Infrastructure news – Page 206
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NewsSynthetic wood sleepers installed
SWITZERLAND: BLS is installing FFU synthetic wood sleepers supplied by Japanese firm Sekisui at three sites for trials. The first installation was at Frutigen station, where FFU turnout bearers are being tested. The fibre-reinforced foam urethane sleepers were supplied pre-drilled to SBB's Hägendorf workshop, where the turnouts were ...
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NewsWorld rail infrastructure market June 2014
Brazil: Thales and T’Trans are to supply telecoms, passenger information systems and CCTV for São Paulo monorail Line 17. China: Hollysys has been awarded two contracts totalling US$20·7m to provide signalling components for the 250 km/h Qingdao – Rongcheng and Jilin – Huichun lines, scheduled to open by the ...
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NewsHuawei awarded north–south line GSM-R contract
TURKMENISTAN: Huawei has been awarded a contract to supply GSM-R for the 133 km Buzhun – Serhetyaka and 23 km Bereket – Chilmammet sections of the north-south railway which is under construction to link Uzen in Kazakhstan with Bereket and Etrek in Turkmenistan and Gorgan in Iran. Huawei has ...
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NewsStorm damage is worse than thought, warns DB
GERMANY: Initial inspections have found that damage to the rail network in the Rhein-Ruhr region caused by a major storm on June 9 is worse than had been feared, Deutsche Bahn announced on June 11, and it is not clear when it will be possible for services to return to ...
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NewsPraha control centre under construction
CZECH REPUBLIC: Infrastructure manager SŽDC has begun work on a control centre at Praha-Balabenka which will house 130 dispatchers controlling train operations across 2140 km of main line in the west of the country. The five-storey building is being built by Metrostav at a cost of KC383m with commissioning ...
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NewsExtra station to serve Shinagawa redevelopment
JAPAN: East Japan Railway has announced plans to build a 50th station on its busy Yamonote Line circular suburban railway in southern Tokyo. As yet un-named, the station is intended to spur urban development on a 13 ha site currently occupied by stabling sidings for the 1 067 mm gauge ...
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NewsSaudi Landbridge supervision prequalification begins
SAUDI ARABIA: The Public Investment Fund’s railway development body Saudi Railway Co has invited applications to prequalify for the construction supervision consultancy contract for the Saudi Landbridge project. Applications are to be submitted by July 22. The Landbridge would involve the construction of around 1 200 km of railway ...
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NewsNot so fast
CZECH REPUBLIC: Plans to raise the maximum speed on principal lines from 160 km/h to 200 km/h have been put on hold by infrastructure manager SŽDC, which now believes the benefits would not justify the cost of eliminating all level crossings and upgrading signalling systems. The plan was first put ...
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NewsRelieving bottlenecks around Marseille and Nice
FRANCE: Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier announced last month that studies are to be taken forward for projects to increase capacity around Marseille and Nice. The government hopes that the projects will be approved as being of public utility in 2017. With the emphasis now on upgrading the existing network ...
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NewsKapsch CarrierCom to supply RFF with all-IP GSM-R core network
FRANCE: Infrastructure manager RFF and its GSM-R installation and maintenance PPP concessionaire Synerail have awarded Kapsch CarrierCom a contract to modernise the GSM-R network with an all-IP core based on Kapsch’s R4 architecture. Kaspch says this will improve reliability and form the basis for new applications such as Railway ...
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NewsDoncaster North Chord grade separation completed
UK: The 3·2 km Doncaster North Chord, built to carry east–west freight trains above the north–south East Coast Main Line on a new bridge, carried its first revenue freight trains on June 1. The grade separation project is designed to eliminate the need for slow-moving bulk freight trains from the ...
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NewsILCAD 2014 targets professional drivers
INTERNATIONAL: Railway operators in more than 45 countries across the world are participating in the sixth International Level Crossing Awareness Day on June 3. The campaign is intended to raise public awareness of the safety risks surrounding level crossings, in order to change the behaviour of road users, including vehicle ...
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NewsThales wins Network Rail Traffic Management System contracts
UK: Infrastructure manager Network Rail has formally confirmed Thales UK as the winner of the first two contracts for the deployment of the national Traffic Management System. Network Rail is planning to consolidate control of Great Britain’s rail network from more than 800 signalboxes into 12 rail operating centres ...
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NewsEVRAZ ships its first 100 m rails
RUSSIA: Rail manufacturer EVRAZ ZSMK announced on June 2 that it had dispatched its first batch of 100 m long head-hardened rails for Russian Railways. This follows the completion of an 18bn rouble modernisation of its rail and beam mill which began in 2009. The upgrade has increased the plant’s ...
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NewsPhiladelphia station redevelopment plan launched
USA: A consortium led by architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrell has been selected to work up development proposals for Amtrak’s 30th Street station in Philadelphia. To be completed within two years, the joint master plan has been commissioned by Amtrak, for whom the station is a significant driver of Northeast ...
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NewsGovernor launches Indiana Gateway project
USA: Indiana governor Mike Pence joined FRA Deputy Administrator Karen Hedlund, Amtrak's Chief of State Contracts Michael Franke and Norfolk Southern Assistant Vice-President Jeff Harris at Hammond on May 29 to mark the start of work on the US$71·4m Indiana Gateway project. This is intended to relieve congestion and accelerate ...
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NewsVandalism delays Eskisehir – Gebze high speed opening
TURKEY: A series of vandalism incidents has delayed the opening of the next section of the 570 km Istanbul – Ankara high speed corridor, the Transport Ministry confirmed in a statement on May 26.Opening of the next section of the line was expected in the first quarter of 2014, covering ...
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NewsWorld rail infrastructure market May 2014
Australia: Aurecon and Parsons Brinckerhoff are to undertake design work for the 12 km South East Light Rail project in Sydney. Brazil: CCR Metrô Bahia has selected Thales to install Seltrac CBTC on Salvador metro lines 1 and 2. Czech Republic: AŽD Praha has begun a KC1·28bn modernisation ...
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NewsSwiss tests confirm Baseline 3 backwards compatibility
SWITZERLAND: Siemens Rail Automation announced on May 22 that a joint testing programme organised with Swiss Federal Railways and BLS AG has successfully demonstrated the functionality and backwards-compatibility of its ETCS Baseline 3 onboard software, ready for the introduction of the revised Control Command & Signalling TSI later this year. ...
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NewsHistoric day for North-South Railway
BRAZIL: On May 22 President Dilma Rousseff officially opened the 855 km section of the North-South Railway between Porto Nacional in Tocantins state and Anápolis in Goiás. Speaking at a ceremony in Anápolis on what she described as an ‘historic day’, Rousseff said that her government was taking forward the ...