All articles by Berenice Baker
Berenice Baker
Predictive flood modelling – Cranfield University’s solution to flooding on Britain’s railways
Train delays consistently rank high on the list of rail travellers’ main bugbears and, according to their own figures, in the UK some 60% of delays can be attributed to Network Rail. Contributing to this unhappy statistic are factors including infrastructure faults, trespass, vandalism and cable theft – but arguably the most significant, and potentially the most costly, is the weather.
Wishful thinking: How viable is Boris Johnson’s orbital railway around London?
One of the cornerstones of London Mayor Boris Johnson’s London Infrastructure 2050 plan is a new orbital railway, designed to keep the city’s soaring population moving in the decades to come. The full cost has been valued at nearly £1.3 trillion, but what exactly does it entail, and can it be justified so soon after Crossrail comes online? Ross Davies profiles the ambitious scheme. Ross Davies reports.
Grow west – California Leads the US High-Speed Rail Revolution
The first segment of true high-speed rail in America is due to begin construction in California later in 2012. Berenice Baker talks to Lance Simmens, communications director for the California High-Speed Rail Authority, about benefits it will bring and the challenges that must be overcome to get Californians off the roads, out of the airports and on the rails.