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How data keeps London moving faster

02.11.17: Lauren Sager Weinstein, chief data officer at TfL, explains why the organisation is storing anonymised passenger data in order to improve services across the capital. Every day millions of people travel on London’s transport network...

Scotland: The nation to watch

26.10.17: As the Scottish Government and its industry partners continue to fund the best railway the country has ever had, Humza Yousaf, minister for transport and the Islands, runs through the latest updates of the Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme...

Crossrail 2: Planning for our future

26.10.17: Source: RTM Oct/Nov 17 The time is ripe to press ahead with ambitious plans to build Crossrail 2 in order to alleviate congestion, support economic prosperity and unlock regional development, argues Michèle Dix, the project’s m...

Form and function realised through advanced materials

25.09.17: Paul Gallen, sector manager at the National Composites Centre (NCC), outlines the benefits that composite materials bring to the production and operation of more lightweight trains. Current rolling stock makes extensive use of fibre-reinfor...

Secure stations

25.09.17: Gary Heward, director at MFD International and a security consultant and member of the Register of Security Engineers and Specialists, managed by the Institution of Civil Engineers on behalf of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastru...

A remarkable project

25.09.17: Businesses from across the UK of all types and sizes will help make HS2 an exemplary project, writes Will Roberts, communications director UK & Ireland at Alstom and director at High Speed Rail Industry Leaders (HSRIL). It’s ...

Optimising traffic management

25.09.17: Taku Fujiyama, from University College London (UCL), and Lei Chen, from the University of Birmingham, on the work and early findings of the Developing and Evaluating Dynamic Optimisation for Train Control Systems project. Capacity shortage...

Wirral Loop: ‘one industry’ approach to minimise disruption

21.09.17: Wayne Menzies, head of rail for Merseytravel and chair of the Liverpool City Region’s Major Events Transport Board, discusses the recently completed Wirral Loop replacement work. January 2017 saw the start of what promised to be one o...

Crossrail: track installation complete

21.09.17: Chris Enoch, Crossrail’s railway systems project manager, discusses the complexities in the design and installation of the track system on the Elizabeth Line project. This summer, the Crossrail programme reached another exciting and m...

Ballast or slab?

21.09.17: As HS2 moves forward, William Powrie, professor of geotechnical engineering and dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment at the University of Southampton, considers the arguments for and against using ballasted or slab track in hig...

A network of training excellence

18.09.17: Writing on behalf of the Training Alliance, Simon Rennie runs through the early results of a tight-knit collaboration agreement between key rail organisations. Ribbons have been cut, the minister has made a stirring speech, the BBC’s...

A challenge for the rail industry?

18.09.17: Tim Bellenger, director of policy and investigation at London TravelWatch, discusses the opportunities and challenges the draft mayor’s Transport Strategy poses for the sector.   June 2017 saw the publication of the draft mayor&r...

Do you feel heard in the workplace?

18.09.17: Much of what we do at CIRAS is about listening to the health and safety concerns of people in safety critical roles. Often people approach CIRAS with a feeling that their organisation hasn’t been listening particularly well to their concer...

Enabling the Great North Rail Project

18.09.17: Mark Bellew writing on behalf of Network Rail discusses progress on the company’s Great North Rail Project, and the signalling that underpins the major infrastructure schemes. The Great North Rail Project is in full swing with a numbe...

Tram-train: where did we go wrong?

14.09.17: Andrew Braddock, chairman of the Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA), argues against the ‘not invented here’ syndrome that has kept the UK from implementing a tram-train scheme quickly and successfully. The majority of tramway...