All Railway Gazette International articles in May 2013 – Page 4
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NewsAll CFR Marfa privatisation bids rejected
ROMANIA: The Ministry of Transport announced on May 15 that it was to start afresh with its attempt to sell a 51% stake in national rail freight operator CFR Marfa. This follows its rejection of all three of the applications to prequalify which had been submitted by the May ...
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NewsCD orders more RegioPanter EMUs
CZECH REPUBLIC: National passenger operator CD announced a KC943m firm order for a further seven Škoda Vagónka RegioPanter electric multiple-units on May 15. The five three-car Class 640 units with 237 seats and two two-car Class 650 units with 145 seats will have aluminium bodyshells, first and second class seats, ...
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NewsTenders called for DLR operating concession
UK: Transport for London has issued the formal invitation to tender to four groups shortlisted to operate and maintain the Docklands Light Railway for 6½ years from September 2014. The ITT was issued on May 10, with final bids to be returned by September 9, TfL’s Acting Director, London ...
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NewsNews in Brief
Portuguese infrastructure manager Refer has estimated the cost of an electrified line to serve a proposed container terminal at Trafaria on the south bank of the Tagus at €150m. Moving container operations to Trafaria is part of a €1bn project to free up the north bank in Lisboa for a ...
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NewsPresident visits Arica - La Paz Railway
CHILE: President Sebastián Piñera visited the Chilean section of the Arica – La Paz Railway on May 13, travelling the 40 km from Arica to Poconchile accompanied by Transport & Telecommunications Minister Pedro Pablo Errázuriz and other dignitaries. ‘Today is a day of great historical significance’, said Piñera, ‘because 100 ...
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NewsFunding for four new stations announced
UK: Government contributions towards the costs of building of four new stations were confirmed by the Department for Transport on May 15. The money has been made available through the New Station Fund. This was announced in January, with local authorities, train operators and developers invited to bid for contributions ...
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NewsEIB increases Polish Pendolino loan
POLAND: The European Investment Bank announced on May 15 that it is increasing from €224m to €342m the value of a loan which PKP Intercity is using to fund the purchase of Alstom Pendolino trains. In May 2011 PKP Intercity and Alstom signed a €665m contract covering the supply ...
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NewsNanjing Line 4 traction equipment contract signed
CHINA: Nanjing Metro has awarded Alstom and its local joint venture Shanghai Alstom Transport Electrical Equipment Co a €28m contract to supply traction equipment for 174 cars ordered for Line 4. Alstom’s Optonix traction systems have been designed for the Chinese metro market. SATEE will provide the inverter, auxiliary ...
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NewsKnorr-Bremse opens bigger US plant
USA: State Governor Martin O'Malley attended the opening of Knorr-Bremse's new Rail Vehicle Systems manufacturing plant in Westminster, Maryland, on May 9. Knorr-Bremse said the growth of the US public transport market and three major orders for HVAC systems meant that its former plant in Westminster had reached the limits ...
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NewsMTU builds engine R&D facility
GERMANY: Tognum's MTU Friedrichshafen subsidiary held a groundbreaking ceremony for a €60m engine research and development facility on May 6. The facility will have seven test stands for the study of combustion processes, control systems, exhaust after-treatment and gas engines for rail and maritime applications. 'These test stands ...
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NewsHitachi confirms UK assembly plant
UK: Hitachi Rail Europe announced on May 14 that it had signed a contract with preferred bidder Merchant Place Developments covering the construction and fit-out of a rolling stock manufacturing plant at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham. Hitachi said that construction of its ‘first train factory in Europe’ represented an ...
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NewsSiemens unveils Amtrak Cities Sprinter locomotive
USA: The first of 70 electric locomotives being built to operate Amtrak services in the Northeast Corridor was rolled out at the Siemens plant in Sacramento on May 13. The locomotive was officially handed over to Amtrak President & CEO Joseph Boardman by the President of Siemens Rail Systems USA ...
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NewsPresidents open Kazakhstan to Turkmenistan rail link
ASIA: President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev wielded a pair of golden spanners to ceremonially tighten the final bolts to complete a rail link across the border between their countries on May 11. Built by Kazakh national railway KTZ and local contractors at a cost ...
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NewsSkoda-Kirov joint venture agreement
RUSSIA: Czech rolling stock manufacturer Škoda Transportation and Kirovsky Zavod signed a memorandum of understanding on April 22 for each to invest US$20m in the creation of an equally-owned joint venture to produce trams, metro trains and double-deck EMUs for the Russian market in St Petersburg. The Kirov-Škoda joint venture ...
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NewsNews in Brief
Germany’s Federal Railway Office has certified DB Systemtechnik as a train operator in its own right. The operation of test and measurement trains had previously been undertaken by parent company DB. As Ouigo low-cost TGV services began operating between Marne-la-Vallée, Marseille and Montpellier on April 2, SNCF announced that ...
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NewsPut a truck on the track
ROAD-RAILER: The 'Trensformer' trailer developed by Dutch firm RENS is an adaptable platform intended to permit a standard road vehicle to operate as a tractor unit on rail wheels. With an adjustable length of between 4125 mm and 5025 mm, Trensformer allows a standard road vehicle, such as a tractor, ...
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NewsChina Northern enters the EU wagon market
CNR JINAN: The first production vehicles from a batch of 40 Type Zags LPG and ammonia tank wagons being built for French leasing company Atir-Rail was rolled out by CNR Jinan on April 28. CNR Jinan said the delivery of wagons to an EU customer was of 'epoch-making significance' for ...
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NewsEBRD supports western investment in Belarus rolling stock plant
BELARUS: The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development is providing the Electric Transport joint venture of Stadler Rail and state-owned Belkommunmash with a €14·5m 10-year loan to support the development of an electric train and tram factory which is under construction at the Fanipol Free Economic Zone near Minsk. The ...
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NewsKazan metro adds three stations
RUSSIA: The Kazan metro opened a three-station northern extension on May 9. This takes the line from its former terminus of Kozya Sloboda to Aviastroitelnaya, with intermediate stations at Yashlek and Severny Vokzal. The only line of the metro now has 10 stations. Severny Vokzal provides interchange with regional ...
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NewsBanedanmark awards upgrade design contracts
DENMARK: Infrastructure manager Banedanmark has awarded Grontmij a €1·1m contract to identify sections of the København - Odense route where speeds could be raised to 200 km/h, with the aim of giving an end-to-end journey time of 1 h. This could require new alignments to remove curves, and changes to ...