Clearing congestion from Castlefield Corridor
Whichever way you look at Manchester there are no easy answers to the congestion caused by pushing more trains along the twin-track Castlefield Corridor between Piccadilly and Deansgate stations. The…
Department for Transport
Freight
High Speed 2
Infrastructure
Network Rail
Planning
Train operators
Transport Scotland
Rail needs strategic direction yet local delivery
London’s Institute for Government sits in a classy part of town, just a stone’s throw from St James’ Palace and the clubs of Pall Mall. I was among a small…
Banish diesel to make the railway greener
Great Western Railway’s withdrawal of diesel High Speed Trains from Paddington leaves Brunel’s terminus almost wholly in the hands of electric trains. King’s Cross is about to see a similar…
Sleeper starts with a few problems
It wasn’t the most auspicious start to my first run on new stock from Edinburgh to London with Caledonian Sleeper. The company rang me that morning to say the coach…
Glasgow needs better
Glasgow has the best suburban rail network outside London but a report now calls for more. The report comes from the city’s connectivity committee, headed by David Begg, who has…
Crossrail staggers into another crisis
Crossrail is in a mess. Maundy Thursday 2019 came with headlines claiming that Crossrail might not open until 2021. Stories citing senior but anonymous sources within the company. On the…
Raising the roof at Waverley
Around the dawn of privatisation, Railtrack planned to build over Edinburgh Waverley station, to plunge its platforms into a stygian gloom so familiar to generations of passengers at Birmingham New…
Electrification is still the answer
We need to talk about piles. They’re at the bottom of the railway’s current problems with electrification. The mistakes that Network Rail and its contractors made with piles on the…
Department for Transport
Infrastructure
Network Rail
Operations
Planning
Politics
Rolling stock
Train operators
People make decisions, not systems or structures
Whether or not you believe that Keith Williams’ railway review will achieve lasting improvements, it gives chance to look at why steel wheels on steel rails help this small and…
Restoring operations to rail’s frontline
Halfway between Littleborough and the western portal of Summit Tunnel lies a little-used trailing crossover. Littleborough marks the traditional boundary for Greater Manchester. Venture further east and you’ll be through…