EDINBURGH, Scotland — The operation of the internationally famous “Harry Potter” steam in the Scottish Highlands is once again threatened. More correctly known as The Jacobite, the train, started by British Rail in the 1980s, has been run since rail privatization in the 1990s by West Coast Railways, based in northern England. From April to […]
LONDON — Freight service through the Channel Tunnel, which ended in 2024, is set to resume after the British government announced it would take control of the only intermodal facility in the United Kingdom able to handle freight cars with European dimensions. The government announced today (Wednesday, Feb. 25) that national rail infrastructure company Network […]
Railroad engineers — or train drivers, as they are known to most of the world — are the focus of two of the articles in the latest installment of Trains.com’s occasional Recommended Reading feature. First up, we have this article from UK newspaper The Telegraph on a driver for the Caledonian Sleeper, the London-to-Scotland passenger […]
LEEDS, England — How do you mark the launch of a new, faster passenger rail service? For one British operator, the answer was to hold a “speed dating” event matching singles from the two endpoints of the new service. The event on Wednesday, Feb. 11, at the Leeds station was sponsored by Northern Rail, the […]
GLASGOW, Scotland — The Caledonian Sleeper, the overnight passenger rail service between London and five Scotland destinations, is in the enviable position of having fully recovered, and then some, from the collapse in demand faced by all forms of transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The operation profiled in the March 2026 issue of Trains is […]
LONDON — Rail service has resumed through the Channel Tunnel after a Tuesday shutdown, but delays continue today (Dec. 31) for trains packed with delayed travelers. The UK newspaper The Independent reports 30 Eurostar trains were cancelled Tuesday, and at least one that did operate arrived in Paris some 12 hours behind schedule. In all, […]
LONDON — Rail traffic through the Channel Tunnel connecting England and France has been halted today (Tuesday, Dec. 30) because of a problem with the tunnel’s catenary power system, creating chaos for holiday travelers. A brief notice on the Eurostar website says the tunnel is currently closed, which “means we have no choice but to […]
Our latest edition of the occasional Trains.com Recommended Reading feature is spanning the globe, as the old ABC Wide World of Sports intro used to say, to bring you a wide range of rail-related articles: — The New York Times did a spectacular job with the design and graphics for this article on Penn Station […]
LONDON — Train fares in England will be frozen for the first time in 30 years, the British government announced on Sunday, in a move it said would address the cost of living and aid economic growth. “We all want to see cheaper rail travel, so we’re freezing fares to help millions of passengers save […]
CONTAGEM, Brazil — Wabtec will spend R$20 million ($3.7 million U.S.) to expand operations in Brazil, mostly at its plant in Contagem, Minas Gerais, the company announced this week. At Contagem, the company will build a new Global Engineering Center, its first in Latin America, and has developed a new locomotive production line. The 9,000-square-meter […]
LONDON — Eurostar’s long run as the sole operator of rail service through the Channel Tunnel between England and France is likely to end following a decision today (Oct. 30, 2025) by the UK regulatory Office of Rail and Road to allow Virgin Trains access to the only servicing facility on the high-speed route between […]
BERLIN — InnoTrans, the biennial event that is the world’s largest transportation trade fair, will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2026 with a fully booked display area, organizer Messe Berlin has announced. Almost a year ahead of the 15th InnoTrans, set for Sept. 22-25, 2026, all of the more than 200,000 square meters of display […]
