Over the New Year period the Central Rail Systems Alliance of Network Rail, Balfour Beatty, Atkins and TSO replaced 400 m of track through a narrow bore of the Northchurch Tunnel between Berkhamsted and Tring on the West Coast Main Line. ‘This track renewal was a bit of a Rubik’s Cube to complete as we had to do each stage in a predefined sequence and the job took nearly three years to plan’, said Network Rail Capital Delivery senior programme manager Neil O’Toole.
A joint venture of Siemens Mobility and Costain has been awarded the £300m HS2 High Voltage Rail Systems Power Supply design and build contract, covering connections from the National Grid to the route between London and the West Midlands. This will be followed by a separate seven-year maintenance contract worth £32m to the joint venture.
Alstom’s Widnes plant has completed a £25m refurbishment of 28 South Western Railway Class 458 Juniper EMUs, financed by leasing company Porterbrook. Additional work at Alstom’s Crewe works has seen the powered wheelsets overhauled to raise the fleet’s maximum speed from 120 to 160 km/h. The 28 four-car EMUs have been designated as Class 458/4, and the eight remaining five-car units as Class 458/5.
Rail, road and energy contractor Keltbray Infrastructure Services Ltd has been renamed Aureos. This follows its acquisition by EMK Capital in August 2024. The company said the new name is ‘an aspirational hybrid’ of ‘aurora’ and ‘eos’ which ‘broadly translates’ as ‘a new dawn’.
ScotRail has extended manufacturer Hitachi Rail’s contract for the light and heavy maintenance of the Class 385 EMU fleet from March 31 2025 to March 31 2032.
M Group Services has appointed Archie Norman as non-executive Chairman. His past roles have included Railtrack director and Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport & the Regions.
TransPennine Express has appointed Andrew McClements as its Customer Experience & Transformation Director. He has held roles covering contract management, sustainability, business planning, and stakeholder relations with the Department for Transport and Rail North Partnership.
LNER Managing Director David Horne has succeeded Freightliner Group CEO UK/Europe Tim Shoveller as Chairman of the Railway Benefit Fund charity.
Chloe Smith, Director of Communications at Strabag UK, has been appointed to the board of the High Speed Rail Group. Before joining Strabag UK in 2023 Smith was Head of Communications for the Skanska Costain Strabag JV building the HS2 London tunnels and approaches. Prior to that she was Head of External Relations at Transport for London managing public and political engagement for programmes including Crossrail, the Northern Line Extension, the London Overground extension and station upgrades.
RAIB has made three recommendations as a result of its investigation into a collision between a passenger train and a fallen tree at Broughty Ferry on December 27 2023. The first is to Network Rail to consider how technology could assist in the detection of trees subject to altered exposure, including those trees on third-party land. The second is that Dundee City Council should review its management of trees to control the risk of them falling onto the railway. The third is that the Rail Safety & Standards Board’s Carmont recommendations steering group should review its response to a recommendation relating to the risks associated with the continued operation of HSTs, which pre-date modern crashworthiness standards.
