This week’s round-up of business news from the UK railway industry.
A withdrawn Tyne & Wear Metro trainset has been donated to the Tyne & Wear Fire & Rescue Service to enable its training team in Washington to recreate real-to-life scenarios that fire fighters encounter, including road traffic collisions and breathing apparatus training. To add to the realism ther site will have a concrete platform, a tunnel and an imitation ticket machine. The training team will be able to conduct multiple rescue exercises on and off the train, and simulate fires through cosmetic smoke and fire.
Transport for London’s Rail for London Infrastructure has awarded Colas Rail a contract for the operation and maintenance of on-track plant for the Elizabeth Line. The fleet includes a Linsinger MG31 Railhead Profiler and two Robel engineering trains comprising four power cars and associated plant. The machinery will predominantly be used on the Elizabeth Line’s Central Operating Section, with shifts mainly completed by Colas Rail UK during the night when the line is closed.
The Office of Rail & Road has awarded Furrer + Frey GB a contract to identify how leading European rail infrastructure managers develop and implement long-term strategies for on-track machines and railway plant, including procurement, deployment, life-cycle planning and efficiency optimisation. The review will identify best practices, strategic frameworks and operational models that the ORR can consider when assessing the adequacy and value-for-money of Network Rail’s own machine and plant strategy.
Arriva Rail London has awarded Carlisle Support Services a contract to deliver a major station refresh project across the London Overground network. This will include updates to customer-facing areas at 81 stations by the end of March 2026, including the repair and painting of ticket halls, concourses, staircases, footbridges, platforms and waiting areas.
Schweerbau has used the heritage Kent & East Sussex Railway to test and commission what it describes as a ‘game changing’ suite of on-track plant, including inspection, rail treatment and tunnel cleaning equipment on battery-hybrid vehicles. K&ESR Chairman Derrick Bilsby said ‘heritage lines provide the ideal environment for this kind of intensive testing which replicates urban environments but without the need to disrupt mainline services. What we have achieved together will mean more efficient and more environmentally friendly systems operating on all our rail systems, both modern and heritage.’
TransPennine Express has installed an accessible toilet pod with handrails, a stoma shelf and a baby changing unit at Brough station. Passengers press the a button on the pod console to contact the ticket office, where staff check their ticket and grant entry. The £135 000 project was delivered by MJM as principal contractor with Vextrix as contract administrator and principal designer.
Barbara Alvarez Solanilla has been appointed Head of Data at the TransiT national Digital Twinning Hub for Decarbonising Transport, a collaboration of eight universities and 70 industry partners which is jointly led by Heriot-Watt University and the University of Glasgow. She joins from the University of Glasgow-based Urban Big Data Centre, where she was Senior Research Engineering Manager.