Alstom’s Widnes site has completed a project to refurbish the 27 Class 175 Coradia DMUs which Transport for Wales leases from Angel Trains. The work included installing USB and electric charging points, re-covering the seats, replacement carpets and new interior fittings including toilet seats, as well as applying TfW’s grey and red livery.
Train operating and driver training company SLC Operations has announced a ‘major’ recruitment drive, seeking five fully qualified depot drivers and two fully qualified main line drivers in the London area and seven fully qualified main line drivers initially for the West Midlands. Salaries for trained qualified drivers in the company start at £62 000, in some cases reaching more than £100 000 with overtime.
Safety seal manufacturer Roxtec is supplying Alstom with bespoke components for several projects, including seals for inter-car power cables and rooftop pantograph terminal boxes. ‘We will see acceleration in these rail projects in 2022 and that’s going to have a positive impact on our business as we look towards the next 12 months. It is going to be a very busy time for us’, according to Managing Director Clive Sharp.
Work has begun to install more than 200 defibrillators at Transport for Wales stations, with the first phase covering 53 TfW stations and the rest to be installed during spring.
Network Rail has submitted a revised planning application for a bridge walk and visitor hub at the Forth Bridge, including a single-storey visitor centre.
Rail Forum Midlands has appointed Simon Higgens as Vice-Chair of its board. He is Business Development Director at Story Contracting, and was previously CEO of Derby-based ISS Labour.
Trina Minchella has joined Ramboll’s rail division from Network Rail as Director of Rail Infrastructure and leading the Transport for London account, and Helena Turner has joined from Jacobs to lead the High Speed 2 account. Minchella brings more than 20 years of experience leading on innovation for major railway programmes, while Turner has worked across major national infrastructure programmes and supported projects for BAe, BP and Network Rail, where she worked on the Transpennine Route upgrade and HS2 Phase 2B.
