Main line rail industry news – Page 1367
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NewsSSRA to replace MkI fleet
UK: The Shadow Strategic Rail Authority announced on February 11 that it was seeking expressions of interest in the supply of up to 1500 electric multiple-unit vehicles, to replace the MkI stock currently operated by Connex and South West Trains on the 750 V DC third rail network south of ...
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CFR Calatori restructured again
ROMANIA’s passenger train operating company has been split with effect from February 1. Formed during the break-up of the former state railway in October 1998, CFR Calatori has now been dividedinto a national inter-city operator and eight regional companies. Announcing the restructuring, Transport Minister Traian Basescu said the new structure ...
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Mindanao fast track
THE PHILIPPINES government has decided to fast-track part of the long-planned Mindanao rail network, with the aim of getting the first section open during the presidency of Joseph Estrada. Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Flagship Projects & Programmes Roberto Aventajado announced at the end of January that the government ...
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Integral deal
CZECH RAILWAYS finally signed an agreement with Fiat Ferroviaria on January 31 amending the contract for Class 680 tilting trains. Negotiations had been under way for much of 1999, following the bankruptcy of CKD Dopravní systémy, which had intended to assemble the trains in co-operation with Fiat and Siemens. CD ...
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Alstom scoops Bordeaux turnkey
ON FEBRUARY 7, the French municipality of Bordeaux announced that it had selected a consortium led by Alstom to build the 22·2 km first phase of the city’s planned three-line light rail network. Awarded a formal declaration of public utility at the end of January, the three lines are due ...
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Delhi metro tenders go in
FEBRUARY 23 was due to see the submission of bids to supply rolling stock for the initial two lines of the Delhi metro network. This will be followed on March 9 by the bids for the signalling & telecommunications contract, with tenders for electrification & power supplies due on March ...
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GO expansion plan
A MASSIVE expansion of Toronto’s commuter rail services is envisaged as the backbone of improved public transport in a strategic plan unveiled by the new Greater Toronto Services Board at the end of January. Closer integration with metro and streetcar services is recommended, together with the construction of ’gateway’ park-and-ride ...
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Berlin firms up tram extensions
THIS MAY is due to see the opening of a second tram route serving West Berlin, following the delivery of the first bi-directional low-floor cars to Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe last year (RG 2.00 p70). BVG currently has 12 tram extensions in development, all due for opening by 2006.First will be a ...
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Clinton funding plan boost for 11 US cities
FUNDING approval is being sought for urban rail projects in 11 US cities under the federal budget for fiscal 2001. A total of $6·3bn has been allocated to public transport, an increase of 9% on the current year but less than the $7·3bn previously authorised under the TEA-21 legislation. The ...
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Dual-system S-Bahn
AN 11 km extension of Hamburg’s S-Bahn from Neugraben to Buxtehude is envisaged as the first stage in a major expansion of the city’s urban rail network. Hamburger Verkehrsverbund announced the scheme in January as part of a regional development plan for 2010 being drawn up by the city and ...
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Integration drive
MOSCOW City Government has launched a campaign for better integration of railway, metro, tram and bus operations in the Russian capital. Gibb Rail has been appointed to help with developing a long-term transport strategy, and Project Implementation Director Ekaterina Popova visited the firm in January to discuss ways of raising ...
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LRT conversion
PITTSBURGH’s Port Authority Transit awarded a $36·2m contract to A&L Inc on January 28 for reconstructing 3·2 km of the Overbrook tram line as a light rail route. It is the first of three contracts covering the 8·9 km route between Castle Shannon and South Hills Junction, which was closed ...
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Spanish plan gives rail priority
ON JANUARY 24 Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar unveiled a 2000-07 Infrastructure Plan costed at Pts9100bn, to be funded with private finance and public money at European, national, regional and municipal level. Rail has been allocated Pts4700bn, which would be largely used to develop the high speed network so ...
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A Trojan horse called Effort
TO JUDGE from her keynote speech to The Economist freight conference in Brussels on January 28, the EC’s new Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio is every bit as determined as her predecessor to drive through reforms needed to correct rail’s seemingly intractable failure to compete for international traffic. ’Governments still ...
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Oliemans rejects freight
Two years into his appointment as Managing Director of Railinfrabeheer, the company responsible for managing the Dutch rail network, Ir Roland Oliemans is preparing to tell Transport Minister Tineke Netelenbos next month that the railway should stop carrying freight.Oliemans is a businessman, and he told AiC’s Network Control & Capacity ...
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Pointers
n The prime ministers of Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Germany and the Land of Schleswig-Holstein have pledged their support for the construction of a fixed link across the Fehmarn Belt within 10 years, replacing the present Rødby - Puttgarden ferry.n Railion confirmed on February 15 that ’discussions’ are taking place with ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Belarus: BCh has put into service the first of a batch of coaches being refurbished at Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk works. With assistance and equipment from Spain, the coaches have been fitted with air-conditioning and vacuum toilets, and are passed for 200 km/h.Belgium: SNCB is to extend its Zeebrugge branch in May ...
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Swiss duo blow hot and cold
THERE has been much head-scratching in the Swiss capital recently as debate rages over a suggestion made in November by Swiss Federal Railways President Thierry Lalive d’Epinay that BLS L
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State takes over Sokol
TIME is running out for the Russian High Speed Railway Co (RAO VSM). At a meeting of shareholders held in January, several major decisions were taken. Most significant was to hand to the Ministry of Railways the project to build and operate the Sokol high speed train (RG 9.99 p567).The ...
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Japanese now alone in high speed maglev stakes
IT HAS long been clear that the much-hyped project to build a Transrapid magnetic levitation line between Hamburg and Berlin was going nowhere fast. The only question was how much longer it would cling to life as successive governments chose weasel words in their statements about its future to avoid ...