All Railway Gazette International articles in March 2015 – Page 3
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NewsFirst Great Western plans AT300s to Cornwall
UK: Two fleets of new trains and potentially a third will be introduced on the Great Western network over the next four years under the terms of a direct-award franchise announced by Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin on March 23. These would boost capacity on the network by ...
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NewsMore efficient tram air-conditioning
GERMANY: Berlin city transport operator BVG has awarded Liebherr-Transportation Systems a contract to equip one its Bombardier Flexity trams with an experimental occupancy-dependent fresh air control system. Liebherr’s modelling has predicted that this could reduce the energy consumption of the tram’s air-conditioning system by up to 13%. CO2 sensors ...
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NewsWorld rail infrastructure market March 2015
Argentina: The government has awarded Supercemento SAIC two further contracts worth 196m and 262m pesos for electrification of the 26·8 km Berazategui – La Plata section of the Buenos Aires – La Plata route. Brazil: Kapsch CarrierCom is to implement a Tetra digital radio network for Rio de Janeiro ...
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NewsWorld rolling stock market March 2015
Bangladesh: India's Rites has signed what it says is its first contract to export broad gauge passenger coaches to BR. The order covers a total of 120 stainless steel sleeper and seating cars to be manufactured by RCF Kapurthala. Botswana: BR has called tenders for the supply of 37 ...
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NewsDr Ben Möbius
Dr Ben Möbius, currently at lobbying group BDI, is to succeed Dr Ronald Pörner as head of the German railway industry association VDB on July 1.
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NewsAjay Shukla
The Indian Railway Board has appointed Ajay Shukla as Member, Traffic; he also retains his current post as Additional Member (Commercial).
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NewsFirst Urbos tram arrives in Freiburg
GERMANY: The first CAF Urbos 100 tram for Freiburg was delivered on the night of March 16-17. Freiburg public transport operator VAG signed a contract with CAF in March 2013 for 12 seven-section 100% low-floor trams for its metre-gauge network. The contract value does not exceed €40m, although the ...
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NewsSBB awards on-track plant contracts
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways has awarded contracts totalling SFr136m a year for the lease of 65 tampers, cranes and other track maintenance plant over periods of five to 10 years. The contracts are due to come into effect at the end of 2015, when the current agreements signed in 2006 ...
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NewsRail industry news in brief - March 2015
The European Commission has approved €220m from the Cohesion Fund for MÁV-Start’s purchase of 42 Stadler Flirt EMUs ordered in 2013. The port of Bordeaux has appointed Europorte 'to develop a full logistics chain' at its Le Verdon terminal. DB International is to support the development of ...
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NewsEmission-free trains to support railway reopening
GERMANY: A letter of intent was signed on March 19 between Alstom Transport and the municipality of Calw in the Land of Baden-Württemberg paving the way for emission-free fuel cell trainsets to operate on the so-called Hermann-Hesse line from 2018. Closed to revenue-earning traffic in 1988, the Calw – Weil ...
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NewsTGV relaunch planned
FRANCE: Voyages SNCF Director Rachel Picard has outlined the strategy that the national operator is to implement with the aim of making the TGV once again the preferred mode of transport, in the face of rising competition that includes ride-sharing. At the same time, cost savings averaging €80m a year ...
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NewsDB to reconquer the long-distance market
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn revealed details of an ambitious programme to regain lost business in the long-distance passenger market through expansion of its ICE and IC networks on March 18. The move follows an unprecedented surge in long-distance coach travel since market deregulation in 2013. Faster and more frequent trains serving ...
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NewsInfrastructure renationalisation begins
ARGENTINA: On March 18 Minister of the Interior & Transport Florencio Randazzo announced that the bill to return the national rail network to state control had begun its progress through the legislature. A new ‘mother’ company, Ferrocarriles Argentinos, would be created to manage access to the network, absorbing federal operating ...
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NewsDüsseldorf and Köln place joint light rail vehicle order
GERMANY: Düsseldorf light rail operator Rheinbahn and Köln transport operator KVB have placed a joint order for Bombardier Transportation light rail vehicles to replace their Stadtbahnwagen Type B cars. Düsseldorf has placed a firm order worth €127m for 42 vehicles, with an option for 16 more. These are scheduled ...
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NewsSpeed increase on the Tokaido Shinkansen
JAPAN: Central Japan Railway increased the maximum speed of its premium services between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka from 270 to 285 km/h with effect from March 14, cutting journey times by 3 min for 29 of its 37 Nozomi trains each day. The fastest timing over the 515·4 km route ...
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NewsSaudi Railways Master Plan update contract
SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Railways Organization has awarded Dornier Consulting GmbH a contract to provide consultancy services for an update of the Saudi Railways Master Plan. The six-month contract is worth 2·84 million riyals. SRO said the main objective of the SRMP update is to provide an ‘integrated and clear ...
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NewsMiroslav Fukan
Miroslav Fukan, Executive Director of OLTIS Group, has joined the UNIFE Presiding Board, currently chaired by Bombardier Transportation President Lutz Bertling.
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NewsConsortium to plan 30% capacity increase at London Waterloo
UK: The South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance of train operator SWT and infrastructure manager NR announced on March 18 that it had appointed a consortium of Skanska, Colas Rail, Aecom and Mott MacDonald to plan and undertake a four-year multi-million pound programme to provide a ‘step change’ in capacity at ...
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NewsFirst Ceneri base tunnel breakthrough
SWITZERLAND: A final blast at noon on March 17 broke through the southern end of the western bore of the Ceneri base tunnel on the Gotthard corridor, 13 months ahead of schedule. The base tunnel’s twin 15·4 km bores are being excavated south from the Vigana portal, north from ...
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NewsAlpiq acquires Balfour Beatty Rail SpA
EUROPE: Swiss energy technology company Alpiq has acquired Balfour Beatty’s Italian rail electrification business Balfour Beatty Rail SpA with effect from March 11. The price was not disclosed. Specialising in the design, procurement, installation and commissioning of main line and urban rail electrification, Balfour Beatty Rail SpA has 120 employees. ...