With heavy snowfall impacting the reliability of northern Europe's rail networks during recent frigid winters, two new snow clearance machines trialled this winter in Sweden and Britain aim to minimise future disruption, as Kevin Smith discovers.

Vossloh Cogifer has developed maintenance-friendly switch machines for use on standard sleepers or in box sleepers, thereby allowing automatic tamping of the trackbed. Their latest application is on two very different railways: a heavy-haul line in northern Sweden and on the recently-completed Ankara - Konya high-speed line in Turkey.

SWEDISH passenger operator SJ introduced the first of 20 four-car SJ3000 Bombardier X55 emus on Stockholm - Sundsvall services in early February, which has allowed X40 double-deck trains to be cascaded to other routes.

Driver advisory technology can have a significant impact on energy consumption and help to optimise infrastructure capacity. Martin Joborn, senior consultant for Transrail, Sweden, explains how the Cato system has allowed LKAB to generate efficiencies under the most challenging operating conditions.