Engineering deal
Rolling stock leasing company Porterbrook is buying 49 per cent of Scottish railway firm Brodie Engineering, based in Kilmarnock. Porterbook said Brodie is the ‘only active rail engineering business in Scotland, specialising in heavy maintenance, refurbishment and overhauls’. The Caledonia Works were previously occupied by Wabtec and before that Brush-Barclay, the successor to Hunslet-Barclay. Porterbrook CEO Mary Grant said: ‘A healthy supply chain is fundamental to a reliable and efficient railway.’

Gateline strike
Contracted out gateline workers at Northern will stage a 48-hour strike tomorrow and Thursday in a dispute over pay. Their union the RMT is also calling for the ending of zero hours contracts and the removal of the Timegate app which it alleges has failed to calculate pay and leave allowances accurately. The staff involved are employed by Carlisle Support Services.

New Birmingham Far East link
Railway professionals at the University of Birmingham are joining forces with East Japan Railway Company to create ‘innovative’ rail technology and look at new ways of staffing Japanese railways. University of Birmingham Provost Professor Stephen Jarvis and Japan Railway East Senior Executive Officer Shunzo Miyake signed a Memorandum of Understanding in a special ceremony.

Additional station proposed in south Wales
Transport secretary Mark Harper has pledged funding to pay for a business case examining options for reopening the station at St Athan on the Vale of Glamorgan line, which was closed in June 1964. He made the promise while visiting the area yesterday.

Plaque commemorates Covid victims
A commemorative brass plaque has been unveiled at the National Railway Museum by Network Rail chairman Peter Hendy and Angela Levitt-Harwood, who is the Railway Mission's chaplain in the York region. Lord Hendy revisited the museum where he had previously unveiled a temporary version of the plaque. The plaque is dedicated to the memory of railway employees and family members who died during the pandemic and commemorates the service and dedication shown by staff and British Transport Police.