CWE Ltd has signed a three-year contract to act as buffer manufacturer Axtone’s UK partner, providing supply, overhaul and refurbishment services at its Crowle plant where CWE already overhauls Oleo buffers. ‘The contract with Axtone really is a game-changer, and sees us become the only independent company to provide overhaul and refurbishment services for the two biggest buffer manufacturers and suppliers to the UK rail industry’, said CWE Managing Director Nick Andrew on December 6.
An £8m two-year modernisation of Aberdeen station has been completed by Morrison Construction, with the final stage of work seeing the relocation and refurbishment of the ticket office and first-class lounge which can be used by ScotRail, LNER, and Caledonian Sleeper customers. Concourse retail units were refurbished with glazed areas added to the fronts. The work was funded by the Scottish government, ScotRail, Network Rail, the Railway Heritage Trust and Serco.
Govia Thameslink Railway’s Selhurst depot has completed a comprehensive modernisation of 75 Class 377/4 EMUs, installing information screens, LED lighting, forward facing CCTV, a new train data network, automated passenger-counting, power points and a new on-train data recorder. This forms part of a five-year, £55m programme funded by leasing company Porterbrook which covers a total of 270 Electrostar units and could be expanded to £100m in value with further enhancements being considered.
c2c has launched a partnership with Missing People, a charity dedicated to reconnecting missing people and their loved ones. The operator is joining the charity’s Safeguarding Briefing Network, a group of organisations that Missing People can contact when there is intelligence suggesting that staff there may come into contact with a person who has been reported as missing.
Composite materials supplier TRB Lightweight Structures has entered into a two-year knowledge transfer partnership with the University of Bristol focusing on the development of improved poly(furfuryl alcohol) resin formulations for applications with stringent fire safety requirements such as metro rolling stock.
Sophie Allison, Interim Managing Director at West Midlands Metro, and Colin Robey, Chair of the UK Centre of Excellence, were elected to the UKTram board on December 1, replacing Chief Executive of Transport for Edinburgh George Lowder and Colas Rail Managing Director Iain Anderson. A new Chair will be appointed on January 19.
Avanti West Coast’s cake supplier The Pudding Compartment has produced an Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls brownie for the latest seasonal first class menu. It is based on a recipe from Train Manager Helen May, inspired by William Santus & Co’s mint-flavoured sweet produced and advertised on a gable end alongside the West Coast Main Line in Wigan.
