Network Rail

UK Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin attended the inaugural Transport for the North meeting as northern leaders met to discuss their plans to transform the region into a northern powerhouse. The meeting in Leeds heralded the first step of drawing up with the government a comprehensive transport strategy to transform the north’s economic infrastructure and help maximise the region’s growth potential, rebalancing the national economy. As well as examining east-west rail links to better connect the

Network Rail, which owns and operates the UK's railway infrastructure, has extended its long-term partnership with HaCon for a further five years and will continue to use their train planning system TPS. The system enables train planners can create and adapt optimal train schedules across the complex railway infrastructure, constantly responding to the ever-increasing demands of passenger and freight needs across the country. Up to 300 train planners can use TPS to plan over 21,000 train services per da

Active LED solar road studs supplied by Rennicks UK have been granted a Certificate of Acceptance by the authority responsible for the UK’s railways, paving the way for the studs to be installed at level crossings around the country. Rennicks say that the road studs are an intuitive signal to pedestrians, cyclists and drivers in the approach to and crossing the track. The studs use dual LEDs with an internal prismatic system for high performance and solar/battery technology for environmental sustaina

Thales is to provide the UK’s Network Rail with its Aramis traffic management system (TMS) at two new Regional Operating Centres (ROCs) in Romford and Cardiff. This will be the first time that the internationally proven TMS technology has been deployed in the UK, and is part of Network Rail’s significant investment targeted at improving rail network performance and capacity. When rolled out nationally, TMS technology will help Network Rail integrate, operate and manage the UK rail network through twelve

A route-by-route plan for how an ambitious five-year programme to invest US$63 billion in the UK’s railways will take shape has been unveiled. The programme, starting this week, will involve the largest modernisation of the railways since Victorian times, funding projects across the whole of the UK and building on the work that is already under way. The five-year plan for Network Rail’s new funding period, which started on 1 April 2014, will target the busiest parts of Britain’s rail network, providing

Britain cannot meet its future transport needs without HS2, according to new evidence published by the government. Even with over US$80 billion of planned transport investment over the next six years the country’s railways will be overwhelmed. The strategic case for HS2 sets out in detail the need for a new railway line to provide the vitally needed extra capacity. Central to the case is new data that reveals the true extent of the crisis facing the UK rail network and the impact alternatives to buildin

According to Ingo Flomer, director of Product Management of UK company Axell Wireless, UK transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin’s intention to upgrade the rail network to enable passengers to access high-speed mobile broadband does not go far enough to promote an integrated communications infrastructure that supports cellular (3G and 4G) coverage on-board trains. Flomer says the UK has significant technological hurdles to overcome to connect rail passengers to the cellular network. The coverage would ha

ChargePoint Services is to install an eight vehicle electric charging facility at Network Rail’s public car parks at Euston and Victoria railway stations in central London. The installation is part of Network Rail’s on-going sustainability strategy, which aims to make commuting via the rail network the greenest way to travel. ChargePoint Services worked alongside Network Rail to help develop this initiative and install a solution to meet Network Rail’s specific EV charging requirements. The solution inst

The Catapult centre, the new technology and innovation centre for integrated transport systems, which is being set up by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board, has appointed Steve Yianni as its chief executive. The centre will focus on innovation for efficient and sustainable ways to move people and freight across national transport systems including road, rail, sea and air. Helping business bring products and services to market that will help to ease congestion globally and prepare for the growing requirement

As part of a recent rail investment package, the Department for Transport has ring-fenced a US$100 million fund for safety improvements to level crossings between 2014 and 2019, and Optex has announced that its Redscan laser detector has been specified as part of a new solution to automate signalling and detect whether or not a level crossing is clear from vehicles and pedestrians before allowing a train to pass through.