Latest news – Page 1085
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NewsChicago Blue Line to be upgraded
USA: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Governor of Illinois Pat Quinn announced an upgrade programme for the O’Hare Branch of the metro Blue Line on December 5. The $492m four-year plan, called Your New Blue, is due to begin in 2014. Funding is expected from local, state and federal ...
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NewsGoiânia light rail concessionaire selected
BRAZIL: Goiás state selected the Anhanguera Mobility consortium of Odebrecht TransPort (90%) and city bus operators (10%) to develop the Goiânia – Anhanguera light rail line on December 9. The 35-year build-operate-maintain PPP concession includes 24 months for construction. The total budget is R$1·3bn, including R$805m from the state ...
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NewsDellner and Hitachi sign IEP gangway order
UK: Hitachi Rail Europe has awarded Dellner a contract to provide gangways for the Class 800 and Class 801 trainsets it is to supply under the Department for Transport's Intercity Express Programme. The contract signed on December 9 is worth around £10m and covers 1 500 gangways, 1 732 couplers ...
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NewsBrussels interregional tram lines approved
BELGIUM: The Flemish government has approved plans to build three tram lines linking Brussels with towns beyond the city boundaries. The project has a budget of €500m, although permission to start work has not yet been granted. The lines could open as soon as 2020, with De Lijn the most ...
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NewsRail Industry Training & Recruitment in Brief
Transport for London and Crossrail Ltd have welcomed 140 recruits onto their graduate trainee scheme in a range of engineering and commercial disciplines. TfL expects to hire a similar number next year, and applications opened in late October for the 2014 entry. Running until October 2014, the EU-funded Actuate ...
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NewsFehmarn Belt tunnel E&M systems tender
EUROPE: Project promoter Femern A/S has published an OJEU prior information notice for the contract to provide electrical and mechanical systems for the future 18 km Fehmarn Belt rail and motorway tunnel between Denmark and Germany. An industry day is to be held in København on January 21. The scope ...
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NewsBrussels metro to install optic fibre network
BELGIUM: Brussels transport operator STIB announced on December 10 that it will install an Alcatel-Lucent optic fibre broadband communication network for the conversion of the metro to driverless operation. A wavelength division multiplexing network based on Alcatel-Lucent’s 1830 photonic service switch will be used as the basis for communications-based ...
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NewsScheidt & Bachmann to buy Funkwerk signalling business
GERMANY: Funkwerk AG is to sell its signalling and control technology business and Swedish subsidiary Funkwerk Information Technologies Malmö to Scheidt & Bachmann. The transaction announced on December 4 is scheduled to come into effect from midnight on December 31, with the deal to be completed by the end of ...
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NewsTraffic management innovation
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board is working with technology consultancy 100%Open to launch two ‘innovation challenges’ relating to the field of traffic management. The challenges form part of the FuTRO (Future Traffic Regulation Optimisation) programme which RSSB and the UK industry’s Technical Strategy Leadership Group launched earlier in ...
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NewsKraków orders Pesa Twist trams
POLAND: City transport operator MPK Kraków has selected Pesa to supply 36 low-floor trams. The Polish manufacturer beat bids from Solaris, Newag and Stadler. The four-section Twist Step trams from Pesa’s Twist family would be 42·8 m long, making them the longest trams in Poland. Deliveries are planned to ...
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NewsPKP Cargo terminates Chinese wagon joint venture
POLAND: Freight operator PKP Cargo and CNR subsidiary Jinan Railway Vehicles are to wind up the CNR Cargo Wagon joint venture which they established in 2010. The partners had planned to assemble kits of wagon parts supplied from China at a PKP Cargo site in Szczecin, estimating that using Chinese ...
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NewsSalt Lake City welcomes S-Line
USA: Utah Transit Authority’s S-Line in Salt Lake City entered regular service on December 8, following a day of free travel. The route is also known as the Sugar House Streetcar, and has opened 14 years to the day since the first TRAX light rail line. The 3·2 km ...
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NewsMadrid suburban segregation studies
SPAIN: In order to increase capacity and improve reliability by segregating Madrid suburban services from freight and other passenger trains, the Ministry of Development has approved design studies for quadrupling the 17·9 km between Pinar de las Rozas and Villalba, and doubling the 4·3 km of single track between Villalba ...
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NewsPassive hydraulic steering trial
SOUTH AFRICA: Three freight locomotives are being used for a six-month trial of the Jika passive hydraulic steering system which has been developed by DCD Rolling Stock. DCD says this can increase locomotive wheel life by three times and reduce track wear by 60%, energy consumption by 3% and ...
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NewsNews in Brief - December 2013
On December 15 SNCB is due to introduce M6 double-deck rolling stock between Eupen and Oostende, following the start of a €2m project by Infrabel to improve clearances in a 60 m tunnel at Verviers-Central. A new deck over the railway is to be completed by mid-2015, part of ...
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NewsGySEV Flirts to enter service early
HUNGARY: The first of four Flirt electric multiple-units ordered by cross-border operator GySEV was handed over by Stadler Rail at a ceremony in Sopron on December 6. The European Union's Cohesion Fund met 85% of the €20·3m cost of the order, which was signed on April 13 2012. The first ...
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NewsICE-T fleet refurbishment underway
GERMANY: The first of 42 tilting inter-city trainsets operated by DB has entered DB Fahrzeuginstandhaltung’s Nürnberg workshops under a €30m refurbishment programme running to 2015. The fleet of 11 five-car and 31 seven-car ICE-T trainsets is to receive a series of exterior and internal enhancements, including an external repaint, seat ...
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NewsCHSRA supporting veterans
USA: California High Speed Rail Authority has signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement with CalVet, the state's department which supports military veterans. CalVet and CHSRA have agreed to work together to identify opportunities where small businesses managed by disabled veterans could participate in the high speed rail programme. These efforts would ...
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NewsYou'll do better with us
GERMANY: Industry association VDB and its 180 members have launched a high-profile marketing, press and social media campaign to encourage more school-leavers and graduates to join the rail sector. Entitled 'You'll do better with us', the initial campaign features a series of adverts showing young people dressed in outlandish costumes ...
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NewsFleet renewal funded
FRANCE: Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier confirmed on December 4 that the government had agreed a funding package allowing SNCF to proceed with an order of 34 inter-city multiple-units. Funding worth €510m, with an option for further investment worth €100m, has been provided for the procurement of 34 Coradia Liner electro-diesel ...