Main line rail industry news – Page 424
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NewsTrenitalia signs Sicily operating contract
ITALY: Sicily regional President Sebastiano Musumeci and Trenitalia CEO Orazio Iacono signed an operating contract on May 17. This is the first operating agreement since the transfer of responsibility for rail transport to the region. The 10-year contract is worth €1·2bn and includes infrastructure enhancements, new rolling stock, increased ...
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NewsSpanish regulation in breach of EU rules, Commission says
SPAIN: The European Commission has sent a letter of formal notice to Spain saying it has failed to correctly transpose Directive 2012/34/EU establishing a single European railway area. The Commission said on May 17 that it believes that Spain’s regulatory framework is in breach of provisions of the directive concerning ...
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NewsHigh speed line tunnel breakthrough in China
CHINA: Boring on the Qifengshan tunnel was completed on May 16. China Railway No 5 Engineering Group was responsible for boring the 5·2 km tunnel in Fangcheng county in Henan province, which forms part of the 818 km Zhengzhou – Wanzhou high speed line. The 118bn yuan project to ...
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NewsCelebrations as Brightline trains reach Miami
USA: A weekend of celebrations entitled ‘Welcome to the 305!’, referencing the city’s historic telephone code, marked the launch of Brightline inter-city services to Miami on May 19. Brightline’s first public trains ran in January over the 74 km between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. The extension to Miami ...
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NewsWabtec to merge with GE Transportation
INDUSTRY: Wabtec Corp has entered into a definitive agreement to merge with GE Transportation, the companies announced on May 21. The transaction is expected to close in early 2019, subject to approval by Wabtec shareholders, and regulatory authorities, making Wabtec ‘a global leader in the rail equipment, software and services ...
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NewsŠkoda becomes sole owner of Transtech
FINLAND: Škoda Transportation Group signed an agreement to purchase the remaining shares in Transtech on May 21. With the purchase of the 25% stake from Sinituote Oy, Škoda becomes the 100% owner of the Finnish rolling stock manufacturer. In 2015 Škoda Transportation Group acquired 75% of Transtech from investment ...
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NewsKazan orders more Uraltransmash trams
RUSSIA: Kazan transport agency Metroelectrotrans has signed contract with trading company Fobos-TS for the supply of 20 Uraltransmash 71-407 trams. Deliveries are due to be completed by the end of August. The 340m rouble order includes a 160m rouble contribution from the government’s programme of federal funding to stimulate ...
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NewsLagos – Kano standard gauge contract signed
NIGERIA: China Civil Engineering Construction Corp is to complete the long-planned 1 435 mm gauge railway linking Lagos and Kano, under a U$6·68bn contract signed in Abuja on May 15. During the signing ceremony Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi said the line should be completed in two to three years, ‘depending ...
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NewsHeathrow Connect out as TfL Rail comes in
UK: MTR Crossrail started operating stopping services between Paddington and Heathrow Airport under the TfL Rail brand on May 20. These are due to become part of the Elizabeth Line in December. TfL has taken over services to Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 and Terminal 4 from Great Western ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
Jan Kilström announced on May 15 that he would be stepping down as CEO of Green Cargo in the autumn, having ‘received an exciting offer that I could not refuse, the details of which I am unable to disclose at present’. Recruitment of a new CEO has started. ‘After so ...
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NewsRecord number of exhibitors from Berlin-Brandenburg at InnoTrans 2018
INNOTRANS: Almost 70 companies from Berlin and Brandenburg will be joining forces to exhibit at InnoTrans 2018 with their dedicated regional area of the City Cube hall covering more than 1 000 m2. The exhibitors will include 17 companies who will be joining the Berlin-Brandenburg regional display for the first ...
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NewsWorld rail infrastructure market - May 2018
Argentina: Under an order worth a total of 650m pesos, Trenes Argentinos Infraestructura has taken delivery of an initial batch of track maintenance machines from China, including one tamper, a dynamic track stabiliser and a ballast profiler. Subsequent shipments are expected to include a track recording vehicle and a ...
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NewsBy Coradia to Batna
ALGERIA: National operator SNTF has introduced a direct passenger service between Alger and the eastern part of the High Plateau line, with the launch of a daily Alger – M’Sila – Batna round trip. Introduced on May 3, the service is operated by one of SNTF’s new Alstom Coradia El ...
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NewsRio Tinto’s automated trains approved
AUSTRALIA: Rio Tinto has been granted accreditation by Australia’s Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator, approving the autonomous operation of iron ore trains in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, the group announced on May 18. Confirming that the AutoHaul project is ‘on schedule to be completed by the ...
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NewsVolgograd airport rail link opens
RUSSIA: Passenger services on the Volgograd airport rail link began on May 18, following an inauguration ceremony the previous day Services use a 1·2 km branch which Russian Railways has built to connect Gumrak station with the airport passenger terminal, which has been rebuilt ready for when the city hosts ...
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NewsBangladesh Railway orders 10 locomotives
BANGLADESH: Hyundai Rotem is to supply 10 mixed-traffic diesel-electric locomotives to Bangladesh Railway under a 41bn won contract announced on May 18. Intended for mixed traffic use on the metre gauge Dhaka – Chittagong route, the locomotives will be delivered from Hyundai Rotem’s Changwon plant in South Korea starting ...
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NewsGermany told to fully transpose EU safety legislation
GERMANY: On May 17 the European Commission sent a reasoned opinion requesting that Germany fully comply with Directive 2004/49/EC. This requires EU member states to establish an independent safety authority, an independent accident investigation body and coherently allocate safety responsibilities. The Commission said Germany had failed to ensure that its ...
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NewsIdentifying ‘navigational hazards’ on metro maps
MAPS: It might be possible to use software to automatically detect features of metro maps which cause passengers to make mistakes in journey planning, researchers believe. PhD student Peter Lloyd and Dr Peter Rodgers of the University of Kent’s School of Computing and cognitive psychologist Dr Maxwell Roberts of ...
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NewsRailway supply industry news round-up
Indonesian manufacturer PT Inka is developing a 160 km/h multiple-unit design. The Davis Wagon Services maintenance subsidiary of UK wagon manufacturer WH Davis Ltd is to use 3Squared’s RailSmart Employee Development System software for staff competency management. ‘The EDS software allows our assessors to carry out more frequent assessments ...
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NewsRegioJet puts Traxx locos into service
CZECH REPUBLC: The first of eight Bombardier Transportation Traxx multi-system electric locomotives ordered by open access operator RegioJet in April 2017 entered service on May 16. The first passenger train to be hauled by one of the new locomtives was RJ1017, the 17.48 from Praha to Ostrava and Návsí. After ...