This week’s round-up of business news from the UK railway industry.
Quattro has replaced four portable buildings at the Clapham Park shunters’ accommodation and control room, removing the old ones and installing new ones. Equipment used included a AC55 crane, a road-rail vehicle with four trailers and a mobile elevated work platform.
A Great British Rail Sale has been launched, with discounts on more than 3 million tickets available for purchase between January 6 and 12 for travel between January 13 and March 25. It is the fourth year of the sale, with DfT saying over 1 million tickets were sold in last year’s sale, saving passengers around £8 per journey.
Mark Robinson has been appointed Chief Information Officer at DfT Operator, leading its digital, data and cybersecurity strategy and providing a strategic overview across all train operators in public ownership. He was director of technology at the Ministry of Justice, and has held senior roles at Cubic Corp, where he managed infrastructure supporting Transport for London’s Oyster and contactless payment systems, and at Red Bee Media.
Sam Turner has been appointed Finance Director for the South Western Railway/Network Rail integrated railway. She was previously NR’s Finance & Commercial Director (Industry Partnerships), and also served as Finance & Commercial Director for the GBRX innovation unit.
The outsourced TransPennine Express dispatch contract currently held by Carlisle Support Services is to be brought in-house and transferred to Northern Trains by May 2026. RMT union General Secretary Eddie Dempsey said ‘this is a superb victory for our members, our national campaign to end outsourcing and for common sense on the railway. Dispatch workers perform a vital safety-critical role and they should never have been outsourced in the first place.’
Telent has been awarded a further three-year contract to provide specialist support and reactive and planned maintenance services for Northern Trains’ 12 000 Station Information & Security Systems assets, including CCTV, information screens, public address systems and help points, as well as ad-hoc CCTV footage retrieval and intruder alarm support.
Transport for London has awarded Cleshar Contract Services a £67·6m contract to provide track cleaning, graffiti removal and pigeon prevention services on the London Underground and the Windrush Line for three years with options to extend for up to an additional five years. Cleaning will be delivered on an output basis via the delivery of an annual cleaning programme.
Siemens Mobility has awarded DHL a contract to deliver components to depots, outstations and sub-supplier sites across the UK. DHL will operate two fleets powered by hydrotreated vegetable oil out of Siemens Mobility’s Rail Components Distribution Centres in Kettering and Goole. ’With our connected control tower and HVO-powered fleet, we are ensuring Siemens has the speed, visibility, and reliability needed to support essential rail operations across the UK’, said Wayne Jay, VP Operations at DHL Supply Chain UK & Ireland.
QTS Group has appointed Sara Crosby as HR Director, the first HR representative appointed to the board of the rail infrastructure contractor which now employs more than 750 people. Crosby has moved to QTS Group following five years at Story Contracting. ‘Having spent time in operational roles, I understand the pressures faced on the ground and the support that good HR can provide’, she said. ‘We are continuing to invest in our people, strengthening line management capabilities and creating the development pathways that will help us retain top talent for the long term.’
Network Rail is looking to purchase a Railway Signalling Training Unit which engineers and technicians ranging from new starters to advanced levels would use for periodic familiarisation and training. The structure needs to be a standalone relocatable unit that can be placed at a Network Rail depot or operational site and would be suitable for use for five to 10 years.
Cambridgeshire County Council has selected Aegis Certification Services to act as independent assessment body for the relocation of Waterbeach station.
RAIB has made two recommendations as a result of its investigation into a buffer stop collision at London Bridge station on December 13 2024. It found the driver did not apply the brakes in time, ‘almost certainly because they experienced a microsleep, due to fatigue’. A recommendation addressed to Govia Thameslink Railway is to improve its fatigue management process and follow industry best practice. The other is that the Rail Safety & Standards Board, in consultation with the industry, should provide guidance on seeking external advice about medical conditions and working hours that may increase the risk of fatigue in safety-critical staff.
RAIB makes eight recommendations to Network Rail in its report into the derailment of a freight train at Audenshaw, Greater Manchester, on September 6 2024. The first aims to give greater assurance of the components used in its designs of bridge longitudinal bearer systems. The second is to improve its management of LBSs, including design, installation and maintenance guidance, and the reporting of component failures. The third recommendation deals with the competence of staff who manage those assets. The fourth recommendation is to improve the interfaces between the disciplines responsible for the track and structures. The fifth is to better understand the effects from the condition of the LBS supporting structure on the track’s behaviour. The sixth recommendation is to review the way in which NR assesses the effects of changes in rail traffic on its LBS assets and to consider any subsequent necessary changes in design, inspection or maintenance activity. The seventh recommendation is to improve its records of its LBS assets, and the eighth to improve its own assurance processes to ensure that staff are keeping accurate records of inspection and maintenance.