Main line rail industry news – Page 198
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News‘Controlled’ end to Finland – Russia rail freight traffic
FINLAND: National operator VR Group is to discontinue rail freight traffic with Russia ‘in a controlled manner’, the railway’s board decided on April 6. VR said it aimed to run down traffic as quickly as possible, although it expected that the process would take several months. ...
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NewsCargoBeamer to open Erfurt wagon factory
GERMANY: CargoBeamer is to open a factory in Erfurt to produce its proprietary design of wagons for transporting lorry semi-trailers. The factory with a production capacity of 500 wagons/year will be developed on the site of a former locomotive works, where the 3 000 m2 facility ...
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NewsRENFE and Talgo present first refurbished Class 730
SPAIN: National operator RENFE has presented the first of 14 Class 730 electro-diesel gauge changing trainsets to undergo a mid-life refurbishment in a €11m programme which is being undertaken at Talgo’s Las Matas works. The Class 730s are rebuilds from dual-voltage Class 130 electric trainsets, and ...
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NewsÖBB orders double-deck EMUs
AUSTRIA: Austrian Federal Railways has placed a €600m firm order for 41 Stadler Kiss double-decker electric multiple-units. The order announced on April 7 is the first to be placed under a €3bn framework agreement for up to 186 trains which ÖBB and Stadler finalised in February ...
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NewsFreight locomotive fuel cell partnership
EUROPE: Alstom and Engie have signed a co-operation agreement to facilitate the deployment of high-performance fuel cells to power electric freight locomotives on non-electrified branch lines and sidings. Alstom is developing the fuel cell technology, and Engie is to produce and distribute ‘renewable’ hydrogen, having previously ...
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NewsDouble-deck EMU order confirmed
GERMANY: DB Regio has finalised its contract for Alstom to supply 29 Coradia Stream High-Capacity electric multiple-units to be used on Kinzigtal services RE50 Frankfurt - Wächtersbach - Fulda - Bebra and RB51 Frankfurt - Wächtersbach from December 2025. The double-deck EMUs will feature four-seat bays ...
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NewsTrenitalia launches French domestic high speed services
FRANCE: Trenitalia launched its first French domestic open access high speed service between Paris-Lyon and Lyon-Perrache on April 5.
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NewsVR Group President & CEO removed
FINLAND: The board of state rail operator VR Group dismissed Lauri Sipponen as President & Chief Executive on April 4, just seven months into the job. Director of Passenger Operations Topi Simola has taken temporary charge while VR Group looks for a new CEO. No reason ...
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NewsSJ orders 250 km/h trains as ‘the best travel product in Scandinavia’
SWEDEN: SJ has signed a €650m contract for Alstom to supply 25 Zefiro Express 250 km/h trainsets, which the national passenger operator says will complement its refurbished X2000 fleet as ‘the best travel product in Sweden and Scandinavia’, meeting the demand for ‘climate-smart, comfortable and efficient’ ...
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NewsCars ordered to lengthen RegioPanter EMUs
CZECH REPUBLIC: Škoda Transportation and subcontractor ŽOS Trnava are to supply 11 RegioPanter 18Ev electric multiple-unit cars to lengthen some of the 29 EMUs which were ordered in December 2019 for use in the Jihomoravský region. Deliveries are expected to be completed by December this ...
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NewsAfrican railway concessions to change hands
INTERNATIONAL: Subject to approval by competition authorities and some of the parties involved, Bolloré Group has agreed to sell its Bolloré Africa Logistics subsidiary to Italian-Swiss logistics and shipping group Mediterranean Shipping Co for €5∙7bn. This includes Bolloré’s three concessions to operate metre-gauge African railways. Sitarail ...
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NewsIndia – Nepal broad gauge passenger train service launched
NEPAL: Cross-border passenger services from Jayanagar in the Indian state of Bihar to Janakpur and Kurtha in Nepal were inaugurated on April 2, with the dispatch of the first train on the 34·9 km cross-border railway following conversion to 1 676 mm gauge. The first train ...
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NewsSix options in Santander – Bilbao railway study
SPAIN: The Ministry of Transport, Mobility & the Urban Agenda has published details of its ‘Informative Study’ for a new railway line between Santander and Bilbao. Prepared by WSP Spain-Apia and Sener Ingeniería y Sistemas under a €1∙2m contract awarded in September 2020, the study puts ...
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NewsIndian Railways reports record freight loadings
INDIA: Despite the ongoing challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, Indian Railways has reported record-breaking freight loadings for the second year in succession.
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NewsTGV M power cars transported from Belfort to La Rochelle
FRANCE: Power cars from the first of the TGM M trainsets ordered under SNCF’s TGV of the Future programme, branded Avelia Horizon by the manufacturer, have been transported from Alstom’s Belfort factory to La Rochelle.
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NewsLiberian railway extension and access negotiations make progress
LIBERIA: Mine development company High Power Exploration and the Liberian government have signed an amended framework agreement for the Nimba Iron Ore Project in southeast Guinea to make use of existing and expanded rail and port infrastructure in Liberia. The framework announced on March 31 sets ...
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NewsScheduling software failure sidelines NS services
NETHERLANDS: National passenger operator NS suspended all services on April 3 following problems with its resource allocation and operations planning software.
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NewsMachine vision based wagon inspection system under development
INDIA: A machine vision inspection system for automating the detection of wagon defects is being developed by start-up L2M Rail, the Society for Innovation & Development and the Indian Institute of Science in partnership with Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp of India. MVIS will be developed over ...
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NewsRolling out a digital workspace
ALSTOM: During the pandemic DXC Technology implemented digital workspaces from Citrix to provide Alstom’s engineers with secure and reliable remote access to essential apps. These include a critical in-house CAD tool that requires powerful graphics workstations and a low-latency, high-performing local network. ‘The cost of an ...