In depth
Taking you behind the news to understand the deeper trends that are shaping the rail industry, and giving you the essential insight to inform your business decisions.
USA: Living with extreme weather
Building on many years of experience, US railroads large and small have developed cost-effective approaches to dealing with the impact of extreme weather incidents and other natural disasters, but continue to evolve their response strategies. Dave Lustig investigates.
Infrastructure: Getting to grips with climate change
As part of a broader weather resilience and climate change adaptation strategy, Network Rail has been reviewing its management of earthworks and structures. It has also put in place environmental initiatives aimed at mitigating its own impact.
Comment: Sending the wrong signal
Policymakers need to learn lessons from the apparent collapse of the agreement to build a high speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, suggests Managing Editor Nick Kingsley.
Signalling: ADIF opens ‘pioneering’ multi-network control centre
ADIF has opened an integrated control centre in the northern city of León which is intended to centralise the management of traffic on a disparate set of routes of different gauges and power supplies. Mike Bent reports.
Algeria: Recovery elusive as expansion plans await funding
With no passenger trains operating in the 10 months from March 2020 to January 2021, the future for Algeria’s national operator SNTF looks uncertain. Christian Scasso contrasts political aspirations with a bleak outlook on the ground.
Italy: Building a Roman node
The imminent reopening of a moribund railway in the northern suburbs of the Italian capital and start of construction of a multimodal hub at Pigneto are signs that a multi-year programme of investment in the Roma suburban network is making headway. Benjámin Zelki provides an update.