THE Department for Transport has cancelled the competition for the next South Eastern franchise, and confirmed that the existing contract with Govia will now continue until April 2020. The decision to cancel the bidding has come only days after the High Court rejected an attempt by the DfT to quash

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 the crackdown on steam lines because of emissions; the Azuma meets Mallard plus take a look at some superb footage in our drones

Bid to run Southeastern rail route scrapped. Photo: Southeastern. The bid to run Southeastern rail route has been scrapped, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced. Incumbent operator Southeastern’s rail route contract was due to expire in November, but this has been extended until April 1 next year. The franchise

COMMUNICATIONS: Siemens Mobility is to use Softil’s BEEHD framework in the development of LTE-R communications technology to succeed GSM-R, and also mission-critical push-to-talk applications for transport use. The next-generation data communication system is required to support ETCS and automatic train operation as well as secure voice communication between drivers and signallers,

BRAZIL: President Jair Bolsonaro and Minister of Infrastructure Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas were the principal guests at a ceremony marking signature of a 30-year concession on July 31 for Rumo SA to operate and maintain the 1 537 km southern section of the 1 600 mm gauge Ferrovia Norte-Sul linking Porto Nacional in Tocantins

FRANCE: Alstom is to supply the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region with a further 10 four-car Coradia Polyvalent multi-system electric multiple-units for €70m. The region has previously ordered 17 similar units which are scheduled to enter service on the cross-border Léman Express route to Switzerland in mid-December 2019. The latest batch is scheduled to be

Class 442 units returned to the South Western Main Line on June 10, the door issues apparently resolved. Set Nos. 442410 and 442420 are seen at London Waterloo after their inaugural service, the 06.28 from Southampton Airport Parkway. The RM will be taking a closer look at

THE Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has given authorisation for TransPennine Express to introduce Hitachi Class 802/2 bi-mode units. TPE has ordered 19 five-car trains, and the ORR approval covers operation in both five- and 10-car formations at 125mph, even though their design speed is 140mph. 

NORTHERN Rail’s Class 195 DMU and Class 331 EMU were due to be launched on June 26 and June 28, at Preston and Doncaster, respectively.  CAF is building 58 Class 195 (25 two- and 33 three-car) and 43 Class 331s (31 three- and 12 four-car) units for Northern. 

Former Cargonet Class 66 No. T66.403 – already with its GBRf number of 66790 – is hauled from Immingham to Longport EMD past North Stafford Junction on June 3 by No. 66741 Swanage Railway. At Longport the loco will get the necessary modifications and safety equipment to work on Network