Middle East
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Metro Report International
RATP to operate Cairo light rail line
EGYPT: National Authority for Tunnels has selected RATP Dev Mobility Cairo to operate and maintain the ‘light rail’ line linking Cairo with 10th Ramadan City and the New Administrative Capital.
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News
Support for Israeli section of ‘Gulf to Gulf’ railway
ASIA: Israel’s National Infrastructure Committee has given its backing to proposals to extend the Jezreel Valley railway to the border with Jordan, in what is envisaged to be the first stage of a possible ‘Gulf to Gulf’ railway linking the Bay of Haifa with Jordan, Saudi ...
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News
Naxçıvan railway reopening proposed as work starts on Baku link
ASIA: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has welcomed proposals for the reopening of a rail link between Iran and its northwestern neighbour Azerbaijan. Speaking at a meeting with the governor of Iran’s largely Azeri-speaking province of East Azerbaijan on February 18, Zarif pointed out ...
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Metro Report International
Dubai’s smarter tram stop saves energy
UAE: Dubai’s Roads Transport Authority has undertaken a green buildings initiative to reduce power consumption at tram stops An evaporation system which uses cooling pads to reduce the temperature of the air entering Marina Towers stop and the tram depot by 8 to ...
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News
Saudi Arabia approves merger of railway companies
SAUDI ARABIA: The merger of Saudi Railways Organization and Saudi Railways Company has been formally approved. The combined entity will be responsible for all inter-city railways in the country, and will use the Saudi Railways Company name, abbreviated SAR. The merger and associated legislative ...
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News
Turkish tank wagons support Iraqi rail freight revival
IRAQ: Turkish pressure tank manufacturer Cryocan has despatched the first 50 of 400 tank wagons which Iraq’s national railway IRR has ordered as part of a project to transfer petroleum traffic from road to rail. Cryocan expects to deliver a further 100 wagons this year, ...
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Metro Report International
Dubai RTA launches metro engineering information platform
UAE: Dubai’s Roads Transport Authority has launched an electronic platform for railway engineering information, containing about 800 000 documents relating to assets on the metro’s Red and Green lines as well as data about the authority, consultants, project contractors, rail operators and other bodies. ...
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Metro Report International
Financing package enables Bombardier’s Derby plant to go ahead with Egyptian monorail production
EGYPT: Bombardier Transportation’s factory at Derby in the UK is to go ahead with the production of 70 four-car Innovia Monorail 300 trainsets for two lines being built in Cairo, after the British government confirmed a £1·7bn export finance guarantee. In August 2019 a Bombardier-led ...
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News
Mid-life overhaul for Israel Railways double-deck fleet
ISRAEL: Bombardier Transportation has begun design work for the US$15m mid-life overhaul of Israel Railways’ fleet of 143 first generation Twindexx double-deck coaches supplied in 2002-06. The programme will include modernisation of internal and external doors, toilet accessibility improvements and replacement of the passenger information systems ...
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News
Egypt plans Mediterranean to Red Sea high speed line
EGYPT: A memorandum of understanding for the design, construction and maintenance of a 1 000 km high speed rail network has been signed by the Ministry of Transport’s National Authority for Tunnels, Siemens Mobility and local companies Orascom Construction SAE and The Arab Contractors (Osman Ahmed Osman ...
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News
Etihad Rail Stage Two tracklaying underway
UAE: Tracklaying on the Package A section of Stage Two of the national railway network has been ceremonially launched by Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s Representative in Al Dhafra Region, during a visit to Etihad Rail’s railhead in Ruwais. The 1·5bn dirham Package ...
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News
Two presidents inaugurate Afghanistan – Iran railway
AFGHANISTAN: The country’s first standard gauge railway, which links Herat province with Khaf in eastern Iran, was formally inaugurated with a ceremony on December 10. Afghanistan’s President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani participated by video conference because of the ...
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News
First Iran to Afghanistan freight train
AFGHANISTAN: A trial freight train delivered more than 400 tonnes of cement from Iran to Rosnak in Herat province on December 2, ahead of the ceremonial inauguration of the newly completed railway which is scheduled for this month. A passenger train also carried Iranian railway officials ...
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Metro Report International
Metro to the pyramids contract awarded
EGYPT: The National Authority for Tunnels has awarded a consortium of Mitsubishi Corp and Orascom Construction the US$800m Railway Systems, Track Depot Works Package CP411 contract for Cairo metro Line 4 Phase 1. This will run 19 km southwest from central Cairo to the ...
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Metro Report International
Alexandria tramway to be modernised
EGYPT: A consortium of Systra, Egis, ACE and Projacs is to provide design and supervision services for the rehabilitation of the Alexandria tramway’s Raml Line, under a contract awarded by the National Authority for Tunnels which is responsible for urban rail projects.
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News
Desiro HC EMUs en route to Tel Aviv
ISRAEL: The first two of 24 partly double-deck electric multiple-units being built for Israel Railways by Siemens Mobility have been shipped from Hamburg and are due to arrive in Israel towards the end of November.
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Metro Report International
Haifa – Nazareth tram-train infrastructure works contracts awarded
ISRAEL: Project promoter Trans Israel-Advanced Transportation Solutions has selected local contractors to undertake civil works on the 41 km interurban tram-train line between Haifa and Nazareth. Y Lehrer Co, Rolider, Abraham Isaac and Brothers Anton Earthworks have been awarded the Section D contract ...
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Metro Report International
Baghdad elevated metro letter of intent signed
IRAQ: A letter of intent to define the steps needed to go ahead with the long-planned Baghdad metro has been signed by the Ministry of Transport and a consortium of Alstom and Hyundai Engineering Construction. The letter of intent was signed when Iraqi Prime ...
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News
Jerusalem – Tel Aviv electrification completed
ISRAEL: Israel Railways began test running of electric trains between Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and Hertzliya on September 6, following the completion of 25 kV 50 Hz electrification on the northern section of the Ayalon Corridor.
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Metro Report International
RATP Dev aims to make Cairo Line 3 ‘a world reference’
EGYPT: The government’s National Authority for Tunnels has awarded RATP Dev a €1·1bn contract to operate and maintain Cairo metro Line 3 for 15 years and commission future extensions. Opened in phases from 2012, the east–west Line 3 is currently 22·9 km long with 19 stations. ...