Turkmenistan’s national railway has taken delivery of the first two of 15 twin-section diesel locomotives to be supplied by CRRC Ziyang by the end of January. TMH Bryansk is also to deliver five diesel locomotives during November.
The Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway has opened the Midland Logistics Park as a distribution hub for the Charlotte region of North Carolina. The site includes its Midland Transload Yard which can accommodate 175+ wagons, and three properties available for rail-served industrial development; several major plastic distributors are to consolidate their Charlotte operations in Midland. Development was supported by North Carolina Department of Transportation grants to support modal shift to rail.
ČD Cargo has awarded a consortium of ČD-Telematika, Siemens Mobility and AŽD Praha a KC533m contract to retrofit its fleet of 30 Class 363.5 dual-voltage electric locos with ETCS Level 2 Baseline 3 equipment at Škoda Transportation’s workshops at Šumperk.
NSW Ports has outlined its strategy for moving more freight by rail at the Australasian Railway Association Rail Freight Conference. It includes expanding Port Botany’s on-dock rail capacity to meet future container growth demand; increasing the two-way loading of trains, including with empty containers; a modal shift incentive scheme, funded by Transport for NSW to incentivise exporters to use intermodal terminals for the “last mile” journey to Port Botany; and working with businesses, rail operators and TfNSW to improve access to the shared suburban rail network
Northrail is to lease two Siemens Mobility Smartron locomotives to Eisenbahnen & Verkehrsbetriebe Elbe-Weser which will use them on container and automotive traffic for a period of one year and three years. A Vectron Dual Mode will be supplied in June 2023.
PKP SA is working with Ukrainian Railways to establish a freight forwarding company to handle cargo moving from Ukraine to Poland and other European countries. PKP Board President Krzysztof Mamiński said that it would be a joint venture company responsible for forwarding freight from Ukraine, organising the entire supply chain and delivering the goods to their final destination.
Ermewa is to add 780 Sgmmnss 40’, Sgnss 60’, Sggrss 80’ and Sggmrss 90’ wagons from Inveho, Greenbrier and Tatravagónka to its 4 000 wagon intermodal fleet this year. They have GPS devices and are ready for digital automatic couplers. The leasing company has a further 100 wagons on order for 2023, and aims to have a fleet of 10 000 wagons by the end of 2030.News from the world rail freight market.