A CRUCIAL series of votes at an emergency general meeting of FirstGroup shareholders has ruled out its departure from the rail business in Britain, at least for now, but the chairman of First has resigned.US investor Coast Capital, which has a 10 per cent holding, had tabled 13 resolutions at

No. 401, with surviving sister No. 403, are generally considered to represent the pinnacle of industrial steam locomotive design. They were part of a trio built for the Steel Company of Wales (SCOW) for its Abbey, Margam and Port Talbot works, where they would be evaluated alongside three new

INTEREST in rail tours to far-flung places continues to be popular as train travel offers the means to see as much of a country as possible in the timeframe of a holiday.  Specialist rail tour operator Ffestiniog Travel is capitalising on this trend by going east and combining exotic destinations,

UAE: Etihad Rail has awarded the next two civil engineering and track works contracts for the construction of Stage Two of the national railway network. With a total value of 4·4bn dirhams, the 216 km Package B and 94 km Package C routes will form the backbone of the UAE’s national network, connecting

CHINA: The 141 km Leshan – Jianwei – Pingshan – Yibin section of the future Chengdu – Guiyang Passenger-Dedicated Line opened on June 15. The alignment is designed for 250 km/h operation, and 79% of the route is on bridges or in tunnel. The fastest services operated using CRH3A trainsets now take 1 h

USA: Virgin Trains USA held a ‘Red Spike’ groundbreaking ceremony at Orlando International Airport on June 24 to launch construction work on its 275 km Phase 2 extension from West Palm Beach. Contracts were awarded in May for construction of Phase 2, which represents a private-sector investment of $4bn. The project

THE Llangollen Railway is another step closer having trains able to run into its new Corwen Central station following the filling of the ‘Gap’ in the embankment immediately east of the station site.  After six solid days’ effort by contractor and volunteers, the northern batter (boundary) of the embankment was

THE North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group (NELPG) relaunched its Raven ‘Q6’ 0-8-0 No. 63395 on May 1 as North Eastern Railway ‘T2’ No. 2238 – all part of the locomotive’s centenary year commemorations.  The transformation has included repainting the loco into the NER livery the locomotive carried when it emerged from Darlington

STANIER ‘Jubilee’ No. 45596 Bahamas will be returning to the Midlands this month as the star exhibit at the Tyseley Locomotive Works/Vintage Trains open weekend on June 22-23. No. 45596 made its public debut at the Tyseley open weekend last September upon completion of its Heritage Lottery-funded overhaul, but since its

SPAIN: The 122 km high speed line between Antequera and Granada was formally inaugurated on June 25 by acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who unveiled a plaque at Antequera Santa Ana station. He was accompanied by Minister of Development José Luis Ábalos, ADIF President Isabel Pardo de Vera and the President of