia as a dedicated business unit to develop Eurasian transit freight. DB and partners including Russian Railways launched a single train between Xiangtang and Hamburg in 2008; it now runs 3 600 per ...
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Rail Business UKPassenger assistance app on test
UK: A mobile app enabling passengers with disability to get assistance during their journeys is being tested by Greater Anglia, London Northwestern Railway, West Midlands Railway and South Western Railway ahead of a planned national launch next year. Developed by Transreport in collaboration with disability organisations including Scope, RNIB, Disability ...
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Rail Business UKScotRail HSTs ready to enter service
UK: ScotRail will put its first refurbished diesel HST sets into revenue service between Aberdeen and Edinburgh on October 15, the operator announced during a VIP preview run on October 10. Full deployment is expected to follow from the December 9 timetable change. Branded Inter7City, the 26 upgraded HST sets ...