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…
West Yorkshire plans ambitious network
It’s 20 years since Railtrack rebuilt Leeds station and its approach tracks to increase capacity into West Yorkshire. Dubbed Leeds 1st, it swept away the old dingy station roof and…
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…
Franchise flashpoint puts DfT under pressure
How many times have you heard the warning ‘buyer beware’ or been cautioned ‘if a deal looks to good to be true, then it is too good to be true’.I’m…
The hunt for DfT’s rail strategy
Strategy and policy are inextricably linked. The first is a reaction to the second. Decide your policy, then the strategy that delivers it and, finally, plans to implement.According to the…
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…
Turbulence ahead for West Coast bidders
To say the Department for Transport has set a major challenge with the next West Coast franchise is a gross understatement.The winning bidder will need to take over today’s long-distance…
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…
How do you fix a problem like rail franchising?
What to do? How to fix a broken railway?The answer rather depends on how broken you think the railway is. It’s caught many headlines and, yes, it has made many…