Archive
DECEMBER 2003 ISSUE: CONTENTS
To view the contents of any section of the current magazine, just click on the relevant 'Download' link to access a PDF file of your chosen pages. If you prefer to download the whole magazine at one go - beware, it's a 1.1Mb file! - then click here.
POINTS AND SIGNALS
Andrew Goodman wonders whether the stealth renationalisation of the railways will finally hit train operating companies in 2004 [Download - includes cover and contents]
NEWS ANALYSIS: CASTING THE NET
As Network Rail's performance fails to improve and costs continue to spiral, the company is pinning its hopes on external help. As Paul Clifton explains - cue Graham Eccles [Download]
NEWS ANALYSIS: AUTUMN ALMANAC
This year, train companies appear to have given up the battle with the wrong kind of leaves. After trying a multitude of devices and inventions, there's now a growing trend towards simply altering the timetable to allow extra time for journeys or for recovery. But is it a fiddle to make sure that the trains keep to the timetable and operators avoid fines? Peter Plisner investigates [Download]
NEWS ANALYSIS: FORWARD CHARGE
A recent Railway Forum report suggests congestion charging could just be the railway's saviour. Paul Clifton reports [Download]
INTERVIEW: LEN PORTER
With pressure on rail industry costs like never before, it's the job of Len Porter, Chief Executive of the Railway Safety & Standards Board, to ensure safety remains paramount - but not at any price. As Andrew Goodman discovers, for Porter it's a difficult and delicate balance, but one he has achieved before [Download]
NEWS ANALYSIS: DIVIDING LINES
You don't need a degree in sociology to know the North has been nursing a grievance for well over a year now about Strategic Rail Authority policies. Deciding just how the increasingly frugal national rail cake is to be divided has led to some gritted teeth in the North. Alan Whitehouse reports [Download]
OPINION: LET THERE BE LIGHT
The Strategic Rail Authority has often talked about light rail as being part of the answer to the problems being experienced in the Midlands. To many, the idea of letting the trams take the pressure off the heavy rail network appears to be quite sound. It's probably one of the reasons that Centro, the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, is pressing ahead with the next phase of its Metro network. But, as Peter Plisner reports, it's far from certain that it will ever be delivered in full [Download]
OPINION: TALES FROM THE RAILS
Reality TV is all the rage. So in the first in an occasional series, exclusively for Rail Professional, Mr D. Lay reports the low-down-and-dirty day-to-day goings-on from the platform, in a new series of travellers' tales. Our first reality check starts with two recent journeys in the North of England [Download]
INSTITUTION OF RAILWAY OPERATORS
IRO welcomes its 1000th member, members' news, IRO diary [Download]
PEOPLE plus HSBC RAIL AWARDS NEWS
People on the move this month include Ray Price, Dyan Crowther, Roger Cobbe, Alan Wilson, David Franks, Andrew Chivers, Tim Shoveller, Malcolm Brown, Malcolm Drury, Derek Epps, Richard Buckley, Ultan McCloskey and Mark Heffernan. Obituary for Jeremy Job [Download]
CAREER RAIL
Job opportunities from top operators including Eurostar, Arriva, SRA, South Eastern Trains, Bechtel, RAIB, First North Western, ScotRail and Resourcing Solutions [Download]
