NEWS
31 Oct 2008 | CP completes Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern takeover
USA: Canadian Pacific Railway marked its first day of operational control of Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp and its subsidiaries Iowa, Chicago & Eastern Railroad and Cedar American Rail Holdings on October 30. This followed the end of a 30-day regulatory standstill after the Surface Tra More...
31 Oct 2008 | 'We are very modest'
CZECH REPUBLIC: Meeting the requirements of EU legislation whilst continuing to develop passenger and freight operations across the Czech Republic is a tough task. Nick Kingsley met Vojtech Kocourek, Minister with responsibility for railways, in Praha to discuss railway restructuring, the future of More...
30 Oct 2008 | Green Cargo orders Traxx locos for steel contract
SWEDEN: Green Cargo has placed a €51m order with Bombardier for 16 Traxx F140AC electric locomotives. To be delivered between February and July 2010, they will be used on freight trains to be operated under a 10-year contract with steel sheet and plate producer SSAB. Green Cargo's SKr2·5bn transpo More...
30 Oct 2008 | Room on the Rails
NETHERLANDS: An ambitious vision for a massive increase in traffic on the national rail network by 2020 was unveiled by Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings on September 3. The government is projecting a 5% annual increase in rail patronage, as well as further growth in rail freight. HSL-Zuid and the More...
30 Oct 2008 | Estonia to join international traffic agreement
ESTONIA: The Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) announced on October that 30 Estonia is to accede to the COTIF convention with effect from January 1 2009. COTIF established a uniform system of laws governing international rail freight (CIM) and passenger (CIV) More...
30 Oct 2008 | China South awarded Kazak loco contract
KAZAKHSTAN: The Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive subsidiary of China South announced a US$100m order to supply locomotives to Kazak state railway KTZ on October 23. The Chinese firm was selected from three international bidders. The 4·8 MW locos will have AC drives and a top speed of 200 km/h. CSR has More...
30 Oct 2008 | Iarnród Éireann to order 432 DART cars
IRELAND: Despite the economic downturn and drastic cutbacks in public finances, Iarnród Éireann is going ahead with a plan to order 432 EMU cars for Dublin's DART suburban services at a cost of nearly €900m. This will be the largest order for coaches placed by the national railway, which has drawn More...
30 Oct 2008 | Wires down, complaints up
FRANCE: Leaving passengers stranded for hours on trains going nowhere is guaranteed to generate plenty of negative publicity, and a series of unfortunate catenary-related incidents last month in France was no exception. Trouble started during a peak holiday weekend when 400 m of overhead wires were More...
29 Oct 2008 | SNCB in the firing line
BELGIUM: Early last month La Libre Belgique published excerpts from an interim report drawn up by the Audit Commission (Cour des Comptes) which said Belgian National Railways had broken European rules on public financing. Specifically, the newspaper highlighted a sum of €426m forming part of a €51 More...
29 Oct 2008 | Study to look at Berlin - Moscow Talgo service
RUSSIA: RZD and Patentes Talgo have signed a memorandum of intent to study the feasibility of using Talgo VII gauge-changing rolling stock on hotel train services between Moscow and Berlin. RZD will provide forecasts of future passenger volumes and the economic benefits of improved services betwee More...
