Infrastructure news – Page 266
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NewsTunnel with no trains
EUROPE: RFF President Hubert du Mesnil visited Perpignan on February 17 to celebrate the completion of works to connect the Perpignan - Figueres cross-border railway with the French rail network. Under the €210m package funded by the government, two new platform tracks have been added at Perpignan station, along with ...
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News
Panda corridor
CHINA: Construction work on the Chengdu - Lanzhou railway officially began on February 21 and is expected to last for six years. As the route runs through the country’s protected corridor for giant pandas, parts of the line will be built in tunnel, and extra bridges will be provided ...
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NewsOutsourcing is off
CZECH REPUBLIC: Minister of Transport Petr Bendl confirmed on March 10 that he was cancelling plans to outsource maintenance and repair of the national rail network. Announced by SZDC on January 8, the plan had been endorsed by former Transport Minister Ales Rebícek. Bidders were to have submitted proposals by ...
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NewsNorth-South Railway loco and wagon orders signed
SAUDI ARABIA: The Ministry of Finance's Public Investment Fund signed contracts on April 7 for 25 diesel locomotives and 668 wagons for use on the North-South Railway. EMD will deliver 25 SD70ACS heavy-haul diesel-electric locomotives from the second quarter of 2010, bringing the number of EMD locomotives operating in ...
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NewsThales to supply ETCS for dual-fitted route
GERMANY: Thales Rail Signalling Solutions is to supply ETCS Level 2 equipment for the Nürnberg - Ingolstadt route under the company's first commercial contract covering a German high speed line. The €9m order from DB announced on March 31 includes two radio block centres and approximately 1 000 balises. ...
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NewsNorth-South Railway ETCS contract placed
SAUDI ARABIA: A €340m turnkey contract to provide ETCS Level 2 signalling, telecoms, security and fare collection systems for the future North-South Railway has awarded to Thales and Saudi Binladen Group. Announcing the signing of the contract with the Public Investment Fund on April 7, Thales said it ...
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NewsEuskoTren to the airport
SPAIN: Tendering will begin shortly for the first phase of a €36·9m extension of the EuskoTren network to Bilbao Airport, comprising a 3·1 km double-track alignment from Matiko to La Ola with 1·9 km in tunnel. Matiko station would be rebuilt and the railway covered over, ‘improving pedestrian routes ...
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NewsAdvisors sought for national rail plan
JORDAN: The government will shortly appoint financial, legal and technical advisers to assist with the development of a national rail network. On January 26 Transport Minister Alaa Batayneh told the Petra news agency that he expected to see detailed cost figures within 10 months, paving the way ...
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NewsMRS Logística switches to CBTC
BRAZIL: This month will see the start of commercial operation using a new communic ations-based train control system as MRS Logística replaces its existing CTC with the equivalent of ETCS Level 2.
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NewsTrack components flown in
IRAN: When Tehran Urban & Suburban Railway Co urgently needed some track components, it arranged for three sets of switches with a total weight of 50 tonnes to be flown from Austria to ensure just in time delivery to the work site. Voestalpine has been supplying track components to ...
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NewsLondon’s cross-city line follows the RER model
CROSS-CITY: Many enhancements have been made to RER Line A since it was completed across the centre of Paris in 1977. Now carrying more than 60 000 passengers/h on each track, it offers similarities to London’s Crossrail project, making a comparison particularly instructive.
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NewsTurkey high speed launch
TURKEY: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to formally open Turkey's first section of 250 km/h railway on March 13. Passenger services will begin the following day, with four daily return trains and promotional fares being offered until April 2. Under construction since 2003, the section of line between ...
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NewsEurlings moves to rescue HSA
NETHERLANDS: The sorry saga of HSL-Zuid continues, with the news that Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings has put together a rescue package for High Speed Alliance, which he says was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy as a result of the delays in opening the high speed line between Schiphol and ...
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NewsHS2 on the fast track
UK: Public consultation for the route of a high speed line from London to the West Midlands and eventually Scotland is expected to start next year. Announcing this in the keynote address at Railway Gazette International’s conference on Growth & the Capacity Challenge on March 10, Transport Minister Lord Andrew ...
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NewsThameslink Programme starts to take off
UK: ‘We are about to break cover’, commented Andrew Mitchell following a presentation to the Institution of Engineering & Technology in London on February 10. As Network Rail’s Major Programme Director for the Thameslink Programme, he is looking forward to March 22, when the past four years of preparation for ...
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NewsHigh speed frenzy follows election
USA: Not surprisingly, a request for expressions of interest to develop high speed rail corridors has attracted a considerable degree of attention, despite the country’s poor track record with privately-funded projects and the limited prospects for such schemes going ahead in the current economic climate. Legislation passed by Congress last ...
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NewsOn the fast track to reform
TURKEY: With construction of new lines moving ahead, modernisation of the existing TCDD network is also getting underway. Meanwhile, draft legislation presented to the government last year envisages the restructuring of the rail sector to introduce competition between train operators.
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NewsInaugural train begins Laos royal visit
LAOS: Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand presided over the inaugural cross-border rail journey into Laos on March 5. Following a ceremony at Nong Khai station, the princess travelled across the Mekong to Tha Na Laeng, where she began a two-day official visit to Laos. The Thai-Lao Friendship bridge ...
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NewsAgreement reached on Tyva railway
RUSSIA: A protocol confirming the route of the planned 415 km railway from Kuragino to Kyzyl was signed by the Tyva republic's head of government Sholban Kara-ool and Eniseiskaya Industrial Corp CEO Dmitry Sahno on February 27. An extension of the Russian Railways network to Kyzyl, the capital of ...
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NewsTehran - Mashhad electrification contract
IRAN: A €792m contract to electrify the Tehran - Mashhad route and supply 70 electric locomotives has been awarded to consortium led by engineering firm Hirbodan and including electrical specialist Barsan, TAM Irankhodro and rolling stock manufacturer Wagon Pars. Islamic Republic of Iran Railways will also install ETCS Level ...