High speed rail industry news – Page 38
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NewsAnime-themed Series 500 launched on Sanyo Shinkansen
JAPAN: West Japan Railway officially launched an anime-themed 500 Type EVA Shinkansen trainset into revenue service on November 7, marking the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Sanyo Shinkansen. One of the railway’s nine Series 500 trainsets has been wrapped in a stylised livery to commemorate the 20th anniversary ...
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NewsEurostar sale ‘represented value for money’ says NAO
UK: On November 6 the National Audit Office published a report into the £757·1m sale of the UK's interest in cross-Channel high speed train operator Eurostar International, concluding that the government achieved its objective of maximising proceeds and that the sale represented value for money for taxpayers. However, Meg Hillier ...
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NewsState Secretary replaced after damning Fyra report
NETHERLANDS: Sharon Dijksma was appointed as State Secretary at the Ministry of Infrastructure & Environment with effect from November 3. Reporting to Infrastructure Minister Melanie Schulz Verhagen-Maas Geesteranus, she replaces Wilma Mansveld, who resigned last week following the publication of a critical report into the Fyra high speed train debacle. ...
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NewsOntario appoints high speed rail advisor
CANADA: On October 30 the government of Ontario announced the appointment of former federal Transport Minister David Collenette as a special advisor tasked with developing high speed rail proposals for the Windsor - London - Kitchener-Waterloo - Toronto corridor. Collenette is to work with public and private-sector stakeholders to assess ...
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NewsTrenitalia planning Paris – Brussels high speed service
EUROPE: Italian national operator Trenitalia has confirmed that it is holding preliminary discussions with its suppliers and relevant regulatory bodies regarding the possible launch of an open access high speed service between Paris and Brussels. Speaking in Milano on October 28, Pietro Diamantini of FS Group's Passenger Division suggested that ...
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NewsChinese-funded consortium to build Jakarta – Bandung fast line
INDONESIA: Construction could start next year on a passenger-dedicated line linking Jakarta with Bandung over a 140 km alignment that would make use of vacant land next to a toll motorway. The approval of the project is the latest twist in a long-running series of negotiations between the authorities in ...
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NewsKuala Lumpur – Singapore high speed rail market sounding begins
ASIA: Malaysian land transport commission SPAD and Singapore’s Land Transport Authority have jointly launched a market-sounding exercise for the Kuala Lumpur – Singapore high speed rail project. The proposed 330 km line would offer a 90 min journey time between the cities. The request for information issued on October ...
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NewsChinese contractors eye Swedish high speed rail programme
SWEDEN: A group of Chinese firms under the brand Scandinavian Bridge & Rail Consortium Company says it is keen to help Sweden accelerate the delivery of its proposed 'inverse Y' high speed network linking Stockholm with Göteborg and Malmö. Speaking at the Nordic Rail trade show in Jönköping on October ...
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NewsOpen access operator NTV to order Pendolinos
ITALY: The board of open access high speed train operator NTV has approved the award of a contract for Alstom Transport to supply and maintain a further eight trainsets. Branded EVO, the new trainsets would be part of Alstom’s Pendolino family which NTV said offers ‘a brilliant mixture of reliability ...
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NewsTwo more LGV branches to go ahead
FRANCE: Transport Minister Alain Vidalies announced on September 26 that the government intends to proceed with plans to extend the high speed network from Bordeaux to Toulouse and Dax. The decision in favour of what is known as the Grand Projet Ferroviaire du Sud-Ouest reverses the negative finding of a ...
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NewsValladolid – León high speed line opens
SPAIN: Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy joined Development Minister Ana Pastor and Juan Vicente Herrera, President of the Castilla y León regional government, to officially open the 162⋅7 km high speed line between Valladolid and León on September 29. Built at a cost of €1⋅62bn for operation at up to 350 ...
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NewsBirmingham and Beijing plan joint high speed rail research
INTERNATIONAL: Plans for a joint international high speed railway research laboratory have been announced by the UK’s University of Birmingham and China’s Beijing Jiaotong University, which signed a research co-operation agreement on September 17. The laboratory would be run jointly by the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research & Education and ...
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NewsTesting starts on LGV Est Phase 2
FRANCE: National operator SNCF has started test running on the second phase of LGV Est Européan. An instrumented EuroDuplex TGV decked out in a commemorative livery began running over the new section of the route on the morning of September 28. Running for 106 km between the end of Phase ...
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NewsHigh Speed 2 civil works tendering begins
UK: The government launched the bidding process for the construction of High Speed 2 on September 24, with the issuing of a pre-qualification questionnaire for the Tranche 1 main civils works contracts. The seven contracts with a total value of £11·8bn cover construction of the surface route and tunnels ...
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NewsAmtrak selects Alstom for Northeast Corridor train order
USA: Senator Charles E Schumer said on September 21 that the Amtrak board would approve the next day the start of exclusive negotiations with Alstom for a contract to supply the next generation of trains for the Northeast Corridor between Washington DC, New York and Boston. The contract ...
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NewsTanger high speed train depot inaugurated
MOROCCO: The rolling stock depot in Tanger which will maintain and service the country’s fleet of high speed trains was officially inaugurated by King Mohammed VI and French President François Hollande on September 20, at a ceremony attended by ONCF Director-General Mohamed Rabie Khlie and SNCF President Guillaume Pepy. Two ...
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NewsUS-Chinese joint venture to develop Las Vegas high speed line
USA: Private-sector California to Nevada high speed rail project promoter XpressWest and a consortium of Chinese rail industry companies announced on September 17 that they had agreed to create a joint venture to develop, finance, build and operate a 370 km line between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The Southwest ...
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NewsLandbridge design contract extended
SAUDI ARABIA: The Public Investment Fund has extended Italferr’s contract to undertake design work for the planned Landbridge. The Landbridge project comprises a 950 km double-track mixed traffic line running from the Port of Jeddah to Riyadh, where it would connect with the existing railway which would be upgraded ...
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NewsHigh speed beauty contest terminated
INDONESIA: Proposals to develop a 150 km high speed line between Jakarta and Bandung have been dropped, the government announced on September 3. A statement issued by the office of President Joko Widodo confirmed that the government’s priorities were the upgrading of the existing Trans-Java main lines, the Jakarta suburban ...
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NewsChina Railway Corp orders Zefiro380 high speed trains
CHINA: China Railway Corp has ordered a further 15 eight-car CRH380D high speed trainsets from Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation for 2·4bn yuan. Announcing the order on September 2, the BST joint venture of Bombardier and CSR Sifang Rolling Stock Co said it had begun delivering an initial batch of 70 ...