LGIM Real Assets has provided £200m in long-term debt financing on behalf its clients including Legal & General Retirement Institutional to support Equitix and SMBC in the purchase of 60 Stadler trainsets for use by the Wales & Borders operator on the Valley Lines.
Translink has awarded British Steel an eight-year rail supply contract, including the delivery of Zinoco corrosion protected rail for locations such as level crossings, tunnels and coastal routes.
Northern began operating passenger-carrying electric services between Manchester and Preston via Bolton on February 11.
Modernisation of Glossop, Dinting, Broadbottom, Hattersley, Godley, Newton for Hyde, Flowery Field, Guide Bridge and Ashburys stations is underway with £1·5m from the National Stations Improvement Programme, including improved signage and walkways, better lighting and repainting. Additional funding from a disruption compensation package will be used to provide better seating, waiting areas and new information screens at Glossop, while a disused building at Guide Bridge will be refurbished for NHS or community use.
ScotRail, the West Highland Community Rail Partnership, Glenfinnan Station Museum, Glenfinnan Estate, Network Rail and Transport Scotland are upgrading a footpath and are to provide viewing areas at Glenfinnan Viaduct, in an effort in improve facilities for tourists and encourage visitors to arrive by rail. ‘We need to promote the best possible viaduct experience: cross the viaduct by train, then view it from a hillside vantage point, taking away the hassle of finding a parking space first‘, said WHCRP Secretary Hege Hernæs.
A £1·2m station enhancement programme is underway at Workington, Whitehaven, Sellafield, Barrow-in-Furness, Burneside, Staveley and Windermere. This includes the provision of better seating and waiting areas, revamped toilet facilities and new information screens.
Network Rail and Taziker Industrial are to undertake a £13m two-year renovation of the 200 m long New Clyde Bridge built between 1899-1905 on the approach to Glasgow Central. Each section of the bridge will be wrapped with an encapsulation material before an engineering survey is carried out to identify parts of the steel structure in need of repair. The old paint will then be grit-blasted off, metal repairs carried out and new paint applied.
At a cost of £1m, Greater Anglia is to lengthen the platforms at Sheringham from 40 m to 80 m, and provide improved lighting and a new shelter.
Network Rail has awarded Dutch company Fugro NL Land a national framework contract for the provision of overhead line, track and lineside feature surveying to inform the design and construction of high output track renewals.
Eurotunnel is to install electronic facial recognition gates from IN Groupe and Gunnebo for use by passengers with biometric passports. The first phase starting in April will see the gates used by the 51 000 coach passengers who use the tunnel each year.
