The study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), a lobbying group, looked at data from the onboard monitors of roughly 920,000 plug-in hybrids registered between 2021 and 2023. It found a “substantial and fast-growing gap between real-world and type-approval CO2 emissions for PHEVs registered in 2021–2023.”

The type-approval norms include an assumption by regulators about the pollution the vehicles would emit based on the distances they would be driving using the battery and the distances using internal combustion engines. But the study found that average CO2 emissions in real-world driving were 3.5 times higher than the 2021 type-approval values, and 4.6 times higher than the 2023 type-approval values.

The growing difference was due to an assumption that bigger batteries would lead to increased driving on battery power, but the real-world use data did not bear this out.

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For some years, the Scottish Government has recognised that ScotRail and Network Rail are funded separately but from the same pot, so the overall profit and loss account only comes together on the civil servant’s desk in Transport Scotland. Therefore, Transport Scotland has encouraged collaborative working between ScotRail and Network Rail and specifies its aligned and integrated requirements to the former through a Grant Agreement and Scotland’s own High level Output Specification to the latter.

There has been consistency of strategy, and teamwork between organisations is encouraged and valued. It is reported as being as easy as A-B-C:

• Alignment of objectives between operator and infrastructure manager with the strategic objective of the Scottish Government
• Building the capability of the staff and the railway, and being
• Competitive – attractive services delivered efficiently recognising that customers have alternatives.

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We generally try to meet in one of the two rooms at the back and usually have a sheet of paper with 'London Reconnections' on the table to identify ourselves.

You can read more details here.

The world-first technology was validated over two years by a collaborative team from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney Trains, Transport for NSW, and industry partners EcoFlex and Bridgestone, following extensive monitoring at a live Sydney Trains freight line in Chullora.

Researchers installed track sections with the rubber underlay alongside conventional track sections for a direct comparison, monitoring vibration, track settlement, and ballast degradation under real-world conditions. The results, detailed in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal, confirmed that sections with the rubber underlay showed significantly less degradation and greater stability.

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Some of those issues discussed here, if not addressed, could hamper operation of some types of train and could lead to some classes of locomotive being prohibited altogether. Partly this is as a result of Great Britain’s flexibility in what vehicles it allows to run where and partly because important aspects of GB practice were not incorporated into the standards/specifications. The risk is that lowest common denominator default values could be used, leading to a significant reduction in network capacity compared with the current lineside signalled railway with its rules and signage.

Rail Engineer understands that a paper outlining the issues was presented to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) in early 2019. These are system issues that need to be captured in ETCS but cannot be resolved by signalling engineers alone. Network Rail and the ORR were asked for comment. Network Rail gave some useful feedback which is reproduced in full.

The issues are:

• Braking values for various train formations.
• Axle load categorisation for bridge loading.
• Implementation of differential speed limits.
• Cant deficiency rounding.

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The rail freight operator has appointed legal and financial advisers to oversee a structured sale process aimed at securing an owner with the investment capacity, broader market opportunities and strategic focus needed to support the next phase of the business.

European restructuring drives UK sale

The decision follows a strategic shift by parent company DB Cargo AG, which is increasingly refocusing on its core Central European operations following the European Commission’s 2024 State Aid ruling.

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Announced on 25 February 2026, the deal will see Network Rail and its property arm Platform4 take long term control of the Barking Eurohub site in east [sic] London from Legal & General. The partners plan to unlock around £15 million of private investment to transform the site into a major international logistics hub.

The redevelopment will enable the return of regular intermodal freight trains through the Channel Tunnel, allowing containers to move seamlessly between rail, road and sea. British exporters could ship goods directly by rail to France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, while imports such as fresh produce could travel straight into London and the wider south east.

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It therefore seems timely to provide an update on rail electrification. This includes the differing views of the Westminster and Scottish Governments. It also explains why the LTRS&IS must consider freight electrification and how this would benefit the passenger railway.

RIA freight report

In July, the Railway Industry Association (RIA) published its report ‘Growing rail freight: the need for targeted electrification.’ This report concluded that electric freight haulage must be maximised to unlock the full economic and environmental value of rail freight. Hence, this should be a focus of the long-term rolling stock and infrastructure strategy for GBR which is currently under development.

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The world-first technology was validated over two years by a collaborative team from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney Trains, Transport for NSW, and industry partners EcoFlex and Bridgestone, following extensive monitoring at a live Sydney Trains freight line in Chullora.

Researchers installed track sections with the rubber underlay alongside conventional track sections for a direct comparison, monitoring vibration, track settlement, and ballast degradation under real-world conditions. The results, detailed in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal, confirmed that sections with the rubber underlay showed significantly less degradation and greater stability.

Continue reading

This article is a conceptual framework paper supported by structured empirical illustration. It explains how Kuhn’s ideas, including paradigm, anomaly, crisis, incommensurability, and shift, can be adapted to transportation systems and distinguishes this approach from adjacent literatures on path dependency, automobility, induced demand, and socio-technical transitions. The paper argues that Kuhn is analytically useful because he helps explain three related dynamics: how unresolved problems accumulate within the dominant planning framework, how competing mobility approaches rely on conflicting measures of success, and how these accumulated contradictions can weaken confidence in the prevailing paradigm.

To support the argument, the paper compares car-centric and accessibility-oriented mobility logics, draws on evidence from built-form differences across U.S. downtowns, and examines post-disruption recovery as a policy window that can either reinforce or reduce car-centric lock-in. The paper argues for an accessibility-based multimodal paradigm oriented toward reliable, safe, and equitable access across local and regional scales. It concludes by identifying implications for performance measurement, network design, land-use coordination, and recovery policy.

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