It’s been a tumultuous year of ups and downs for the rail industry. We’ve seen major upheaval and collapsing passenger numbers across the board as Covid-19 restrictions have shot a hole through commuter and tourist travel, but the industry carries on. In this special Yearbook edition, we celebrate some of our favourite stories from this year in the hope we’ll provide a reminder of some of the fantastic work that the rail sector is doing, and what it has left to achieve.

We look back at freight expansion in Europe and the US, explore moves to boost Chile’s expansive rail network at the start of the year, and ask whether the Bi-Oceanic corridor project – spanning a large section of South America – could ever come to fruition.

From a technology standpoint, we’ve investigated the role that augmented reality technologies could play on the railways, discovered how high-speed rail networks can improve their safety record and found out how China and Japan are battling to have the best maglev systems on the market. Finally, we explore some positive examples of actions that the rail industry has taken to help communities during the Covid-19 crisis.

Joe Baker, editor