Network Rail

In a bid to increase efficiencies and reduce delays for passengers, the UK’s Network Rail is trialling ‘formation flying’ engineering trains to repair and renew the 20,000 miles of railway track it is responsible for maintaining. It says this new approach to engineering could potentially save taxpayer-funded Network Rail US$313,000 (£250,000) per week in costs by allowing trains to run at higher speeds once engineering is complete. The pioneering technique was used successfully at Sandy, Bedfordshire, on

The UK’s Network Rail is installing red light safety cameras at a level crossing in West Sussex to stop drivers putting lives at risk. The new cameras will be equipped with number plate recognition technology, meaning motorists misusing the crossing can now be automatically identified and prosecuted by British Transport Police. These types of cameras were first introduced on Britain’s rail network in 2015 and, according to Network Rail, have since proven to be extremely successful with driver non-comp

Britain’s network Rail is warning commuters to take care on level crossings after new figures revealed that more than half of all near misses with trains at level crossings over the last five years took place during the evening rush hour. To combat the problem and help improve the safety of everyone who travels on or across the railway, Network Rail has launched a new level crossing safety awareness campaign targeting commuters, reminding them to take care at level crossings, particularly as they travel

The UK's first ever tram train has been unveiled in South Yorkshire. Vehicles from this government-funded project are designed to run on both the city’s tramlines and the rail network between Sheffield and Rotherham. This will allow passengers to make single journey between tram stops and conventional rail stations from early 2017, once the works are complete. Prior to this, the tram trains will undergo a period of testing, before being introduced on the Supertram network in summer 2016, to provide extra

THE UK’S first tram train vehicle has started its journey to Sheffield from Spain. The fully-constructed, 37m long tram train will make a two week voyage over land and sea from Valencia before arriving in South Yorkshire on 1 December. Passengers in the county will be the first in the UK to benefit from the innovative new tram train, a tram-type vehicle that has the signalling, power supply, control and communication technology to run on both street tram lines and the rail network.

Passengers on some of the busiest commuter lines in the UK can look forward to more frequent and more reliable trains following a deal to provide new traffic management technology on the Thameslink route through central London. Network Rail and the Thameslink Programme have signed a contract with Hitachi Rail Europe (HRE) to deliver a step-change in technology through state-of-the-art traffic management technology.

Vysionics has been working with the UK’s Network Rail on a development project to reduce the number of fatalities that occur on the rail network. This included the development of a new Home Office Type Approved (HOTA) device that allows for automatic, unattended enforcement of vehicles that misuse level crossings. Vysionics’ Vector LX level crossing red light enforcement system has been awarded HOTA certification and is now operational at sites across the UK; the first ever non-invasive solution to ac

A new rail signalling system to be installed across the UK could be liable to hacking, a government adviser has warned. Professor David Stupples told the BBC that the European Rail Traffic Management system (ERTMS) could be exposed to malicious software, or malware, and used to cause an accident perhaps telling the system the train is slowing when down when it is speeding up. "However, he said governments aren't complacent."Certain ministers know this is absolutely possible and they are worried about

Plans to revolutionise travel in the north, including a new TransNorth rail system and new road investments, will today be set out by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin and northern city leaders. As part of building a northern powerhouse, the Chancellor established Transport for the North (TfN) to bring together northern transport authorities, and tasked it with working with government to create the first ever comprehensive tr

Mobile ticketing provider Bytemark is to create a mobile payments infrastructure and smartphone app for the FutureRailway program in the UK. FutureRailway, a collaboration between RSSB and Network Rail, is the delivery team working on behalf of the cross-industry Technical Strategy Leadership Group (TSLG) to implement the Rail Technical Strategy (RTS). Once completed, the FutureRailway smartphone app will offer transport operators and commuters convenient methods for purchasing and activating rail ti