UK news – Page 11
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Rail Business UKHector Rail sells GB Railfreight to Infracapital
UK: EQT Infrastructure’s Hector Rail business has reached a definitive agreement to sell its UK subsidiary GB Railfreight to Infracapital, the unlisted infrastructure equity arm of M GPrudential which is due to demerge from Prudential plc in the fourth quarter of this year. ...
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Rail Business UK
Station Improvement Vision for Wales
UK: Transport for Wales has announced a 15-year Station Improvement Vision covering 247 stations. The £194m programme includes free wi-fi and improved shelters, CCTV, cycle storage and passenger information. ‘Where possible’, TfW will provide retail opportunities for local businesses and support the development of community spaces. ...
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Rail Business UK
Public Accounts Committee ‘unconvinced’ that arch sale was best value
UK: The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has published its report into Network Rail’s £1·46bn sale of its commercial rental space portfolio in England and Wales – mainly railway arches – to The Arch Company on a 150-year leasehold basis. The report published on September ...
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Rail Business UK
UK railway news round-up
Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps has instructed HS2 Ltd to review its ancient woodlands clearance programme to assess which removals can be halted until after Douglas Oakervee completes his review of the project later this year. On September 16 Shapps said removals would ...
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Rail Business UK
Old Oak Common HS2 station contract awarded
Old Oak Common is one of two London stations on High Speed 2. UK: A joint venture of Balfour Beatty, Vinci and Systra has been selected to manage the construction and delivery of the High Speed 2 station at Old Oak Common in northwest London. ...
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Rail Business UK
Network Rail backs post-hackathon accelerator fund
UK: The ideas selected at this year’s HackTrain hackathon event on November 15-17 are to receive funding from Network Rail to accelerate the development of their concepts. River Tamoor Baig of HackTrain organiser Hack Partners said it had worked with NR to create a process that ...
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Rail Business UK
Midlands Engine Rail proposal launched
UK: Sub-national transport body Midlands Connect has set out its £3·5bn Midlands Engine Rail proposal for seven major projects which it says would ‘revolutionise’ the rail network in the East and West Midlands, helping to support sustainability, productivity and social mobility. The seven projects are: ...
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Rail Business UK
Isle of Wight line’s future secured with £26m investment
UK: Investment of £26m to secure the future of the 13·7 km line between Ryde and Shanklin on the Isle of Wight was announced on September 16. This includes infrastructure modernisation and replacement of the life-expired fleet of small profile ex-London Underground trains which date back to ...
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Rail Business UK
UK railway news round-up
UK 20190912 Southeastern introduced ‘Delay Repay 15’ on September 11, reducing the threshold for claiming a refund from 30 to 15 min. ‘Nearly 90% of passenger journeys on franchises we manage are now covered by the scheme’, said Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris. ...
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Rail Business UK
East West Rail designated as nationally significant project
UK: Following a public consultation process the government has designated the Bedford – Cambridge section of the Oxford – Cambridge railway corridor reinstatement scheme as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. This means that project promoter East West Railway Co can apply to the Secretary of State ...
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Rail Business UK
‘Digital twin’ to support more robust timetable planning
Greater Anglia UK: Greater Anglia has worked with Toshiba to create a ‘digital twin’ of its network to assist with the development of new timetables, which can then be tested for robustness using artificial intelligence. Toshiba Digital Consulting Corp consolidated data previously stored ...
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In depth
Camlin supports Network Rail with large-scale PANTOBOT 3D deployment on Great Western Main Line
Camlin has been contracted by Network Rail Infrastructure Projects Wales & Western to supply and install its award-winning PANTOBOT 3D smart pantograph monitoring system at six locations on the Great Western Main Line.
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Rail Business UK
Class 170 DMUs transfer to Wales
UK: Transport for Wales has taken delivery of the first of eight three-car and four two-car Class 170 diesel multiple-units which are being transferred from Greater Anglia. Driver training is scheduled to begin on September 16 with the units expected to enter service on the ...
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Rail Business UK
West Midlands Trains to split Chase Line services again
EMUs replaced DMUs on the Chase Line following the completion of electrification in early 2019. Photo: Tony Miles UK: After months of poor performance on the Chase Line between Birmingham and Rugeley Trent Valley, West Midlands Trains has decided to split the route from its Birmingham ...
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Rail Business UK
Show Us the Rail Enhancements, says Railway Industry Association
Show Us the Rail Enhancements, says Railway Industry Association UK: The Railway Industry Association has launched a ‘Show Us the Rail Enhancements’ campaign, calling on the government to publish its list of planned large projects such as electrification and the provision of additional tracks. RIA ...
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Rail Business UK
Riding Sunbeams deploys solar array
UK: Riding Sunbeams Ltd has installed a 30 kWp solar test unit with around 100 panels near Aldershot which is directly supplying electricity to power signalling and lighting on Network Rail’s Wessex Route. This will enable data to be gathered to assess how much larger solar ...
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Rail Business UK
SWR launches Tap2Go account-based smart card ticketing
UK: South Western Railway has launched Tap2Go account-based smart card ticketing for use on its services outside London. The back office is provided by iBlocks and Worldline, while Cubic updated the gates and VIX the validators to accept Tap2Go. Passengers touch in and out at ...
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Rail Business UK
UK railway news round-up
UK 20190905 Govia Thameslink Railway has extended contactless pay-as-you-go with contactless cards or smartphones to Radlett, Potters Bar and Brookmans Park stations with effect from August 29. Pay-as-you-go with Oyster has also been extended to Radlett and Potters Bar. From September ...
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Rail Business UK
Rail Delivery Group CEO to stay on
UK: Paul Plummer is to stay on as Chief Executive of the Rail Delivery Group rather than go ahead with plans to retire which he had announced in May. On September 3 RDG said that despite attracting a ‘strong’ field of candidates to succeed Plummer, ...
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Rail Business UK
HS2 benefits ‘substantially undervalued’ amid rising costs
UK: The Chairman of High Speed 2 Ltd Allan Cook believes that ‘the benefits of the current scheme are substantially undervalued’, according to a ‘stocktake report’ presented to the House of Commons by Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps on September 3. Updating Parliament on ...
