During the spring of 2016, the railway line from Hamburg to Cuxhaven in northern Germany was renewed in stages. This line, which first opened on 1 April 1881, was exactly 135 years old when the renovation work started. In former times, it was of great importance for emigrants who left the train in Cuxhaven to board […]

Network Rail recently commissioned a large-scale project to create a 3D digital model of Liverpool Street Station in London. The model was to be based largely on 3D laser scan data collection in the field by surveying teams, which would then be supplemented and cross-checked against existing asset records. The logistics...

A Russian-Chinese consortium has won the first contract to design a new high-speed railway between Moscow and Kazan. Led by Mosgiprotrans, the consortium includes Nizhegorodmetroproekt and one of China's largest engineering firms, CREEC. The contract, which has a value of 20.79 billion roubles...

Russian Railways (RZD) has announced the launch of a tender to design and plan the proposed 770-kilometre high-speed railway between Moscow and Kazan. The contract, which has a value of 20.79 billion roubles (€320 million), will include surveying works and route...

Russia's federal government has set aside RUB 6 billion (€81.2 million) in 2015 to design its planned high-speed railway between Moscow and Kazan. Russian Railways (RZD) is planning to issue a tender in 2015 to select a partner to conduct...

Crossrail’s operations director, Howard Smith, talks to Marc Johnson about where the project is going in 2014. Crossrail is a project in transition. As 2014 moves further forward, there will be fewer and fewer photographs of tunnel boring machines (TBMs) breaking into station boxes and ministers surveying completed tunnels. By the end of the year tunnelling will […]

International consultancy Gleeds has been brought in by Bombardier to project manage the construction of Crossrail's new train depot in north west London. Gleeds will project and cost manage the project at Old Oak Common for Bombardier, which in February...

Signalling technology and system engineering has moved on considerably over the past twenty odd years. However, it is still perceived by many as expensive and failing to keep up with technology advances that have emerged in other industries. Network Rail is mindful of this criticism and has created a Signalling Innovations Group to investigate how [...]

When Paul Baker of Hochtief Murphy Joint Venture (HMJV) was kind enough to invite me to visit the Plumstead portal of the Crossrail Thames Tunnels I was delighted. I spent most of my career maintaining Victorian rail tunnels, and have visited the interior of some more modern tunnels such as the Channel Tunnel, but I [...]

The first National Track Plant Exhibition, “The Track Innovation Showcase”, is to be held on 24 and 25 July 2013 at the Rail Alliance site at Long Marston Business Park near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. The free to attend event is...