Main line rail industry news – Page 690
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NewsThree presidents inaugurate rebuilt Benguela Railway
ANGOLA: The presidents of Angola, DR Congo and Zambia attended a ceremony in Luau on February 14 to officially mark the completion of a US$1·9bn Chinese-backed project to rehabilitate the 1 344 km Bengulea Railway between the port of Lobito and the DR Congo border. The presidents unveiled a plaque, ...
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NewsCagliari light rail extends
ITALY: A 1·8 km extension of Cagliari’s 950 mm gauge light rail line opened on February 14. The new section runs on a mostly elevated alignment from Monserrato Gottardo to Policlinico with two intermediate stops. The end-to-end journey time is 4 min. The project received €24m from EU funds.
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NewsIsrael Railways deploys customised train planning software
ISRAEL: A customised version of HaCon’s Train Planning System software is now being used for all of Israel Railways’ passenger and freight train planning and capacity management activities, and is expected to fully replace ISR’s legacy tools by the end of the year. ISR required a tailored and integrated ...
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NewsGas-fuelled locomotive enters passenger service
CZECH REPUBLIC: A diesel-electric locomotive adapted to use compressed natural gas fuel has entered trial passenger service with national operator ČD. The pilot programme aims to assess the economic, environmental and practical applications of CNG, and ČD plans to convert all its Class 714 locomotives if the testing proves successful. ...
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NewsEMD delivers Congo-Océan locomotives
CONGO: Minister for Transport, Civil Aviation & Shipping Rodolphe Adada visited Electro-Motive Diesel’s plant at Muncie in the USA at the end of January to inspect 10 Type GT38AC locomotives which Delegation Générale des Grands Travaux has ordered for use on the Chemin de Fer Congo-Océan network. The 1 067 ...
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NewsAlstom wins Delhi Line 7 track contract
INDIA: Delhi Metro Rail Corp has awarded Alstom a €25m contract to provide track for the Line 7 project. The contract announced on February 13 covers slab track for the 30 km from Lajpat Nagar to Shiv Vihar, as well as ballasted track for the depot. Line 7 ...
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NewsSNCF posts stable results as competitive threats mount
FRANCE: National operator SNCF issued its 2014 financial results on February 12, which highlighted the scale of the competitive threats that the business is facing in its home market. In what the company termed ‘the difficult environment in France’, SNCF reported year-on-year growth in revenue of 1·5% against 0·5% for ...
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NewsRailRunner plans European launch
GERMANY: Pilot operation of RailRunner road-rail services could start in Germany during 2017 if the company succeeds in obtaining certification for its technology from the European Railway Agency. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, RailRunner NA Inc has set up RailRunner Europe in Hamburg to promote the bimodal system in Europe. It ...
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NewsSakhalin diesel locomotive on test
RUSSIA: The first of 32 TG16M locomotives for Russian Railways’ 1 067 mm gauge network on the Pacific island of Sakhalin has begun six months of trial operation. The locomotive was inaugurated with a ceremony at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk which included a blessing by the Archbishop of South Sakhalin. The 100 ...
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NewsDB to invest €700m in Nordrhein-Westfalen
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn has announced plans to spend €700m improving infrastructure in Nordrhein-Westfalen during 2015. Of this, infrastructure manager DB Netz will spend around €550m on the rail infrastructure and a further €137m on station modernisation, including accessibility improvements. Traction energy supplier DB Energie will invest €9m in its ...
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NewsSTIF orders more double-deck EMUs
FRANCE: Paris regional transport authority STIF has ordered a further 10 MI09 double-deck electric multiple-units from a consortium of Alstom and Bombardier. The total value of the contract announced on February 12 is €150m, with Alstom having a €95m share. The new EMUs are to be delivered in 2017 to ...
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NewsOman Rail project management contract awarded
OMAN: On behalf of the Ministry of Transport & Communications, the Government Tender Board has selected a consortium headed by Spanish engineering contractor Técnicas Reunidas to provide project management consultancy services for the construction of the future rail network. The consortium will review preliminary designs which are being prepared by ...
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NewsAntonio Carlos Rodrigues
Promising to maintain and extend road and rail investment to improve the competitiveness of the logistics sector, Antonio Carlos Rodrigues was sworn in as Brazil’s Transport Minister at a ceremony in Brasilia on January 5. He succeeds Paulo Sérgio Passos.
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NewsPKP Cargo takes over logistics company
POLAND: PKP Cargo has acquired the remaining 44·44% stake in logistics company PS Trade Trans, which has 350 staff, an annual income of 500m złoty, nine terminals and organises rail, road sea and air transport of 10 million tonnes/year, including oversized and heavy cargo, biomass and cereals. ‘Full integration ...
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NewsRDC withdraws Bonn - Berlin inter-city proposal
GERMANY: Open-access operator RDC Deutschland announced on February 11 that it had withdrawn its application to introduce a Bonn – Köln – Berlin inter-city service following the partial rejection of its bid for paths by infrastructure manager DB Netz. Under DB Netz's path allocation process for the 2016-20 period, RDC ...
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NewsBoring of Czech Republic’s longest rail tunnel begins
CZECH REPUBLIC: Boring of the Czech Republic's longest rail tunnel was ceremonially launched on February 3. The two single-track bores under the Chlum and Homolka hills near Kyšice will be 4 150 m long and are the main feature of the modernisation of the Rokycany – Plzeň section of SŽDC's ...
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NewsBratislava tram extension gets EU funding
SLOVAKIA: The European Commission has approved a €63m grant from the EU Cohesion Fund for the €76·8m project to extend Bratislava's metre-gauge tram network by 2·4 km from Šafárikovo námestie to Bosákova in Petržalka. A consortium of Eurovia SK, Eurovia CS and SMP CZ has been building the double-track ...
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NewsEBRD sells its stake in PKP Cargo
POLAND: The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development has sold the 5·1% stake in PKP Cargo which it acquired when 50% minus one share of the national freight operator was offered through an IPO in October 2013. The sale was undertaken through an accelerated bookbuild offering launched after ...
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NewsHigh altitude freight locomotives ordered
CHINA: Following 27 months of in-service testing with two prototypes, at the end of January CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive was awarded a contract to supply a production batch of 80 HXD1C locomotives which will be used to haul heavy freight trains on the 1 000 km Lanzhou – Xining – ...
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NewsSiemens to build RRX double-deckers
GERMANY: The four regional authorities promoting the Rhein-Ruhr-Express project announced on February 10 that Siemens had been selected as preferred bidder to supply and maintain for 30 years the double-deck trainsets to be used by the future operating concessionaire. Subject to ratification by the governing bodies of Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr, NWL ...