Comments
Finding the Next Generation
Alessandro Sasso, 10/03/2012 09:11Sure. One of the "cinderella" field is maintenance: poor skills, poor budget. But in ours days, with a strong economical crisis, maintenance real has to be put in the middle of governance strategies. I find a lack of skilled peoples around Europe.
What happened at Wenzhou?
RAJ DVV, 31/07/2011 15:09Completely agree with the statement: "Rail’s enviable safety record has been built up over almost two centuries by the careful investigation of accidents and a willingness to learn from the consequences. But this requires a degree of openness which does not come easily in some countries."
I think "Safety" should be given its due importance in all railway signalling projects. In no case safety should be compromised. This requires proper planning and execution of signalling projects. But I think there is a dearth of good managers with sound technical capability who can plan things correctly and vice versa. In no case people involved in safety critical activities should come under any sort of pressure while performing their work. As Signal Engineers, we should never forget our obligation towards safety.
Whatever happened to the open market?
Dr. Taku Tamaki, 27/11/2010 14:15It is heartening to hear such views from the railway press. Hailing from another highly protectionist country, Japan, this is a refreshing read.
A domestic, UK, title has--rightly, in my view--raised the issue of how the Japanese railway market is effectively closed to European suppliers (Faiveley's bitter experience with JR Central's Series 300 Shinkansen comes to mind). But I also feel that their real motive is not so much a call for liberalised market as protection of UK skills and jobs.
I can fully understand such sentiments--especially in the current, tough, economic climate. It is also laudable for the railway press to encourage the maintenance of domestic skills base. However, I also feel we need railway journalists and publications that take up the difficult task of speaking truth to power. I hope the Railway Gazette remains the beacon (or should I say the Clear Signal?) of common sense and clear analysis going forward.
InnoTrans 2010 - first thoughts
Michael Willis, 18/11/2010 15:55Consider this idea:
InnoTrans: Detroit - why?
The Michigan State Fair Grounds site in Detroit is available at a very reasonable cost with generous acreage and large exposition buildings.
Detroit is rail and public transport under developed, lacking a regional public transport authority, a mini-skeletal bus system named 'SMART' ferries a few thousand 'motorcar-less' riders daily.
The Detroit region has millions of (now abandoned, but still intact) square feet of machine tool & die, metal forging, fabricating, stamping, assembly and heavy manufacturing factories still fully operational that were previously related to automobile manufacturing, available today for pennies on the dollar---now awaiting the fate of mass scrapping...
The Detroit region has a large pool of engineers and skilled workers from the automobile design and manufacturing and supplier industry.
Just add it up in Detroit---Ready to re-tool for rail manufacturing facilities + rail re-educated engineers + rail-trained skilled workers + global railway industry support = a really enormous US rail market!
Welcome to Railway Gazette Community
Neil Stevens, 01/10/2010 12:12Well said Chris, I think you are right about the family breaking down, but I also see this as the necessary cost the industry must accept if it is to continue to benefit from the considerable well of innovation and development that derives from outside of the rail industry.
As an organisation that grew from an acknowledged need for a UK Region's core industries to have access to a friendly and neutral source of rail industry knowledge and information, fewer members of the Rail Alliance are what you would refer to as railway companies, as opposed to being companies for whom rail is one of a number important parts of their customer base.
Whilst the erosion of the 'family' saddens me as a lifelong railwayman, their is no pain without gain and I believe the gain the industry accrues is and will always be greater than the pain it suffers.
The Community is a great initiative which stand to assist both family members and newbies, all to the advantage of the industry itself.