Celebrities and rail bosses were among hundreds trapped by downed wires in west London
It’s already entered folklore as the Great Paddington Dewiring. When a major terminal is paralysed, one of the world’s busiest airports has connections severed, a showpiece metro grinds to a halt, shoppers, celebrities and business...Read more
Spanish armada to relaunch British open access bid
An ambitious plan for express trains between South Wales and London, and eventually between Central Scotland and London, may be back on the rails. Grand Union Trains, an ‘open access’ operator was initially refused permission...Read more
Hitachi Rail to install live monitoring system on UK high-speed trains
Hitachi Rail this week announced that it would be fitting a wireless monitoring system on all of Great Western Railway’s 93 high-speed trains in an effort to reduce downtime and maintenance costs.Read more
Cracks in UK Hitachi trains result of fatigue and stress corrosion
The cracks found in Hitachi trains in the UK were a result of fatigue and stress corrosion cracking, and Hitachi made the sensible decision in May to withdraw all trains for inspection. These are the...Read more
UK disruption continues over withdrawal of Hitachi trains for safety checks
What next for the UK rail industry, with a significant proportion of the passenger fleet taken off line for urgent safety inspections? The shock news of hairline fractures in the 800 series Intercity Express fleet...Read more
Suspension fault ‘grounds’ UK passenger fleets – massive disruption
Services on two of the busiest and most prestigious routes in the UK were suspended at the weekend. Serious faults were found in the suspension systems of a fleet of Japanese-built trains that serve two...Read more
Hitachi and Eversholt Rail will convert UK intercity to tri-mode hybrid
Train builder and maintainer Hitachi and rolling stock company Eversholt Rail, will develop a plan to install batteries on a modern Intercity Express Train on the South West route in the UK. Adding a battery...Read more
First UK’s tri-mode train will run to Gatwick Airport
A totally new kind of rolling stock will be introduced on the UK’s railway network. It is the tri-mode vehicles that are able to run on the lines, which are powered with overhead wires and...Read more
Innovative track surveying in South West England
Railway tracks in South West England will be surveyed with the RILA system. This innovative solution was developed by Dutch technology company Fugro. It allows Network Rail to obtain a holistic and accurate view of...Read more
Digitalisation keeps railways moving during pandemic
With the spread of the coronavirus in Europe, railways are facing many challenges. One of them is to reduce contact between staff and customers while maintaining stable and safe operations. To this end, digital solutions...Read more
UK government prolongs two rail franchises
Despite the rumours on the possible cancellation of the franchising system for railways, the UK government does otherwise. It has awarded two operating companies with the new contracts by prolonging the existing franchises. This extraordinary...Read more
Bi-mode trains become more popular in UK
More and more Britain’s railway operators are including bi-mode electro-diesel trains into their fleets. Only this year three companies entered service this type of rolling stock on their routes. The fourth one is getting closer...Read more