Business
PORR consortium to supply HS2 slab track
PORR’s Austrian Slab Track system has won the contract to provide the slab track for HS2 phases 1 and 2a – from London to Birmingham and Crewe, where HS2 will join the existing West Coast […]
Permanent Way
Infrastructure
Network Rail plans major railway upgrade in West Yorkshire
Network Rail has published its proposals for major upgrades to the railway between Huddersfield and Westtown (Dewsbury). These plans include doubling the number of railway tracks from two to four and electrifying the eight-mile stretch. […]
Environment
Railway prepares to combat ‘leaves on the line’
With the start of autumn comes leaf-fall time, and Network Rail’s fleet of 61 leaf-busting trains and 80 leaf-busting teams are being readied to help tackle the annual blight of ‘leaves on the line’ and […]
Geotechnical
Work starts to reopen Levenmouth line
Work is starting to reconnect Leven, in Fife, Scotland, to the national rail network as Network Rail begins to clear vegetation on the Levenmouth line. Engineers will also be carrying out site survey and geological […]
Infrastructure
Edinburgh-Glasgow line closed for two months after canal breaches its banks, severely damaging railway
When Scotland’s Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal, which runs between Falkirk and Edinburgh, breached its bank at Muiravonside on the morning of Wednesday 12 August, thousands of gallons of water poured onto the surrounding area, […]
Geotechnical
Extreme weather closes Heart of Wales line
The railway between Shrewsbury and Llandrindod Wells – the ‘Heart of Wales line – has been closed owing to extensive damage caused by extreme rainfall in mid-Wales on 12 and 13 August. The railway has […]
Geotechnical
Network Rail to inspect dozens of sites with higher-risk trackside slopes
Before he left the site of the fatal train crash at Carmont, near Stonehaven in Scotland, Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines addressed the speculation that torrential rainfall and flooding was the cause of the […]
Infrastructure
Lifeboat ramp repaired alongside work on Cumbrian Coast line
Rail workers protecting the Cumbrian Coast line from the effects of extreme weather and erosion have rebuilt a section of public slipway used to launch RNLI lifeboats. Every winter, the railway along the Cumbrian coast […]
Business
Hungarian Railways orders its first Harsco 20-stone rail grinder
Harsco Rail, the global supplier of innovative railway track maintenance products and services, has signed a $10.3 million (£8 million) contract with Hungarian infrastructure manager MÁV FKG Kft-t to provide it with an EU 20-stone […]
Electrification
Commissioning new substations to close MIdland main line over two weekends
Two new substations on the Midland main line between Bedford and Ampthill will help to improve resilience on the railway, as well as provide the power needed to allow more trains to run in the […]