All Railway Gazette International articles in October 2011
All articles published this month.
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NewsAlger metro inaugurated
ALGERIA: President Abdelaziz Bouteflika officially inaugurated the country’s first metro line on October 31, paving the way for the start of revenue operation. Under construction for almost three decades, the first phase of Alger metro Line 1 links Haï el Badr in the southeast to Tafourah Grande Poste in the ...
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NewsIndependent Transport Co wins Freight One auction
RUSSIA: Independent Transport Co was the winning bidder for the 75% minus two shares stake in Russian Railways' First Freight Company subsidiary which was sold by auction on October 28. ITC is owned by Vladimir Lisin, Chairman of Novolipetsk Steel and reported by Forbes to be Russia's richest ...
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NewsJeolla upgrade completed
SOUTH KOREA: President Lee Myung-bak joined the celebrations in Yeosu on October 5 to mark the completion of double-tracking and electrification work on KR’s Jeolla line between Iksan and Yeosu. Upgrading of the 180 km route for 180 km/h operation has been brought forward to enable Korail to run ...
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NewsBorders bidder drops out
UK: Transport Scotland was forced to abandon plans to award a 30-year concession to design, build, finance and maintain a reinstated 56 km line from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, after the second of three prequalified bidders dropped out in the face of uncertain construction risks. This meant the hoped-for element of ...
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NewsSurveying in focus
GERMANY: VDEI’s Academy for Railway Systems held a conference on geo-surveying in Nürnberg on September 28. Entitled ‘Geodesy: a partnership for railway infrastructure’, the conference attracted speakers from a number of universities, research institutions and rail suppliers, who addressed questions surrounding the accurate recording of geospatial data, how this data ...
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NewsSKM buys Mouchel's rail business
UK: Mouchel Group announced an agreement to sell its rail engineering business to Sinclair Knight Merz for £3·4m in cash on October 19. Mouchel Rail has 107 staff in London and Manchester providing design, consultancy and project management services for civil and structural engineering, signalling and permanent way. It reported ...
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NewsValenciennes tram extension
FRANCE: Ceremonies on September 16 launched construction of the €105m third phase of the Valenciennes tramway. Due for completion in 2013, the 15·5 km single track Anzin - Vieux-Condé Line 2 will have 22 stops. Colas Rail is undertaking railway works, Spie electrification and Ineo Rail signalling and telecoms. It ...
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NewsMedics meet
SPAIN: Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya hosted this year’s UIMC conference in Barcelona. UIMC is the medical division of UIC, and it holds an annual event gathering together medical professionals working in the railway industry globally. UIMC 2011 took place on October 5-7 and saw around 50 delegates attend ...
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NewsRail Industry Training & Recruitment in Brief
Graduate student Naveen Venkataraman has undertaken a three-month placement with US freight railroad CSX during which he helped the company to identify $1·2m in cost savings and reduce emissions by up to 3 000 tonnes per year. Venkataraman is a member of the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps, and he ...
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NewsSlaskie goes it alone
POLAND: A new passenger operator was launched on October 1 when Koleje Slaskie began Czestochowa - Katowice - Gliwice local services, plus a weekend train to Wisla. KS is owned by Slaskie voivodship, which was unhappy at its share of the subsidy for Polish regional train operator PR increasing from ...
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Tim Shoveller
Tim Shoveller has been named as the next Managing Director of Stagecoach Group’s South West Trains franchise in the UK, suceeding Andy Pitt who will retire at the end of the year. Shoveller will join SWT on December 1, being succeeded as Managing Director of East Midlands Trains by EMT Commercial ...
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Kyrill Androsov
Kyrill Androsov has been elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Russian Railways. A former Deputy Minister of Economic Development & Trade, he has been Chief of Staff at the Russian government since 2008, and is also a board member at Aeroflot.
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Ann Billiau
Ann Billiau has been appointed Director-General of Network Access at Infrabel, succeeding Luc Vansteenkiste, who moved to become Director-General of Infrastructure on October 1. Having joined SNCB in 1993, she has worked in the Network Access unit since 2005.
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Ousmane Thiam
Ousmane Thiam was elected as President of the International Union of Public Transport during an Executive Board meeting in Milano on October 22. A Civil Engineer with a PhD in Transport Economics, he is President of the Conseil Exécutif des Transports Urbains de Dakar in Senegal, and becomes the first African ...
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NewsToronto airport rail link preferred bidder named
CANADA: The AirLINX Transit Partners consortium of Aecon Construction & Materials and Dufferin Construction Co was named preferred bidder to design, build and finance Toronto's Air Rail Link project on October 24. The ARL connecting Terminal 1 at Pearson International Airport with Union Station in the city centre is being ...
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NewsExpress Rail Link station contract awarded
CHINA: MTR Corp has awarded a joint venture of Leighton Asia and Gammon Construction the West Kowloon Terminus Station North contract, covering construction of the Hong Kong terminus of the future Express Rail Link to Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Announcing the HK$8·9bn win on October 20, Leighton Asia said the 'world-class' ...
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NewsKarlsruhe orders Vossloh tram-trains
GERMANY: Vossloh has won a €75m contract to supply Karlsruhe transport operators VBK and AVG with 25 Citylink NET 2012 tram-train vehicles from October 2013. The deal signed on October 25 includes an option for up to 50 more of the low-floor cars. They are to be supplied through ...
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NewsWest Coast franchise extended
UK: On October 27 the Department for Transport announced an eight-month extension of the franchise to operate InterCity West Coast services which is held by Virgin Trains. Virgin Trains is a joint venture of Virgin Group and Stagecoach, and its franchise will now run to December 9 2012, rather ...
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NewsSpanish consortium wins Haramain High Speed Rail contract
SAUDI ARABIA: The AlShoula Consortium of two Saudi and 12 Spanish companies was declared the winner of a €6·74bn contract to supply railway systems and rolling stock for the Haramain High Speed Rail project on October 26. The contract covers track, 25 kV 50 Hz electrification, signalling and telecoms for ...
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NewsEtihad Rail awards phase one civils contract
UAE: The Civil & Track Works contract for the 266 km first phase of the national rail network has been awarded to a consortium of Italian firms Saipem and Tecnimont and local company Dodsal Engineering & Construction, Etihad Rail announced on October 26. The 3·3bn dirham contract covers design, procurement ...