Latest news – Page 1301
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NewsVossloh acquires rail services business
GERMANY: Vossloh announced a deal to acquire three rail logistics, welding and preventative maintenance companies on December 14. The LOG Logistikgesellschaft Gleisbau and ISB Instandhaltungssysteme Bahn subsidiaries of Contrack Group and the rail service business of Stahlberg Roensch Group will become a new Vossloh Rail Services business unit within Vossloh ...
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NewsSeattle rail link reaches Tacoma International Airport
USA: The final 2·7 km section of Sound Transit’s $2·3bn Central Link light rail line opened for revenue service at 10.00 on December 19 following an inauguration ceremony during which a train burst through a ribbon at Sea-Tac/Airport station. The initial 22·4 km of track running south from downtown ...
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NewsVeolia and Transdev announce merger framework
FRANCE: A framework agreement setting out the financial structure of the company which could be formed through a merger of Transdev and Veolia Transport was announced by their parent companies on December 21. Caisse des Dépôts, Veolia Environnement and RATP plan to use the framework as a basis for consultation ...
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NewsDouble-decker debut
CANADA: The first trainset composed of double-deck cars made its inaugural trip on Montréal's Mont-Saint-Hilaire commuter line on November 23. The Québec government awarded a C$386m contract for 160 coaches to Bombardier Transportation in December 2007, and the first unit was unveiled at Bombardier's La Pocatière plant on August 21. ...
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NewsRussian's Sapsan high speed trains enter service
RUSSIA: ‘This is not just a train and these are not just carriages, this is a different life, different technology, a different means of transport’, said Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin before joining passengers on the first Sapsan high speed train service from Moscow to St Petersburg ...
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NewsCommission to review Eurostar failures
EUROPE: The Eurostar board announced on December 21 that it had commissioned an independent review of the train failures which brought its cross-Channel rail services to a halt on the night of December 18-19. Responding to a demand by French transport minister Dominique Bussereau, Eurostar said the review would ...
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NewsSBB Cargo stays independent
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways has abandoned plans to team up with another operator in an attempt to strengthen its freight business. Announcing this on December 17, SBB said that SBB Cargo will continue to operate independently, although it will look for opportunities to co-operate with other organisations to develop international ...
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NewsUrban rail news in brief - December 2009
Veolia Transport has been selected to operate the Valenciennes urban transport network for the period 2010-17. The other bidders were current operator Transdev and Keolis. On November 6 Metro de Santiago inaugurated San José de la Estrella station, which is located between Trinidad and Los Quillayes ...
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NewsOakland Airport Connector peoplemover contract awarded
USA: The San Francisco BART board voted on December 12 to award a joint venture of Flatiron and Parsons a contract to build a 5·2 km cable-hauled peoplemover linking Coliseum BART station with Oakland International Airport. Doppelmayr Cable Car will supply the vehicles and has been awarded a separate operations ...
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NewsBombardier to supply 246 Movia cars for Shanghai Line 12
CHINA: Shanghai Rail Transit Line 12 Development Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Shanghai Shentong Metro Group, has signed a 2bn yuan contract with Bombardier and its Chinese partners to supply 246 Movia cars for Shanghai Line 12. The contract, which comprises 41 six-car trains, spare parts and operator training, was ...
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NewsGE and Transnet sign 100-locomotive deal
SOUTH AFRICA: GE Transportation announced the signing of a contract with Transnet Ltd to supply Transnet freight Rail with 100 C30ACi freight locomotives on December 18. Deliveries are scheduled for 2011-12. The manufacturer says they will be the first diesel-electric locomotives with AC traction equipment in sub-Saharan Africa. They are ...
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NewsMetropolis cars arrive in Santiago
CHILE: Three Metropolis metro cars arrived in Santiago on December 15, the first of 36 cars being supplied by Alstom to supplement the fleet working steel-wheeled Lines 4 and 4A.The cars were ordered by Metro de Santiago in June 2008 at a cost of US$48m, as an option on the ...
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NewsLight rail preferred for LA’s Crenshaw corridor
USA: The Los Angeles MTA board of directors on December 10 selected light rail as the locally preferred alternative for the 13·7 km Crenshaw - Los Angeles International Airport corridor. The $1·3bn project will connect the Expo LRT line’s Crenshaw station with Aviation station on the Green Line from ...
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NewsSersa Group buys Total track
CANADA: Sersa Group has acquired a 68% stake in Ontario-based Total Track, which undertakes track construction and maintenance work in Ontario and Québec. The companies have previously co-operated on various projects, and Swiss-based Sersa Group said it believes the acquisition 'is an important milestone for its further development in ...
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NewsFirst trans-Hudson tunnel contract awarded
USA: A $583m contract for the 1·6 km Manhattan tunnel section of the trans-Hudson rail link between northern New Jersey and New York has been awarded to a joint venture led by Barnard and Judlau Contracting. This is one of three design-build tunnel sections on the $8·7bn project, which also ...
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NewsPortuguese high speed contract awarded
PORTUGAL: On December 12 the Ministry of Public Works, Transport & Communications announced that the Elos consortium had been awarded a 40-year concession to build, finance and maintain the first section of the high speed line between Lisboa and the Spanish frontier, the 165 km between Poceirão and the border ...
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NewsGovernment go ahead for more electrification
UK: Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis announced plans to electrify a further three routes in northwest England on December 14. The £200m programme builds on plans to electrify a Liverpool - Manchester route which were announced in July. These additional routes are Huyton - Wigan (24 km), allowing electric trains to ...
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NewsCambodian railway to be revived by 2013
CAMBODIA: Asian Development Bank announced a second US$42m loan towards rehabilitation of the dilapidated rail network on December 16, doubling the funding it is providing for the US$141m project. ADB said freight trains will begin running on the southern line between Phnom Penh and Kampot near the Vietnamese border in ...
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NewsTren Eléctrico contracts awarded in Lima
PERU: Transport Minister Enrique Cornejo announced the selection of the Tren Eléctrico Lima consortium, comprising Graña y Montero SA and Norberto Odebrecht SA, to carry out the civil works and E&M scope on the 12·3 km extension of Lima's metro Line 1 at a cost of US$410·2m on December 2. ...
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NewsCEVA link approved
SWITZERLAND: Voters in the Swiss canton of Genève have backed the provision of an extra SFr113m required to go ahead with the CEVA project to link the city's main Cornavin station with Eaux Vives station, terminus of a 6 km line from Annemasse in France which will be modernised and ...