High speed rail industry news – Page 50
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NewsChoose your destination with #TGVpop
FRANCE: On July 5 SNCF operated the first five trains under its ‘100% digital’ #TGVpop concept, where the destination is determined by online voting. The first services ran from Paris to Nantes, Bordeaux, Marseille and Lyon, as well as from Lyon to Paris. Under a campaign running until August 30, ...
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NewsRambøll to study Vejle Fjord cut-off
DENMARK: The national roads directorate has appointed engineering consultancy Rambøll to explore four possible alignments for a high speed rail link across the Vejle Fjord, which would shorten Banedanmark’s main line between Fredericia and Aarhus. The project is a key element in the government’s Togfonden DK railway investment programme, which ...
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NewsWorld Speed Survey 2015: China remains the pacesetter
INTERNATIONAL: China remains the pacesetter in the world rail speed race, according to the latest World Speed Survey published in Railway Gazette International on July 1. Authored by Jeremy Hartill of the UK’s Railway Performance Society, the biennial survey compiles in tabular form the fastest timetabled start-to-stop journeys between different ...
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NewsAfrica’s first high speed train delivered
MOROCCO: The first of 12 Alstom Duplex high speed trainsets for national railway ONCF was unloaded at the Port of Tanger on June 29. It had been shipped from the Port of La Pallice near La Rochelle in France onboard Ville de Bordeaux, a roll-on roll-off vessel custom-built to carry ...
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NewsHefei – Fuzhou high speed line opens
CHINA: The 813 km Hefei – Fuzhou Passenger-Dedicated Line opened on June 28, with journey times between the capitals of Anhui and Fujian provinces cut from 8 h to under 4 h. The new line also serves popular tourist destinations. Construction of the line began in 2010, with the ...
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NewsEIB signs €180m loan for ADIF
SPAIN: An agreement that will see the European Investment Bank lend a total of €180m to ADIF Alta Velocidad was signed in Madrid on June 26, in the presence of Development Minister Ana Pastor, EIB Vice-President Román Escolano and ADIF Alta Velocidad President Gonzalo Ferre. An initial tranche of €100m ...
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NewsOstlänken consultants appointed
SWEDEN: A consortium of Cowi and Systra has been selected to undertake technical planning work on the third section of the 150 km Ostlänken line linking Stockholm and Linköping. Diverging from the current Stockholm – Göteborg trunk line at Järna, west of Södertälje, the ‘East Link’ would run southwest through ...
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NewsIneco studies Cairo - Luxor high speed line
EGYPT: Spanish state-owned engineering consultancy Ineco announced on May 27 that it is to carry out a feasibility study for building a high speed line between Cairo and Luxor. According to Ineco, this 600 km route between the country’s two principal cities would be major addition to Egypt’s tourist infrastructure. ...
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NewsFirst Shinkansen train through the Seikan Tunnel
JAPAN: The mayor of Aomori and other city officials participated in a ceremony at Shin-Aomori in the early hours of May 24 to mark the arrival of the first Series H5 trainset from Hokkaido through the Seikan Tunnel. Following the delivery of the first unit to JR Hokkaido in October ...
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NewsCSR and universities to establish UK rail research centre
UK: High speed train builder CSR Qingdao Sifang is to establish a centre for railway research and development in the UK under a series of co-operation agreements signed with three British universities during the Railtex 2015 exhibition in Birmingham on May 12. To be developed by CSR Sifang in co-operation ...
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NewsEuropean Commission approves SNCF control of Eurostar
EUROPE: The European Commission announced on May 13 that it had approved a shareholders’ agreement which will see French national railway SNCF acquire sole management control of cross-Channel high speed train operator Eurostar International Ltd. This approval is subject to commitments which are designed to facilitate the entry of new ...
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NewsTurkish rail market opening coming this year
TURKEY: Legislation outlining the legal framework for liberalisation of the railway sector was published in the government’s official journal on May 2. Publication of the Law on Capacity Allocation & Network Access paves the way for market opening to be introduced by the end of this year, with state railway ...
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NewsMalaysia – Singapore high speed line opening date put back
ASIA: The planned opening date for the proposed 330 km high speed line between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore is to be put back from 2020 to a more realistic date, the prime ministers of Malaysia and Singapore jointly announced after their annual leader’s retreat on May 5. The location for ...
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NewsHigh speed line maintenance software
FRANCE: CARL Software has won a contract to supply its CARL Source asset management software to the Mesea joint venture which will maintain the track, signalling and electrification on the 300 km Tours – Bordeaux LGV Sud Europe Atlantique high speed line which is under construction for opening in 2017. ...
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NewsSino-Russian consortium to design Moscow – Kazan line
RUSSIA: On May 1 Russian Railways announced that a Sino-Russian consortium led by Mosgiprotrans would undertake design work for the planned 770 route-km Moscow – Kazan high speed line. Covering engineering surveys, project development planning, surveying and the development of design documentation, the contract is to be undertaken within a ...
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NewsFrecciarossa 1000 to carry passengers in June
ITALY: Trenitalia is to put its first Frecciarossa 1000 high speed trains into revenue service with the start of the summer timetable on June 14, the national operator announced on April 25. The announcement was made during a non-stop run between Milano and Roma conveying Italian President Sergio Mattarella. He ...
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NewsChina backs Jakarta – Bandung high speed proposal
INDONESIA: On the fringes of the Asian-African Summit on April 22, President Joko Widodo and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the two countries to co-operate on the development of a high speed line between Jakarta and Bandung. Provisionally costed at US$6·7bn, ...
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NewsJapanese maglev testing tops 600 km/h
JAPAN: A new speed record for a magnetically levitated vehicle was set on April 21, when Central Japan Railway powered one of its Series L0 superconducting maglev units up to a maximum of 603 km/h on the test guideway in Yamanashi prefecture. According to JR Central, a speed of ...
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NewsMyHSR Corp to oversee high speed project
SOUTHEAST ASIA: The Malaysian government has approved the establishment of MyHSR Corp, a state-backed project delivery company which is to manage Malaysia’s share in the 38bn ringgit Kuala Lumpur – Singapore high speed project. As a first step, the Malaysian finance ministry is to be issued with 10 million ...
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NewsHonam high speed railway inaugurated
SOUTH KOREA: The 182·3 km Honam High Speed Railway serving the southwest of the country was formally opened by President Park Geun-hye in a ceremony at Gwangju Songjeong station on April 1, attended by many VIPs and invited guests, including the heads of Korea Rail Network Authority and national operator ...