Drones – Are they the Future for Track Renewal Surveys?
I remember my early days as a railway engineer, when it was our job to carry out a detailed site survey in preparation for a track renewal. I also reme…
Technology
Is hydrogen the answer?
Rail Engineer’s feature on hydrogen trains in the January issue (issue 159) raised the possibility that, despite its good green credentials, the rail i…
Complex asset portfolio? Avoiding surprises and delivering benefits
Railways are highly complex systems, reliant on many assets of varying types and ages that are operated and maintained by different organisations. If p…
Hydrail comes of age
Hydrail, the term coined for hydrogen-powered trains, started to become well known when the first annual international hydrail conference was held in N…
Trams without rails
The world’s cities are getting bigger. Between 2016 and 2030, the planet’s urban population is forecast to grow from 54 to 60 per cent of the world’s t…
What is rail asset management?
Asset management is a term that has rapidly gained influence in the rail industry. The basic defining principle, of an often complex system, is a group…
Panasonic’s proactive CCTV
It is difficult to find anywhere in Britain’s town and city centres without CCTV. There are few shops, banks and railway stations without them. Yet, wh…
Sustainability and the fallout from scrapped electrification plans
The fallout from the Government’s decision to scrap three major electrification projects, in Wales, the Midlands and the North, is inevitably a hot top…
Train antennas
The rail industry requirement and desire to achieve an on-board ‘connected’ environment, for both customer and operational purposes, has resulted in th…
New traffic management system could reduce train delays by 15%
The introduction of a new traffic management system is set to deliver more punctual trains on journeys between London Paddington and Bristol Parkway. …