EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITORIAL EDITOR

Sam Sherwood-Hale editor@railpro.co.uk

DISPLAY ADVERTISING

Jamie Tregarthen sales@railpro.co.uk

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING recruitment@railpro.co.uk

SUBSCRIPTIONS subscriptions@railpro.co.uk ADMINISTRATION

Cherie Nugent info@railpro.co.uk Lisa Etherington admin@railpro.co.uk

Does anyone else feel a bit more excited about UK PLC these days?

Maybe I have a bit of a short-term memory but figures published by HMRC the day of writing this show a surprise surplus in Government finances and this month Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will set out his plans for tax and spending.

We have a full reproduction of the Secretary of State Mark Harper’s George Bradshaw Address with a few different op-eds analysing his comments. The Secretary concluded his speech by saying: ‘As a whole government, we are pressing ‘go’ on rail reform.’ So maybe that’s why I am feeling a bit more bullish on the UK – or maybe it’s just because Spring is in the air at last.

Sticking with rail reform and governance, my interview this month is with Iain Stewart, Transport Committee Chair who told me about his forward-thinking approach to handling enquiries and his intention to proactively seek out the changemakers in the rail industry.

We also have Q&As with Julian Swan, CEO of PlasmaTrack Ltd and Sue Walnut, Product Director at Vix Technology. Sue waxes on ticketing technology and her vision for Account Based Ticketing. We focus on ticketing in this issue as we cover Transport Ticketing Global 2023 which takes place on 7 and 8 March.

Our other forward feature this month is stations, we look at station refurbishment and station construction in this issue, with a look at Morley Station, Butetown Railway Station, Cameron Bridge Station and many more.

We also have all our regular columns and opinion pieces looking at the Midlands Rail Hub, Data-fication, sustainability and the push for Net Zero.

SAM SHERWOOD-HALE EDITOR

Quality products for modern overhead contact lines