August 2010: Contents
Feature headlines
- Rail Professional interview: Kirit Varsani
After just two years in the rail industry, National Express’s manager of Liverpool Street station, Kirit Varsani, tells Peter Brown how he has been able to form a close bond with passengers
- Don’t price passengers off the railway
Increasing fare rises above the current RPI + 1 formula is one way in which the DfT may try to recoup some of its funding when its budget is cut in the spending review later this year, transport secretary Philip Hammond has admitted (see page 7)…
- International outlook
Sir Andrew Foster’s report on the InterCity Programme asks why the DfT didn’t read more into the fact that no other country has introduced the type of dual-power trains it was proposing. Robert Wright looks at the pros and cons of sharing technology across borders
- Frail rail? Far from it
Coal haulage by rail is falling, but intermodal traffic is starting to fill the gap. Tony Berkeley explains how the rail freight industry is working hard to attract new customers
- Is the InterCity Express Programme dead?
No, IEP is not quite dead. But it is fading fast. Like Dr Who, it would have to regenerate in a new and different form in order to survive, says Paul Clifton
- Pruning in the Thames Valley
The rail industry is on tenterhooks to see which schemes, previously approved by the DfT, are to be dropped. Paul Clifton looks to the Thames Valley for an example of what the effect of cancelled works could be
- Feeling the pinch
Neil Blake on the ways in which the rail industry is most likely to be affected by the coming cuts
- Straight down the line
The New Measurement Train inspects tracks at speeds of up to 125mph and can cover the main intercity network in just two weeks. Katie Silvester reports
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