LONDON — Plans to close almost every ticket counter at English railway stations have been dropped after public consultation rejected the proposals. In an unusual success for citizen participation, over 750,000 people responded to the public consultation — a record for any public consultation in England, not just one related to the rail industry. About […]
BERN, Switzerland — The Gotthard Base Tunnel will not fully reopen to passenger and freight traffic until September 2024, Swiss Federal Railways announced today (Thursday, Nov. 2), saying ongoing repairs from an Aug. 10 derailment in the tunnel have found much more severe damage than initially believed. The Aug. 10 incident caused damage for more […]
ERIE, Pa. —Wabtec and Australian mining firm Roy Hill have unveiled world’s first 100% battery-powered, heavy-haul locomotive for mainline service in ceremonies today (Oct. 31, 2023) at Wabtec’s Erie manufacturing facility. The FLXdrive locomotive contains 72 lithium-ion modular battery packs with a total of 36,288 cells, giving the locomotive an energy capacity of 7 megawatt-hours. […]
Irish national rail company Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) has announced plans to convert one of its EMD-built locomotives to burn hydrogen instead of diesel fuel. IÉ is working in partnership with Latvian rail engineering firm DIGAS to test the use of a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine in an existing Class 071 diesel freight locomotive. Since earlier […]
LONDON — Virgin Group has come out on top in its legal battle over Brightline Holdings LLC in a United Kingdom court judgment. This comes after a $115 million [originally reported to be $250 million] lawsuit was filed by Virgin over the Brightline’s exit from its 20-year partnership in the Virgin Trains USA branding that […]
PINHAIS, Brazil — Progress Rail has delivered two hybrid EMD GT38H locomotives to Rumo, Brazil’s largest railway operator, which will become the first hybrids in revenue freight service. The locomotives include both a diesel-electric system and battery packs, drawing energy to power the traction motors from the diesel generator and the bank of batteries. Rumo […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Passenger service commenced for Indonesia’s first high speed rail service on Oct. 2, 2023. The 140-kilometer (87-mile) route connects Jakarta and Bandung, the country’s capital and a popular tourist destination, respectively. The Nikkei Asia reports that the new eight-car WHOOSH train — an acronym for “Waktu Hemat, Operasi Optimal, Sistem Hebat,” meaning […]
MANCHESTER, England — In a speech today (Oct. 4) at the annual Conservative Party conference, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced cancellation of construction of the second stage of the planned high speed rail project known as HS2. That segment was to link Manchester and Birmingham. The decision — if it survives an election due […]
AVIEMORE, Scotland — At least five people were injured as landmark British steam locomotive Flying Scotsman was involved in what is described as a “slow speed” collision Friday at a heritage railway in the Scottish Highlands, the Guardian newspaper reports. The incident occurred about 7:10 p.m. Friday on the Strathspey Railway, which was preparing for […]
Dates have been set for the UK’s 2024 Midlands Garden Rail Show on March 2-3, 2024. This event attracts nearly 2,000 enthusiasts from all over the UK and offers visitors the opportunity to see layouts in larger gauges and scales including gauge 1, O gauge, large scale, and more. There will be more than 15 […]
MONTREAL — As part of its fall conference, the HeritageRail Alliance announced the 2023 awards for significant achievements in railway preservation. The annual meeting was held Sept. 20-23 in Montreal with the Canadian Railroad Historical Association and Exporail serving as hosts. Railroading Heritage of Midwest America was the recipient of the Jim Wrinn Award for […]
BERN, Switzerland — Passenger trains will begin returning to the Gotthard Base Tunnel as of this Friday, Sept. 29, SBB, the Swiss Federal Railways, announced today. One southbound train will be operated through the tunnel on Friday and one northbound train will run on Sunday, helping address peak autumn weekend demand on the route to […]
