Rolling stock

‘Unacceptable’: Northern’s extra half-hourly trains from Cheshire to Manchester delayed for second time

27 March 2019The introduction of two additional train services between Cheshire and Manchester every hour has been postponed for the second time, according to the DfT. Northern promised half-hourly train services on the Mid-Cheshire Line in its bid for the fr...

GTR replaces UK’s oldest electric fleet with new £240m Class 717 trains

26 March 2019A new £240m fleet of Class 717 trains has been entered into service by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) to replace the UK’s oldest electric rail fleet. GTR has deployed the first two of its new Class 717 rolling stock from Siemens, with...

TfL agrees £1bn sale and leaseback of new Crossrail trains to rail consortium

26 March 2019TfL has completed a £1bn deal to sell and lease back new Crossrail-bound Class 345 trains, releasing the capital to reinvest into London’s transport network. The trains will be sold to the 345 Rail Leasing Consortium under a 20-year &...

FirstGroup finalises £100m order for Hitachi trains as plans for London-Edinburgh rail link move forward

22 March 2019FirstGroup has finalised a £100m order for Hitachi AT300 electric trainsets in a partnership between the two companies to create a new London-to-Edinburgh rail link. FirstGroup said it had secured the rights to a new “open-access&rdqu...

New to-the-minute measures for train punctuality introduced to tackle delays

22 March 2019New measures of train punctuality are to be released by train operators and Network Rail next month in a bid to improve performance. The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) announced the new ‘on time’ standards which will record train times to...

Fast-charging technology for battery trains launched by Vivarail

19 March 2019Vivarail has launched a new fast-charge system which can fully charge one of its Class 230 battery trains in seven minutes with a range of 60 miles between charges. The British rolling stock manager announced that it has successfully demonstrated...

Caledonian Sleeper: a railway icon re-imagined

19 March 2019The world-renowned Caledonian Sleeper, due to begin operations at the end of spring 2019, completed its first Scotland to London journey earlier this year. Ryan Flaherty, Serco’s managing director for Caledonian Sleeper, tells more about the...

Ashington Blyth and Tyne line reopening mulled over in six ‘quick win’ rail projects for northern transport

18 March 2019A series of ‘quick wins’ have been identified to fix the “current crisis” in the north’s transport network in a report by the IPPR. Following the publication of Transport for the North’s (TfN) Strategic Transpo...

New Hitachi 385s to replace ScotRail’s ‘happy trains’

18 March 2019ScotRail has confirmed that it is withdrawing its Class 365 ‘happy trains’ fleet and replacing them with new Hitachi Class 385s. The train operator said the new Class 385s will be introduced on the newly electrified Central Belt, deli...

New electric ‘very light rail’ vehicle planned for Coventry

14 March 2019Engineers have unveiled plans for a battery-powered, lightweight, ‘very light rail’ vehicle to operate in Coventry. A 3D simulation of the innovative light rail vehicle has been developed by engineers and researchers at WMG, Universit...

West Midlands unveils new May rail timetable

13 March 2019More direct services, greater capacity and extra evening and weekend services have been promised as West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway launch their new timetable for May 2019. The train operators have revealed a raft of changes...

LNER trains for ECML given approval to enter passenger services

11 March 2019New LNER rolling stock for the East Coast Main Line (ECML) has received approval for its Class 800 Azuma trains to enter passenger service. The ORR has authorised the operation of the Class 800/1 nine-car trainsets and the Class 800/2 five-car bi...

SWR and Porterbrook trial new emission-slashing rail technology

08 March 2019Groundbreaking emission-reducing technology is to be fitted to South Western Railway (SWR) train units as part of a new trial aiming to cut down harmful emissions from diesel trains by 80%. Porterbrook is working in partnership with exhaust manuf...

New May timetable announced as rail bosses insist ‘lessons learned’ following last year’s chaos

08 March 2019The rail industry has confirmed the new summer 2019 timetable, with 1,000 extra services added to relieve overcrowding as rail bosses say they “learned the lessons” of last year’s chaos. A host of timetable adjustments are to co...

New six-carriage Northern trains pushed back two years due to delayed upgrade works

07 March 2019The delivery of Northern’s new six-carriage trains at Leeds station has been delayed by two years due to separate delays to Network Rail upgrades. The longer trains were due to be introduced at the end of this year, but due to delays to the...