All Railway Gazette International articles in October 2014 – Page 5
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NewsJernbaneverket budget increased to NKr17·7bn
NORWAY: Acting Director General of Jernbaneverket, Gunnar Løvås, said on October 8 that he was ‘very pleased’ with the government’s budget which allocates a record NKr17·7bn to the infrastructure manager in 2015, an increase of NKr1·5bn on this year. Nearly NKr11·3bn is for capital investment and NKr6·5bn for operations ...
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NewsNew Tube for London initial designs unveiled
UK: Design proposals for the New Tube For London project to modernise London Underground’s small-profile Piccadilly, Bakerloo, Central and Waterloo & City lines were revealed on October 9. Transport for London has shortlisted Alstom, Bombardier, CAF, Hitachi and Siemens for the contract to supply around 250 trainsets. It plans ...
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NewsDB to close Eberswalde and Zwickau maintenance facilities
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn announced plans to close the DB Fahrzeuginstandhaltung rolling stock maintenance subsidiary’s Eberswalde and Zwickau sites on October 8. DB said there has been a significant reduction in wagon maintenance activities, as a result of fluctuations in the cyclical market and operators optimising their fleet planning to ...
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NewsRDC bids to upgrade the Sylt shuttle
GERMANY: Open access operator RDC Deutschland has submitted proposals to DB Netz for upgrading of the car-carrier shuttle service between Niebüll and Westerland on the island of Sylt. In return for higher access fees that would pay for upgrading of terminals and other infrastructure improvements, RDC Deutschland, the German ...
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NewsBombardier wins its first Ethiopian signalling contract
ETHIOPIA: Bombardier Transportation has been awarded a €36m contract to supply its Interflo 250 signalling for the 394 km line which is under construction to link Weldiya in the north of the country with Awash on the main Addis Abeba – Djibouti corridor. The contract announced on October 8 has ...
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NewsAbellio awarded ScotRail franchise
UK: The Abellio subsidiary of Dutch national passenger operator NS has been awarded the next ScotRail franchise, the Scottish Government announced on October 8. Abellio is to take over from current franchisee FirstGroup on April 1 2015. The franchise covers almost all internal passenger services within Scotland, and will run ...
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NewsRailway research stepped up
NORTH KOREA: Investment in research to develop local skills in locomotive production, track components and IT systems has been stepped up in North Korea, reports the State Academy of Sciences. SAS’s Branch Academy of Railway Science subsidiary has achieved ‘many successes’ in developing IT-based processes for rail transport, and it ...
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NewsDB and Schleswig-Holstein plan new line to reach Fehmarn Belt tunnel
GERMANY: Under a letter of intent signed by Schleswig-Holstein’s Minster for Transport, Economy, Labour & Technology, Reinhard Meyer, and DB Netz CEO Frank Sennhenn a double-track electrified line on a new alignment would be built between Lübeck and Puttgarden to serve the Fehmarn Belt tunnel, due to open in 2021. ...
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NewsEuropean Commission seeks associated members to join Shift2Rail
EUROPE: The European Commission has invited organisations to express interest in becoming associated members of the Shift2Rail initiative, which is to invest almost €920m in railway research and innovation in 2014-20. Applications are to be submitted by November 12, with the associated members to be selected in early 2015. The ...
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NewsFirst Rio Line 4 metro train rolls out
BRAZIL: The first trainset for Rio metro Line 4 rolled off the production line at the CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles factory in China on September 29. The Type A trainset is due to arrive in Rio in December. The six-car trainset has capacity for 2 240 passengers. The stainless ...
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NewsFirst trams arrive in Zhuhai
CHINA: The first two trams for Zhuhai Line 1 have arrived in the Chinese city from AnsaldoBreda’s Pistoia factory in Italy. The remaining eight trams will be assembled at CNR Dalian’s factory under a 10-year licensing agreement signed between the two firms in 2012. The five-section Sirio vehicles will ...
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NewsUrban rail news in brief - October 2014
Incumbent Üstra has been directly awarded a 22½ year contract to operate the Hannover light rail network from September 25 2015. India’s Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu has reduced the minimum population a city must have before the government supports the construction of a metro from 2 million to ...
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NewsKoleje Mazowieckie orders Newag EMUs to increase capacity
POLAND: Voivodship-owned operator Koleje Mazowieckie has selected Newag to supply 12 Impuls electric multiple-units between January and November 2015. European Union POIiŚ funding will cover 59% of the 257·3m złoty cost of the order. The five-car Impuls units will be 90·4 m long, enabling them to be operated in pairs ...
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NewsDEKRA acquires Plurel inspection business
NETHERLANDS: Industrial and automotive safety, quality and inspection services group DEKRA announced the acquisition of the Plurel business on October 6. Utrecht-based Plurel has 65 staff and provides rolling stock and infrastructure testing, inspection and certification services in the Benelux countries, France and the UK. DEKRA Rail is a ...
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NewsSaarbahn reaches Lebach
GERMANY: A northern extension of the Saarbahn tram-train in Saarbrücken was inaugurated at 10.00 on October 5, with a day of music and free travel until 18.00. The 10·4 km extension from Heusweiler Markt to Lebach-Jabach uses a former heavy rail alignment as far as DB’s Lebach branch, which ...
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NewsMAPNA to build diesel locos under licence
IRAN: Vossloh and MAPNA Group have reached a ‘long-term partnership’ agreement for the German firm’s G1206 four-axle multi-purpose diesel locomotive to be produced under licence in Iran. Imminent changes to European regulations will preclude future deliveries of the G1206 to customers in the EU, but Vossloh believes the design is ...
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NewsRail industry news in brief - October 2014
Bosnia’s two railway companies have agreed to operate 10 trains/day carrying ore from Omarska to ArcelorMittal’s Zenica steelworks, with trains to be increased from 1150 to 1450 tonnes to improve efficiency. RFF has begun work to reopen the 25 km Oloron – Bedous route to passenger traffic, disused since ...
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Metro Report InternationalKing Abdullah Financial District monorail revealed
SAUDI ARABIA: The first monorail vehicle for the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh was officially unveiled at InnoTrans by Pierre Attendu, President of Bombardier Transportation’s Systems Division, and Waleed Aleisa, Project Manager at Al Ra'idah Investment Co. The vehicle stopped off in Berlin while being delivered to Saudi ...
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NewsKing opens refurbished Casa-Port station
MOROCCO: King Mohammed VI has formally opened the refurbished station at Casa-Port in the city of Casablanca. The terminus has been redeveloped at a cost of 400m dirhams under a project led by national railway ONCF. The company says that station’s location ‘at the heart of a city undergoing wholesale ...
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NewsDoppelbauer to head European Railway Agency
EUROPE: Meeting in Lille on September 30, the Administrative Board of the European Railway Agency voted to appoint Dr Josef Doppelbauer as the next Executive Director, succeeding Marcel Verslype with effect from January 1 2015. Holding both a degree and a doctorate in physics, Doppelbauer started his career at the ...