Rail Industry Focus

Pageantry, excitement and a host of VIPs as Hitachi opens its new train factory

30.09.15: RTM’s Luana Salles reports from the formal opening of Hitachi’s £82m new rail manufacturing facility in County Durham. The ceremony was exactly what you would expect from a company of the likes and size of Hitachi: aestheticall...

The centre of excellence for the East Coast Main Line IEP fleet

07.09.15: RTM’s Adam Hewitt took a trip to Doncaster to see the depot that is under construction for Hitachi Rail Europe’s Class 800s and 801s. He was shown around by Neil Lindley, contracts director at VolkerFitzpatrick, and Ross Cunningham...

Full steam ahead for Fillie at Farnworth

13.08.15: RTM’s David Stevenson reports from a recent site visit to Farnworth Tunnel where Nick Spall, LNW route delivery director for Network Rail, discussed how a major block of work is helping to deliver further electrification in the north west....

Digital future for Southeastern

01.08.15: RTM talks to Southeastern’s director of engineering Mark Johnson about a new graduate scheme aimed at students from an IT rather than traditional engineering background. Southeastern has launched a new scheme to take on bright IT gra...

Mind the gap: a look into the new National Training Academy for Rail

01.08.15: RTM’s Luana Salles was impressed with what she saw at NTAR, the new National Training Academy for Rail in Northampton. She met Simon Rennie, general manager of NTAR The rail industry is in a skills crisis: much of its workforce is nea...

Connecting Oxford Parkway to the Chiltern Main Line

01.08.15: Track is now completely laid from Oxford Parkway to the Chiltern Main Line, with the final connection of the two lines expected in September. Andy Milne, senior programme manager at Network Rail, talks to RTM about this major milestone. Two...

Laying the way at Winchburgh

01.08.15: Neil Barnes (pictured), rail director at Morgan Sindall, explains how upgrading the railway through Winchburgh Tunnel during a 44-day blockade will play a vital role in the electrification of the main Edinburgh-Glasgow Queen Street line. Ov...

Comfort, cost and fuel-saving – the case for the D-Train

01.08.15: RTM’s Luana Salles visited Vivarail to see its converted D-Trains and came away impressed. Seeing a converted DMU D-Train parked side-by-side to the original D78 District Line car proved what Vivarail has been telling us ever since it...

Traffic management for the Thameslink core

01.08.15: RTM’s Adam Hewitt spoke to the people responsible for delivering traffic management for Thameslink: Hitachi Rail Europe managing director Karen Boswell, Tim Gray from Hitachi-owned TRE, and Network Rail’s Martin Chatfield and Gary Po...

More than 30,000 new Sentinel users in the next few years

01.08.15: With the Sentinel scheme about to enter a new phase, RTM looks back at its success up to now with Network Rail programme manager for the scheme, Andrew Bilous. Every month, 1,000 people get denied access to the live railway infrastructure t...

Government reiterates support for uk light rail sector

01.07.15: RTM’s David Stevenson attended the 10th UK Light Rail Conference in Nottingham and reports on some of the biggest issues raised at the event. The recent UK Light Rail Conference has been labelled a resounding success, as the governmen...

Strong case for light rail integration with HS2

01.07.15: Norman Baker, former light rail minister; Paul Buchanan, partner at Volterra Partners; David Ralph, chief executive of D2N2; and Martha Grekos, partner and head of the planning and infrastructure team in London at Irwin Mitchell, discuss the opp...

Trials and tribulations of tram-train

01.07.15: Simon Coulthard, head of tram-train projects at Network Rail; Peter Cushing, Metrolink director at Transport for Greater Manchester; Dave Haskins, project director of New Generation Transport at Metro; and Tim Kendall, an independent consultant...

The ORR's new highway role: An opportunity not a distraction

01.07.15: Anna Walker, chair of the Office of Rail and Road, explains the opportunities its new role to monitor Highways England will bring. As RTM went to press the newly named Office of Rail and Road (ORR) was closing a consultation on the proposed...

New government is committed to rail freight

01.07.15: Clare Moriarty, director general of the Rail Executive at the Department for Transport, discusses the role that freight can play in supporting economic growth in CP5. The new Conservative-led government says its priority for this next Parli...