All Railway Gazette International articles in March 2015 – Page 6
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NewsDallas unveils off-wire light rail vehicle
USA: The first off-wire capable light rail vehicle ordered by Dallas Area Rapid Transit was unveiled on March 23. These will be used on the Union Station – Oak Cliff extension, which is due to open to passengers on April 13. A $9·4m contract with Brookville Equipment Corp for ...
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NewsLondon Underground modernisation budget and timescale revised
UK: Transport for London confirmed a revised budget and timescale for the ongoing programme to modernise London Underground’s District, Circle Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines on March 24. LU and sole bidder Thales are now in the final stages of negotiating a major contract to resignal the four ...
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NewsTrain leasing agency approved
GERMANY: In an effort to encourage competition for passenger operating contracts, on March 12 Baden-Württemberg’s parliament passed a law creating an agency which will procure rolling stock for lease to train operators. Land Transport Minister Winfried Hermann said that independent operators bidding to run local services are offered less favourable ...
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NewsMTR Corp selects CEO
MTR Corp has announced the appointment of Lincoln Leong as CEO for a three-year term. Having joined the company as Finance Director in 2002, Leong moved up through the ranks and has been serving as Acting CEO since Jay Walder’s departure last July.
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NewsFirst Roy Hill locomotives arrive in the Pilbara
AUSTRALIA: The first of 21 GE Evolution Series locomotives ordered for the Roy Hill Iron Ore Project was named ‘Ginny’ by Roy Hill Holdings Chair Gina Rinehart in a ceremony at Port Hedland on March 23. GE and its local partner UGL Ltd have delivered 14 of the 21 locomotives ...
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NewsCentral California Traction locomotives completed
USA: Brookville Equipment Corp has built two BL12CG (Brookville Locomotive 1 200 hp CoGeneration General Purpose) twin-engine genset diesel locomotives for Central California Traction Co. CCT operates two lines in California: the 24 km Central Valley Branch between Stockton and Lodi, and the 90 km Stockton Public Belt Railroad ...
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NewsMeinerzhagen - Brügge reopening agreed
GERMANY: The WestfalenLippe transport authority has signed an agreement for DB Regio NRW to reinstate passenger services on the 15 km Meinerzhagen – Brügge line from the December 2017 timetable change. The agreement runs until 2033 and covers the operation of an additional 250 000 train-km/year. DB Regio plans ...
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NewsSRO signs freight line upgrade contract
SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Railways Organization has awarded China Railway Construction Corp a 160m riyal contract to undertake the 91 km second phase of upgrading the Dammam – Riyadh freight line. The specifications for the 23 month project to increase capacity includes raising the maximum axleload to 32·5 tonnes. Last year ...
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NewsGenesee & Wyoming completes Freightliner acquisition
INTERNATIONAL: Genesee & Wyoming Inc announced on March 25 that it had completed the acquisition of 94% of Freightliner Group Ltd for £492m, plus the assumption of £19m of net debt and capitalised leases. Freightliner’s management team has retained a 6% interest which G&W expects to acquire by mid-2020. In ...
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NewsDomestic DMUs for Belgrano Norte
ARGENTINA: On March 25 Minister of the Interior & Transport Florencio Randazzo unveiled the first of 20 Alerce diesel multiple-units that are to be deployed on the 1 000 mm gauge Belgrano Norte commuter route between Buenos Aires and Villa Rosa. According to Randazzo, 90% of the components for the ...
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NewsTranstech to supply more double-deckers
FINLAND: National operator VR has selected Transtech Oy as preferred bidder for a €90m contract to supply 27 double-deck coaches in 2016-17. The order covers a further 10 Edm double-deck sleeping cars and 17 Edo driving cars, similar to vehicles that the Finnish rolling stock manufacturer has previously supplied to ...
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News€1·7bn Rhein-Ruhr-Express EMU order awarded
GERMANY: A ‘record-breaking’ order for Siemens to supply and maintain a fleet of 82 electric multiple-units for the Rhein-Ruhr-Express network was officially awarded on March 26 by a group of local transport authorities in the Rhein-Ruhr region. The company had been selected in February as preferred bidder ...
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NewsMadrid Metro extended to Paco de Lucía
SPAIN: A 1·53 km extension of Madrid Metro Line 9 from Mirasierra to Paco de Lucía opened to traffic on March 25, taking the total number of stations on the network to 301. The station has been named after an artist who lived in the Mirasierra district until his death ...
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NewsBLS Cargo orders Vectron locomotives
SWITZERLAND: BLS Cargo announced an order for Siemens to supply 15 Vectron multi-system electric locomotives on March 27. They are scheduled to be delivered in three batches, with the first to enter traffic in the second half of 2016 and the last in 2018. The locomotives are to ...
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NewsBrussels launches north-south metro project
BELGIUM: Detailed engineering design and development work is to get underway shortly for the construction of a third metro route through the centre of Brussels, following approval of the scheme by the Brussels Capital Region administration on March 26. The fully-automated Bordet – Albert Line is expected to open for ...
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NewsGE to supply 100 locomotives to Angola
ANGOLA: GE Transportation announced on March 27 that it had signed a contract to supply Instituto Nacional Dos Caminhos de Ferro Angola with 100 C30ACi locomotives. The six-axle 1 067 mm gauge diesel-electric locomotives with 12 cylinder 3 000 hp FDL-series engines are to be manufactured at GE’s Erie ...
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NewsLondon Underground takes over Croxley Rail Link project
UK: London Underground is to take over responsibility for the Croxley Rail Link project, under an agreement with the Department for Transport and Hertfordshire County Council which was formally announced on March 27. The project involves the diversion of the Metropolitan Line from its current Watford terminus to serve Watford ...
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NewsMetrolinx awards depot PPP contract
CANADA: Provincial investment agency Infrastructure Ontario and Toronto transport authority Metrolinx announced on March 27 that they had awarded a C$860m contract to the Plenary Infrastructure ERMF consortium to design, build, finance and maintain the GO Transit East Rail Maintenance Facility in Whitby under a 30-year concession. According to Metrolinx, ...
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NewsRift Valley Railways getting back on track
AFRICA: Four years after the restructuring of the Kenya-Uganda Railway concession, Rift Valley Railways announced in March that it had achieved all three of the Key Performance Indicators agreed with the two governments when the current shareholders took over. The first two targets involved clearing the outstanding concession fees and ...
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NewsFatigue testing with heavy loads
FRANCE: An agreement signed this month paves the way for tests to begin later this year in the Channel Tunnel on the durability of various track designs under heavy loads. The tests will be undertaken by Railenium, the railway research institute based in northern France, of which Eurotunnel is a ...
