Infrastructure news – Page 124
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Rail Business UKMayor calls for TfL to replace Network Rail as infrastructure manager
UK: Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has called for Transport for London to replace Network Rail as the infrastructure manager for routes which are used by suburban passenger services operated under concessions awarded by TfL. The proposal forms part of TfL’s submission of its views to a review of the ...
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NewsLithuania to reinstate rail link to Latvia
LITHUANIA: Following a competitive tender, national railway Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai has awarded Skinest Rail subsidiary Vitras-S a contract worth €9·38m plus VAT to reinstate the line connecting Mažeikiai with Rengė in Latvia, which had been closed in controversial circumstances. The project includes the rebuilding or repair of 19 km of track, ...
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NewsSalzburger Lokalbahn extension agreement signed
AUSTRIA: The federal government and the Land and city of Salzburg signed a letter of intent on March 25 to extend and upgrade the Salzburger Lokalbahn railway. The agreement was signed by federal Transport Ministger Norbert Hofer, Salzburg Land Governor Wilfried Haslauer, Land Transport Minister Stefan Schnöll and Mayor Harald ...
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NewsSaudi Railway Co ETCS certified
SAUDI ARABIA: Testing company TÜV Rheinland has handed over the Independent Competent Person certificate for Saudi Railway Co’s ETCS Level 2 deployment on the North–South Railway, completing formal acceptance by the national Public Transport Authority. ‘This is a globally significant achievement in the railway industry since, according ...
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NewsMedvedev backs Russian high speed line
RUSSIA: Plans for the construction of a high speed line from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod were approved by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on March 13, having already been backed by Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov who oversees transport. The project is estimated to cost 622bn roubles, of which 200bn roubles ...
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Metro Report InternationalChiyoda Line branch runs through
JAPAN: Tokyo Metro has started running through services onto the 2·1 km Kita-Ayase branch of the capital’s Chiyoda Line, in order to serve a developing area in the northeast of the city. The branch running north from Ayase station, where the Chiyoda Line connects end-on with JR East’s Joban Line, ...
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NewsPoland-Belarus border crossing upgrades planned
EUROPE: PKP Cargo’s Cargotor held an investor consultation event in late February to outline four options for modernisation of the Małaszewicze transhipment terminal near the border with Belarus. The meeting was attended by local authorities, terminal operators and railway companies. The modernisation of the transhipment terminal, co-financed from the ...
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NewsÖBB to close Tirol electrification gap by year-end
AUSTRIA: ÖBB-Infrastruktur has announced that it will electrify its last remaining section of unelectrified track in the Land of Tirol by the end of the year at 15 kV 16·7 Hz. The ÖBB network in Tirol covers 459 route-km, of which 97% is electrified. The only section that is ...
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NewsChina plans Zhoushan Island rail link
CHINA: Surveying and detailed design work has begun for the construction of a 77 km rail link between Ningbo and the Zhoushan Islands in eastern Zhejiang province. This would include China’s first section of undersea line designed for 250 km/h passenger services as well as freight trains. According to feasibility ...
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NewsTogo railway plan
TOGO: Construction of a 760 km railway from the capital Lomé to Cinkassé on the border with Burkina Faso is included in a national development plan unveiled by the government of Togo. It is envisaged that the line could eventually run to Ouagadougou. State-owned Togo Invest Holding has been tasked ...
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NewsBroad gauge freight route to Wien is ‘crucial’, says RZD
INTERNATIONAL: Russian Railways Chief Executive Oleg Belozerov says that the company is wrestling with growth rates of 30% in a year in transit freight between Asia and Europe. Addressing the International Railway Congress which began in Wien on March 18, he suggested that RZD had increased its forecasts for transit ...
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NewsProRail and Arriva launch automation trials
NETHERLANDS: ProRail, Arriva and Stadler have started a week-long trial of automatic train operation on the Groningen – Zuidhorn line in the north of the country, with a modified GTW DMU successfully undertaking a first run on the evening of March 15. Operating in Grade of Automation 2, with a ...
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NewsBielefeld – Hannover high speed line proposed
GERMANY: Commissioner for Rail and Parliamentary Secretary of State for Transport & Digital Infrastructure Enak Ferlemann has said that a new 300 km/h line needs to be built between Bielefeld and Hannover. Speaking to Deutsche Presse Agentur on March 18, Ferlemann said that the new line was required to ...
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NewsFTA stalls federal support for Gateway Programme
USA: The Federal Transit Administration on March 18 announced that it had ranked the Gateway Programme to increase rail capacity between New York and New Jersey with a ‘medium to low’ financing status, making it ineligible at present for federal Capital Investment Grants. The ranking applies both to the planned ...
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Metro Report InternationalFirst stage of ‘highly complex’ London Underground resignalling goes live
UK: The first section of the London Underground network has been switched over to a Thales signalling system which is being rolled out across the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines under Transport for London’s Four Lines Modernisation programme. The complex network of interlinked tracks collectively known as ...
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NewsRailways are coming into Ghana in a big way, says President
GHANA: ‘The railways are coming in a big way into Ghana, and we shall open up our country for the development that we all desire’, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said in his state of the nation address last month. He was ‘glad to be able to report’ that services ...
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NewsQazvin – Rasht section of Asia to Europe link opened
IRAN: President Hassan Rouhani opened the 164 km Qazvin – Rasht railway with a ceremony on March 6. He said Iranian engineers had overcome many complexities since the project was launched in 2002. A 40 km branch from Rasht to the Caspian Sea port of Anzali is expected to be ...
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NewsMumbai – Ahmedabad high speed tenders called
INDIA: Tenders for design, construction and commissioning of civil engineering works on around half of the planned Mumbai – Ahmedabad high speed line were invited by the National High Speed Rail Corp Ltd on March 15. Covering a 237 km section in the state of Gujurat, running south from Vadodara ...
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NewsStation regeneration to create a gateway to Vilnius
LITHUANIA: The Vilnius Connect programme to revitalise the capital’s main station and its surroundings has been designated as a project of regional importance by the city council. Mayor Remigijus Šimašius said the project to create a modern European gateway to the city would be inspired by the ‘best examples of ...
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Rail Business UKOverhead Line Electrification for Railways
Book Review Overhead Line Electrification for Railways By Garry Keenor Developed over several years by an experienced electrification engineer, this book is intended to provide ‘an approachable and reasonably comprehensive’ study of overhead electrification systems, setting out ‘the why as well as the what’ for readers with some basic engineering ...