Passenger rail news – Page 10
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NewsPassenger services resume on two lines in Piemonte after 12-year hiatus
ITALY: Following 12 years without passenger services, trains have started running again on two regional railways in the Piemonte region. The regional government will subsidise each service by €3m annually, says Marco Gabusi, portfolio holder for transport. Trains are to be run by national operator Trenitalia; ...
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NewsFranken-Thüringen-Express EMUs ready for service
GERMANY: The first of 26 Desiro HC partly double-deck electric multiple-units ordered for use on Franken-Thüringen-Express services has been unveiled by Bayern railway agency BEG, train operator DB Regio Bayern and manufacturer Siemens Mobility. The Länder of Bayern and Thüringen have awarded the DB subsidiary a ...
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NewsDeutsche Bahn to sell Arriva Group to I Squared
EUROPE: German national railway Deutsche Bahn has signed an agreement to sell the whole of Arriva Group to infrastructure investment manager I Squared Capital. The transaction announced on October 19 is expected to complete in 2024, subject to customary closing conditions including the approval of the ...
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NewsPrasa reopens Durban suburban line using X’Trapolis EMUs
SOUTH AFRICA: Passenger Agency of South Africa has restarted a limited passenger service on the 17 km Durban – KwaMashu suburban rail line. A reopening ceremony on September 12 was attended by Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga and CEO of the Prasa Group Hishaam Emeran. While ...
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NewsLuxury cruise train to link Uzbekistan’s Silk Road cities
UZBEKISTAN: Italian luxury hospitality company Arsenale has announced plans to launch a luxury cruise train to take tourists between Toshkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva from late 2026. A memorandum of understanding for the project was signed with national railway UTY and the government’s Tourism Committee in ...
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NewsBrandenburg operating contract awarded
GERMANY: Berlin-Brandenburg transport authority VBB has awarded incumbent Hanseatische Eisenbahn a contract to operate two local passenger services. The contract covers the operation of 0·256 million train-km/year on services RB73 Neustadt (Dosse) – Pritzwalk and RB74 Meyenburg – Pritzwalk West. Following a call for tenders, the ...
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NewsCanada’s High Frequency Rail programme moves to RFP stage
CANADA: National transport minister Pablo Rodriguez has formally launched the Request for Proposals for the planned High Frequency Rail project to create a Québec City to Toronto rail corridor with dedicated passenger tracks. The RFP process will last until summer 2024, the government announced on October ...
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NewsNew entrant seeks to launch passenger trains on seven routes in Italy
ITALY: Privately owned new entrant Longitude Holding has submitted requests to operate passenger services on one international and six domestic routes, rail regulator ART has confirmed to Railway Gazette International.
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NewsAmtrak Airo train production provides supply chain boost
USA: Amtrak says the production of Airo trainsets at Siemens Mobility’s Sacramento plant is boosting businesses across the country, with more than 3 500 parts being manufactured by nearly 100 suppliers in 31 states. ‘As we build to support the soaring demand for train travel, Amtrak ...
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NewsCalifornia orders hydrogen trains
USA: Stadler has been awarded what it calls a ‘transformative’ contract to supply hydrogen fuel cell multiple-units to California. The contract signed with the California State Transportation Agency and California Department of Transportation on October 12 includes a $80m firm order for four trains, with options ...
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NewsGo-Ahead sells German rail business to ÖBB
GERMANY: Go-Ahead Group has agreed to sell its German rail business to Austrian Federal Railways’ passenger division ÖBB-Personenverkehr, and is looking at options for the future of its Norwegian activities. Managing Director of Go-Ahead Deutschland Fabian Amini said ÖBB ‘has a good reputation in Germany’. The ...
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In depthUSA: Coastal corridor offers a growth blueprint
With Amtrak seeking to develop medium-distance corridor services linking selected city pairs across the USA, Dave Lustig looks to southern California, where inter-city passenger trains offer an attractive alternative to gridlocked highways.
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NewsEvolyn to launch Paris – London trains in competition with Eurostar
EUROPE: High speed rail start-up Evolyn has announced plans to launch passenger services to compete with Eurostar on the ‘strategic and high demand’ route between Paris and London. On October 11 the company said it had reached an agreement to acquire 12 Avelia high speed trains ...
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NewsRENFE reiterates Paris plans after successful open access launch
FRANCE: Spanish incumbent RENFE Viajeros reported on October 3 that its entry into the French market under open access rules has been a success. The company has been running Barcelona – Lyon and Madrid – Marseille services under its own safety case since July; these routes ...
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NewsEMUs ordered to support ENNO capacity increase
GERMANY: The Greater Braunschweig regional transport association has ordered five more Alstom Coradia Continental electric multiple-units to increase capacity on Elektro-Netz Niedersachsen-Ost services.
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NewsEuropean Sleeper announces launch date for Praha night train service
EUROPE: Open access night train operator European Sleeper has announced the launch date and timetable for the extension of its current Brussels - Berlin service to Dresden and Praha. Services are scheduled to start on March 25 2024. European Sleeper’s Brussels – ...
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NewsGuangzhou – Shanwei high speed line opens
CHINA: A 240 km east-west high speed line connecting Guangzhou Dong station with Shanwei opened on September 26. Extra tracks have been laid alongside the existing four-track alignment over the 53 km from Guangzhou Dong to a junction east of Xintang, where the new line diverges. ...
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NewsPassenger service resumes through Gotthard Base Tunnel
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways has reintroduced a limited passenger service through the 57 km trans-Alpine Gotthard Base Tunnel. The world’s longest railway tunnel was badly damaged when a freight train derailed on August 10, affecting 8 km of one of the two running bores, and one of ...
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NewsViewpoint: What station users need from information screens
High speed line concessionaire HS1 Ltd has undertaken in-depth research to help it improve the usability of information screens at London’s St Pancras International station.
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NewsPacific Surfliner switches to renewable fuel
USA: The Siemens Mobility Charger diesel-electric locomotives hauling Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner service are now using renewable fuel made from materials including used cooking oil. The Los Angeles – San Diego – San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency which manages the Pacific Surfliner service said this would ...