All News articles – Page 5
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Rail Business UK
RENFE joins MTR’s West Coast Partnership bid team
UK: MTR Corp announced on December 20 that Spanish national operator RENFE had joined its bid for the West Coast Partnership franchise. The Department for Transport invited three shortlisted bidders to tender for WCP in March this year. The contract will cover operation of inter-city services on the West Coast ...
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News
NJ Transit orders double-deck EMUs from Bombardier
USA: A firm order for 113 double-deck EMU cars was approved by the NJ Transit board on December 12. A base contract will be placed with Bombardier Transportation for what the commuter rail operator claims will be ‘the first self-propelled multilevel railcars in the USA’. The contract is valued ...
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News
Connection concerns raised as Ouigo expands
FRANCE: The European timetable change on December 9 marks a further expansion of SNCF’s low-cost high speed operation Ouigo. Routes to be added to the network include three daily return services between Paris-Lyon and Marseille, and three between Lille-Flandres and Marseille. When Ouigo was launched in April 2013, it operated ...
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News
RFI completes Adriatic Corridor gauge clearance work
ITALY: Infrastructure manager RFI opened the double-track Frentani tunnel near Ortona south of Pescara on December 2. Built at a cost of €25m, the tunnel is 523 m long and has been excavated 30 m south of the existing single-bore Castello tunnel. RFI now intends to close this bore ...
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Rail Business UK
UK railway news round-up
The parliamentary Transport Select Committee issued its formal report on December 4 examining the widespread disruption experienced across the network after the May 2018 timetable change. The committee makes a series of recommendations, including the ‘immediate priority’ of establishing national oversight for upcoming timetable changes with independent oversight of the ...
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News
Korail-Supreme Railways merger plan back on
SOUTH KOREA: The government has revived plans to combine national passenger operator Korail with new entrant Supreme Railways, Korail’s Vice-President for Passenger Transport Hyungik Cho has told Railway Gazette. The Ministry of Land & Infrastructure has commissioned a feasibility study into the effects of the possible merger, and its conclusions ...
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News
More EU funding to enhance the Kosovan network
KOSOVO: A second tranche of EU funding worth €17·2m has been awarded to Kosovo to support rehabilitation of the railway between Fushë Kosovë and Mitrovicë, which is on the main line running south towards the border with FYR Macedonia and is part of pan-European Corridor X. The EU funding is ...
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News
Hopes rise for trans-Korean rail traffic
ASIA: The first train in a decade to cross the border between the two Koreas passed through the Demilitarised Zone on November 30 as negotiations begin to restore international rail traffic between the two countries. Staffed by 28 South Korean specialists, the test train is due to spend 18 days ...
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News
Poroshenko inaugurates airport link in Kyiv
UKRAINE: On November 30, national railway UZ introduced an airport shuttle branded Kyiv Boryspil Express between the city’s Pasazhyrskiy station and its principal airport. The rail link to Boryspil airport has been completed within a budget of 480m hryvna; it required construction of a 4 km branch running south from ...
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News
Brightline to negotiate land leases as Orlando – Tampa proposal progresses
USA: The state of Florida has chosen to accept a proposal from inter-city passenger company Brightline to develop a route between Orlando and Tampa, largely following trunk roads. Brightline had initially proposed the route as the third phase of its network; Florida Governor Rick Scott then issued a request for ...
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News
New York MTA to acquire Grand Central Terminal
USA: New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has agreed to purchase Grand Central Terminal and sections of the Hudson and Harlem commuter rail lines, correcting what it terms a ‘historical quirk’ of New York infrastructure ownership. The acquisitions, valued at $35m, were approved at an MTA finance committee meeting in mid-November. ...
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News
Stadler rolls out Guardia with BLS as it expands into signalling
SWITZERLAND: Field tests and approval work is now underway ahead of the introduction of Stadler’s first onboard train protection unit with BLS. Stadler describes the development of the Guardia ETCS onboard unit as a ‘key milestone’ in its history. The Swiss company has previously focused on producing vehicles, but two ...
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News
Medway seeks Iberian freight growth
PORTUGAL: Private freight operator Medway is planning to invest €25m in a new intermodal terminal at Famalicão. The subsidiary of shipping line MSC Group hopes that construction can begin next year, once Famalicão municipality and infrastructure manager Infraestruturas de Portugal have given final sign-off. According to Medway President Carlos ...
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News
Marmaray corridor to open in Q1 2019, minister says
TURKEY: Transport Minister Cahit Turhan provided a progress update on November 16 on three new line projects as they near completion under the railway investment Master Plan. The government’s priority is completion of the surface works along the Marmaray corridor which runs across Istanbul from Gebze on the Asian side ...
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News
‘Broad coalition’ needed to deliver HS2
UK: ‘It will take a broad coalition involving us, the supply chain and local and national government to deliver this project’, Mark Thurston, Chief Executive of government high speed rail project delivery company HS2 Ltd told the All-Party Parliamentary Rail Group on November 20. He was updating parliamentarians on progress ...
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News
‘Serious challenges’ facing California high speed programme
USA: The programme to build a high speed rail network through California linking Los Angeles with the San Francisco Bay Area is facing ‘serious challenges’, according to a report issued by the state auditor on November 15. Many of the risks relate to California High Speed Rail Authority’s decision to ...
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News
Private funding needed under C$6bn VIA Rail investment plan
CANADA: National passenger operator VIA Rail says that private-sector backing will be needed to support an investment programme worth more than C$6bn over the next decade. Chief Executive Yves Desjardins-Siciliano told the Terrapinn World Rail Festival conference in Amsterdam on November 13 that VIA Rail’s most pressing priority is to ...
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News
SHERPA project tackles terrorist threat to railways
EUROPE: The Shared & coHerent European Railway Protection Approach project to address risks associated with terrorist threats to trains and stations was launched in Paris on November 13. The 24-month SHERPA project is being funded by a grant from the European Union’s Internal Security Fund Police and co-ordinated by ...
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Mercitalia launches high speed freight service
ITALY: FS Group freight subsidiary Mercitalia is to launch its first high speed freight service on November 7. FS says the Mercitalia Fast service is designed to meet the needs of express courier companies, logistics operators, producers and distributors. Operated by a converted ETR500 trainset, the Mercitalia Fast overnight service ...
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News
Contract to modernise Turkey – Bulgaria main line awarded
TURKEY: Working with the Directorate-General for Foreign Relations & European Union Affairs, the transport ministry has awarded a contract to modernise a 200 km section of the main line which links Istanbul with the Bulgarian border to a consortium of domestic construction and contracting groups Gulermak Agir Sanayii ve Taah ...