Passenger rail news – Page 126
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NewsFTA stalls federal support for Gateway Programme
USA: The Federal Transit Administration on March 18 announced that it had ranked the Gateway Programme to increase rail capacity between New York and New Jersey with a ‘medium to low’ financing status, making it ineligible at present for federal Capital Investment Grants. The ranking applies both to the planned ...
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NewsTransdev orders the 1 000th Coradia Lint
GERMANY: Transdev’s Bayerische Regiobahn has awarded Alstom a €150m contract to supply 41 two-car Coradia Lint diesel multiple-units. The 140 km/h DMUs are scheduled to be delivered from Alstom’s Salzgitter plant by September 2022, and will be used on Augsburger Netz Lot 2 regional passenger services covering routes from ...
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NewsEMUs to increase capacity in eastern Austria
AUSTRIA: National railway ÖBB’s passenger business has awarded Siemens Mobility a firm contract to supply a further 24 Cityjet three-car Desiro ML electric multiple-units for use in Wien, Niederösterreich and Burgenland from mid-2020. These will replace older vehicles, increase capacity to accommodate rising ridership, and support upgrading of the Marchegger ...
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NewsSuburban operator orders EMUs
RUSSIA: Central Suburban Passenger Co has awarded Transmashholding’s Demikhovsky factory a contract to supply 21 Class EP2D electric multiple-units, to be financed by Sberbank Leasing. The 11-car 3kV DC EMUs will be 244 m long with a capacity of 2 866 passengers. Three will have folding steps for use at ...
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NewsModernised platskartny coach enters service
RUSSIA: The first platskartny coach to be modernised by the Vagonremmash factory in Tambov re-entered revenue service on March 18, following the completion of testing and certification. It is to be used on trains 19/20 Rostov-na-Donu – Moscow and 11/12 Anapa – Moscow. Platskartny coaches offer the most basic, and ...
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NewsTilting train service direct award planned
GERMANY: The Land of Thüringen has given advance notice of its intention to directly award incumbent DB Regio a new contract to continue to operate a group of regional passenger services which require the use of tilting diesel-multiple units to achieve the required timings. The Land said a direct award ...
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NewsStation regeneration to create a gateway to Vilnius
LITHUANIA: The Vilnius Connect programme to revitalise the capital’s main station and its surroundings has been designated as a project of regional importance by the city council. Mayor Remigijus Šimašius said the project to create a modern European gateway to the city would be inspired by the ‘best examples of ...
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NewsAlgorithm could cut high speed rail energy use
CHINA: Researchers at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University’s Suzhou campus have developed an algorithm intended to optimise the storage and reuse of braking energy. Currently, regenerative braking is used extensively across China’s 29 000 km high speed network. Typically, the energy is returned to the grid by trains under braking, and reused ...
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NewsLithuanian Railways restructuring underway
LITHUANIA: The restructuring of national railway Lietuvos Geležinkeliai into a state-owned holding company with stand-alone passenger, freight and infrastructure business is underway, with completion planned for the second quarter of this year. LG said the change was intended to increase transparency and operational efficiency and to comply with the requirements ...
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NewsMelbourne airport rail link accord
AUSTRALIA: Development of the long-planned rail link to Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport is set to move forward following the signing of Heads of Agreement between the federal government and the state of Victoria on March 13. Announced jointly by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews, the agreement sets ...
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NewsDB unveils details of ECx Talgos
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn has announced further details of the 23 push-pull trains that it ordered from Talgo for €550m in February as part of a framework contract for up to 100 trainsets. At an event in Berlin on March 13 attended by the government’s Commissioner for Rail and Parliamentary Secretary ...
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NewsRail Baltica passenger and freight service plan unveiled
EUROPE: Rail Baltica project promoter RB Rail has unveiled details of the proposed operational plan for the future 1 435 mm gauge line running 870 km from the Polish border to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The operational plan for 2026–56 has been developed by ETC Gauff Mobility, COWI and Institut ...
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NewsBuses to replace long-distance Amtrak trains under Trump budget proposal
USA: The initial budget proposal for the 2020 financial year issued by President Donald Trump on March 11 would see federal funding for Amtrak long-distance trains eliminated. While the full details of the budget are due to be released on March 18, the initial synopsis from the White House argues ...
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NewsMarmaray suburban rail corridor across Istanbul opened
TURKEY: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan officially opened the 77 km Marmaray suburban rail corridor across Istanbul on March 12, 15 years after construction began. The President rode an inaugural train from the opening ceremony at Kartal on the Asian side of the route east as far ...
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Rail Business UKLNER Azuma Class 800 authorised for passenger service
UK: InterCity East Coast operator LNER has finally received approval for its Class 800 ‘Azuma’ trainsets to enter passenger service on the East Coast Main Line, subject to the completion of final testing. In a letter to manufacturer Hitachi Rail Europe, the Office of Road & Rail has authorised the ...
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Rail Business UKNorthern Class 331s to serve Leeds from May
UK: Regional franchisee Northern expects to put its first CAF-built Class 331 EMUs into passenger services between Leeds and Doncaster with the May 19 timetable change, having received regulatory authorisation from the Office of Road & Rail. The approval applies to the 31 three-car sets and the 12 four-car versions. ...
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NewsRegioJet orders Elf.eu multiple-units
CZECH REPUBLIC: RegioJet has awarded Pesa Bydgoszcz a contract to supply seven two-car Elf.eu electric multiple-units for use on subsidised passenger services which it is to operate under contract to the Ústí nad Labem regional authority. The order signed on March 7 is worth more than KC500m, with deliveries scheduled ...
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NewsFlytoget Oaris lands in Oslo
NORWAY: The first of eight Oaris EMUs being built by CAF for Oslo airport express operator Flytoget was officially unveiled on March 5. Ordered in April 2015, the four-car Class 78 units will join Flytoget’s existing fleet of 16 Adtranz-built Class 71 trainsets, providing a 50% increase in capacity to ...
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NewsCBTC and more EMUs in Mumbai suburban expansion
INDIA: A further programme of enhancements to increase capacity on the Mumbai suburban network was formally approved by the national government’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on March 7, and is expected to be completed in five years. Mumbai’s 385 route-km suburban network currently carries around 8 million passengers/day on ...
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NewsRENFE seeks ‘pro-active’ international expansion
SPAIN: RENFE will be adopting an ‘unprecedented and pro-active’ approach to international expansion as its domestic market faces more liberalisation under the EU’s Fourth Railway Package, the Spanish incumbent’s President Isaías Táboas Suárez told the Rail Live trade show in Bilbao on March 6. Suárez highlighted RENFE’s participation in ...