Rail Industry Focus

Advanced Composites Materials Taking the Heat in Rail Applications

30.08.16: Alex Filsell from Scott Bader Company Limited explains how the firm’s advanced composites materials are being widely used in the rail industry. Scott Bader is a multi-national specialty chemicals group with annual sales of $287m, empl...

Plain sailing for the Northern Line extension?

01.07.16: RTM’s Luana Salles runs through the latest updates of TfL’s Northern Line extension, intended to regenerate the local area and improve transport links in the capital. Despite anxieties in late May that design changes to the Nort...

Focus: No mandate to privatise

01.07.16: John Helm, a journalist, author of the rail blog 21stcentury-rail.com, and one of RTM’s digital columnists, looks at the thorny issue of network Rail asset sell-offs. The government knows that full-blooded privatisation of Network Rai...

Paving the way for a modern Glasgow Queen Street

24.06.16: Ahead of the major redevelopment of Glasgow Queen Street station next year, Rodger Querns, programme director for the Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP), runs through the ongoing preparation works taking place at the tunnel and throa...

TravelSpirit and making Mobility as a Service a reality

24.06.16: Alex Burrows, CEO of TravelSpirit, discusses the work to make the concept of Mobility as a Service a reality. Over the past year a significant proportion of the transport sector across the world has become aware of the concept of Mobility a...

Class 700: the future of commuting in the capital

21.06.16: How can we meet the need for more trains with greater capacity while also ensuring a better experience for commuters? That’s the question Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) seeks to answer with its new Class 700 Desiro City train. RTM’s...

How could Brexit affect the rail sector?

21.06.16: Sean Thomas, senior consultant at economics consultancy Oxera, looks at the impact Brexit could have on the rail sector.  Brexit raises significant implications for the GB rail network and its operators. Here I consider two potential e...

A journey up the Chase Line

10.06.16: Sam Evans, Network Rail’s project manager for the Walsall to Rugeley electrification project, updates RTM’s Luana Salles on the scheme and the new technologies being used to deliver it more efficiently. The £90m Chase Line...

Getting Great Western electrification back on track

09.06.16: Andy Haynes, project director, West of England, the Greater West Programme, talks about hitting a major milestone on the Great Western Route Modernisation scheme, and how the team has renewed confidence to hit the revised timetables. As RTM...

Digital railway is already underway

07.06.16: Martin Arter, Digital Railway development director, explains the future opportunities digital railway will offer the sector and supply chain. Fully integrated traffic management functionality at Network Rail’s Romford Rail Operating C...

TES becomes full member of RSSB

18.05.16: TES Ltd has successfully attained full membership of the Rail Safety and Systems Board (RSSB).  John Abbott, RSSB external engagement director, and his colleagues Mike Carr and Alan Tordoff visited TES headquarters in Colchester to ind...

Track access extension opens up growth opportunities for Hull Trains

06.05.16: Will Dunnett, managing director at Hull Trains, talks to RTM’s David Stevenson about the recent extension to its track access, the need for a modernised fleet and how open access operators can generate competition in the market. Hull...

Bringing all of Waterloo back to life

06.05.16: RTM’s Luana Salles reports on the major programme of works taking place at London Waterloo station, including bringing the former Eurostar platforms back into use and building a new concourse. Work in the UK’s busiest station ha...

Alstom’s ‘star trek’ scanner that transformed virgin fleet maintenance

28.04.16: A new laser scanner, developed by Alstom, has the potential to transform rolling stock fleet management by detecting maintenance problems in trains automatically. Rosemary Collins reports. Alstom’s Barcelona research and development t...

School pupils get a taste of railway careers at iRail 2016

21.04.16: RTM’s Rosemary Collins reports from the seventh annual iRail event held in Derby. Young people got to test out their visions for the future of the railway industry at the seventh annual iRail event, held at the iPro football stadium i...