Rail Business UK – Page 4

  • London Waterloo station - artist's impression of a potential future station undercroft (Image Network Rail)
    Rail Business UK

    New concourse in London Waterloo station vision

    2024-03-11T14:19:00Z

    UK: Network Rail and Lambeth Council have unveiled ‘an ambitious long-term plan’ for the redevelopment of London Waterloo station and its surroundings. This sets out aspirations to make the station easier to navigate, reduce platform congestion and interchange times, and enable easier movement. The proposals include: ...

  • Palace of Westminster (Photo Steve Bidmead, Pixabay)
    Rail Business UK

    Rail reform makes limited progress with unclear plans

    2024-03-11T11:00:00Z

    UK: The government’s rail reforms are facing delays and there are long-standing issues that need to be addressed including financial sustainability, according to a National Audit Office report published on March 8. After the white paper on rail reform was published in May 2021, the Department ...

  • Scheidt & Bachmann rethinks the ticket machine
    Rail Business UK

    Scheidt & Bachmann rethinks the ticket machine

    2024-03-11T04:00:00Z

    TICKETING: Scheidt & Bachmann is testing a prototype ticket vending machine it has developed for the UK market as the result of its first ‘total rethink’ in more than 20 years. At the Transport Ticketing Global exhibition, Scheidt & Bachmann told Rail Business UK that the ...

  • Social Mobility Action Plan launch event (Photo Southeastern)
    Rail Business UK

    Southeastern launches Social Mobility Action Plan

    2024-03-08T11:00:00Z

    UK: Southeastern says it is the first UK rail operator to publish a Social Mobility Action Plan. Southeastern worked with The Purpose Coalition on the plan, which is based a framework of ‘Purpose Goals’ mapping out 14 barriers to opportunity. These include various life stages alongside ...

  • gb-gbrf-iport-doncaster-first-train
    Rail Business UK

    RailX freight booking app targets growth

    2024-03-08T04:00:00Z

    UK: RailX has secured a £150 000 loan from NPIF Mercia Debt Finance to enable it to further develop its rail freight booking app and target new customers. RailX was launched after Steve Freeman, the former Managing Director of Doncaster’s rail terminal iPort Rail, and rail ...

  • Stirling station (Photo ScotRail)
    Rail Business UK

    London – Stirling open access train service approved

    2024-03-07T12:06:00Z

    UK: The Office of Rail & Road has given the go-ahead for Grand Union Trains to launch an open access passenger service between London and Stirling. Access rights have been approved from June 2025 to June 2030. ORR said the services would use existing off-lease diesel ...

  • Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre_Jack Boskett
    Rail Business UK

    Porterbrook purchases Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre

    2024-03-07T11:00:00Z

    UK: Porterbrook has purchased the freehold of the Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre from St Modwen. ‘This deal provides absolute clarity for our business, our shareholders and the wider rail industry over the long-term future of Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre’ said Poterbrook CEO Mary Grant ...

  • Thornton Abbey station (Photo EMR)
    Rail Business UK

    UK railway news round-up

    2024-03-07T04:00:00Z

    This week’s round-up of business news from the UK railway industry.

  • Palace of Westminster clock tower
    Rail Business UK

    Rail sector responds to the Spring Budget

    2024-03-06T17:02:00Z

    UK: The rail sector has responded to he spring budget presented by Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt on March 6. Rail Partners Chief Executive Andy Bagnall said ‘Britain has a legally binding target to meet net zero by 2050, and the budget today does nothing ...

  • GTR TSGN passengers at Brighton
    Rail Business UK

    Rail Delivery Group completes jump to HOPS

    2024-03-06T14:11:00Z

    UK: The Rail Delivery Group has completed migration of smart ticketing back office services to a cloud-based Host or Operator Processing System which replaces the need for every train operator to run its own server. The centralised HOPS supplied by Unicard replaces 16 individual back offices. This ...

  • Northern train PRM area
    Rail Business UK

    Rail regulator identifies how assistance for disabled passengers needs to improve

    2024-03-06T11:00:00Z

    UK: The Office of Rail & Road has identified ways in which the provision of assistance for disabled passengers needs to be improved, following audits of how five operators are meeting regulatory requirements. ORR chose East Midlands Railway, Govia Thameslink Railway, Greater Anglia, LNER and Northern ...

  • Southern Class 171 DMU
    Rail Business UK

    Third rail or batteries could replace Southern diesel trains

    2024-03-06T04:00:00Z

    UK: Govia Thameslink Railway is unable to commit to decarbonisation of its operations unless Network Rail and the Department for Transport agree to fund and implement alternatives to diesel operation on the un-electrified Ashford – Hastings and Hurst Green – Uckfield lines, the operator says in its ...

  • London Underground trial people
    Metro Report International

    Quantum train location testing on the London Underground

    2024-03-05T11:00:00Z

    UK: Researchers are using a London Underground train to test whether quantum inertial navigation systems could be used to provide accurate location information for condition-based monitoring, train control and signalling applications without needing satellites or lineside equipment. Source: MoniRail This forms part ...

  • Manchester Metrolink
    Rail Business UK

    English public transport in a ‘precarious position’ says UTG

    2024-03-05T04:00:00Z

    UK: Public transport in English city regions is in a ‘precarious position’, the Urban Transport Group said when it published its Inside Track: The state of transport 2024 report into trends over the last decade. The number of trips made per person in 2022 was 862, ...

  • Jeremy Hunt at Siemens Chippenham event
    Rail Business UK

    ‘A day for the history books’ as Siemens to relocate Chippenham signalling factory

    2024-03-04T15:47:00Z

    UK: Siemens Mobility has announced plans to relocate its existing rail control and signalling factory in Chippenham to a newly built site on the edge of the town by the end of 2026. The move was announced on March 4 at a ceremony in the factory ...

  • London Underground gateline contactless payment (Photo Transport for London)
    Rail Business UK

    London trial of all-day Friday off-peak fares agreed

    2024-03-04T11:00:00Z

    UK: Agreement has been reached to trial all-day off-peak rail and Underground fares in London on Fridays from March 8 until May 31. The aim of the trial is to help Transport for London and train operators understand the impact of lower fares on ridership and ...

  • Edinburgh trams photo 3
    Metro Report International

    Tram training transformation

    2024-03-04T04:00:00Z

    UK: The Light Rail Safety & Standards Board has launched a sector-wide initiative to ‘revolutionise’ training and development at tram operators. This will include an central online resource for operators to plan and maintain their own training programmes. The platform will monitor employee competencies, keep track ...

  • Keadby sliding bridge work (Photo Network Rail)
    Rail Business UK

    Renewals at Network Rail’s only sliding bridge

    2024-03-01T11:00:00Z

    UK: Network Rail has completed a nine-day programme of engineering work at its only sliding bridge, which carries the route from Scunthorpe to Doncaster over the Stainforth & Keadby canal and moves to let boats through. The project completed on February 26 included track renewals and ...

  • PCRID Prototype image Drallim
    Metro Report International

    London Underground orders second-generation safety system

    2024-03-01T05:00:00Z

    UK: London Underground has awarded Drallim Industries a contract to design, manufacture and service an enhanced version of the Permanent Current Rail Indicating Device. The permanently-fixed traction current status indicators are designed to reduce the risk of staff accessing the track when the traction current is ...

  • West Midlands Railway Birmingham Moor Street DMU (Photo Tony Miles)
    Rail Business UK

    Midlands Rail Hub planning funding confirmed

    2024-02-29T10:00:00Z

    UK: The government has confirmed an initial £123m of funding for the £1·75bn Midlands Rail Hub programme to enhance east-west connections in the Midlands.