Network Rail faces capacity challenge on its Settle-Carlisle line
When news broke earlier this year of extensive closures coming to the northern half of the West Coast Main Line for renewals of overhead wires and signalling, it naturally begged…
How a ‘Big Six’ might provide a map for England’s railways
With Labour in power for a year, pledging to nationalise Britain’s railways, it’s worth a look at progress. After a rapid start, progress has slowed, perhaps even stalled. That quick…
The long wait for a train…
The new Labour government has cancelled the previous administration’s ‘Restoring Your Railways’ project. This article from 2021 looks at Portishead, where the local council has been working since 2008 to…
Use road crisis to boost rail freight
Never waste a good crisis. And it’s fair to say that road transport is having a crisis. Attentive watchers will not be surprised. In 2016, the House of Commons Transport…
Pollution harms air quality on trains
That diesel trains emit more pollution than electric trains is no surprise. Perhaps more surprising is that pollution levels inside trains can be higher than those found by city centre…
Lumo launches at King’s Cross
One of rail’s most enduring features is the small slip of paper or card that marks a passenger’s permission to travel. The physical ticket has survived the switch from steam…
Timetables must balance demand and costs
East Coast Main Line timetables will not change next May. Within barely three months of the rail industry launching a consultation into a new timetable, the Department for Transport has…
Unions raise prospect of rail strikes
Unions have a vital role in rail. Love them or loathe them, they provide a voice for railway staff. They provide a counter to managers’ more extreme ideas. In turn,…
NR creates London freight blueprint
In West London there’s a pair of tracks known as the Up Poplar and Down Poplar. They link the Great Western Main Line with the North London Line. A train…
Hurdles remain in the path to freight decarbonisation
Shifting freight from road to rail provides the best short-term route to reducing freight’s carbon emissions. That’s because an HGV produces four times more carbon emissions than even a diesel…