Latest news – Page 998
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NewsBattery tram delivered to Seattle
USA: A prototype low-floor tram with off-wire capability has been delivered to Seattle by Czech firm Inekon. The bidirectional three-section Inekon 12 car is fitted with lithium-ion batteries produced by Saft that allow it to run for up to 16 km without overhead wires. Final assembly of the ...
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NewsVIAS awarded Erft-Schwalm-Netz operating contract
GERMANY: Following an international tender, the Rhein-Ruhr and Rheinland transport authorities VRR and NVR have jointly selected VIAS GmbH to operate Erft-Schwalm-Netz passenger services for 12 years from December 2017. The decision was announced on March 26, with a contract to be signed following the 10-day standstill period. ...
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NewsJavid Gurbanov
Javid Gurbanov has been appointed Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways. He succeeds Arif Asgarov, who has become Deputy Minister of Transport.
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NewsTrenitalia orders more Vivaltos
ITALY: Trenitalia has placed an order for a further 70 Vivalto double-deck regional coaches, AnsaldoBreda announced on April 1. The €98m order is an option on a contract signed in March 2010. It covers 14 push-pull driving cars to be manufactured at AnsaldoBreda’s plant in Pistoia, and 56 intermediate coaches ...
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NewsRegional focus underpins YRP expansion
UK: Membership of the Young Rail Professionals networking and ambassadorial organisation has doubled in the past year to reach more than 2 000, Chairman Stephen Head told an audience of corporate supporters in Derby on March 31. Mounting concern over the rail industry’s ability to attract and retain the staff ...
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NewsHonam high speed railway inaugurated
SOUTH KOREA: The 182·3 km Honam High Speed Railway serving the southwest of the country was formally opened by President Park Geun-hye in a ceremony at Gwangju Songjeong station on April 1, attended by many VIPs and invited guests, including the heads of Korea Rail Network Authority and national operator ...
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NewsKapsch CarrierCom signs Algerian telecoms agreement
ALGERIA: National railway SNTF and Austrian telecoms company Kapsch CarrierCom signed an agreement on April 1 establishing the Rail-Telecom joint venture to supervise and maintain railway telecommunications networks. This will include Algeria’s GSM-R network and SDH optic fibre backbone, as well as future infrastructure projects. Rail-Telecom will also facilitate ...
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NewsTransdev wins Leipzig - Chemnitz operating contract
GERMANY: The Mittelsachsen and Leipzig transport authorities have selected Transdev subsidiary Mitteldeutsche Regiobahn to operate Leipzig – Geithain – Chemnitz passenger service E7 (currently RE6) from December 13 2015. The contract covers the operation of hourly services totalling around 1 million train-km/year. It runs until at least December 2023, ...
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NewsLGV Est Phase 2 completed
FRANCE: On March 31 SNCF President Guillaume Pepy joined SNCF Réseau President Jacques Rapoport and other dignitaries as the last rail was welded to mark the completion of construction work on Phase 2 of LGV Est, the high speed line between Paris and Strasbourg. Work on Phase 2, covering the ...
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NewsFoster + Partners to develop Jeddah metro design vision
SAUDI ARABIA: Foster + Partners is to develop the architectural vision for Jeddah’s city-wide public transport master plan under a contract signed by Prince Khalid Al-Faisal bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, Governor of Makkah Province, on March 30. The scope of the contract includes the design of the stations, trains and ...
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NewsAlpha Trains completes €1·25bn refinancing
ALPHA TRAINS: Rolling stock leasing company Alpha Trains closed a €1·25bn refinancing of three existing secured loan facilities on March 26. According to UBS which advised Alpha Trains, the transaction included the first investment grade continental European rolling stock bond issue and the first corporate securitisation of its nature in ...
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NewsGE names President
GE Transportation has appointed Thomas Konditi to head its Sub-Saharan Africa business as President & CEO. Having joined GE in 1994 he was most recently Chief Financial Officer of GE Africa, with responsibility for an operation spanning 25 countries. Konditi succeeds Tim Schweikert, who is moving to head up GE’s ...
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NewsLevel crossings to go as Harderwijk rebuilding approved
NETHERLANDS: Infrastructure manager ProRail has confirmed that the station at Harderwijk is to be rebuilt by the end of 2016, under an accord signed with national passenger operator NS, the town council and Gelderland province on March 26. As well as improving passenger facilities, the reconstruction will eliminate two level ...
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NewsPrototype EMU on test
RUSSIA: The first of two prototype EG2Tv electric multiple-units developed by Transmashholding’s Tver Carriage Works has arrived at the Shcherbinka test circuit near Moscow, where it is to undergo certification trials ready for potential series production. TMH is developing the EG2Tv as the basis for a new generation of EMUs ...
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NewsAutomatic EMU inspection system in new maintenance contract
UK: National Express Group has awarded Bombardier Transportation a contract to maintain the 74 Bombardier Class 357 Electrostar EMUs operated under the Essex Thameside franchise, which is branded c2c. The current franchise began in November 2014 and runs for 15 years. Bombardier’s contract was announced on March 30. It runs ...
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NewsSiemens Convergence Creators opens telecoms test lab
CROATIA: Siemens has opened a Railway Telecommunications Test & Integration Laboratory in Zagreb. The facility contains various types of main line and urban rail telecoms infrastructure, which can be adjusted to assist with developing and testing equipment or used for customer demonstrations and training. The equipment includes GSM-R and ...
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NewsSerco to sell Great Southern Rail
AUSTRALIA: Serco Group plc has agreed to sell its Great Southern Rail business to Sydney-based private equity firm Allegro Funds for an enterprise value and cash consideration of £2·5m. GSR operates tourist-focused passenger services including The Ghan, Indian Pacific and Overland, and Serco said a review undertaken last year ...
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NewsUnderstanding better bogies
RUSSIA: Following the inauguration of an initial facility in Chelyabinsk in 2013, wagon manufacturer United Wagon Company and Russian Railways have established five further bespoke training centres for advanced wheelset maintenance. Located on RZD’s Oktyabrskaya, Krasnoyarskaya and Zapadno-Sibirskaya railways, the jointly-managed facilities are intended to provide maintenance staff with detailed ...
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NewsFatigue testing with heavy loads
FRANCE: An agreement signed this month paves the way for tests to begin later this year in the Channel Tunnel on the durability of various track designs under heavy loads. The tests will be undertaken by Railenium, the railway research institute based in northern France, of which Eurotunnel is a ...
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NewsRift Valley Railways getting back on track
AFRICA: Four years after the restructuring of the Kenya-Uganda Railway concession, Rift Valley Railways announced in March that it had achieved all three of the Key Performance Indicators agreed with the two governments when the current shareholders took over. The first two targets involved clearing the outstanding concession fees and ...