Europe – Page 259
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Rail Business UKThameslink fleet stake to be sold
UK: A consortium of Dalmore Capital and Equitix Investment Management has signed agreements to acquire 3i Infrastructure’s one-third stake in Cross London Trains Holdco 2 Ltd. This was established by 3i, Innisfree and Siemens in 2011 to finance, own and maintain the fleet of 115 Desiro City Class 700 EMUs ...
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NewsSNCF to reshape TER operations
FRANCE: Radical changes to the operations management and customer relations activities for SNCF’s regional passenger services were announced by General Manager, TER, Frank Lacroix on February 14. Providing an update on the CAP TER 2020 transformation strategy launched at the end of 2016, Lacroix said the first two years had ...
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
LGIM Real Assets has provided £200m in long-term debt financing on behalf its clients including Legal & General Retirement Institutional to support Equitix and SMBC in the purchase of 60 Stadler trainsets for use by the Wales & Borders operator on the Valley Lines. Translink has awarded British Steel an ...
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NewsBucurești airport rail link tendering underway
ROMANIA: Infrastructure manager CFR has called tenders for the design and construction of a 2·95 km rail connection to Terminal 1 at Henri Coandă International Airport, which would allow the operation of a direct rail service from the airport to București Nord station. The alignment would include a 1·5 km ...
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News‘Battle plan’ to save France’s rural railways
FRANCE: A report into the condition, usage and prospects of almost 9 000 route-km of secondary railway is to be handed to government before the end of March. According to Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne, the report will form part of a ‘battle plan’ to save a broad swathe of the ...
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Metro Report InternationalAutonomous tram under development in Russia
RUSSIA: Tram builder PK Transportnye Systemy is working with Cognitive Technologies to develop a prototype autonomous tram. A Vityaz-M vehicle is being fitted with 10 to 20 video cameras and up to 10 radar sensors, in addition to Cognitive’s Low Level Data Fusion technology, which processes the raw data. ...
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Rail Business UKNetwork Rail reorganisation aims to bring ‘radical change’
UK: Plans for a reorganisation designed to ‘put passengers and freight users first’ and address concerns about poor operating performance on the increasingly busy network were announced by infrastructure manager Network Rail on February 12. ‘The need for radical change is clear’, said Chief Executive Andrew Haines, reflecting on his ...
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NewsFirenze tram route T2 inaugurated
ITALY: Firenze tram Route T2 was inaugurated at noon on February 11, ahead of the entry into passenger service at 14.30. Travel on the route is free for two weeks. The opening ceremony was attended by President Sergio Mattarella, Minister of Transport & Infrastructure Danilo Toninelli, Mayor Dario Nardella, Toscana ...
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NewsAmber Rail Freight Corridor becomes operational
EUROPE: The Amber Rail Freight Corridor has become operational, as the first new corridor to be established since the original nine defined in 2010. Prearranged trains paths are now available for the 2019-20 timetable year through the corridor’s ‘one stop shop’. Designated as RFC 11, the Amber RFC is ...
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Rail Business UKInterim East Midlands franchise awarded
UK: The Department for Transport has directly awarded incumbent Stagecoach Group subsidiary East Midlands Trains an interim contract to continue to operate the East Midlands passenger franchise. The new short-term contract announced on February 12 will start when the most recent extension of the current franchise expires on March 3 ...
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NewsRhomberg Sersa wins Irish maintenance contract
IRELAND: Iarnród Éireann has selected Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group as preferred bidder for a €40m contract to provide track maintenance services, including the operation of 14 on-track machines owned by the national railway. Rhomberg Sersa expects to employ 56 people to undertake work under the contract announced on February 11, ...
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NewsDB and ODEG awarded operating contracts
GERMANY: On behalf of the Länder of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg–Vorpommern and Sachsen-Anhalt, Berlin-Brandenburg transport authority VBB has awarded the four Netzes Elbe-Spree regional passenger train operating contracts to DB Regio Nordost and ODEG. The contracts covering 17 routes will run for 12 years from December 2022. The international tender specified ...
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Metro Report InternationalEmission-free bus funding announced
UK: The government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles is providing a total of £48m for emission-free buses and associated infrastructure in various cities, Buses Minister Nusrat Ghani announced on February 6. The 19 successful bidders that took part in the ultra-low emission bus scheme competition last year are to ...
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Rail Business UKScotRail gets second performance warning
UK: Citing poor customer satisfaction figures, Transport Scotland issued a Remedial Plan notice to ScotRail on February 8. This is the operator’s second warning in quick succession, following a Remedial Notice issued on December 24 because of poor operational performance, during November and December. According to Transport Scotland, ScotRail had ...
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NewsHyundai Rotem selected for Warszawa tram contract
POLAND: Tramwaje Warszawskie has selected Hyundai Rotem as preferred bidder to supply up to 213 low-floor trams, the operator announced on February 8. Rotem’s bid of 1·852bn złoty excluding VAT beat those of Pesa, which offered a price exceeding TW’s budget, and that by a consortium of Stadler and ...
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Rail Business UKLong-life screwbolts developed for Crossrail
UK: The bespoke corrosion-resistant PLUS bolt was developed by screwbolt specialist Excalibur to meet the demanding requirements of the Crossrail project in London. Crossrail Ltd requires anchors used in the tunnel lining to demonstrate a 120-year design life instead of the standard 50-year span of a standard fixing. The twin-helix ...
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NewsTrimble technology to support Norwegian fleet management
NORWAY: State-owned rolling stock leasing organisation Norske Tog is to deploy Trimble’s E2M engineering asset and maintenance management system on the fleet of vehicles it is to lease to operating contractors. This is intended to provide the vehicle owner and the operators with an overview of the key data needed ...
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NewsGerman approval for Fehmarn Belt project signed
EUROPE: Denmark to Germany rail and road tunnel promoter Femern A/S has formally received a letter providing the Land of Schleswig-Holstein’s approval of the construction plan for the German elements of the project. The legal document runs to more than 1 000 pages, and is based on a 14 000-page ...
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Rail Business UKConsultation on expanding pay-as-you-go ticketing in southeast England
UK: The Department for Transport has begun public consultation on the possible roll out of ‘pay-as-you-go’ smart ticketing in the region surrounding Greater London. It is envisaged that this would be more convenient for passengers, and reduce differences in fares paid by people by people with different working and travel ...
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NewsUK government seeks views on developing light rail technology
UK: The government issued a call for evidence to inform the future development of light rail and related transport on February 7. Light Rail Minister Jesse Norman said that the ‘wide-ranging call for evidence seeks new ideas and new support for the next generation of light rail’. In addition ...