All Railway Gazette International articles in October 2018 – Page 7
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Rail Business UKScotRail HSTs ready to enter service
UK: ScotRail will put its first refurbished diesel HST sets into revenue service between Aberdeen and Edinburgh on October 15, the operator announced during a VIP preview run on October 10. Full deployment is expected to follow from the December 9 timetable change. Branded Inter7City, the 26 upgraded HST sets ...
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Metro Report InternationalVertical platform gates to be tested in Paris
FRANCE: SNCF’s Transilien business unit is to test vertically-rising platform edge gates from South Korean technology company sTraffic at Vanves-Malakoff station in southern Paris. Under a contract awarded at the end of 2017, the gates are due to be installed by April 2019 for a one-year trial. sTraffic has set ...
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NewsGemas – Johor Bahru resignalling contract awarded
MALAYSIA: National operator KTMB has awarded a consortium of Ansaldo STS Malaysia and Pestech Technology a 264m ringgit contract for the resignalling of the Gemas – Johor Bahru main line in the south of the country. The 198 km metre-gauge route has 11 stations and a depot at Kempas ...
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NewsČeské Budějovice receives battery buses
CZECH REPUBLIC: The first batch of a total of 11 electric buses that Škoda Electric is supplying to České Budějovice arrived in the city on October 3, ahead of entry into passenger service expected on November 1. Škoda is supplying its 29 BB model, based on the Solaris Urbino ...
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NewsWagon maintenance deal
RUSSIA: United Wagon Co and Uralchem-Trans have signed an agreement to develop a service centre at Murashi on RZD’s Gorky Railway which would repair and maintain modern wagons produced at UWC’s Tikhvin plant. The Murashi depot has been servicing Tikhvin wagons managed by Uralchem Holding’s transport subsidiary since 2016. Uralchem-Trans ...
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NewsWellington infrastructure spending funded
NEW ZEALAND: A NZ$196m package of improvements to the Wellington regional rail network was announced by Transport Minister Phil Twyford on October 9. NZ Transport Agency funding of NZ$193m is being provided through the National Land Transport Fund to support infrastructure renewals and capacity enhancement under two business cases put ...
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Rail Business UKTalgo shortlists UK factory sites
UK: Talgo has shortlisted the port of Mostyn in north Wales as one of six potential sites for its proposed UK rolling stock manufacturing plant, the company announced in Cardiff on October 9. The other sites include St Helens, Leeds and Chesterfield in northern England, and Hunterston or Longannet in ...
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NewsTunnel opens on Novokuznetsk avoiding line
RUSSIA: Completed by Russian Railways at a cost of 7bn roubles, a second bore of the 1 158 m long Tomusinksy tunnel north of Novokuznetsk opened for revenue service on October 3. The second bore alleviates a significant bottleneck formed by the original single-track tunnel, opened in 1967. This ...
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Metro Report InternationalWork starts on Wien metro reconfiguration
AUSTRIA: A groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the future Matzleinsdorfer Platz station on October 8 marked the start of work on the reconfiguration of Wien metro Line U2 and new driverless Line U5. The event was attended by Transport Minister Norbert Hofer, Deputy Mayor Maria Vassilakou, city transport senator ...
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NewsŠkoda presents Mannheim tram mock-up
GERMANY: Škoda Transportation has presented a 16·5 m long mock-up of the ForCity Smart trams that it is supplying to Rhein-Neckar transport authority RNV in Mannheim. Earlier this year RNV awarded Škoda Transportation a €250m contract to supply 80 trams, with options for 34 additional vehicles. They will operate ...
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Rail Business UKHS2 unveils Birmingham station concepts
UK: Proposals for two new high speed stations in the West Midlands were unveiled by HS2 Ltd on October 9 as part of a public engagement programme. HS2 is seeking feedback on the designs before formal submissions for planning approval are lodged with Birmingham City Council and Solihull Metropolitan ...
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NewsElectric locomotive works to be privatised
UKRAINE: The State Property Fund of Ukraine has begun preparations to privatise the Dnipropetrovsk Electric Locomotive Plant in the city of Dnipro (formerly Dnipropetrovsk). The plant is to be sold in an auction, but the starting price and date have not been announced. The plant is equipped to produce main ...
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NewsSolaris signs Kaunas trolleybus contract
LITHUANIA: Kaunas public transport operator UAB Kauno Autobusai has signed a €29·4m contract with Solaris Bus & Coach for the supply of 85 trolleybuses. Deliveries of the low-floor Trollino 12 vehicles are due in 15 months from contract signing. The trolleybuses will have capacity for 85 passengers, including 27 ...
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NewsSNCB updates Hasselt workshops
BELGIUM: An extension to the SNCB rolling stock workshops at Hasselt was formally opened on October 8, with a ceremony attended by CEO Sophie Dutordoir, the new Managing Director of SNCB Technics Gerd de Vos, Governor of Limburg Herman Reynders and the Mayor of Hasselt Nadja Vananroye. Under development since ...
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Metro Report InternationalUITP and APTA sign MoU
NORTH AMERICA: UITP and APTA signed a memorandum of understanding on September 25 to strengthen their relationship and future co-operation. The two organisations will work together on areas of mutual benefit to their members and organise joint training programmes. The first topics identified for co-operation are electric buses and ...
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NewsUnion Pacific launches Unified Plan 2020 to improve performance
USA: On October 1 Union Pacific began the phased roll-out of its Unified Plan 2020, an operating plan designed to implement ‘precision scheduled railroading’ principles with the aim of achieving an operating ratio of 60 by 2020 and 55 in the longer term. UP said the implementation of precision scheduled ...
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Rail Business UKTrainPal smartphone app offers split ticketing options
UK: A smartphone booking app which calculates split ticketing options has been launched by Ctrip, the parent company of flight booking platform Skyscanner. The intricacies of the UK ticketing system mean it is sometimes possible for passengers to save money by booking separate tickets for different sections of a through ...
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NewsFirst Caen tram delivered
FRANCE: The first Citadis X05 tram arrived at the Fleury-sur-Orne depot in Caen on October 4, having left Alstom’s La Rochelle factory two days earlier. In November 2016 the city awarded Alstom a €52m contract to supply 23 trams for the 16·8 km three-line network which is being built ...
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NewsNorthern Latitudinal Railway concession signed
RUSSIA: Having been approved by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in mid-August, a formal concession agreement covering construction of the Northern Latitudinal Railway was signed at the ProMotion 1520 forum in Sochi on October 3. The SShKh consortium will be responsible for financing, building and operating the 113bn rouble line, which ...
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Metro Report InternationalWork begins on T13 Express tram-train route in Paris
FRANCE: Work on the T13 Express tram-train project in the western suburbs of Paris was officially launched on October 5, with the start of construction of a new depot at Versailles. The first 18·8 km phase would introduce tram-train services from the existing RER station at Saint-Cyr to Noisy-le-Roi ...