Main line rail industry news – Page 1284
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TSIs must cover safety too
DIRECTIVE 96/48 mandating interoperability on high speed lines in the European Union was transposed into British law on May 16. After a three-month grace period, Technical Specifications for Interoperability will apply to designated routes, even though they will not come into force until November at the earliest. In the meantime, ...
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Coasting in Portugal
DELEGATES to a TradePartners UK seminar on May 15 were warned of a likely slowdown in major railway projects in Portugal. The government that took office in March has indicated that it is reassessing major schemes, and it now seems that the upgrading of track and signalling on the trunk ...
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La Robla reopening closer
SPANISH metre gauge operator FEVE has started work on the last phase of a programme to reopen the whole of its León - Bilbao route to passenger traffic. Under a €12·87m contract expected to take 11 months to complete, Tecsa is relaying the 42 km between Cordovilla and Arija with ...
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Mandurah EMUs
WESTERN Australia’s government has placed an A$437m order for 31 three-car 130 km/h EMUs with a joint venture of Bombardier and EDI Rail. Deliveries are scheduled for mid-2004 to 2006, and there is an option for a further 10 units. The commuter trains will be used on the southern leg ...
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Cross-border revival starts
LEBANESE Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and his Syrian counterpart Mustafa Miro attended ceremonies at Riyaq on April 18 to mark the start of work to restore the 1050mm gauge railway between the two countries. Other participants included Lebanon’s Public Works & Transport Minister Najib Mikati - who has been advocating ...
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Barcelona to spend i7·3bn
ON APRIL 25 Barcelona’s city transport authority ATM approved an infrastructure plan for 2001-10 that will see 282 km of new metro, light rail and suburban routes added to the Barcelona network. The programme is costed at €7·3bn, including €104·5m for increasing capacity on Renfe’s Badalona - Mataró route and ...
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UK bidders prequalify
the Strategic Rail Authority announced on May 21 that nine groups had prequalified for the new Greater Anglia franchise, which will operate all services from London’s Liverpool Street station. It will merge the existing Anglia Railways and Great Eastern franchises with the West Anglia portion of West Anglia Great Northern. ...
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Train ferry bidding
INTERNATIONAL partners are being canvassed to finance the development of a train ferry route across the Bohai Sea. China’s Ministry of Railways unveiled proposals in Beijing on April 26, and the Director of the Railway Co-operation Department Wang Chunsheng hopes to name the preferred investors by the end of this ...
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Deadly trap at Potters Bar
MYSTERY surrounds the derailment of the 12.45 from London King’s Cross to King’s Lynn on May 10. Approaching Potters Bar at about 160 km/h on the Down Fast track, the last car of the four-car EMU left the rails on facing points. It quickly became evident that the points had ...
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I-95 upgrade
PUBLIC consultation began at the end of April for a $6·2bn package to upgrade freight railways in the US Mid-Atlantic Corridor linking Virginia to New Jersey. A study by the I-95 Corridor Coalition has recommended a programme of 71 improvement projects to relieve bottlenecks over the next 20 years. The ...
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In-town check-in
SPANISH Prime Minister José María Aznar officially opened the latest addition to the Madrid Metro network on May 21, the 5·9 km extension of Line 8 from Mar de Cristal to Nuevos Ministerios. Serving one intermediate station at Colombia, the new line enables passengers to reach Barajas Airport in 12min ...
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DART heads north
ANOTHER 5·6 km of light rail line opened in the northeast suburbs of Dallas on May 6, bringing the network to 43·4 km. The Blue line extension from White Rock to LBJ/Skillman runs through White Rock Lake Park on a 1430m bridge. Services run every 15min, and every 10min at ...
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IR goes for intermodal
FORTY YEARS ago, for the usual reasons, Israel Railways abandoned haulage of high-value export goods such as citrus fruit. With a maximum possible haul of little more than 150 km on an under-developed rail network, road transport looked the natural choice for this small country; railways seemed destined to wither. ...
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S-Bahn grows
BASEL S-Bahn services will start running into Germany in mid-2003, thanks to the award of a contract to Swiss Federal Railways on April 12. This followed the signing of an accord between the Land of Baden-Württemberg and the canton of Basel-Stadt for integration of the Wiesental line into the regional ...
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PTC tests at risk
WORK to upgrade track and signalling over much of the Union Pacific route between Chicago and St Louis is due for completion by October. The section between Dwight and Springfield, Illinois, has been fitted with Positive Train Control and improved protection at level crossings (RG 6.00 p359), allowing line speed ...
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Orbital study
MARYLAND’S General Assembly has approved funding of $10·5m to start planning and environmental studies for the proposed 22·7 km orbital light rail line from New Carrollton to Silver Spring and Bethesda. It would link the outer ends of Washington Metro’s Red, Green and Orange lines, providing suburb-to-suburb connections between communities ...
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Pointers
n Communications Minister Nazmul Huda has proposed electrifying the Bangladesh Railway main lines from Dhaka to Chittagong and Rajshahi, as well as building links from Dhaka to Laksam, between Banganbandhu Bridge and Bogra and from Chittagong to Cox’s Bazar. Land sales and the recovery of 120bn taka owed by companies ...
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Bucuresti launch
On May 22 the Managing Director of Bucuresti metro operator Metrorex Marius Lapadat took part in a special event to mark the launch of new rolling stock for Line 2. The first of 18 six-car Movia trainsets was demonstrated by builder Bombardier Transportation to Metrorex officials and other potential customers. ...
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Line 1 extended
TEHRAN Urban & Suburban Railway Co has opened the northern section of metro Line 1 in the Iranian capital. It runs 7 km from Darvazeh-Dolat to the suburb of Mirdamad, serving eight stations. The 8·5 km southern section, including the Line 2 interchange at Imam Khomeini, was inaugurated in August ...