Railnews Magazine June 2014 Edizione posteriore

Franchise developments lead Railnews for June. The major Thameslink contract has been awarded to Govia, which fought off four rivals, and we spoke to the DfT's franchising director Peter Wilkinson about his ambitions for the franchise. Meanwhile the Caledonian Sleeper franchise, now a separate contract, has been won by Serco, which is promising 'hotels on wheels' for the next generation of trains. Funding for HS2 could come from the other side of the Atlantic: we reveal that a Canadian pension fund is watching the project with interest. There have been celebrations in Derby as the city celebrated 175 years of its association with railways, and our feature looks at Bombardier -- Britain's last traditional train maker and still at the heart of Derby. There were red faces in France when a new type of regional train proved to be too wide for many SNCF platforms, and we report how the error could mean a bill of 100 million Euros...