Two options for a second Crossrail route in London, linking the south-west and north-east, have been published for consultation by Transport for London and Network Rail. A route for Crossrail 2, formerly known as the Chelsea-Hackney line, has been safeguarded since 1991. But TfL is now reviewing the route and has proposed two alternatives that it says could better meet the needs of the capital: a Metro option offering a high frequency underground service between Wimbledon and Alexandra...

How do people navigate through a building, a train station or an airport? What happens when you need to evacuate an area, or if a number of exits have to be shut for various reasons? Will the occupants still make it out safely?    MassMotion enables engineers to create complex pedestrian simulations very easily using standard 3D model data from software such as Revit or ArchiCAD. Engineers can then quickly perform sensitivity analysis and ‘what-if’ scenarios, measure...

Ben Still (pictured) has been appointed interim director general of South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive following the departure of David Brown to Merseytravel (LTT 11 Mar). David Young, SYPTE’s director of customer experience, will serve as interim deputy director general. The arrangements are expected to operate for about 11 months until details of the planned Combined Authority are finalised. Still will retain his position as chief executive of the Sheffield City Region. He...

Work is underway on the Scottish Government’s project to reinstate the Borders railway between Edinburgh and Tweedbank (just beyond Galashiels) in the Scottish Borders. The top picture shows the clearance work in Midlothian where the A7 Galashiels road crosses the railway alignment close to the Lady Victoria colliery, Scotland’s national mining museum. The picture below shows the spur at Millerhill in south Edinburgh where the Borders railway will join the existing rail network....

Network Rail is preparing to accommodate massive growth in passenger and freight traffic on the rail network over the next 30 years. The infrastructure owner has just published market reviews of the regional urban, London & South East, and rail freight sectors, complementing the long-distance market study published in March (LTT 5 Apr). In each of the passenger sector studies, NR presents a range of demand forecasts before choosing to adopt the highest growth for route capacity planning,...

The last spending review gave local transport spending outside London a good hiding. Local transport lacked political clout and there were built-in funding commitments that applied to London and national rail; and the evidence base for the benefits of local transport spending also had too many gaps. Worse for the big regional conurbations was that, by accident or design, a significant shift has also taken place within local transport spending as decision after decision on funding formulas has...

National Express is bidding for regional rail opportunities in Germany worth €900 million a year after the group’s profits shrunk due to problems in the UK. As National Express blamed an 18% decline in profits on the removal of concessionary fares for coaches and rail franchising delays, it pointed to its “international strength” (LTT 11 Mar). National Express chief executive Dean Finch cited two recently-won German rail contracts as a sign of its presence in non-UK...

Lutz Bertling will take over as President and Chief Operating Officer of Berlin-based Bombardier Transportation in June. Prior to joining Bombardier, Bertling was President and Chief Executive of Eurocopter Group, a subsidiary of EADS. He will replace André Navarri, who will remain as Strategic Advisor to the President and Chief Executive Officer of Bombardier Inc  Pierre Beaudoin until he retires in 2014.  ...

New Chairman and Chief Executive of Veolia Transdev Jean-Marc Janaillac has made a series of changes following the project for Caisse des Dépôts to increase its holding and Veolia Environment to scale down its stake. Janaillac has replaced both Jérôme Gallot as Chief Executive and Antoine Frérot as Chairman. Frérot remains a director, as does Antoine Gosset-Grainville on behalf of Caisse des Dépôts, a French state-owned investment bank....

RATP Dev has confirmed that Elaine Holt has been appointed its UK Rail Franchise Director and will lead its work to pre-qualify for London’s Crossrail operator concession. Holt most recently led National Express’s bid for the Great Western rail franchise after being CEO of Directly Operated Railways, and Chairman of East Coast, from when the government took over the operation in 2009 until 2011. Holt started her career at British Airways in 1987 and worked in a variety of senior...

In the changes following the moves of Howard Smith and Howard Collins, Director of Strategy and Service Development Gareth Powell  (pictured) will take overall responsibility for London Rail, alongside his existing responsibilities. Jonathan Fox will be the Acting Director of London Rail and report to Powell.  Rory O’Neill will become the Acting Director of the DLR, and along with Danny Price, Head of the Emirates Airline cable car and Sharon Thompson, the Director of Tramlink,...

London’s Crossrail project has moved closer towards its opening for  services with the appointment of Howard Smith as Operations Director. Smith is currently Chief Operating Officer for Rail at Transport for London, and has successfully led the £1bn East London Line extension project as well as the development, launch and operation of London Overground and management of its operating concession with operating concession MTR/DB. Smith will now be responsible for leading the...

Network Rail studies into future long-distance rail demand in Britain are forecasting significant growth based on national economic and social trends and relative costs . The approach is explained in a draft report on long-distance travel that will inform capacity planning for Network Rail’s regulatory control period 6 (2019/20-2023/24) and beyond. The market study is the first of four to be prepared, with the other three covering regional urban passenger demand; London & South East...