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…
Digital Railway: better information for better decisions
Digital Railway is an alluring concept that’s easy to describe in general terms but much harder to pin down in detail.According to Network Rail: “Digital railway offers capacity and performance…
RAIB report highlights lack of leadership at NR
No reports from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch make easy reading. When RAIB’s chief inspector describes an incident as alarming, the railway should sit up and pay attention.Thankfully, there was…
2018’s improvements must not be damaged by poor delivery and poor headlines
January proved to be a rocky start to 2018. Every year the month brings complaints about rising fares but this year there was real venom behind them. Ministers and managing…
The changing face of Britain’s railway
1923. 1948. 1996. Three years in which Britain’s railway changed greatly. 1923 saw the creation of four companies covering mainland Great Britain. The quartet owned tracks and ran trains. They…
Plenty of risks for Network Rail from 2019
Four pages of RAIL 847 contain a summary of Network Rail’s strategic plan, which it published on February 13. That will save you wading through all 1,857 pages of it.Those…
Network Rail needs an exceptional leader
It’s a gross understatement to say that Network Rail’s next chief executive faces a challenge.She or he will need to take on a government company that faces demands from all…
Chaos comes from changing plans
Order. Counter-order. Disorder. They might be the makings of military disasters but they apply firmly to railways in Northern England.Most of the disorder flows from governments changing their minds. Privatisation…
Railways cannot afford failure
We believed we could do it. Those words sum up the glorious failure of May’s timetable.They evoke a welcome spirit of trying but ultimately failing. But running a railway is…
Whitehall is pushing rail down the wrong track
Any pamphlet entitled How to be a minister is likely to have a limited audience. But that hasn’t stopped the Institute for Government with its latest primer on taking infrastructure…