Main line rail industry news – Page 709
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NewsGE delivering Florida East Coast Railway locos
USA: Florida East Coast Railway is about to take delivery of the first of 24 GE Transportation ES44C4 locomotives which it ordered in January. All of the Tier 3 compliant Evolution Series locomotives are scheduled to arrive in Florida by the end of the year. The four-motored locomotives will ...
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NewsHitachi Rail Europe tops out Newton Aycliffe factory
UK: A topping-out ceremony on October 30 marked the completion of the structure for Hitachi Rail Europe’s rolling stock plant at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham. Construction of the £82m factory began in November 2013 and is expected to be completed by mid-2015. ‘Today’s topping-out ceremony signifies a milestone’, said ...
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NewsPrototype tram presented to Bydgoszcz
POLAND: Pesa presented a pre-series prototype Swing tram for Bydgoszcz on October 30, six months ahead of the original schedule. The Tramwaj Fordon subsidiary of Bydgoszcz city council ordered 12 Swing for 109m złoty earlier this year for use on the 9·5 km Fordon extension. The prototype will ...
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NewsNS selects CAF for Sprinter New Generation train contract
NETHERLANDS: National passenger operator NS named CAF as preferred bidder to supply its Sprinter New Generation electric multiple-unit fleet on October 30. The Spanish firm beat a rival offer from Alstom. Expected to be finalised in December, the contract would cover approximately 120 EMUs worth €510m, with options for more. ...
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NewsNational Express pulls out of Berlin S-Bahn competition
GERMANY: National Express has confirmed that it has withdrawn from the competition for a contract to operate the Berlin S-Bahn’s ‘Ring & Branches’ service group. This leaves incumbent Deutsche Bahn as the only remaining candidate. While transport authority VBB had declined to name the prequalified bidders for the contract, DB ...
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NewsKlang Valley Line 2 contractor selected
MALAYSIA: Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit appointed Gamuda and MMC Corp to form a joint venture to build Klang Valley MRT Line 2 on October 28. The 56 km line would run from Sungai Buloh to Putrajaya via Serdang. At Sungai Buloh there would be a depot shared with ...
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NewsIndian Railways begins wi-fi roll-out
INDIA: Minister of Railways D V Sadananda Gowda has inaugurated Indian Railways’ first station wi-fi installation at Bangalore City, which has been equipped as the pilot for a programme to provide wi-fi at all category A and A1 stations. The RailWire wi-fi programme is being undertaken by the Ministry of ...
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NewsRail Baltica agreement signed
EUROPE: Agreements to establish an equally-owned company to co-ordinate the construction of the Rail Baltica standard gauge line between the Polish border and Tallinn were signed by representatives of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on October 28. ‘This is the largest-scale joint project in the history of our country, and ...
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NewsRhein-Ruhr-Express procurement objection rejected
GERMANY: The Münster procurement tribunal has rejected DB Regio’s objections to the decision to call separate passenger service operating and rolling stock provision contracts for the Rhine-Ruhr Express project. A group of four transport authorities led by Rhein-Ruhr body VRR is seeking to award three contracts for the operation ...
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NewsCanaveral Port Authority seeks to revive NASA railway
USA: Canaveral Port Authority has announced its intention to apply to the Surface Transportation Board for powers to build and operate a rail link between its port on Atlantic and the Florida East Coast Railway near Titusville, Florida. This would eliminate the need for road haulage between the port and ...
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NewsTicket app offers dynamic pricing and tickets for children
UK: Mobile ticketing specialist Corethree has announced its first rail deployment, developing an updated multimodal rail and bus app for Northern Ireland transport body Translink. The app offers bespoke dynamic pricing, enabling Translink to offer short-time promotional fares as well as standard tickets through mobile devices. A purchase delegation or ...
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NewsSuzhou tramway opens
CHINA: Suzhou’s first tram line opened on October 26, just over two years since construction began, with 12 500 passengers carried on the first day. Non-passenger carrying test running started on June 28. Between October 12 and 21, 50 000 tickets were provided for local residents to ensure realistic ...
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NewsMongolian parliament backs rail expansion
MONGOLIA: Parliament approved the government’s national rail policy on October 24. This sets out plans for the expansion of the network, and grants the government powers to call tenders and negotiate a build-operate-transfer concession for the planned Northern Rail Line. The 1 520 mm gauge multi-user mixed traffic Northern ...
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NewsNorth Korea launches Victory railway upgrade
NORTH KOREA: A ground-breaking ceremony for the ‘Victory’ project to modernise the railway linking the west coast port of Namp’o with Pyongyang, Kangdong and the Jaedong coalfields was held on October 21. The project is being supported by Russia, and guests at the groundbreaking included Minister of External Economic ...
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NewsReal-time train positions from multiple data sources
FRANCE: HaCon has implemented a version of its HAFAS Live Maps real-time train location mapping software for French national passenger operator SNCF which for the first time integrates positioning information from both trackside equipment and GPS. ‘The combination of the two data sources results in the highest possible precision that ...
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NewsChengdu Line 2 extended
CHINA: Trial operation began on October 26 on a southeastern extension of Chengdu metro Line 2 from Chengdu Institute of Public Administration to Longquanyi. After coming out of the tunnel, the line runs along an elevated alignment with three stations. After Jiepai, the line enters another tunnel, with three ...
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NewsFour Parramatta light rail routes shortlisted
AUSTRALIA: New South Wales Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian and Parramatta MP Geoff Lee announced the shortlist for the Parramatta light rail route in western Sydney on October 27. The NSW government announced 10 corridors in June, and has now shortlisted four of these for detailed engineering, ...
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NewsKochi places metro car order
INDIA: Kochi metro project manager Delhi Metro Rail Corp has awarded Alstom an €85m contract to supply 25 three-car Metropolis trainsets to Kochi Metro Rail Limited, with an option to supply an additional 25 trainsets. The first trainsets are due to be delivered in early 2016 from ...
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NewsWashington announces streetcar shortlist
USA: The District of Columbia Department of Transportation has shortlisted three consortia for an estimated $800m contract to construct further tram lines and operate an ‘Integrated Premium Transit’ network of trams and buses in Washington. The shortlisted bidders are: DC Transit Partners (Clark Construction, Shirley Contracting, Herzog Transit ...
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NewsShunting locos designed for Africa
SOUTH AFRICA: Grindrod Locomotives has launched the GS7 shunting locomotive, which is being offered to African operators by the GPR leasing joint venture of Grindrod Freight Services and Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund through dry leasing packages. Two models have been developed. The 1067 mm gauge two-axle GS7S2C weighs 40 tonnes ...