A GOVERNMENT minister has admitted that it might not be possible for Northern to withdraw all its Pacer fleet by the end of the year.From 1 January 2020 the Pacers will no longer comply with regulations concerning accessibility and the discharge of toilet waste on the track, and are being

LATVIA: The EU’s Cohesion Fund is to provide €318·5m to support the electrification of the main east–west corridor and the replacement of diesel locomotives. Only around 14% of Latvia’s 1 860 km network is currently electrified, well below the EU average of 55%, with electric traction currently only used for passenger

EUROPE: RegioJet has bought 18 couchette cars from Deutsche Bahn, which it intends to use to lengthen its night trains on the Praha – Košice  route to up to 18 vehicles with a capacity of up to 1 000 passengers per train. The fleet expansion follows a successful bond issue in June

CLOSE to 5,000 passengers travelled on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s trains during the three-day Cotswold Festival of Steam on May 25-17, sponsored by The RM. The successful event, which featured eight locomotives in steam, including three visitors, proved to be very profitable for the railway, attracting more visitors than in

CHURNET Valley Railway-based ‘S160’ No. 6046 has followed in the tracks of its Batt Holden Ltd stablemate No. 5197 by going on hire to the Dartmouth Steam Railway in May.  The 2-8-0, seen here at Waterside with the 14.15 service from Paignton to Kingswear on May 30, was brought in to cover

Caledonian Sleeper’s new Mk5 stock has rarely been out of the headlines since it was introduced. Ben Jones takes a ride on this new generation of Spanish-built overnight stock to see if it delivers on its promises of a quality hotel experience. The 23.50 London-Glasgow/Edinburgh prepares for departure from

Caledonian Sleeper’s new Mk5 stock has rarely been out of the headlines since it was introduced. Ben Jones takes a ride on this new generation of Spanish-built overnight stock to see if it delivers on its promises of a quality hotel experience. Having been in decline for decades, killed off

GERMANY: Incumbent DB Regio has been awarded the E-Netz Mainfranken passenger train operating contract following a European tender conducted by Bayern railway agency BEG,  Rhein-Main transport authority RMV and Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry of Transport. The contract running for six years from December 2021 covers the operation of around 4·35 million train-km/year using

Euston funding gap defended by DfTTHE Department for Transport has conceded that plans to upgrade the existing London Euston station are not yet funded, but said this would follow when an outline business case for the work is approved. The London Borough of Camden has criticised the lack of certainty

0-6-2T No. 2 Zillertal is seen at the Zillertalbahn during testing following overhaul. WLLR A narrow gauge steam locomotive from Austria is to go on hire to the Welshpool & Llanfair Railway (WLLR) for two years. The Zillertalbahn’s newly overhauled U-class 0-6-2T No. 2 Zillertal is expected to star