All Railway Gazette International articles in July 2012 – Page 4
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NewsSecond tram line opens in Orléans
FRANCE: Orléans tram Line B was officially inaugurated on June 29, with regular services starting the following day. Line B runs 11·3 km from St-Jean-de-Braye in the east to La Chapelle-St-Mesmin in west, with 25 stops including an interchange at Place de Gaulle with the 17·9 km north-south Line A ...
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NewsBucuresti metro extension contract
ROMANIA: Bucuresti metro operator Metrorex has awarded a joint venture of Italian firm Astaldi (40%) and three local companies a €164m contract to design and build a 2 km extension of Line 4 from Parc Bazilescu to Straulesti. The extension will be constructed using a TBM, with work scheduled to ...
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NewsStockholm maintenance deals move responsibility to contractor
SWEDEN: Stockholm transport authority SL has awarded Strukton Rail new contracts totalling €340m to maintain the 106 km metro network and 65 km Roslagsbanan narrow gauge commuter line. The contracts run for five years from January 2013, with an option to extend for a further four years. They place ...
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NewsBogie designed for Africa
SOUTH AFRICA: DCD Rolling Stock has developed a bolsterless passenger coach bogie designed for 20 tonne axleloads and operating speeds up to 160 km/h under South African conditions. The company says the 1067 mm gauge design developed over four years at a cost of R7m means it is well ...
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NewsRoma metro opens Line B1
ITALY: Metropolitana di Roma has started commercial services on Line B1, which forms a northern branch off the existing Line B between Laurentina and Rebibbia. Diverging from a junction at Bologna, Line B1 currently runs for 3·9 km to Conca D'Oro. Designed to carry 24 000 passengers/h, the branch took ...
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NewsCalifornia vote approves high speed funding
USA: Following a highly-charged debate, California’s state legislature voted on July 6 to allocate the funding needed to start construction of the state’s planned high speed line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, which is currently costed at $68bn. The senate voted 21-16 to approve a bill authorising the state ...
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NewsRío Colorado plant arrives
ARGENTINA: Three SVM 1000R new track construction trains, two ballast tampers and two ballast regulators supplied by Plasser & Theurer were landed at the port of Bahía Blanca last month. They have been delivered for the rail component of Brazilian mining company Vale’s US$59bn Río Colorado project to extract ...
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NewsUrban rail news in brief - July 2012
Following a study of the Kolkata tramway undertaken by the Institute of Urban Transport, India’s Ministry of Urban Development has asked states to consider the use of trams for metro feeder services or to replace bus rapid transit. As part of a €12m street remodelling scheme, Stadtwerke München has begun ...
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NewsNS seeks next-generation Sprinter
NETHERLANDS: Bidders have been invited to prequalify for a contract to supply single-deck EMUs for national passenger operator NS. The base order would be for vehicles ‘with a total capacity of approximately 10 000 to 20 000 seats’, with deliveries commencing between October 2016 and October 2017. The next-generation Sprinter ...
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NewsRio Tinto automation contract confirmed
AUSTRALIA: Train operations on Rio Tinto’s heavy haul iron ore railways in the Pilbara are to be fully automated by 2015 under two contracts announced on July 6. Valued at A$362m in total, the contracts have been exercised under the framework agreement which Rio Tinto signed with Ansaldo STS in ...
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NewsRDC wins case in Guatemala railway dispute
GUATEMALA: Pittsburgh-based Railroad Development Corp announced on July 5 that it had won its five-year arbitration case against the Republic of Guatemala over the disputed concession to revive and operate the country’s national rail network. On June 29 a tribunal of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes unanimously ...
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NewsStations for mobile workers
NETHERLANDS: Serviced office company Regus and Dutch national passenger operator NS have opened their first station2station business lounge at Amersfoort station, and are planning to develop a total of 13 drop-in office facilities at inter-city stations by the end of the year. The lounges provide access to office facilities including ...
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NewsCeremony marks start of Sarmiento tunnelling
ARGENTINA: What Minister of the Interior & Transport Florencio Randazzo described as ‘the most important railway project of the last 100 years’ was officially launched in Buenos Aires on July 2. Under plans announced in 2006, a 33 km tunnel is to be bored between Moreno and Caballito in order ...
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NewsBombardier licenses Flexity 2 design to China South
CHINA: On July 5 Bombardier Transportation announced the conclusion of a technology licence agreement with the CSR Puzhen subsidiary of China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp. Under the agreement, Bombardier will provide CSR Puzhen with a 10-year licence to use its technology to manufacture and sell Flexity 2 ...
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NewsSwiss start work on fourth control centre
SWITZERLAND: The foundation stone for SBB’s new Central Region control centre at Olten was officially laid on July 5, although preparatory work has been underway since last October. The ceremony was attended by Bruno Stehrenberger, Head of Operations at SBB Infrastruktur, the city’s mayor Ernst Zingg and canton Solothurn’s Director ...
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NewsWi-fi is latest upgrade for SWT Desiro fleet
UK: A £3·2m programme to install wireless internet on the 45 five-car Class 444 Siemens Desiro EMUs operated by South West Trains was announced on July 4. As well as enabling passengers to access the internet and e-mail on the move, wi-fi will enable real-time monitoring of on-train equipment and, ...
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NewsDiesel locomotives delivered to New York subway
USA: MTA New York City Transit has taken delivery of the first of 28 diesel-electric locomotives ordered from MotivePower for use on works trains when the third rail power supply is turned off. Designated MP 8AC-3 by the manufacturer and R156 by NYCT, the 51 tonne locomotives have been specially-designed ...
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NewsHKX prepares to take on DB
GERMANY: Open access operator Hamburg-Köln Express expects to launch revenue services between the two cities on July 23, having opened its ticket sales channels on July 4. HKX will initially operate one train per day from Monday to Wednesday in competition with Deutsche Bahn, serving six intermediate ...
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NewsWagon fleet privatisation proposed
KAZAKHSTAN: The government is developing plans for the Kaztemirtrans freight business of national railway KTZ to transfer ownership of its wagon fleet to the private sector. Because of a shortage of wagons Kaztemirtrans currently uses foreign-registered vehicles for 20% of its traffic, and as neighbouring countries reform their wagon ownership ...
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NewsUijeongbu inaugurates U Line light metro
SOUTH KOREA: An 11·1 km elevated light metro serving the city of Uijeongbu was officially opened for traffic on July 1, providing an east-west route connecting with north-south services on Seoul metro Line 1. With almost 500 000 inhabitants, Uijeongbu lies 20 km north of the South Korean capital. When ...