Network Rail faces fines for late trains
In the three months that constitute Quarter 2, around 122,600 trains ran late as Network Rail posted performance that varied between 0.9 and 5.1 percentage points behind its targets. These…
Plenty of work on the Great Western Main Line
An awards event in Bristol last Friday took me west of Reading on the Great Western Main Line for the first time in many months. Most recent attention around Reading…
French railways
A trip last week to Normandy provided a perfect opportunity to reflect on the differences between British and French railways. The default view would have you believe that Britain’s railways…
Metro warns users not to hold doors open
After an incident in which a woman was dragged along a platform at Jarrow with her arm stuck in the doors of a Metro train, the train operator has released…
On weekend engineering
I should have known better. To travel on the East Coast Main Line on an autumn Saturday is to risk lengthened journeys, bus replacements or diversions. And so it was on…
HS2 future chief: Place less emphasis on businessmen working on trains
High Speed 2’s forthcoming strategic business case is expected to place less emphasis on whether businessmen work while travelling. Debates about HS2 over the past few years have been punctuated…
Level crossings
It’s a measure of the complexities of level crossings that the Law Commission has just spent the last five years investigating the rules that lie behind such crossings before publishing…
King’s Cross Square
Put out the flags! Let the bands play! For tomorrow – 26 September 2013 – is an historic day! And not because Network Rail’s David Higgins has been appointed the…
Moving on from RAIL Magazine
Leaving any job can be difficult. When you’ve been working for a magazine such as RAIL for 16 years it is all the harder. Those 16 years have seen a…