• Network Rail teams up with best-selling Adventures on Trains authors M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman to inspire the next generation aboard a Porterbrook hybrid train – the HydroFLEX.

• Primary schoolchildren from Glasgow will join the authors, along with engineers from Network Rail and Porterbrook, for a fun-packed literary journey where they can learn about the secrets of storytelling and how technology is powering rail’s green revolution in Britain.

• The event will mark Transport Day at COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, on Wednesday, 10 November.

Network Rail’s air operations team have successfully flown a drone Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) for 25 kilometres over dry land – believed to be the furthest such civilian drone flight in Britain.

• Wilston Samuel Jackson – known as Bill to his friends and family – became Britain’s first black train driver in 1962, and went on to drive famous trains and locomotives such as the Flying Scotsman and The Elizabethan
• Ceremony at King’s Cross attended by Wilston’s family, Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines and ASLEF General Secretary Mick Whelan
• Rail industry continuing efforts to boost diversity during Black History Month, as ASLEF figures show just 10% of train drivers in England, Scotland and Wales are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds

• The rail industry’s largest free health and wellbeing event, Rail Wellbeing Live, returns online next month (17 to 18 November)
• 100+ inspiring speakers and 75 pick ‘n’ mix free sessions to choose from
• 10pm evening sessions have been added to the 2021 agenda.

• Network Rail launches new ‘Brighter Journeys’ campaign with national mental health charity Chasing the Stigma to encourage those who may be struggling with their mental health to seek help this World Mental Health Day (10 October)
• Campaign launches as new research shows more people now returning to work and using the railway, with nearly half of UK workers (48%) travelling to their workplace for the majority of their working week in August
• This new campaign forms part of Network Rail’s efforts to reduce suicides across the rail network, with train operating companies and the British Transport Police

Network Rail and Vivarail today announced that Vivarail’s next-generation battery train will be launched at COP26 and will run daily services throughout the international climate change conference.

• Network Rail, in partnership with the rail industry, has published the second phase of its Network Operating Strategy aimed at improving operations
• The strategy is designed to help the rail industry provide a better experience for passengers and freight users
• It focuses on a collaborative industry approach to applying the strategy’s recommendations and areas for improvements covering people, change/technology, and processes

Network Rail has awarded a contract to a consortium led by Thales Ground Transportation Systems Ltd to develop and trial Fibre Optic Acoustic Sensing (FOAS) technology that will support improvements in safety and performance on the railway.