The European Commission today approved the proposed acquisition of English Welsh & Scottish Railway Holdings Limited (EWS) by Deutsche Bahn.
EWS is the largest rail operator in Britain, providing a range of freight, engineering support and hire services. The company was established in February 1996 and employs 5,000 staff based across the whole of Britain. It has nearly 500 locomotives with over 14,000 wagons and operates over 8,000 services each week.
The European Commission insisted that Deutsche Bahn commit to fulfil EWS's expansion plans in France in the next five years through investments in locomotives and personnel before allowing the deal to go through.
In related news, E.ON, one of the UK’s leading power and gas companies, this week awarded EWS a new contract to supply coal to power stations using its trains. The five year contract will see EWS subsidiary EWS Energy deliver coal by rail to E.ON UK’s power stations at Ironbridge and Ratcliffe, with significant volumes being transported on core rail routes from Liverpool and Scotland.
Babcock marks next stage in submarine dismantling project
Surely on a national security project all contractors ought to be UK owned? This is similar to the life enhancement of our nuclear stations which has...