In The News | 1st June 2023 | Latest Rail News

Click here to listen to the latest rail news on Thursday, 1st June 2023

InTheNews: The latest rail news on Thursday, 1st June 2023

HS2’s main works contractor Align JV has completed the first set of V-shaped bridge piers for what will be UK’s longest railway bridge.

An article in Construction Enquirer says the V-piers are designed to support the viaduct deck over a series of lakes the Colne Valley Viaduct crosses between the end of the London tunnels and the start of the Chiltern tunnels.

Designed to bear the weight of the 80m wide arches over the lakes, the ‘v-piers’ are twice as large as simpler piers that carry the viaduct over land.

Services between Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley via Carstairs have resumed following three months of major upgrade works.

Engineers from Scotland’s Railway have been working around the clock for the past 12 weeks to modernise the layout of the Carstairs Junction, a key section of the West Coast Mainline linking Glasgow and Edinburgh to London, and upgrade the platforms at Carstairs station.

This phase of the £164 million overhaul has seen Network Rail simplify and upgrade the track-layout to clear an existing bottleneck on the network, making it more reliable and able to better cope with both passenger and freight demands.

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Siemens Mobility has been awarded a contract extension for the maintenance of the Class 185 fleet serving TransPennine Express routes operating between Manchester, Sheffield and Cleethorpes and Manchester to Hull from northwest of England depots.

The majority of maintenance work will take place at Ardwick Depot, Manchester and subsidiary depots at York and Cleethorpes.

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The Coventry Very Light Rail (CVLR) vehicle, track and a first-of-a-kind CVLR simulator will be showcased as part of Coventry’s Motofest celebrations between Friday 2 June and Sunday 4 June.

For the first time, the public will be able to get on the zero emission, battery-powered CVLR vehicle and explore its interior. Experts will be on hand to explain its key features and innovations. Motofest visitors will also be able to take to the controls – on a state-of-the-art simulator which features three screens for a near perfect view of the first city centre demonstrator route.

The simulator will be used to train drivers as well as for research and development purposes at the Very Light Rail National Innovation Centre in Dudley.

Photo credit: Siemens Mobility

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