This past week has been a busy one in the Rail sector, from a very interesting and informative site visit to the attendance of Rail Live at Long Marston on the Thursday with everything from traction & rolling stock, rail plant and infrastructure, electrification and signalling demonstrations; to displays of engineering, rail maintenance materials & product development/testing safety, digital products and innovation
Over five years, the government plans to invest 73 billion in transport 15 billion on highways, 16 billion on the first stages of HS2, and most of the rest, some 38 billion, on the existing railway network. An exciting time ahead.
Snippet of News from: 27/6
Elizabeth Line trains first to run without yellow front ends since steam era
The new Elizabeth Line trains, the first of which was introduced on the London network last week, will be the first fleet to run on Britain’s mainline railways without a yellow front end in the post-steam era.
Early last year, the RSSB announced that the colour of trains’ front ends would start being set by the companies themselves, meaning they would no longer have to adhere to the compulsory yellow hue.
Train fronts have been historically required to have a yellow panel to ensure they are visible, ever since newer diesel and electric trains were found to be far quieter than steam in the 1950s. But headlamp technology has improved since then, meaning modern state-of-the-art fleets do not necessarily need to be painted brightly.
I’m looking forward to the week ahead as the Contract Options Technical sector crosses boarders with our Automotive and our Traffic Management sectors!
