Blogs - Industry talking points


Finding the Next Generation

18 Feb 2012 19:55:07 | Chris Jackson
As I travel around the world, meeting railway operators, suppliers and other industry bodies, one topic seems to come up in conversation more than almost anything else: people and skills. Many companies face a shortage of skilled employees in a specific field, be it drivers, technicians or engineers, or have a general concern about age profiles. From Europe to Australia and North America to Africa, there is a growing recognition of the need to bring new people into the rail sector and find ways ...
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What happened at Wenzhou?

25 Jul 2011 15:22:48 | Chris Jackson
Will we ever find out what really caused the rear-end collision between two Chinese high speed trains at Shuangyu near Wenzhou on July 23? The world’s first fatal train accident on a dedicated high speed line, after almost 47 years of near-unblemished operation, reportedly killed at least 43 passengers and injured over 200. The head and deputy head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau were dismissed, along with the head of the bureau’s Communist party committee.A 16-car CRH1B EMU working ...
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Battle joined in the Northeast Corridor

19 Jul 2011 13:05:33 | Chris Jackson
Radical proposals for privatisation of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor between Washington DC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York and Boston were tabled in Congress on June 15 by the Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Transportation Committee, John Mica. He is keen to see a new high speed line built in the USA’s busiest rail corridor, and he believes that transferring responsibility for the route would pave the way for a public-private partnership to build the line. Although ...
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Capacity is the driver for high speed lines

5 Apr 2011 17:51:27 | Chris Jackson
Looking back over 50 years of high speed line development, it is clear that in many cases the underlying driver for new line construction has been capacity. Japan’s Tokaido Shinkansen, France’s LGV Sud Est and HSL-Zuid in the Netherlands, for example, all had their origins in the need to relieve overloaded main lines. Similarly, when Italy’s direttissima spawned the Grand T network, it was rebranded from Alta Velocità to Alta Capacità to make this point. Whilst ...
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Getting the cost of rail down

8 Jan 2011 13:27:49 | Chris Jackson
Another New Year, another fare rise. Rail tickets in the UK have increased by just over 6%, but this average conceals variations up to 10% or more on some routes. And further substantial rises can be expected as the government envisages that fares will increase by 10% above inflation over the next three or four years. It is all part of efforts to 'reduce the cost of the railway to the taxpayer'. We have been here before. At present the UK rail industry receives around £12bn a year, of ...
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