News in brief...
on its underground trains for the ‘love train’. The plan is that after the morning rush hour, the Czech capital’s main transport system will contain a carriage that is specifically for single people. City-owned Ropid, which is polling passengers to see if they would be interested said the service could be up and running by the end of the year. Spokesman Filip Drapal said: ‘We want to emphasise that public transport is not only a means of travel but that you can do things there that you cannot do in your car.’
Plenty of space in St Albans First Capital Connect has announced that St Albans City station has more cycle parking spaces than any other station in the UK. The recent installation of covered two-tier racks in the station’s Ridgmont Road car park has taken the total number to 1,150. This has almost tripled capacity at the station compared to when FCC took over the Thameslink franchise in 2006.
New CyclePoint for Greater Anglia Transport Minister Simon Burns has opened Abellio Toc Greater Anglia’s new £680k CyclePoint at Chelmsford station.
Abellio says this is a ‘unique
concept’ it brought from the Netherlands which combines secure parking with increased capacity (1000 cycles) supported by retail, cycle-hire and maintenance facilities in a single location for all cycle- related activity and parking at a station.
Voters oppose privatisation of East Coast
Only one in five voters (20 per cent) are in favour of re-privatising the East Coast Main Line, according to a survey of 1000 adults from campaign group We Own It.
The survey shows that nearly 58 per cent of the public oppose government plans for re- privatisation. A further one in five say they are unsure about the proposals.
The poll also shows that far more Conservative voters are against (48 per cent) than are in favour (28 per cent).
Page 8 September 2013
Rail companies should create maps of their supply chains to prevent an industry version of the horse meat scandal supply chain firm Achilles has warned, after independent research showed that 40 per cent of businesses procuring only in the UK have no information about their suppliers’ suppliers.
Despite this lack of information, 92 per cent felt ‘confident’ in their ability to manage potential issues.
Annette Gevaert, director of Rail
and Transport at Achilles, said: ‘Like most businesses, the rail sector is now dependent on increasingly complex and globalised supply chains. Rail is a safety critical industry, with people at its heart, and we must take proactive steps to address potential risks in supply chains before they affect people, planet and profit.
‘The horse meat scandal unfolded in a different sector but the same issues – caused by a lack of supplier visibility – could easily affect the rail industry. ‘Our research suggests that businesses are either unaware of the risk posed by Tier 2 suppliers, or overly complacent in their existing systems. By creating maps of supply chains across all tiers the rail industry could gain visibility and traceability of potential risks and act as a role model to other sectors.’ Edward Funnell, Rail Policy
spokesperson for The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, said: ‘This study should come as a wake-up call to rail companies. Dented reputations, safety scares, unwanted media attention and additional financial and legal costs are much costlier than taking a little time to carry out checks on those who supply your suppliers.’
The University of Huddersfield and RSSB have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to pool resources and talent for research into system and engineering risk modelling, to support informed decision making and future risk prediction.
Each organisation is putting in funding of £0.5 million per year to fuel a £5 million five year programme. Colin Dennis, director Policy, Research and Risk at RSSB commented: ‘The rail industry continues to find new ways to get more all-round value out of its research by collaborating with universities and other academic research organisations. This is a great opportunity for our industry to focus its own resources in combination with those of a leading university rail research centre in a new and exciting programme.’
Simon Iwnicki, Professor of Railway Engineering and director of the Institute of Railway Research said: ‘The academic science base has a great deal to offer towards finding solutions to meet the country’s needs. This new partnership and the additional research capability it will bring is also an excellent opportunity to provide new opportunities both for postgraduate researchers and for industry experts.’
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