Work has started on a £120,000 scheme by Network Rail to renew several separate roof areas of Walkden station on the Manchester to Wigan railway line through Atherton. The work is expected to take 12 weeks to complete and be finished in early November. Says Patrick Cawley, Network Rail’s territory buildings engineer, ‘The building is unusual in that it has several...

Carlisle plays host to the annual Community Rail Festival organised by members of ACoRP, the Association of Community Rail Partnerships in Carlisle later this month. The festival will feature tours of the station cellars not usually open to the public. Network Rail is opening the Cumbria coast railway to provide ‘the first Sunday service on the line for years.’ Says Neil...

RailStaff’s top columnist, Colin Wheeler, is to  speak at the 2009 IOSH Rail Industry Conference. The focus of this year’s conference is corporate governance and safety. Other confirmed speakers include Louise Ellman MP, Chair of the Transport Select Committee. Louise will deliver a keynote address and follows in the footsteps of the late Gwyneth Dunwoody MP who was one of the...

Now that the autumn is approaching, the nights drawing in and the task of scraping ice from the car soon to become a daily chore, you may think there is something else out there. Well, if you are an electrical, OHL or signalling engineer at almost all levels then read on. Australia A country where a project isn’t big unless it...

Galliford Try has been appointed as one of the contractors on Network Rail’s Enhancements Multi Asset Framework. Running for a five year period, the total value of the framework agreement is £1 billion. The multi-disciplinary framework covers enhancement projects up to the value of £15m, to include platform extensions, track, signalling, electrification, telecommunications and other projects that will facilitate expansion of...

Dublin Docks welcomed their first intermodal freight train departure in six years on the 20th of August. The train, chartered from Iarnród Éireann by International Warehousing & Transport (IWT), ran to the western freight hub of Ballina in County Mayo fully loaded with shipping containers. The service was seen off by representatives from the port, IWT, the Irish Exporters Association...

Network Rail successfully replaced Peppering and Black Rabbit bridges which span the River Arun, over the August bank holiday weekend. The bridges are half a mile apart and identical twin structures, each with three spans with intermediate concrete piers and brick abutments. An assessment found that both structures were under strength for the route, requiring restrictions for certain types of traffic....

First GBRf has signed a new 12 month rolling contract with independent freight forwarder Allport, to move containers from the Port of Felixstowe to Birmingham Intermodal Freight Terminal (BIFT) at Birch Coppice Business Park in North Warwickshire and to Doncaster Europort freight terminal. The BIFT service has been made possible by extending the route of First GBRf’s existing common user service,...

The station named after Admiral Nelson, in Lancashire, has been cleaned up. Specialists at Network Rail have cleaned and restored the canopy over the station to its former Victorian glory in a five month project valued at nearly £200,000. Says Jo Kaye, route director for Network Rail, ‘The canopy is an imposing structure that still spans both platforms even though...

WS Contractors is a civil engineering company specialising in railway infrastructure projects across the network. The name may be new but WS Contractors brings a wealth of experience and a dynamic team partnership to the rail industry. Director Shane Townend and operations manager, Phil Mellish, have over 50 years experience between them in the construction and railway industry. The pair have worked...