Construction of Britain’s new high-speed railway has passed a major milestone with excavation of the 8.4-mile Northolt Tunnel under London. The fourth of four tunnel boring machines (TBMs) being used to dig the twin-bore tunnel – the second-longest on the HS2 route between London and the West Midlands – completed its work yesterday. The machine, […]
Category: Rail Projects
HS2 completes three-day Northants viaduct slide
HS2 has revealed new timelapse footage showing engineers carefully sliding a 1,300-tonne viaduct deck into position near the Northants village of Thorpe Mandeville. The steel and concrete deck of the Lower Thorpe viaduct – which stretches for 220 metres – was assembled to one side before being slid into position in just three days, reaching […]
A step closer to faster, greener services across the Pennines
On Friday 20 June, Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) engineers completed the latest series of upgrade work between Huddersfield and Leeds. Over 3km of track was renewed throughout the area, which will enable smoother, more reliable journeys, whilst vital drainage and tunnel work was also undertaken, allowing for further track work in the future. Fifty-five foundations […]
Telent hits milestone in SCADA rollout
Telent has reached a significant milestone in its nationwide rollout of its new Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for Network Rail, seeing several sites go live and the UK’s first remote secure test completed. At Rugby, Telent has completed the testing for the country’s first remote securing of electrical infrastructure on the West […]
Mike Brown announced as chair of HS2 Ltd as Transport Secretary reveals project reset
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has confirmed that Mike Brown will be taking over as HS2 Ltd Chair, working alongside CEO Mark Wild to deliver a programme reset, including reviewing the costs and schedule, renegotiating HS2’s large construction contracts, and reviewing HS2 Ltd’s skills and structure. The Transport Secretary has asked Mark Wild to be ready […]
Egis appointed to £120 million Transport for Greater Manchester framework
Global engineering consultancy Egis, as part of a consortium with Pell Frischmann, has been appointed to the design and engineering services for fixed track lot on Transport for Greater Manchester’s (TfGM) Transport Professional Services Framework. Egis will be able to provide professional advice and services related to the design and engineering of fixed track transport […]
£84 million OLE project completed on time and under budget
A major project to upgrade overhead line equipment between London and Bedford has been successfully delivered by Network Rail – on time and under budget. The £84 million Midland Main Line improvement project – called OLE125 Compatibility – ran from September 2023 to June this year. Overhead wires and supporting infrastructure installed in the 1980s […]
Footage released of East West Rail’s first commercial freight train
The first commercial freight train has travelled along the East West Rail line as part of its journey into a new strategic rail freight interchange in Northampton. Shortly after 13:00 yesterday (Monday 16 June) the service from Didcot came onto the new infrastructure at Oxford, travelling the 35 miles to Milton Keynes to connect with […]
Third HS2 tunnelling machine completes its drive beneath London
HS2’s tunnelling team in London is one step closer to completing the capital’s Northolt Tunnel after the latest in a series of complex tunnelling breakthroughs. The tunnel boring machine (TBM), named Emily, completed its 3.4-mile drive at Green Park Way in Greenford, west London – the third of four machines to complete its work on […]
Railway upgrade works between Bridgend and St Fagans, Cardiff
Network Rail (Wales and Borders) is undertaking an essential programme of track renewal and maintenance work between Bridgend and St Fagans. The works – which include renewing rails, sleepers, and stones under the track – are critical to maintaining the safety and reliability of the rail network. The work will involve a combination of day […]