Main line rail industry news – Page 1218
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Record number of exhibitors expected at 2004 event
Even though the opening of the fair is still a good six months away, the InnoTrans 2004 railway technology fair in Berlin is already breaking virtually every record. The net display space of around 29500 m2 booked for InnoTrans 2002 has already been matched. InnoTrans spokesman Wolfgang Wagner says "two ...
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Countdown to the launch of KTX
This month South Korea joins the elite club of railways operating commercial services at 300 km/h when a fleet of 46 TGV trainsets will transform travel on Korail's prime inter-city route between Seoul and Pusan. Reporting from Seoul, Murray Hughes finds that it has not been an easy ride for ...
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SRA flexes its strategic muscle
’WE ARE DOING exactly what we said about strategic planning’, insisted Strategic Rail Authority Chairman Richard Bowker on March 3, unveiling the first of a series of Route Utilisation Strategies to be published over the next year. These are intended to get the maximum use out of the UK rail ...
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Funding package will improve access to high speed networks
SWITZERLAND’S Ministry of Transport is drawing up legislation that will authorise expenditure of up to SFr1·3bn on a series of projects to improve access to and from high speed networks in neighbouring countries. Unusually, this will see Swiss funds used as contributions towards major schemes in other countries. Because of ...
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High speed Canaries
LAST MONTH the Spanish Ministry of Development called tenders for two contracts to undertake studies for high speed routes on the Canary Islands, including feasibility, alignment options and traffic forecasts. Each contract has a budget of €601854 and should be completed with a period of 24 months.On Tenerife, an 80 ...
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Operators respond to bomb attacks
ON MARCH 4 French National Railways ordered 10000 staff out on to the tracks to look for bombs following threats from an unknown group called AZF. Letters to the Interior Ministry last December were followed by a ransom demand in February. AZF alerted the authorities to a bomb in the ...
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Renfe’s i4bn train bonanza
MEETING on March 3, the board of Spanish National Railways approved what the company describes as its largest-ever rolling stock order, a fleet of 40 high speed trains that is costing a total of €1·6bn. Talgo and Bombardier are to supply 30 high speed trains for €1·17bn, including maintenance over ...
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FSCargo to stand alone
ITALIAN Railways has decided to restructure its freight operation as a stand-alone company later this year. After discussing the proposal with the Director of the Treasury at the Ministry of Finance Domenico Siniscalco, FS President & Administrator-General Giancarlo Cimoli informed the FS and Trenitalia boards on March 3 that the ...
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Open-access oil
POLISH oil company PKN Orlen has been awarded a licence to operate its own freight trains on the national rail network. The company plans to run trains between its production and distribution plants. Orlen is the latest operator to announce open-access freight services in Poland, following Chem Trans Logistic and ...
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Toll to sell NZ infrastructure
TRANZ RAIL shareholders voted at the company's Annual General Meeting on March 9 to approve plans to return ownership of the New Zealand rail network to the national government. With Toll Holdings controlling 84% of the company, the motion was passed in just 3min. Under an agreement reached last December, ...
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RZD spending up
RUSSIAN Railways needs to spend 1300bn roubles on renovation and upgrading by 2010, the RZD Board was told on March 4 at a meeting to review progress with the second phase of the reform process. It will invest 351bn in the 2004-05 financial year.According to RZD President Gennadi Fadeyev, rail ...
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Korail picks Level 1
SOUTH Korea’s two conventional main lines from Seoul to Pusan and Taejon to Mokpo are to be equipped with ETCS Level 1 automatic train protection and cab signalling by the end of 2006, under a contract announced on March 9.Korail has selected a consortium led by Taejung Electric Construction Co ...
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Short line law
THE ROMANIAN government has approved legislation paving the way for independent operators to run parts of the national rail network as short lines.The regulations designate 118 sections of secondary line as ’non-interoperable’, but they will remain state property and will be leased rather than sold. Local operating, maintenance and safety ...
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New airport branch
THE SPANISH Ministry of Development has begun public consultation on a new 4·9 km branch taking 1668mm gauge trains to Barcelona Airport, which is expected to cost €139·8m to build. As well as suburban services running through to destinations northeast of the city centre, the route would also be used ...
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IE plans €3bn Dublin upgrade
PLANS TO UPGRADE and integrate rail services in the greater Dublin area were presented to Ireland's Parliamentary Transport Committee by Iarnród Éireann Managing Director Joe Meagher at the end of February. The €3bn package envisages development of frequent commuter services to nearly all towns within 100 km of the ...
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Two bids for Uruguayan upgrade
Director of Railways Juan Echeverz.While the private sector will tackle the core network, Echeverz said that upgrading work would begin within the next few months on a further 500 km, comprising the route ’that connects Salto with Paysandú and Fray Bentos’. This would be undertaken by former AFE personnel transferred ...
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BA bids opened
A CONSORTIUM OF Dycasa and Dragados Obras y Proyectos has presented the lowest bid of 95·2m pesos to undertake civil works for a 2·9 km extension of Line A in Buenos Aires from Primera Junta to Nazca, with intermediate stations at Pu
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Kirchner unveils national investment plan
PRESIDENT Néstor Kirchner has unveiled a National Railway Investment Plan that would see 300m pesos spent on Argentina’s railways this year, under a programme continuing until 2007 that is expected to attract some US$500m of private investment. Launching the plan in Buenos Aires, Kirchner said that major spending was required ...
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Deal defers access charge hike
control period. The rest will be added to the company’s Regulatory Asset Base for CP4 starting on April 1 2009, and repaid out of future access charges. Winsor emphasised on March 10 that the reprofiling was conditional on the first issue of bonds under NR’s securitisation programme being completed by ...
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Sidetrack
Prison foodAN UNCONVENTIONAL funding source is helping the construction of the railway from Tsumeb in Namibia northwards to the Angolan border. The Ministry of Prisons & Correctional Services has donated two head of cattle and 200 pork carcasses from the Oluno Rehabilitation Centre, as well as 600 loaves of bread, ...