All Railway Gazette International articles in May 2014 – Page 4
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NewsSétif starts to build tramway
ALGERIA: Construction of the Sétif tramway started on May 8. The line is being built by a consortium of Yapi Merkezi and Alstom under a 38bn dinar contract awarded in late 2013. Work is scheduled to take 40 months. The 22·4 km east-west line will link Sétif University with ...
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NewsWestbahn quits CER
EUROPE: Austrian open access inter-city operator Westbahn Management GmbH has decided to ‘distance itself’ from the Community of European Railway & Infrastructure Companies, accusing CER of attempting to block liberalisation and market opening in the European rail sector. ‘CER is more and more against the overall vision of the EU ...
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NewsSão Paulo selects monorail communications
BRAZIL: Companhia do Metropolitano de São Paulo has selected Thales and T’Trans to supply telecommunications for São Paulo metro Line 17. The work, to be completed in 22 months, includes a master clock, passenger information systems, CCTV, and transmission and telephony subsystems. Thales is also supply SelTrac CBTC ...
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NewsPoznań opens new tram depot
POLAND: MPK Poznań inaugurated the first new tram depot in the city for 30 years on May 11. The 17 ha site at Franowo in the southeast of the city has room for 100 trams of 35 m in length, with provision for expansion to house 150 trams including 20 ...
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NewsMaglev Shinkansen work to start this year
JAPAN: Construction of JR Central’s Chuo Shinkansen between Tokyo Shinagawa and Nagoya using superconducting maglev technology is expected to start towards the end of this year, possibly in October or November. The date will depend on satisfactory completion of the environmental impact assessment process following the publication of a ...
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NewsAgreement to continue VIA Rail service in New Brunswick
CANADA: An agreement has provisionally been reached to support the continued operation of VIA Rail’s Ocean service over a 71 km section of the former New Brunswick East Coast railway, Federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced on May 12.The Ocean runs three times per week between Montréal and Halifax, but ...
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NewsAecom awarded Jeddah public transport contract
SAUDI ARABIA: Jeddah Metro Co has awarded Aecom Technology Corp an 18-month contract worth US$28m to provide consultancy services to support the preliminary planning and design phase of the Jeddah Public Transport Project. Last year the Council of Ministers approved a 45bn riyal transport plan for the city — ...
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NewsAzerbaijan Railways orders Alstom KZ8A freight locomotives
AZERBAIJAN: National railway ADDY has placed a €300m order for 50 Alstom KZ8A twin-section 25 kV AC electric freight locomotives to be delivered in 2016-18. The locomotives are to be supplied from Astana in Kazakhstan by the EKZ joint venture of Kazakh national railway KTZ (50%), Transmashholding (25%) and ...
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NewsOaktree Capital Management buys Railpool
EUROPE: HSH Nordbank and KfW IPEX-Bank sold their shares in rolling stock leasing company Railpool to funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management on May 9. The price was not disclosed. The two banks founded Railpool as an equally-owned joint venture in 2008, and will continue to act as lenders to ...
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NewsLightweight cable labelling
CABLE: A Spectrum Technologies high speed UV laser wire mark, measure and cut system is being installed at Bombardier Transportation’s plant at Huehuetoca in Mexico where it is to manufacture components for the 775 metro cars it is supplying to San Francisco’s BART. Spectrum’s Nova system was developed for the ...
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NewsWorld rolling stock market May 2014
Australia: The government of Victoria has ordered an additional Bombardier VLocity three-car DMU for A$17m, taking the order to 43 cars. Metro Trains Melbourne has awarded Alstom a contract to install GSM-R digital radios on 82 trainsets. The EDI Rail Bombardier JV which maintains Perth’s commuter fleet has ...
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NewsCompressed nitrogen used to slide 800 tonne subway into place
UK: An 800 tonne reinforced concrete underpass box 28 m long, 7·6 m wide and 4·0 m high with 0·5 m thick walls was installed through an existing railway embankment at Rochester during a four-day blockade on April 18-21. According to infrastructure manager Network Rail, this was the first ...
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NewsNigerian Coastal Railway framework agreement signed
NIGERIA: The Federal Ministry of Transport and China Civil Engineering Construction Corp signed a framework agreement to go ahead with the Coastal Railway project on May 5. Detailed negotiations will now take place before the conclusion of a final construction contract, which the China Railway Construction Corp subsidiary estimates ...
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NewsStadler wins Gotthard base tunnel high speed train contract
SWITZERLAND: Stadler Rail has beaten rival bidders Alstom and Talgo to win a SFr980m contract to supply 29 articulated high speed trains for international services through the Gotthard base tunnel. Announcing the order on May 9, Swiss Federal Railways said that Stadler Rail was the clear winner with a ...
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NewsADIF awards Mediterranean Corridor signalling contract
SPAIN: Infrastructure manager ADIF has awarded a consortium of Bombardier Transportation and Thales a €44m contract to supply signalling for the second phase of the Mediterranean Corridor upgrade programme, covering the Almussafes – Valencia – Castelló de la Plana route. Bombardier’s €27m share of the contract includes the supply ...
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NewsRussian Railways takes delivery of first Talgo
RUSSIA: The first of seven trainsets which RZD's Federal Passenger Co ordered from Patentes Talgo in June 2011 has been delivered to Moscow. Following trials at the Shcherbinka test circuit, entry into revenue service is planned for later this year. Four 1 520 mm gauge Talgo trainsets are to be ...
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NewsNedTrain wins NSB refurbishment contract
NORWAY: National passenger operator NSB has awarded the NedTrain subsidiary of Dutch national operator NS a contract to undertake the mid-life overhaul of its 20 Class 73 inter-city electric multiple-units. This will include interior and exterior refurbishment and the installation of a new passenger information system on the four-car trainsets, ...
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NewsKuala Lumpur airport rail link extended to KLIA2
MALAYSIA: A 2·14 km extension of Kuala Lumpur’s airport rail link opened along with a new terminal for budget airlines on May 2. The KLIA2 terminal replaces a previous facility which required passengers arriving at the airport’s main terminal by rail to change to a shuttle bus. Rail link ...
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NewsGBRf leases Ecofret container wagons
UK: Following a successful 18-month trial with a single vehicle, on May 8 GB Railfreight announced it had agreed to lease 18 Ecofret triple-platform container wagons from VTG Rail UK for five years. Deliveries of the 17 extra wagons will run from November 2014 to early 2015. The Ecofret wagon ...
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NewsNew South Wales to order 'off-the-shelf' Intercity fleet
AUSTRALIA: Plans to order around 65 trainsets totalling 520 cars for NSW TrainLink Intercity services between Sydney and the Central Coast, Newcastle, the Blue Mountains and Illawarra were announced by New South Wales Premier Mike Baird and Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian on May 8. The government is to begin ...