Asia – Page 119
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NewsTibet railway opens to Xigaze
CHINA: A 253 km line from Lhasa west to Xigaze was formally opened on August 15, with the first passenger train scheduled to run the following day. The new line will reduce the journey time between Tibet’s capital and second largest city from 4 h by road to around 2 ...
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NewsGroundbreaking starts trans-Sulawesi railway construction
INDONESIA: Minister of Transportation Evert Erenst Mangindaa attended a groundbreaking ceremony in Siawung on August 12 to formally launch construction of the 145 km Makassar – Pare Pare first phase of the planned trans-Sulawesi railway network The line is to be built under the MP3EI national infrastructure programme. It ...
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NewsCompact rail miller to be unveiled at InnoTrans
LINSINGER: The Austrian railhead profiling specialist will be unveiling its latest compact SF02T-FS rail milling train at InnoTrans 2014. This is one of a pair that the company is due to deliver to Hong Kong’s MTR Corp in the spring of 2015. The small-profile SF02T-FS has been designed for use ...
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News13 MW electric locomotive to tackle Siberian gradients
RUSSIA: ‘The most powerful AC electric freight locomotive in the world’ was unveiled by Transmashholding’s Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant and Russian Railways as part of Railwaymen’s Day celebrations in Rostov-na-Donu on August 3. The four-section 4ES5K has a 1 h rating of 13·12 MW. This is intended to be sufficient ...
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NewsAlstom-TMH freight loco certified for operation
RUSSIA: Alstom and Transmashholding have obtained certification for the operation of their jointly-developed 2ES5 twin-section 25 kV AC freight locomotives, ahead of the planned entry into revenue service on the Baikal-Amur Magistral route later this year. In June 2011 Russian Railways ordered 200 2ES5 locomotives for delivery by 2020. ...
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NewsWork starts to bridge Thailand – Cambodia missing link
SOUTHEAST ASIA: A ground-breaking ceremony at Poipet in Cambodia on July 25 marked the start of work to reinstate the cross-border railway to Thailand. The ceremony was attended by Cambodia’s Deputy Minister for Public Works & Transport Guang Sun and Thailand’s Permanent Secretary for Transport Soithip Traisuth. The attendees viewed ...
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NewsNippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp to form rail subsidiary
JAPAN: Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp has announced plans to restructure three subsidiary companies with effect from April 1 2015. This would see the rail engineering activities of its NSST subsidiary merged with the railway maintenance equipment business of NSKI to form a new dedicated railway sector company, ...
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NewsHo Chi Minh City selects underground contractors
VIETNAM: Ho Chi Minh City Management Authority for Urban Railways has selected a consortium of Shimizu and Maeda Corp to build the underground section of metro Line 1. The 2·6 km underground section of Line 1 will run from Ben Thanh Market to Ba Son Shipyard with three stations. ...
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NewsEskişehir - Istanbul high speed line opened
TURKEY: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan officially inaugurated the fast line between Eskişehir and Istanbul on July 25, completing the 570 km Ankara – Istanbul high speed corridor. The latest section to open comprises 188 km of new alignment between Eskişehir and Köseköy plus a further 56 km of upgraded ...
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NewsPrivate operators to be encouraged under railway reform plans
THAILAND: State Railway of Thailand is likely to be abolished under a wide-ranging reform programme planned by the interim military government. Giving a briefing on railway investment in Bangkok on July 23, Dr Chula Sukmanop, Director-General of the Office of Transport & Traffic Policy & Planning, said the government saw ...
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NewsHigh speed line electrification maintenance vehicle on test
CHINA: Trials are underway with an overhead electrification inspection, maintenance and repair vehicle capable of running at up to 160 km/h when travelling to worksites on high speed lines. The multi-functional vehicle has been developed by CNR Beijing February 7 Railway Transportation Equipment Co, based on the Class 711 ...
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NewsChinese high speed line construction one-third cheaper, study suggests
CHINA: Economies of scale accrued through standardisation of construction processes are among the key factors in China’s ability to build high speed railways more cheaply than other countries, a World Bank study has suggested. The World Bank’s paper, entitled High Speed Railways in China: A Look at Construction Costs, suggests ...
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NewsFootbath luxury in Yamagata Shinkansen trainset
JAPAN: East Japan Railway will put into service a luxury trainset on its Yamagata Shinkansen with effect from July 19, as part of an ongoing programme to refresh the line’s fleet of mini-shinkansen trainsets. Known as Toreiyu from a combination of Train + Soleil, the six-car trainset has been rebuilt ...
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NewsIndian Railways budget makes the case for change
INDIA: Presenting his first budget since the new government took office, Railways Minister D V Sadanand Gowda said on July 8 that he wanted to see Indian Railways become ‘the largest freight carrier in the world’, having recently ‘achieved the distinction of entering the select club’ carrying more than one ...
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NewsDouble-tracking progress in Sumatra
INDONESIA: Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Dahlan Iskan attended celebrations on the island of Sumatra on June 10 to mark completion of 22 km of double-tracking between Niru and Prabumulih on the 370 km Palembang – Bandar Lampung line. In addition, 11 stations have been opened along the route, five in ...
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NewsKatra line opens with pride of place on the railway map
INDIA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the first train to inaugurate the Udhampur – Katra section of the rail link to Jammu & Kashmir on July 4, saying it represented ‘a triumph of every Indian spirit to overcome the arduous hurdles of nature for reaching the people in this ...
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NewsUPS to move China – Europe containers by rail
INTERNATIONAL: Express logistics operator UPS announced on June 30 that it was adding a full container load rail option between China and Europe to its portfolio of transport services. UPS will initially offer rail movement on two routes: Chengdu – Łódź and Zhengzhou – Hamburg. These will be augmented by ...
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NewsTaiyuan – Xi'an high speed line opens
CHINA: The 570 km Taiyuan – Xi'an high speed line opened with a national timetable change on July 1. The Passenger-Dedicated Line cuts journey times between the cities from 10 h to 3 h, and will eventually form part of a 900 km route from Datong to Xi'an designed for ...
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NewsYakutia Railways commissions genset loco development
RUSSIA: Yakutia Railways has awarded a contract for concept development of a genset locomotive to Swiss firm Molinari Rail and Sinara Transport Machines. The 1 520 mm gauge main line freight locomotive would be based on the Russian manufacturer’s TE8 design, and be powered by two diesel engines. Announcing YR’s ...
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NewsSeries W7 Shinkansen ready to start testing
JAPAN: JR West is preparing to start testing the Series W7 trainsets it is acquiring for use on the Hokuriku Shinkansen which opens for revenue service in March 2015. Two trainsets are being commissioned at Hakusan depot, around 10 km west of Kanazawa, ready for the start of test running ...