Main line rail industry news – Page 1202
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Low-floor wagons add height in the transalpine intermodal market
SWISS intermodal operator Hupac is taking delivery of two fleets of new wagons aimed at increasing the company’s share of transalpine freight. One design is a low-floor wagon for high-cube containers and swap bodies, the other is an ultra-low-floor rolling motorway wagon with small wheel bogies.Delivery of 120 Mega II ...
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Technology conquers the break of gauge
Development of variable-gauge powered bogies will bring significant time savings on multi-gauge routes
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New York plans $27·3bn capital spend
’PROGRESS that MTA has made in the last 20 years to restore and maintain the core system must not and cannot be eroded’, emphasised New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Executive Director Katherine N Lapp on July 29, unveiling investment proposals for the agency’s fifth five-year capital programme. MTA hopes to ...
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North-south joint venture
PLANS to build a north-south rail link along the Caspian Sea coast moved ahead in July, when a trilateral working group met in Tehran to discuss the project.Experts from the Russian, Azerbaijan and Iranian railways agreed during talks on July 24-27 to set up a joint stock company as a ...
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Spoornet close to Ghana accord
A CONSORTIUM led by South African rail operator Spoornet is reported to have been selected as preferred bidder for the concession to modernise and operate the rail network in Ghana.CPCS Transcom is advising the government on the privatisation process. A ’rolling concession’ will start with an initial 20-year period followed ...
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Polish changes
SIGNING of an agreement on July 29 formally established the first regional passenger train operator in Poland. Koleje Mazowieckie is owned 49% by Polish State Railways’ regional business unit PKP Przewozy Regionalne and 51% by the Mazowieckie district administration. From the beginning of this year, regional governments have been allowed ...
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Keystone revival
PLANS to rehabilitate Amtrak’s 167·3 km Keystone Corridor between Philadelphia and Harrisburg have been revived, three years after work on the route was cancelled because of Amtrak’s financial crisis.Amtrak President & CEO David Gunn and Pennsylvania Governor Edward G Rendell announced on July 20 that $145·5m will be spent to ...
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Slovaks plan freight sale
PLANS to privatise rail freight operations in Slovakia were announced last month by the Minister of Transport, Post & Telecommunications Pavol Prokopovic. As a first stage, the national rail operator ZSSK is to be restructured later this year into two separate companies, a joint stock freight company Zeleznicn
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EAR concession takes shape
PREQUALIFICATION bids have been called by October 15 for the combined concession to operate and maintain the Kenyan and Ugandan rail networks. A memorandum of understanding was signed by the two countries at the end of July, and Canarail and International Finance Corp have been appointed as transaction advisers. Kenya’s ...
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Danish structure changes again
FURTHER rationalisation of the Danish rail sector took effect on July 1, when the former rail safety authority Jernbanetilsynet was abolished. Under a law passed by Parliament on May 5, responsibility for safety management on the rail network and for routine inspections and approvals has been transferred to the National ...
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Praha remodelling gets going
AUGUST 1 saw the formal start of work on a major remodelling of the main line tracks through the centre of Praha. Due to be completed by December 15 2010, the Nové Spojení (New Connection) project will completely remodel the connections between Praha's major stations at Hlavní, Masarykovo, Liben, ...
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NR maintenance is all in-house
NETWORK Rail ended its last contracts for routine maintenance of the UK rail infrastructure on July 26, when it completed a 13-month process to bring the work in-house. The last five of 20 contract areas were transferred to direct NR control from Carillion and AMEC, bringing the total number of ...
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Transnordestina plans refocused
BRAZIL’s northeastern railway concessionaire CFN and the state governments of Pernambuco, Cear
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Maidenhead study
CROSS LONDON Rail Links started a new round of public consultation for Crossrail Line 1 on August 5, following the announcement by Secretary of State for Transport Alistair Darling on July 20 that a hybrid bill could be submitted to Parliament (RG 8.04 p447). The route is now planned to ...
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Lines up for sale
IRON ORE mining conglomerate Kumba is reported to have agreed in principle to assist Spoornet in a public-private partnership deal that will help fund badly-needed improvements to the 861 km Sishen - Saldanha iron ore line, which is electrified at 50 kV. The line carried around 21 million tonnes of ...
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Empire Corridor in crisis
ON AUGUST 13 the New York state Department of Transportation filed a lawsuit against Amtrak over the railway’s failure to complete its share of the Empire Corridor upgrading programme between New York and Albany.Announced six years ago, the co-operative venture between the state and Amtrak was designed to shave 20min ...
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Cutbacks mooted in Switzerland
SWISS FEDERAL Railways is facing the prospect of reducing service levels following government pressure to cut costs.When similar pressure was brought to bear last year, SBB was able to negotiate with the Ministry of Transport a package of savings amounting to around SFr300m. This included postponement of resignalling work and ...
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African links could bring peace and stability
GOLD, DIAMONDS, oil, uranium and other minerals in southern Sudan could be used to fund an ambitious plan to build a 4100 km network of standard-gauge lines joining the country to Uganda and Kenya. Promoted by German rail welding specialist Thormählen Schweisstechnik, the proposals hinged initially on what the company ...
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Estonians buy Latvian Lokomotive
LATVIAN rolling stock repair business Lokomotive has been bought by two Estonian firms for an undisclosed sum. Wagon parts supplier Skinest Projekt acquired its share through the purchase of Remlok, which owned a 49% stake in the company, while freight shipper Spacecom acquired a 36·4% stake in Lokomotive from Parangon.One ...
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Security on trial
DURING the Republican National Convention being held in New York from August 30 to September 2, passengers using Penn Station below Madison Square Garden faced the possibility of disruption to their journeys while special security measures were enforced.Police had warned earlier that officers would be searching every commuter and inter-city ...