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…
A return to Portishead
When I was small, my grandparents lived in Bristol. My dad would drive us down at autumn half-terms to wander the Downs looking for conkers and to visit the zoo.…
Britain needs electric freight
Noel Dolphin is an enthusiast for electric trains. That shouldn’t surprise anyone because he works for Furrer+Frey, which is the Swiss company that developed the electrification system that Network Rail…
When will passengers return?
I woke early the other morning. Too early. All was black outside and time dragged. It seemed to be hours before the eastern sky slowly lightened and the sun hauled…