The LINXS Constructors joint venture of Fluor, Balfour Beatty, Dragados USA and Flatiron has completed construction of the guideway for the 3·6 km, six station Los Angeles International Airport peoplemover, which is scheduled to open in 2023.
Hong Kong’s MTR Corp ran a special train on the East Rail Line on May 6 to mark the withdrawal of the last of the 29 ex-KCR ‘mid-life refurbishment’ Metro-Cammell trainsets, ahead of the opening of the cross-harbour extension on May 15. ‘With 40 years of operations connecting downtown Kowloon with the New Territories, the service of the MLR trains has played an important role in the city’s development and connecting the lives of Hong Kong people’, said Operations Director Dr Tony Lee. ‘The successor trains will carry on their dedicated spirit while providing a smarter and more extended railway service to Hong Kong Island’.
Bangkok urban rail operator BTS Group Holdings has issued senior unsecured Sustainability-Linked Bonds totalling 11bn baht, with the financial characteristics are linked to targets for total electricity consumption per car-km and renewable energy consumption for operations on the Green Line network.
Certifer is to provide Independent Safety Assessment services during the design, construction, testing and commissioning of Tunis Réseau Ferroviaire Rapide lines D and E. The 11·5 km first phase of Line D will connect Tunis station to Gobaa with eight stations, and the 6·4 km first phase of Line E will connect Tunis to Bougatfa with six stations. The two lines will share a 266 m double-track cut-and-cover tunnel.
Tel Aviv transport project promoter NTA has announced that the heavy metro Line M1 which was originally planned to link the greater Tel Aviv area with Herzliya, Ramat HaSharon, and Ra’anana will instead terminate at Gelilot, owing to opposition from the mayors who said that very high levels of car ownership mean people would not use the future line.
The Generalitat de Catalunya has awarded Axians a €4·7m contract to lay 28 km of optic fibre cable along Barcelona metro Line 9.
City Rail Link Ltd has announced the proposed names of Auckland’s City Rail Link stations as Maungawhau (Mt Eden), Karanga a Hape (Karangahape), Te Wai Horotiu (Aotea) and Waitematā (Britomart). The names ‘acknowledge the unique cultural and historic heritage of Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland’, said CEO Dr Sean Sweeney. ‘We are honoured to have been gifted these ngā ingoa tuku iho (traditional names) by our Mana Whenua Forum along with invaluable mātauranga (knowledge) Māori throughout the project.’
GreaterToronto area transport authority Metrolinx has awarded Bird Construction’s Dagmar Construction subsidiary a C$62m contract for track, signal and station works as part of the Kitchener GO Corridor Expansion project.
A review of options for a planned extension of the Salzburger Lokalbahn from Salzburg Hauptbahnhof to Akademiestraße has recommended a fully-underground alignment, as surface options would offer slower journeys and less stable timetables.
ZF Services UK has joined the UKTram industry association. The company’s Nottingham site provides products and engineering support to global customers including the København metro, and its Sachs dampers are in use on Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield trams and the Docklands Light Railway. ‘We believe we are perfectly positioned to support UKTram in its campaigns and look forward to highlighting our range of services and support to fellow members’, said Head of Industrial Sales Gavin Donoghue.
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has selected Randy Clarke, who is currently President & CEO of Capital Metro in Austin, Texas, as its next General Manager & CEO. He will take up the role in late summer, succeeding Paul J Wiedefeld who is retiring.