Britain’s best-selling rail title is back for another month of award-winning photos, news, features and exclusives from the rail industry, past and present. This month’s The Railway Magazine features Abellio’s takeover of East Midlands franchise; it’s make or break for HS2 plus take at steam’s ‘mystery’ man! ABELLIO TAKES

AUSTRALIA: The Victoria state government has ordered a further batch of VLocity diesel multiple-units from Bombardier Transportation, in order to meet growing demand on regional routes radiating from Melbourne. Due to enter service in 2021, the six three-car units will follow on from the nine sets ordered in 2017 for delivery

SWITZERLAND: SBB Cargo has begun using a cloud-hosted version of IVU Traffic Technologies’ IVU.rail software to plan the deployment of around 320 locomotives and 2 200 employees each day. The supplier said its IVU.cloud package offered the operator scalability, with a secure connection enabling up to 150 people work simultaneously on high-availability

THE government has admitted that HS2 will cost a lot more than the official budget of £55.7 billion for all phases, which ministers were still promising was correct only a few weeks ago.In a written statement to Parliament, transport secretary Grant Shapps has also said the project will take longer

UK: The Chairman of High Speed 2 Ltd Allan Cook believes that ‘the benefits of the current scheme are substantially undervalued’, according to a ‘stocktake report’ presented to the House of Commons by Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps on September 3. Updating Parliament on progress with the 540 route-km high

Siemens/PA HS2 could cost up to £22 billion more than its previous budget and be delayed by as many as seven years, the company building the railway said. A report by HS2 Ltd chairman Allan Cook stated that the original plans “did not take sufficient account” of the effect of building

GB Railfreight has reliveried Class 66 No. 66747 in branding to mark its growing relationship with Yorkshire-based haulier and logistics company Newell & Wright.  The loco was named Made in Sheffield at the London Gateway freight terminal on July 9, twoyears after running the first service for the company. 

GOVIA Thameslink has added rainbow vinyls to set No. 700155 in connection with the Brighton & Hove Pride event from August 2-4. It is seen passing Brockley on July 16 with the 14.35 Bedford-Gatwick Airport train. The unit is the first to carry any branding other than its white base

TRANSPENNINE Express has accepted the first Hitachi Class 802 bi-mode train into its fleet. Dubbed ‘Nova 1’, TPE received the set following approval from the Office of Rail and Road.  TPE has ordered 19 five-carriage ‘Nova 1’ trains, each containing 342 seats, an extra 161 compared to

LNER Class 91 No. 91108 became the first of the 31-strong class to be taken out of service on July 22. Withdrawal of Class 91s was anticipated following the introduction of the Hitachi ‘Azuma’ trains on LNER services, and is in line with LNER’s plans to hand locos back to the