RailUK Writer

Trains are expensive. They are expensive to buy, expensive to maintain, and expensive to run. So far as operating costs go, a lot of work is being done which has formed the basis of several articles in this magazine. More efficient motors, better bogie designs and lighter trains (which consume less power and have less [...]

When The Rail Engineer last saw train 317722, it was parked in a corner of Bombardier’s Ilford depot (issue 98, December 2012). The interior was missing from two carriages, all of the traction equipment was out from under the frame, and it looked quite forlorn. In fact, this was to be the new Class 317 [...]

The first new Eurostar trains, being manufactured by Siemens in Germany, are already largely complete and testing is well underway. It was in October 2010 that Eurostar announced that it had selected Siemens to build 10 new trains which would be designated Eurostar e320. The announcement was a bit of a surprise to those who [...]

Nottingham station is unusual in a couple of ways. For a start, it is comparatively new. Whilst many of Britain’s major stations were built in the middle of the nineteenth century, the current Nottingham Midland station didn’t open until 1904, which makes it Edwardian rather than Victorian. It was known as Nottingham Midland as there [...]

New train orders are like buses and Tour de France victories. Nothing for ages and then two come along at once. In the case of train orders, the two are the Thameslink order for 1,140 carriages awarded to Siemens, and a second tranche of 30 nine-car IEP electric trains (270 carriages) from Hitachi for the [...]

The redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station is an immense project. More than £600 million is being spent over five years to turn a cramped, congested 1960s concrete box into a light, airy, spacious and efficient station for the twenty-first century. The Rail Engineer has covered the project several times. In short, the platforms are [...]

Britain’s railways are attracting more passengers than ever before, despite all the grumbling about higher fares. This success is, in turn, putting pressure on capacity. Network Rail is working hard to increase the overall capacity of the railway so that more, longer trains can be run every hour. The Rail Engineer always contains reports on [...]

Guy Fawkes’ Day, 5 November 2010, and the 15:05 South West Trains service left Guildford for Waterloo. It was an eight-car train, made up of two Class 455 electric multiple units coupled together. Twenty minutes later, it was departing Oxshott station. At the same time, a DAF 75 ready-mix concrete lorry was travelling south on [...]

Last month, Network Rail chief executive Sir David Higgins described how he approached his first few weeks in the rail industry. In this second part he looks at the longer term issues facing the industry but, first of all, he reflects on a topic that, regardless of organisational structure, nobody can ignore. An area which [...]

Sir David Higgins has been chief executive of Network Rail for just over two years. In early March, he invited our very own Nigel Wordsworth to his office in Kings Place, overlooking the Regent’s Canal in London. Over the next couple of issues, Nigel’s in-depth interview will cover how Sir David got to grips with [...]