BRITISH Steel has started construction of a new rail mill in Scunthorpe, Britain, to produce Zinoco-coated rails up to 108m long and welded rails with a maximum length of 216m. This follows approval by Network Rail (NR) of its Zinoco-coated long rails.

As the railway seeks to harness the benefits of digitalisation and the Internet of Things, the links between information technology and operational technology become ever-more intertwined. However, these trends are completely redefining the railway security environment as systems become vulnerable to new types of threats. Keith Barrow assesses how the industry is responding to the cybersecurity challenge.

German Rail’s (DB) new train IT platform is improving performance and efficiency by integrating two previously-separately hosted applications into a single system, explains Robert Blankenhorn, product solution manager with MEN Mikro Elektronik.

BRITAIN’s Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), with funding from the Department for Transport (DfT), has awarded a grant to a consortium led by open-access operator Grand Central and including Liebherr-Transportation Systems and Newcastle University’s Centre for Railway Research (NewRail), to develop an active radial suspension system (ARSS).

NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) has launched a new smartphone app to help passengers travelling between Arnhem, Nijmegen and Den Bosch to locate available seats on trains.

GOVIA Thameslink Railway (GTR), in cooperation with Britain’s infrastructure manager Network Rail (NR) and Siemens, is claiming a world first by running the first train in passenger service on the central-London section of Thameslink using ATO over ETCS.

GREENRAIL, an Italian company specialising in the production of railway sleepers using recycled materials, has signed a collaboration agreement with Indra, Spain, to jointly develop smart sleepers capable of collecting, processing and transmitting real-time data on the status of infrastructure and rolling stock.

Korea’s latest high-speed line, the Gyeonggang line, has not only dramatically improved transport links to the northeast of the country, including the Winter Olympic venues, but helped to drive Korean railway technology forward, as Andy Tebay and David Briginshaw reveal.

Swiss Federal Railways’ (SBB) desire to reduce the energy consumption of its vehicle fleet has led to the development of a new lighter and more efficient onboard battery. Benedikt Vogel, on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), explores the intricacies of the SBB New Battery Technology project.

TRIALS on Stockholm’s Green Line with a C20 metro car equipped with Bombardier’s new silicon carbide (SiC)-equipped Mitrac TC1500 traction converter have shown energy reductions of up to 35%, and a 19dB reduction in noise emissions.