n Chinese Railways has put into service a luxury six-car electric multiple-unit to carry tourists between Kunming and historic sites at Shilin. Built by Zhuzhou works, the Stone Forest Express can carry 602 passengers at a maximum speed of 120 km/h. The train is timetabled to cover the 130 km in 1h 27min at an average of 90 km/h. At present the train operates a single round trip each day.
n French National Railways is equipping eight of its TGV Réseau trainsets with six automatic vending machines each to provide limited refreshment services on TGV Nord Europe trains between Paris and Lille. The 1h journey time has not proved conducive to on-train catering; full restaurant provision was abandoned in 1996 after patronage fell to an average 15 people per trainset per day, and bar services were similarly withdrawn in 1998.
n British Minister for Transport Helen Liddell opened the first phase of a £63m improvement programme at London’s Paddington station on June 23, including 27 check-in desks for airline passengers using Heathrow Express located within a new glazed area at the southern end of the concourse. Airport portering specialist Excess Baggage Ltd has introduced a multi-lingual RailPorter service at the station.
n Switzerland’s Brig - Visp - Zermatt Railway began public consultations in June for a major reconstruction of its park-and-ride interchange at Täsch, from where motorists are shuttled in and out of Zermatt. A four-track terminal station and a covered car park are planned to handle patronage now in excess of 1·5 million passengers/year.
n German Railway’s suburban business is to invest DM40m in a new control centre to oversee security and safety at 49 stations on the Hamburg S-Bahn network. As part of the package, in-cab CCTV will enable drivers of DOO trainsets to check passenger movements, allowing platform dispatching staff to be redeployed on customer service duties.
n South African transport holding group Transnet is looking for private-sector partners to form a joint venture with Spoornet to operate and market the Blue Train. Both trainsets have been refurbished at a cost of R70m and operate a range of tourist-oriented services as well as the basic Pretoria - Cape Town run.
n Romanian National Railways has announced plans to modernise 13 of its major stations in the first phase of a national programme. Included in the list are Bucuresti, Arad, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Craiova, Vaslui and Iasi.
n The Russian Ministry of Railways is to launch a television advertising campaign to encourage long-distance rail travel. Emphasising improved comfort and special family fares, the campaign is intended to reverse the recent decline in patronage, particularly in the 700 to 800 km range.
n DB Reise&Touristik introduced porter services at 17 major stations during July and August in a bid to encourage more holidaymakers to use rail. For DM1 per item, the porters will transfer bags between inter-city and local trains, taxis or U-Bahn stations. Free cold drinks will also be offered to waiting passengers at 20 stations on Friday and Saturday afternoons when high temperatures are recorded.
CAPTION: Thames Trains has completed a programme of improvements to the concourse at Oxford station, including a new travel centre and extra ticket vending machines. The station has also received new passenger information displays presenting real-time train-running information
