Vivarail has awarded Sella Controls a contract to supply of Tracklink III Readers and beacons for GWR’s Class 230 battery train fast charging trial on the Greenford branch. As the train enters the station one beacon will initiate the deployment of the train collectors for charging, and another beacon will trigger the charging process when the train is in the correct position.
The Railway Industry Association’s Northern Ireland branch has published a manifesto for rail ahead of the assembly elections in May. The four key recommendations are to: provide a clear medium- to long-term rail investment strategy; work with the supply chain to develop a deliverable, long-term decarbonisation strategy; place innovation at the industry’s core and begin a programme of modern signalling renewals; support the recommendations of the All-Island Strategic Rail Review.
The Secretary of State for Transport has extended the deadline for a decision on North Somerset District Council’s application under the Planning Act 2008 for the reopening of the Bristol to Portishead branch. The examining authority’s report was received on July 19 last year, but the three-month deadline for a decision was extended to April 19. It has now been extended to February 19 2023. This will provide the council with further time to demonstrate that funding for the entire scheme has been secured.
Siemens Mobility, Yunex Traffic and Network Rail have now completed 10 000 out of 11 700 cab radios to which are to be updated to the latest version 4·0 to provide improved interference resistance and connection to the 3G/4G data network, as well as the opportunity for operators to enable a number of applications including trainborne condition monitoring and connected-driver advisory services.
Merseyrail will return to its pre-pandemic 15 min headway daytime service across most of its network from May 2. Services to and from Ellesmere Port will run every 30 min, with additional trains in the weekday peaks, and there will be a 30 min interval service on all lines on Sundays.
Brundall Gardens station is the first to receive Wildlife Friendly accreditation under a partnership between Greater Anglia and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Each assessment includes advice for how to make stations more wildlife friendly, and the reports can be used as examples of best practice.
East Midlands Railway is to deploy Class 180 DMUs for its Skegness Summer Special services which will run from Derby every Saturday from July 13 to September 10. The inter-city units provide more luggage space than the Class 156 units which operate the majority of services on the Skegness line.
Railway site access and welfare services provider MacRail has promoted Matthew Caven to Director of Commercial, responsible for managing the sales of all products, services and software throughout the UK and Ireland.
Fitzgerald Plant Services has won a contract to supply 26 medium weight road-rail vehicles of various body types to Network Rail’s Shettleston depot by March 31 2024. Allan J Hargreaves Plant Engineers has won a separate contract to supply Network Rail with two 360° road-rail excavators.
QTS Group says its is the first dedicated rail company in the UK to receive the Social Value Quality Mark Level 1, awarded in recognition of an organisation’s commitment to researching, measuring and reporting its social impact and value. QTS has committed to helping improve the physical and mental wellbeing of its staff, driving local jobs creation, transitioning to net-zero by 2050 and promoting diversity and inclusion.
Karl Budge, Group Director of Strategy at Murphy, has been appointed Rail Supply Group co-Champion for Digital Railway.
