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HS2: Cutting through Cumbria

12 March 2019Cumbria Chamber of Commerce is arguing for HS2 services from London to call at Carlisle, Oxenholme and Penrith. The chamber’s policy lead, Julian Whittle, explains why. It came as a huge shock to businesses in Cumbria to learn that HS2 trai...

Transport and Connectivity at EvoNorth 2019

05 March 2019Under the banner of the Northern Powerhouse, transport has been one of the most prevalent themes in advancing the businesses and people who live and operate inside the region. Following the grand announcement of the £70bn transport masterpla...

Predicting system failures before they occur

05 March 2019Professor Lukumon Oyedele is assistant vice-chancellor and chair professor of enterprise and project management at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). He also runs its Big Data Enterprise and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (Bi...

Bombardier plans digital takeoff with Heathrow Express fleet

05 March 2019Chris Parker, UK business development director, rail control solutions at Bombardier Transportation, outlines the work being carried out to digitally enhance the Heathrow Express fleet. Last month, it was reported that Porterbrook and Bombardier...

Good Growth: Barking Riverside

05 March 2019Lucinda Turner, Transport for London’s (TfL) director of spatial planning, argues that transport investment is the key to unlock good growth in a city. Despite recent economic shocks, London’s population continues to grow. By 2041, th...

Smart on Rail with Transport for the North

05 March 2019Transport for the North is currently leading the rollout of smartcards across the region’s rail network. Programme director, Alastair Richards, shares the customer insights on choices behind the successful passenger take-up, and reflects on...

Scrapping of airport link ‘lack of ambition' at the heart of government

26 February 2019The potential of a future rail link to Glasgow Airport and Glasgow city centre has been a contentious issue over recent years for residents. After originally mulling over plans in January to introduce a rail link to the airport, the Scottish Gover...

Horden Station project on track

26 February 2019Helen Golightly, chief executive of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), describes the benefits that the £10.6m Horden station will bring to the north east economy. The announcement that plans to create a new railway station a...

Introducing Alstom's Breeze trains

26 February 2019Mike Muldoon, head of business development for Alstom UK & Ireland, introduces us to Alstom’s new hydrogen-powered Breeze trains, which could hit UK tracks as early as 2022. On 7 January this year, Alstom and our partners Eversholt Rail...

Railtex: putting rail in the spotlight

26 February 2019Kirsten Whitehouse, exhibition manager for Mack Brooks Exhibitions, explains how Railtex is set to welcome an international audience as visitor registration officially opens. Professionals from across the rail industry are being urged to secure t...

TrackWater: Embracing data in flood prevention

05 February 2019Mike Harding, from Lancaster University’s Data Science Institute, introduces us to TrackWater: an innovative project between Lancaster University and Transport Systems Catapult. Network Rail estimates that, between 2008 and 2018, more than...

High-speed rail cannot stand in isolation

05 February 2019Last year, the Scottish Government announced two feasibility studies to better understand the economic and environmental implications of options to improve capacity between the country and London. Frazer Henderson, head of high-speed and cross-bor...

Flying Banana reaps the fruit of its labour

05 February 2019Steve Quinby, Network Rail’s head of data collection, gives us the rundown on the state-of-the-art ‘Flying Banana’ train. Managing a railway stretching 20,000 miles – from Wick to Penzance, Lowestoft to Aberystwth, and the...

Introducing the new Passenger Assist app

05 February 2019Jacqueline Starr, managing director of customer experience at the Rail Delivery Group, explains how a new app developed for the rail industry will revolutionise passenger assistance for customers. In a first for Britain’s transport sector...

Cyber security in the time of digital railway

29 January 2019Richard James Thomas, industrial fellow in data integration and cyber security at the University of Birmingham, considers the cyber security challenges that will arise as digital railway systems become the norm across the UK network. The Digital...