List view / Grid view
Railways face continued growth in passenger ridership numbers and increased demand for rail freight operations. To cope, rail systems must adapt to their changing environment and provide networks that are both safe and secure.
15 February 2011 | By Kris Przelaskowski, Retired Senior Signalling Engineer
In the past, Poland (with its 23,000km railway network) badly needed a good operational radio communication system. The first simple analogue system started in 1972 connecting the harbours of Gdynia and Gdansk with Silesia. The radio-telephone network has provided good communication between dispatchers and running trains along the whole route…
10 December 2010 | By Steve Yianni, Director of Engineering, Network Rail and Global Railway Review Editorial Board Member
Over the last decade, the UK’s railways have been transformed. When we took over from Railtrack in 2002, we took over a railway that had lost the confidence of the nation. Ten years ago punctuality was running at 79% while the number of broken rails approached 1,000. Today, nearly 94%…
10 December 2010 | By Maya Petkova, Principal EMC Engineer, Network Rail
The railway is a highly complex system relying on a vast number of electrical and mechanical components working properly together to keep the 24,000 trains that operate in Great Britain running safely, reliably and efficiently. Every minute, thousands of electrical components are called upon to carry out critical functions to…
10 December 2010 | By Dave Curtis, General Manager, Freightliner Maintenance Ltd
Freightliner Maintenance Ltd (FML) faced significant challenges to turn an abandoned freight terminal into a fully-functioning railport for a customer running liquid products. In an interview for Global Railway Review, Dave Curtis, General Manager of FML, explains the work involved with this important project and also the success so far…
10 December 2010 | By Ian Duncan, Engineering Director, East Coast
‘Watching out for you’ – that’s East Coast’s message to customers as we roll out new CCTV cameras across our fleet. The installation of the cameras, which is expected to be complete by the end of 2010, will see a total of 1,621 CCTV cameras fitted across East Coast’s 43…
10 December 2010 | By Pio Guido, Head of the ERTMS Unit, European Railway Agency (ERA)
Railways epitomise the triumph of engineering. From the early exploits of technological progress in the Victorian age, to the most recent speed records, from the age of steam power to the age of power semiconductors, engineering prowess has always been closely associated with the railway world. Engineers have been successful…
10 December 2010 | By AF Group
The ÅF Group is a leader in technical consulting, with expertise founded on more than a century of experience. The ÅF Group offers highly qualified services and solutions for industrial processes, infrastructure projects and the development of products and IT systems. Today, the ÅF Group has approximately 4,000 employees. The…
10 December 2010 | By Paulo Jorge Ribeiro Corte Real de Oliveira, Project Manager, Neopul
This report describes Neopul’s work on the Luas b1-400 extension of the Green Line from the Sandyford depot to Cherrywood industrial estate, which was opened to the public on 16 October 2010. The green line was the existing connection from Dublin city centre (St. Stephen’s Green Station) and the recent…
20 September 2010 | By Gunnar Malm, Director General, Trafikverket – the Swedish Transport Administration
The hard winter of 2009/2010 led to major disruptions to train services in Sweden. In April 2010, the Swedish Transport Administration initiated an inquiry intended to show how great the delays were that affected passenger and goods services, how great a cost to society they entailed, what caused the delays,…
17 September 2010 | By Ben Gilmartin, Senior Safety Risk Analyst, Safety Knowledge and Planning, Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB)
The mainline railway in Great Britain has a responsibility to understand and measure safety risk to be able to manage safety of its operations properly. However, the task of quantifying levels of safety meaningfully can be difficult, especially for those rare accidents with potential for serious consequences. RSSB’s Safety Risk…
17 September 2010 | By Ian Coleman & Andrew Cornish, Network Rail PhD Students (Switches and Crossings) at the Future Railway Research Centre, Imperial College London
Maintaining and renewing the thousands of switches and crossings (or ‘S&C’ and also known as railway points and/or turnouts) across Britain’s rail network is an expensive business, costing hundreds of millions of pounds every year. Gaining a better understanding of the dynamic forces that occur when a train passes over…
4 August 2010 | By Philippe Gauderon, Head of SBB Infrastructure and Member of the SBB Management Board
Most of the SBB rail network is in good condition. That was the conclusion of an external survey commissioned by SBB and published in February 2010. Future maintenance and renewal of the rail infrastructure will cost significantly more than was previously assumed. SBB Infrastructure has embarked on a comprehensive action…
3 August 2010 | By Nelson Ogunshakin, Chief Executive, ACE (Association for Consultancy and Engineering)
Rail transport is essential to the UK’s economy. The Eddington Transport Study of 2006 found a clear link between transport capacity and economic performance, and noted that transport was an enabler of economic growth rather than a creator of growth in itself. Crossrail, for example, is expected to generate around…
31 May 2010 | By Elisabeth Enger, Director General, Jernbaneverket
The past winter was unusually tough and challenging for Norwegian railways. Almost three months of continuous cold weather took their toll on ageing and well-worn infrastructure, resulting in record low punctuality and a large number of train cancellations. Never before have we experienced such poor punctuality over such a prolonged…
31 May 2010 | By Mikko Asikainen, Project Manager, Finnish Transport Agency & Antti Haapalahti, Project Manager, Partner, CC Infra Oy
In a large-scale project of the Finnish Transport Agency, a 76.5km second track will be built between Kokkola and Ylivieska. To fund the project, a Public Private Partnership will be used for the first time in the Finnish railway network. It is also desirable to have foreign competitors for the…
