All Railway Gazette International articles in March 2015 – Page 4
-
NewsHokuriku Shinkansen opens between Nagano and Kanazawa
JAPAN: The 228 km Hokuriku Shinkansen high speed line between Nagano, Toyama and Kanazawa opened on March 14. The opening has reduced the fastest journey between Tokyo and Kanazawa to 2 h 28 min, compared to the previous time of 4 h 20 min via the 1 067 mm gauge ...
-
NewsGoldschmidt Thermit plans acquisitions
GERMANY: Welding and rail maintenance and repair company Goldschmidt Thermit Group has said it ‘expects further significant growth’ this year, following a 12% increase in turnover to €127m in 2014. ‘The global market for rail infrastructure is booming’, according to CEO Dr Hans-Jürgen Mundinger. ‘There is considerable potential for ...
-
NewsCross-Tokyo link inaugurated
JAPAN: Revenue services have started running on East Japan Railway’s Ueno – Tokyo Line, following an inauguration ceremony on March 14. Taking seven years to build at a cost of ¥40bn, the 3·8 km cross-city link provides an extra pair of tracks for suburban services on the busy north-south corridor ...
-
NewsRail-Tech returns to Utrecht
Combining an exhibition and supporting conferences, Rail-Tech 2015 offers a shapshot of rail in the Benelux region.
-
Metro Report InternationalBudapest receives CAF tram
HUNGARY: The first of 47 CAF Urbos low-floor trams arrived in Budapest from CAF’s factory in Spain on March 11. Budapest transport authority BKK signed a €90m contract for 37 bidirectional trams in March 2014 and has placed a firm order for a further 10 under options for 87 more. ...
-
NewsMoscow - Kazan high speed line tenders called
RUSSIA: On March 16 Russian Railways called tenders for a contract to undertake surveys, project development and route planning for the proposed 770 km Moscow – Kazan dedicated high speed line. The deadline for submissions is April 16, and the maximum price is set at 20·79bn roubles plus VAT. The ...
-
NewsNew light rail vehicles enter service in Hannover
GERMANY: The first two TW3000 high-floor light rail vehicles entered passenger service on Route 7 in Hannover on March 15. The two-section bidirectional air-conditioned articulated vehicles are 25 m long and 2 650 mm wide. They will replace the TW6000 cars, which are 30 years old. They will initially ...
-
NewsLong-standing Bombardier chief retires
Laurent Beaudoin has retired as Chairman of Bombardier Inc after more than half a century at the helm, although he will stay on as Chairman Emeritus. He is succeeded by Alain Bellemare, whose has enjoyed an 18-year career at United Technologies, most recently as President & CEO of UTC Propulsion ...
-
NewsAlhaji Bamanga Tukur
President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as Chairman of Nigerian Railway Corp. Until recently, Tukur served as National Chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party.
-
NewsSaudi Railways Organization orders 200 km/h Talgo diesel trainsets
SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Railways Organization has awarded Talgo a contract worth in excess of $200m to supply six 200 km/h diesel trainsets for use on the 480 km Riyadh – Dammam line. In conjunction with infrastructure upgrades the trainsets are expected to cut journey times from 4 h 20 min ...
-
NewsZEB funds ease Bern traffic flows
SWITZERLAND: The release of a fifth tranche of funding under the ZEB railway infrastructure development programme paves the way for Swiss Federal Railways to start work on six enhancement projects worth a total of SFr170m. The biggest of these is the long-standing scheme to separate traffic flows at Wylerfeld east ...
-
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. ...
-
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 ...
-
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 ...
-
NewsMiroslav Fukan
Miroslav Fukan, Executive Director of OLTIS Group, has joined the UNIFE Presiding Board, currently chaired by Bombardier Transportation President Lutz Bertling.
-
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 ...
-
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 ...
-
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 ...
-
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 ...
-
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 ...