People

Bridlington is a key location on the route served by the Community Rail Partnership. Northern 170477 waits to leave the Yorkshire seaside town with the 1300 Scarborough to Sheffield service on March 23 2022. PAUL BIGGS.

Feature

A railway with “people at its heart”

Andy Comfort discovers how volunteers are working with a train operator to promote and improve a Yorkshire line.

Engineering 13 Jun

Driver Training Manager Dave Enderby in the simulator cab. TOM INGALL

Feature

“A generational jump” in training drivers

Tom Ingall sits behind the controls in one of Northern’s new driving simulators.

Digitisation 25 Apr

Comment

Comment: retirement rates will sharpen skills shortages

What can the rail industry do about looming recruitment difficulties?

Editor's comment 23 Apr

Empty chairs? The railway faces a looming ‘retirement bulge’, albeit the problem is likely to be less severe when it comes to drivers compared with other roles. A Hitachi IEP rests at King’s Cross. ALAMY.

Feature

Rail’s retirement challenge and the looming skills shortage

Nine per cent of people working on the railway left last year. Paul Clifton asks whether enough is being done to to fill the empty seats they leave behind.

Staff and employment 23 Apr

Network Rail workers on Wales and Western Region. NETWORK RAIL.

News

Fears of skills being lost as railway industry sheds thousands of jobs

National Skills Academy for Rail says a shortage of work is having an impact.

Network Rail 16 Apr

Gordon Pettitt at London Waterloo next to the 4-VEP named after him. BLUEBELL ARCHIVE.

News

Gordon Pettitt: manager who built Regional Railways and took care of his staff

The former BR manager died in March at the age of 90.

People 11 Apr

Comment

Comment: professor Rod Smith - a tribute

Christian Wolmar remembers a great friend and colleague

Chirstian Wolmar 6 Feb

Allan McLean travelling on a Virgin Trains Pendolino during a media breakfast to mark his retirement in 2012. VIRGIN TRAINS.

News

Former BR and Virgin Trains press officer Allan McLean dies aged 78

He played a key role in saving the Anglo-Scottish sleeper services and reopening the Borders Railway.

People 29 Jan

Wayne Seddon, left, and Martin Rodger, right, are both retiring from Northern

News

Drivers and best friends at Northern retire

Two friends who have a combined railway experience of more than 60 years are retiring

Northern 21 Oct

News

Sihota takes on PWI presidency

Network Rail Head of Drainage and Lineside Mona Sihota has been appointed President of the Permanent Way Institution.

People 14 Oct

Ukrainian-soldier-with-his-wife-at-the-Kramatorsk-railway-station

News

How the war has reshaped rail travel in Ukraine

Vitali Vitaliev, who was born and grew up in Ukraine, offers a moving tribute to its railways which has stopped the war-torn country from falling apart.

Ukraine 11 Sept

Photography exhibition in Ulverston. NORTHERN.

News

Northern unveils photography exhibition at Ulverston station

A new exhibition showcasing the rich history of Ulverston railway station has opened to the public.

Northern 5 Aug

Elba Lovelace-Francis: "My previous jobs didn’t feel so important - didn’t feel like a career. And this leads to so many other possibilities". GTR

Feature

Many happy returns for the workforce

How easy is it to return after years out of the workplace? And then land a hugely competitive place as a trainee train driver? Paul Clifton finds out.

Staff and employment 2 Aug