High speed rail industry news – Page 21
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NewsHaramain launches Jeddah airport service at 300 km/h
SAUDI ARABIA: High speed services to and from Jeddah airport were launched on December 11. The six-track station serving Terminal 1 at King Abdulaziz International Airport is linked to the 450 km Haramain High Speed Railway between Makkah and Madinah by a 6·6 km branch. This includes ...
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Book reviewLe Monde a Grande Vitesse
Launched at the headquarters of the International Union of Railways in Paris, this book on high speed railways by Marie-Pascale Rauzier and François Schuiten has been prepared by Casablanca-based publisher Langages du Sud. In 232 pages it describes 21 high speed rail routes, starting with Tokyo – ...
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NewsWuhan – Shiyan high speed line opens
CHINA: The 399 km Passenger-Dedicated Line between Wuhan and Shiyan was opened for revenue services on November 29, as the first stage of a direct high speed route linking Wuhan with Xi’an. The city of Shiyan is a major automotive manufacturing centre in the northwest of Hubei ...
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Rail Business UKAvanti West Coast sets out plans for West Coast franchise
UK: Avanti West Coast was officially unveiled as the brand name for the new West Coast Partnership franchise on November 27. Joint venture partners FirstGroup and Italian national operator Trenitalia explained that ‘Avanti is Italian for “Forward!” and reflects a mission to deliver an innovative railway service ...
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NewsThree operators awarded Spanish high speed paths
SPAIN: High speed infrastructure manager Adif AV has selected three preferred bidders to negotiate 10-year framework agreements enabling them to operate passenger services on the routes from Madrid east to Valencia and Alacant, south to Sevilla and Málaga and north to Barcelona and the French border. The ...
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NewsRizhao – Qufu high speed line opens
CHINA: The Rizhao to Qufu section of the Rizhao to Lankao Passenger-Dedicated Line opened for revenue services on November 26. Crossing the south of Shandong province from east to west, the 235 km long line designed for 350 km/h operation connects the port of Rizhao on the ...
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NewsFavourable opinion on Firenze high speed tunnel
The tunnel will significantly reduce travel times by avoiding the need for trains to reverse at the existing Santa Maria Novella terminus. ITALY: A cost:benefit analysis has come out in favour of continuing with the project to build 7 km twin-bore high speed rail tunnel and Belfiore ...
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NewsSiemens rolls out new Turkish Velaro
TURKEY: Siemens has unveiled the first of 12 Velaro high speed trainsets ordered by Turkish national operator TCDD Taşımacılık at the supplier’s Düsseldorf plant on November 13. Due to arrive in Ankara by the end of November, the train is expected to enter passenger service in February ...
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NewsAfrica’s first high speed line covers its costs
MOROCCO: Speaking at a press conference on November 20, Moroccan National Railways Director General Mohamed Rabie Khlie told media representatives that the high speed Al Boraq service launched by King Mohamed VI and French President Emmanuel Macron on November 15 2018 had carried 2·5 million passengers in ...
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NewsFirst Amtrak Avelia emerges
USA: The first of 28 Avelia Liberty trainsets being assembled by Alstom to operate Amtrak’s Acela Express services has been outshopped at the manufacturer’s Hornell plant, ahead of the start of test running. Ordered in 2016 as part of a $2·45bn package of ...
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NewsChinese high speed train operator’s IPO approved
CHINA: Beijing–Shanghai High Speed Railway Co’s planned IPO was formally approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission on November 14. The state railway’s investment arm currently owns a 50% stake in the operator of the 1 318 km line, which opened in June 2011 with trains running ...
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NewsItalo signs ‘largest ever’ green loan for transport
ITALY: Open access high speed train operator Italo has signed a €1·1bn syndicated loan, which CEO Gianbattista La Rocca said was the world’s largest green loan in the transport sector. The proceeds will be used to refinance €900m of existing green investments on better terms, and to ...
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NewsChina poised to open 350 km/h automated railway
Source: Wikimedia Commons/N509FZ A fleet of CR400BF high speed trains from the Fuxing family will be used in automated opeartion on the Beijing - Zhangjiakou line. CHINA: Automated operations are due to start before the end of this year on the 174 km high speed line linking ...
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NewsKorail takes delivery of first Hyundai Rotem EMU-250 trainset
SOUTH KOREA: Hyundai Rotem delivered the first EMU-250 electric trainset with distributed traction to Korail on November 4. The national operator ordered 19 six-car EMU-250 trainsets in two batches in 2016, with five scheduled to be delivered from the manufacturer’s Changwon works by August 2020 and the ...
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NewsFour bidders seek Spanish train paths
SPAIN: Infrastructure manager ADIF has received four requests for capacity to operate passenger services on the ‘general interest’ national network including the main high speed corridors. Applications for train paths from December 14 2020 were submitted by national incumbent RENFE, the Rielsfera subsidiary of France’s SNCF, Motion ...
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News‘Earthquake mode’ battery packs to be fitted to N700S Shinkansen fleet
Nick Kingsley reports from WCRR 2019
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Rail Business UKHS2 streamlines civils subcontracting process
UK: The four High Speed 2 main works civils contractors have collaborated to introduce a standardised pre-qualification system for subcontractors which is designed to streamline the process, reduce costs and boost productivity. Under the Common Assessment Standard, bidders for work with Align, BBV, EK and SCS Railways ...
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NewsMinister backs Taiwan high speed line extension
TAIWAN: The government has backed proposals to extend THSRC’s 1 435 mm gauge high speed railway to Yilan County, Minister of Transport & Communications Lin Chia-lung confirmed on October 24. Speaking to local media ahead of a Legislative Yuan Transport Committee meeting to review the Taiwan Railway ...
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NewsLondon St Pancras twins with Bordeaux Saint-Jean to promote direct service
Twinning EUROPE: Channel Tunnel rail link concessionaire HS1 Ltd announced a twinning agreement between its London St Pancras International station and SNCF’s Bordeaux Saint-Jean station on October 18, saying this would help to progress the development of proposals for a through passenger service between the cities. ...
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NewsTyphoon breaches Hokuriku Shinkansen and Chuo Main Line
JAPAN: Services on the Hokuriku Shinkansen and various other lines are expected to be disrupted for several weeks as a result of typhoon damage, East Japan Railway confirmed on October 15. Rail and road links in the Kanto Koshinetsu and Tohoku regions were badly affected by flooding ...