Infrastructure news – Page 225
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NewsVale starts work on Nacala corridor
MALAWI: Brazilian mining group Vale officially launched the construction of its US$1·1bn heavy haul freight corridor to the port of Nacala on December 6, when the President of Malawi Joyce Banda laid a foundation stone at Neno. The ceremony was attended by representatives from the governments of both Malawi and ...
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NewsCross-border service trial
INTERNATIONAL: Russian Railways’ Federal Passenger Company subsidiary is to operate a trial international passenger service from Petrozavodsk in the Republic of Karelia to Joensuu in Finland on December 28-29. The overnight service will operate via Sortavala and cross the border at Värtsilä. It is expected to comprise six coaches ...
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NewsQueen Beatrix inaugurates the Hanze Line
NETHERLANDS: The 50 km Hanze Line between Lelystad and Zwolle was officially opened on December 6 with a ceremony attended by Queen Beatrix and Transport Minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen. After a presentation at Lelystad, the Queen rode the inaugural train to Zwolle, accompanied by several ministers and other ...
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NewsKatzenberg cut-off inaugurated
GERMANY: Federal Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer joined the celebrations at Efringen-Kirchen on December 4 to mark the formal opening of a 17·6 km cut-off at the southern end of Deutsche Bahn’s Rhein Valley line in Baden-Württemberg. He was accompanied by DB Chairman Rüdiger Grube, Baden-Württemberg’s Transport Minister Winfried Hermann and ...
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NewsHarbin – Dalian PDL opens
CHINA: The 921 km Passenger-Dedicated Line between Harbin and Dalian opened to traffic on December 1, connecting the capital of Heilongjiang province with Changchun, Shenyang and Dalian, the largest port in northeast China. Designed for a maximum speed of 350 km/h, the route serves a total of 22 stations, including ...
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NewsColton Flyover going up
USA: The Colton Flyover is under construction at the city of Colton in California to eliminate a flat crossing between Union Pacific and BNSF tracks. The crossing has been an operational problem since it opened in 1882. Around 2·4 km of Union Pacific’s El Paso to Los Angeles route is ...
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NewsMoreton Bay branch gets underway
AUSTRALIA: Four consortia have been shortlisted to develop 'innovative' proposals for the long-planned Moreton Bay Rail Link in Queensland, serving the coastal region northeast of Brisbane. Under discussion for many years, the A$1·15bn project was accelerated by Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2010, leading to a signing of an agreement ...
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NewsNorway to adopt ERTMS
NORWAY: ERTMS is to be adopted across the Norwegian rail network, the government announced in a letter to train operators and infrastructure manager Jernbaneverket on November 26. Much of the country's existing signalling equipment is in need of replacement, and the government believes there are no viable long-term alternatives ...
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NewsMediterranean Corridor enhancement programme
SPAIN: Under the Mediterranean Corridor project to create a 1435 mm gauge freight route over the 1300 km between Figueres and Algeciras (RG 5.12 p30), engineering consultancy Ineco is currently undertaking design studies for dual-gauging the existing route between Castellbisbal on the outskirts of Barcelona and Tarragona. The studies ...
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NewsWestern China link under construction
CHINA: A ceremony at Golmud in Qinghai province during October officially launched construction of a 506 km railway to Dunhuang in Gansu province. Work is expected to take five years and cost 12·9bn yuan. The single-track electrified line with provision for future doubling will provide a connection between the existing ...
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NewsHigh speed opening dates confirmed
SPAIN: Work on the high speed line between Barcelona and the French border will be completed this year, Development Minister Ana Pastor said on November 12, enabling services to start running from April 2013. ADIF announced that overhead electrification equipment would be energised on the last 18·4 km of the ...
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NewsWorld rail infrastructure market November 2012
Australia: TasRail has appointed VEC Civil Engineering to replace the Forth River Rail Bridge, the latest in a series of contracts with a total value of A$20m won by VEC, which is also to build new bridges over the Blythe and Leven rivers and rehabilitate the River Don bridge. MB&A ...
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NewsTrains take to the water to bypass damaged bridge
DENMARK: Infrastructure manager Banedanmeark and engineering company MT Højgaard have announced delays to the reopening of the Limfjorden bridge at Aalborg, which was hit by a container ship on March 28. On April 21 the damaged section of the lifting bridge was removed to allow maritime traffic to resume, but ...
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NewsSunbury electrification inaugurated
AUSTRALIA: The latest extension of the electrification on Melbourne's suburban network was inaugurated on November 18, when Victoria's Minister for Public Transport Terry Mulder boarded the first electric train to carry passengers from Sunbury. The A$270m project to electrify the short section of the Melbourne - Bendigo line beyond the ...
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NewsRail motorway, electrification and passenger plans announced
FRANCE: Visiting Boulogne-sur-Mer on November 12, Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier announced that a third piggyback service is to be launched to connect Bayonne near the Spanish border with Dourges south of Lille. Expected to start operations around 2015, the Autoroute Ferroviairie Atlantique would run via Bordeaux and Longueau. Cuvillier also ...
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NewsHuawei wins Turkmenistan Railways telecoms contract
TURKMENISTAN: Huawei has been awarded a contract to supply telecoms for the 288 km Chilmammet - Buzhun section of the north-south rail corridor which is under construction to link Kazakhstan and Iran. The Chinese firm will work with ASPMK-519 and KEC International. The scope of the contract includes provision of ...
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NewsTyva coal line PPP plan revised
RUSSIA: The government removed the 411 km Kuragino - Kyzyl railway from its list of state investment projects on November 14. The planned line in the Tyva republic is now to be funded by Eniseiskaya Industrial Corp, which owns coal mines at Kyzyl. The new single-track line electrified at 25 ...
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NewsAnsaldo STS wins Perth signalling contract
AUSTRALIA: Western Australia's Public Transport Authority has awarded Ansaldo STS Australia an A$17·9m contract to supply signalling for a 7·5 km extension of the Joondalup Line from Clarkson to a park and ride station in Butler. The latest extension of the Perth commuter network is scheduled to open at the ...
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NewsChords separate freight and inter-city trains
UK: On November 14 Transport Minister Simon Burns officially opened the Nuneaton North Chord, a 1·4 km link designed to remove conflicts between freight and inter-city trains on a key section of the West Coast Main Line. Intermodal trains from the port of Felixstowe previously had to cross the WCML ...
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NewsKuwait lends €25m for Beograd station project
SERBIA: The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development has agreed a €25m loan to fund the railway systems element of Beograd's long-planned new main station at Prokop. The 3% loan has a repayment period of 18 years and grace period of four years. The lender has also expressed interest in ...