Infrastructure news – Page 204
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NewsPerth airport rail link approved
AUSTRALIA: Detailed proposals for an 8·5 km rail link to serve Perth Airport and the city’s ‘eastern foothills’ suburbs were announced by the Premier of Western Australia Colin Barnett on August 11, following the endorsement of the A$2·2bn scheme by the state cabinet. The line would will diverge from Transperth’s ...
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NewsCompact rail miller to be unveiled at InnoTrans
LINSINGER: The Austrian railhead profiling specialist will be unveiling its latest compact SF02T-FS rail milling train at InnoTrans 2014. This is one of a pair that the company is due to deliver to Hong Kong’s MTR Corp in the spring of 2015. The small-profile SF02T-FS has been designed for use ...
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NewsLatvia develops electrification plans
LATVIA: National railway LDz is developing plans to spend an estimated €450m on 25 kV electrification of its main lines, including the Riga – Ventspils and Riga – Daugavpils routes and conversion of the existing 248 km of 3 kV DC electrification radiating from Riga. This would be in addition ...
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NewsAppeal court ruling provides high speed funding fillip
USA: Three judges of the State Appellate Court in Sacramento ruled on July 31 to support an appeal by California High Speed Rail Authority against a prior judgment blocking the sale of $9·95bn in so-called ‘Proposition 1A’ bonds. Judge Michael Kenny had ruled on November 25 that when Californian voters ...
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NewsVp buys Balfour Beatty trackside plant business
UK: Balfour Beatty Rail completed the £5·5m sale of its UK trackside plant and equipment business to engineering and equipment rental specialist Vp plc on July 28. The TP&E business has approximately 60 staff and operates locations in the southeast. Following the sale it is to be integrated into Torrent ...
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NewsWork starts to bridge Thailand – Cambodia missing link
SOUTHEAST ASIA: A ground-breaking ceremony at Poipet in Cambodia on July 25 marked the start of work to reinstate the cross-border railway to Thailand. The ceremony was attended by Cambodia’s Deputy Minister for Public Works & Transport Guang Sun and Thailand’s Permanent Secretary for Transport Soithip Traisuth. The attendees viewed ...
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NewsONCF awards GSM-R contract
MOROCCO: A consortium of Thales, Huawei and Imet has been awarded the first GSM-R deployment contract under national railway ONCF’s nine-year roll-out programme. The €30m contract announced on July 25 covers 712 km of the network, comprising four conventional routes where existing radio systems will be replaced with GSM-R as ...
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NewsManchester control centre opens
UK: The Manchester Rail Operating Centre was formally opened by infrastructure manager Network Rail on July 21, one of 12 which will eventually control the entire railway network in Great Britain. The Manchester ROC is initially controlling just the 0·8 km Huyton – Roby section of the Manchester – ...
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NewsPrivate operators to be encouraged under railway reform plans
THAILAND: State Railway of Thailand is likely to be abolished under a wide-ranging reform programme planned by the interim military government. Giving a briefing on railway investment in Bangkok on July 23, Dr Chula Sukmanop, Director-General of the Office of Transport & Traffic Policy & Planning, said the government saw ...
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NewsHigh speed line electrification maintenance vehicle on test
CHINA: Trials are underway with an overhead electrification inspection, maintenance and repair vehicle capable of running at up to 160 km/h when travelling to worksites on high speed lines. The multi-functional vehicle has been developed by CNR Beijing February 7 Railway Transportation Equipment Co, based on the Class 711 ...
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NewsWorld rail infrastructure market July 2014
Australia: Transport for New South Wales has appointed Network Rail Consulting to provide systems integration services for its advanced train control programme. Austria: Wiener Linien has awarded Siemens a €40m contract to modernise signalling on metro Line U4, including installation of automatic train control, replacement of five interlockings and ...
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NewsChinese co-operation agreement signed
BRAZIL: A five-year memorandum of understanding for Brazil and China to co-operate on railway projects was one of 32 bilateral agreements signed in Brasília on July 17 during an official visit by President Xi Jinping of China. ‘Our relations are developing with an unparalleled speed in many areas of co-operation’, ...
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News€53m loan for Rail Baltica and transit corridors
LITHUANIA: Nordic Investment Bank has signed an 18-year €53m loan agreement with national railway Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai to finance works for the Rail Baltica project and modernisation of the east–west corridors. The loan announced on July 15 will facilitate the construction of a 115 km standard gauge line parallel to the ...
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NewsQueen opens rebuilt Reading station
UK: The rebuilt station at Reading on Network Rail’s Great Western Main Line was officially inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II on July 17, marking the completion of a four-year project. The station reconstruction forms a key element in the £897m Reading Station Area Redevelopment programme, which is now expected to ...
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NewsChinese high speed line construction one-third cheaper, study suggests
CHINA: Economies of scale accrued through standardisation of construction processes are among the key factors in China’s ability to build high speed railways more cheaply than other countries, a World Bank study has suggested. The World Bank’s paper, entitled High Speed Railways in China: A Look at Construction Costs, suggests ...
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NewsFirst Roca electrification contracts awarded
ARGENTINA: The Ministry of the Interior & Transport has selected Supercemento SAIC as preferred bidder for the first two contracts to be awarded under the project to upgrade and electrify at 25 kV 50 Hz AC the 52⋅6 km between Plaza Constitución and La Plata on the Roca commuter network ...
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NewsSBB overspend funded
SWITZERLAND: SBB announced on June 30 that it had reached agreement with the Federal Office for Transport over the financing of projected overspends in its infrastructure maintenance budget during the five-year plan period 2013-17. Faced with increasing traffic volumes, SBB spent SF129m more than anticipated in 2013, and the ...
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NewsBrno region rail development agreed
CZECH REPUBLIC: A memorandum setting out plans to increase access to rail transport in the Jihomoravský region and provide more options for commuting into Brno has been signed by the Ministry of Transport, infrastructure manager SŽDC, the regional authority, three municipalities and regional transport authority Kordis JMK. ...
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NewsCzech-German cross-border reopening
EUROPE: Passenger services returned to the line between Dolní Poustevna in the Czech Republic and Sebnitz in Germany on July 4, almost 70 years after it closed in the aftermath of World War II. The reopened route is used by eight Route U28 return services a day between Rumburk and ...
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NewsRift Valley Railways capital investment plans
AFRICA: Kenya – Uganda railway concessionaire Rift Valley Railways plans to make capital investments totalling more than US$100m during the current year. On July 8 the operator announced the final US$69·6m drawdown from a US$164m debt facility which was raised from international financiers in 2011 to fund a US$287m five-year ...