Railnews Magazine March 2016 Back Issue

The sudden withdrawal of the entire Heathrow Express fleet makes the lead in this month’s Railnews. The reason is said to be a ‘structural defect’, but when we went to press the withdrawal was indefinite, with Heathrow Connect units being used as substitutes to continue Express services to the Airport. The heritage operator West Coast Railways has been banned until further notice from Network Rail infrastructure following a series of safety-related incidents, one of which has been followed by a prosecution which returns to court later this month, when a judge will hear pleas in connection with alleged Health & Safety offences. In other news, Network Rail has started to explore the possibility of selling its electrical power assets, as part of a wider bid to find more capital to invest in the railway, while the weather continues to make the headlines. The good news is that Lamington Viaduct has reopened, restoring main line services between Carlisle and Scotland, but less happily there seems to be no likelihood of trains between Appleby and Carlisle for weeks or even months following a major landslip, while problems also continue on the line between Folkestone and Dover, where there are no trains after weather damaged a sea wall. Our feature for March looks at the role played by communities in supporting stations and local railways, while our guest contributor is Network Rail’s chief engineer Jane Simpson, who highlights the need for more young people, particularly women, to join the railway workforce. And there were celebrations at Great Western Railway and Southern, after staff from those operators carried away no fewer than seven top prizes between them from this year’s Rail Business Awards. Railnews for March is out now.