All News articles – Page 68
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NewsRotterdam Centraal rebuilding begins
NETHERLANDS: Work has begun to transform Rotterdam Centraal station, with the aim of creating a showpiece facility equalling major stations in Paris, Madrid and London. The completion of Randstadrail and HSL Zuid is expected to lead to a tripling of traffic to 323 000 passengers a day by 2025, requiring ...
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NewsSapsan run marks high speed train depot opening
RUSSIA: A Sapsan high speed train made its first demonstration run on the Moscow - St Petersburg line on July 30, reaching 250 km/h as it carried guests including RZD President Vladimir Yakunin and Governor of St Petersburg Valentina Matviyenko to the formal opening of a maintenance depot in St ...
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NewsNews in Brief
The European Commission has approved a funding and loan guarantee from the Danish state to finance planning of the Fehmarn Belt fixed link. It determined that this does not fall under the scope of rules on state aid, and promotes a project of common interest. Denmark will provide public ...
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NewsMÁV wagon works privatised
HUNGARY: Romanian rail freight, rolling stock maintenance and industrial group Grampet has completed the purchase of MÁV Debreceni Jármujavító, a subsidiary of Hungarian State Railways which operates the Debrecen wagon works. MÁV has made a number of attempts to sell the business since January 2007, eventually negotiating a deal with ...
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NewsEC sets out ERTMS deployment deadlines
EUROPE: The European Commission adopted an ERTMS deployment plan on July 22, setting out legally-binding deadlines for the implementation of ETCS and GSM-R on key corridors. Coming into force on September 1, it amends the Technical Specifications for Interoperability for Control-Command and Signalling (TSI CCS) and is intended to co-ordinate ...
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NewsWinners of largest German tender named
GERMANY: Berlin-Brandenburg transport authority VBB has selected DB Regio and Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn as the winners of regional operating contracts with a total value of €1·3bn in the largest rail tendering process undertaken in Germany. VBB managed the tendering on behalf of the Länder of Berlin, Brandenburg, Sachsen-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. ...
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NewsRussia orders international sleeping cars
RUSSIA: RZD has ordered 200 sleeping cars which will be supplied with interchangeable standard and broad -gauge bogies for services to central and western Europe. A contract was signed with Siemens Mobility and Transmash Holding's TVZ subsidiary onboard a Sapsan high speed train on July 30. According to RZD, ...
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NewsFar north heavy haul study
EUROPE: The development of iron ore mines around Pajala in Sweden and Kolari in Finland has spurred the re-evaluation of proposals for the Ishavsbanen, a 312 km line linking Kolari to Skibotn on the Norwegian Sea. A feasibility study by Sweco was presented by a grouping of local authorities in ...
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NewsEnquiry service Tweets train delays
UK: Up-to-the-minute information on disruption to train services is now available from National Rail Enquiries via the Twitter microblogging service. Passengers can 'follow' the main National Rail Enquiries profile to receive updates from across the network, or can select feeds for individual train operators. The messages ('Tweets') include links to ...
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NewsCzech passenger tendering plan
CZECH REPUBLIC:Plans to let 10 to 15-year franchises covering up to three-quarters of the country’s long-distance passenger rail services were unveiled by Transport Minister Gustav Slamecka on July 3. The first contracts could be placed by October. The franchises would be awarded gradually over the next decade, with ...
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NewsMilano operator orders GTWs
ITALY: Milano-based regional operator FNM has become Stadler's eighth Italian customer, with a €90m order for 19 GTW diesel-electric multiple-units to be delivered in 2011. Stadler is to supply 11 four-car GTW 4/12 units for use on Milano - Molteno - Lecco services, and eight two-car GTW 2/6 units ...
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NewsMadrid airport rail link advances
SPAIN: A joint venture of Ferrovial Agromán and Azvi had been awarded a €47·4m contract for tracklaying, electrification and railway systems installation on the 6·9 km new-build component of the rail link between Madrid Charmartín and Terminal 4 at Barajas Airport, the Ministry of Development announced on July 16. ...
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NewsBuilding on growth
ISRAEL: According to current projections, Israel Railways expects to carry more than 37 million passengers this year, a 5% increase on the 35·1 million handled in 2008, and more than eight times the 4·3 million recorded in 1994. Whilst the economic downturn has slowed the rate of ...
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NewsTalgo’s 380 km/h Avril train to take on the airlines
SPAIN: In its first 18 months of full operation, the Madrid - Barcelona high speed line has made significant inroads into market share on what was the country’s busiest domestic air corridor. But RENFE Operadora believes it needs to do more if rail is to achieve total dominance. With 300 ...
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NewsAmtrak calls bids for locos and passenger cars
USA: Amtrak is in the market for 130 passenger cars and at least 20 electric locomotives, to be funded under a five-year $5·3bn capital grant programme which forms part of last year's Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act. The national passenger operator is seeking 130 Viewliner 2 long-distance single-deck passenger ...
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NewsTesting tweaks AGV to Italian specifications
CZECH REPUBLIC: Following 7 500 km of trial runs at up to 360 km/h on LGV Est in France, Alstom's AGV demonstrator trainset has returned to the Velim test circuit east of Praha to be fine-tuned to the requirements of launch customer NTV. As well as meeting Europe-wide Technical ...
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NewsKnorr-Bremse receives Queen’s Award for Innovation
UK: On July 23 The Duchess of Cornwall presented Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems (UK) Ltd with the Queen’s Award for Industry in the Innovation category, for the design, manufacture and sales of EP2002 Distributed Brake Control. The Duchess toured the company’s headquarters in Melksham, and spoke to the team responsible ...
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NewsMerger of Veolia Transport and Transdev under discussion
FRANCE: State-owned investment body Caisse des Dépôts announced on July 22 that it had decided to enter into exclusive negotiations with Veolia Environnement with a view to merging their Transdev and Veolia Transport subsidiaries. The new company would be owned equally by Caisse des Dépôts and Veolia Environnement, have ...
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NewsInter-city electrification planning to start immediately
UK: An immediate start of detailed planning for electrification of the Great Western Main Line and Manchester Victoria - Liverpool route were announced by Secretary of State for Transport Lord Andrew Adonis on July 23. The Great Western route will be electrified from London to Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea ...
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NewsTrack access reforms approved
SLOVENIA: The National Assembly approved changes to legislation which were necessary to transpose two European directives into Slovenian law on July 15. Responsibility for the collection of track access charges has been transferred from national operator Slovenske Zeleznice to the Rail Transport Agency. The second change opens up the ...