All articles by Rail Business UK – Page 48
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Rail Business UKPassenger numbers at UK’s busiest station still less than half of pre-pandemic levels
UK: London Waterloo has regained its status as the most used National Rail station according to estimates for the 2020-21 financial year, although usage was less than half that recorded in the last year before the coronavirus pandemic. The Office of Rail & Road’s estimates for ...
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Rail Business UKTyne & Wear Metro extension business case developed
UK: Transport North East has published the first stage of a business case for the proposed Washington Metro Loop extension of the Tyne & Wear Metro. The loop would start from the existing Pelaw station and make use of the disused railway alignment of the former ...
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Rail Business UKCelebrating excellence as 25th Rail Business Awards shortlist announced
UK: More than 40 companies and organisations have been shortlisted for the 25th Rail Business Awards, recognising the achievements of the UK rail sector over the past 12 months. Finalists for 14 of the 18 categories were announced on November 24. Winners of the Richard Hope ...
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
This week’s round-up of business news from the UK railway industry.
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Rail Business UKWork to begin on £4·7m wagon maintenance depot
UK: Leeds-based design-and-build contractor Cairn Cross Engineering will begin work next month to construct a £4·7m wagon maintenance depot for GB Railfreight next to the East Coast Main Line in Peterborough. The development follows the construction of GBRf’s £3m headquarters in the city last year. GBRf ...
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Rail Business UKGlobal Centre of Rail Excellence seeks strategic investment partner
UK: The Global Centre of Rail Excellence has invited investors to express interest in taking an equity stake to support the next phase of development of the planned test centre in South Wales. Project promoter GCRE Ltd is currently wholly owned by the Welsh government, and ...
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Rail Business UKFormula 1 connectivity applied to infrastructure monitoring trains
UK: Motorsport technology company McLaren Applied is to provide 5G data connectivity for Network Rail’s infrastructure monitoring trains. This will make use of McLaren’s Fleet Connect software, which was originally developed for Formula 1 motorsport, with the first UK use of Active Antenna hardware with Huber+Suhner ...
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Rail Business UKCoupler research paves way for longer freight trains
UK: The length and capacity of freight trains is to be increased as a result of research which has found that existing wagon couplers can safely accommodate higher trailing loads without upgrading or a detailed engineering assessment. The research by the Rail Safety & Standards Board ...
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Rail Business UKAI to improve Transpennine Route Upgrade project scheduling
UK: The Transpennine Route Upgrade programme is using data-driven forecasting and risk management software from nPlan to reduce the optimism, recency and salience biases in its project schedule forecasts. The software looks at past project schedules and uses a deep learning technique to build a model ...
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Rail Business UKDrax orders UK-built biomass wagons
UK: Drax Group has awarded WH Davis a contract to supply a further 30 high-capacity biomass wagons, which the generator says will reduce emissions on the route from the Port of Tyne to its power station in North Yorkshire by more than 25%. Drax has a ...
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Rail Business UKLNER seeks ideas to provide passengers with ‘next best action’ information
UK: LNER is seeking proposals for ways to provide people arriving at stations with easier access to advice on the most appropriate train for their journey and information on the validity of their ticket. Feedback from staff and customers has identified this as a ‘pain point’, ...
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Rail Business UKIain Stewart elected Transport Committee Chair
UK: Conservative MP for Milton Keynes South Iain Stewart has been elected Chair of the House of Commons Transport Committee. The post became vacant following the appointment of Huw Merriman as Minister of State at the Department for Transport. ‘I have a real passion for, and ...
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Rail Business UKUK: A fast and fresh approach to getting a rail career
The UK’s National College for Advanced Transport & Infrastructure and the National Skills Academy for Rail have launched a series of ‘Skills Bootcamps’. They offer flexible six-week training programmes that leave learners better equipped to progress to formal railway engineering apprenticeships.
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
This week’s round-up of business news from the UK railway industry.
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Rail Business UKOpen access should replace inter-city franchising, says independent operators’ association
UK: A fully-commercial open-access model should replace government contracts for the provision of long-distance services in Great Britain, according to the Alliance of Passenger Rail New Entrants. ‘It seems that the only choice being discussed is between public service contract concessions and renationalisation’, said AllRail Secretary ...
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Rail Business UKPerfect time to promote the sector, says new Rail Freight Group board
UK: The Rail Freight Group board has elected Chris Swan, Head of Rail at Tarmac, as Chair for a one-year term starting this month. PD Ports Chief Commercial Officer Geoff Lippitt has been appointed as Vice-Chair. Three new members have also been elected to the RFG ...
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Rail Business UKPortishead railway reopening granted planning consent
UK: The Department for Transport has granted planning consent for reinstatement of the railway between Portishead and Pill. This is the first passenger reopening to be approved using a Development Consent Order, which includes planning and environmental consent and compulsory land acquisition. The reintroduction of passenger ...
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Rail Business UKEmissions reduction, rail freight and reliability R&D awarded First of a Kind funding
UK: Grants totalling more than £5m have been awarded to 24 projects under the First of a Kind 2022 funding competition organised by the Department for Transport and Innovate UK. ‘We are breathing life into ideas that will revolutionise our railways and make them greener than ...
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Rail Business UKSoft launch for Transport for Wales Class 197 DMUs
UK: The first of the 77-strong fleet of Class 197 diesel multiple-units entered service with Transport for Wales Rail on November 14. Without any pre-announcement or ceremony, unit 197 004 carried its first passengers on the 05.30 from Llandudno Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog, spending the rest ...
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Rail Business UKBattery EMUs envisaged in Southeastern fleet procurement
UK: Southeastern has invited expressions of interest for the supply of new electric multiple-units.