All Railway Gazette International articles in July 2009
All articles published this month.
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NewsNottingham tram extension funding approved
UK: Transport Minister Sadiq Khan travelled to Nottingham on July 31 to announce conditional approval of government funding and a workplace parking levy to finance expansion of the Nottingham Express Transit light rail network. The government's contribution to NET Phase Two is capped at £530·7m in Private Finance Initiative ...
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NewsEC sets out ERTMS deployment deadlines
EUROPE: The European Commission adopted an ERTMS deployment plan on July 22, setting out legally-binding deadlines for the implementation of ETCS and GSM-R on key corridors. Coming into force on September 1, it amends the Technical Specifications for Interoperability for Control-Command and Signalling (TSI CCS) and is intended to co-ordinate ...
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NewsWinners of largest German tender named
GERMANY: Berlin-Brandenburg transport authority VBB has selected DB Regio and Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn as the winners of regional operating contracts with a total value of €1·3bn in the largest rail tendering process undertaken in Germany. VBB managed the tendering on behalf of the Länder of Berlin, Brandenburg, Sachsen-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. ...
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NewsRussia orders international sleeping cars
RUSSIA: RZD has ordered 200 sleeping cars which will be supplied with interchangeable standard and broad -gauge bogies for services to central and western Europe. A contract was signed with Siemens Mobility and Transmash Holding's TVZ subsidiary onboard a Sapsan high speed train on July 30. According to RZD, ...
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NewsFar north heavy haul study
EUROPE: The development of iron ore mines around Pajala in Sweden and Kolari in Finland has spurred the re-evaluation of proposals for the Ishavsbanen, a 312 km line linking Kolari to Skibotn on the Norwegian Sea. A feasibility study by Sweco was presented by a grouping of local authorities in ...
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NewsEnquiry service Tweets train delays
UK: Up-to-the-minute information on disruption to train services is now available from National Rail Enquiries via the Twitter microblogging service. Passengers can 'follow' the main National Rail Enquiries profile to receive updates from across the network, or can select feeds for individual train operators. The messages ('Tweets') include links to ...
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NewsCzech passenger tendering plan
CZECH REPUBLIC:Plans to let 10 to 15-year franchises covering up to three-quarters of the country’s long-distance passenger rail services were unveiled by Transport Minister Gustav Slamecka on July 3. The first contracts could be placed by October. The franchises would be awarded gradually over the next decade, with ...
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NewsLondon Underground issues SSL signalling tender
UK: London Underground issued invitations to tender to prequalified bidders for the contract to resignal the Sub-Surface Lines on July 16. Responses are due by December 18. Following the collapse of Metronet in 2007, LU decided to cancel the original order placed with Westinghouse Rail Systems. According to Richard Parry, ...
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NewsMilano operator orders GTWs
ITALY: Milano-based regional operator FNM has become Stadler's eighth Italian customer, with a €90m order for 19 GTW diesel-electric multiple-units to be delivered in 2011. Stadler is to supply 11 four-car GTW 4/12 units for use on Milano - Molteno - Lecco services, and eight two-car GTW 2/6 units ...
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NewsMadrid airport rail link advances
SPAIN: A joint venture of Ferrovial Agromán and Azvi had been awarded a €47·4m contract for tracklaying, electrification and railway systems installation on the 6·9 km new-build component of the rail link between Madrid Charmartín and Terminal 4 at Barajas Airport, the Ministry of Development announced on July 16. ...
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NewsBuilding on growth
ISRAEL: According to current projections, Israel Railways expects to carry more than 37 million passengers this year, a 5% increase on the 35·1 million handled in 2008, and more than eight times the 4·3 million recorded in 1994. Whilst the economic downturn has slowed the rate of ...
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NewsSoutheastern rehearses Olympic shuttle
UK: Former Olympic athlete Daley Thompson took the controls of a Class 395 EMU on July 27 for a special ‘time trial’ to rehearse the intensive ‘Javelin’ service that will operate between London St Pancras and Stratford International during the 2012 London Olympics. The shuttle is intended ...
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NewsTalgo’s 380 km/h Avril train to take on the airlines
SPAIN: In its first 18 months of full operation, the Madrid - Barcelona high speed line has made significant inroads into market share on what was the country’s busiest domestic air corridor. But RENFE Operadora believes it needs to do more if rail is to achieve total dominance. With 300 ...
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NewsAmtrak calls bids for locos and passenger cars
USA: Amtrak is in the market for 130 passenger cars and at least 20 electric locomotives, to be funded under a five-year $5·3bn capital grant programme which forms part of last year's Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act. The national passenger operator is seeking 130 Viewliner 2 long-distance single-deck passenger ...
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NewsTesting tweaks AGV to Italian specifications
CZECH REPUBLIC: Following 7 500 km of trial runs at up to 360 km/h on LGV Est in France, Alstom's AGV demonstrator trainset has returned to the Velim test circuit east of Praha to be fine-tuned to the requirements of launch customer NTV. As well as meeting Europe-wide Technical ...
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NewsBrasilia metro orders Metropolis trains
BRAZIL: Alstom Transport signed a €110m contract on July 23 to supply the Brasilia metro with 12 four-car Metropolis trains and to upgrade the existing rolling stock and infrastructure for automatic train operation. Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social is providing an R$260·3m loan to the Federal District ...
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NewsSeoul Line 9 is now open
SOUTH KOREA: Seoul’s first privately-operated metro line entered revenue service at 07.00 on July 24. The opening had been delayed for several weeks while the government finalised the contactless ticketing arrangements. The 25·5 km underground line runs across the city from east to west, linking Sinnonhyeon in Gangnam to Gimpo ...
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NewsKnorr-Bremse receives Queen’s Award for Innovation
UK: On July 23 The Duchess of Cornwall presented Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems (UK) Ltd with the Queen’s Award for Industry in the Innovation category, for the design, manufacture and sales of EP2002 Distributed Brake Control. The Duchess toured the company’s headquarters in Melksham, and spoke to the team responsible ...
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NewsChinese metros still growing
CHINA: Urban rail projects are being planned in a further 19 cities, a government official has revealed. State media quoted Duo Hao, Deputy General Manager of China International Engineering Consulting Corp, as saying that 2 100 km of line would be under construction by the middle of the next ...
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NewsMerger of Veolia Transport and Transdev under discussion
FRANCE: State-owned investment body Caisse des Dépôts announced on July 22 that it had decided to enter into exclusive negotiations with Veolia Environnement with a view to merging their Transdev and Veolia Transport subsidiaries. The new company would be owned equally by Caisse des Dépôts and Veolia Environnement, have ...