Passenger rail news – Page 137
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NewsDB expands international ticket purchase options
EUROPE: Deutsche Bahn has expanded the range of cross-border and foreign rail tickets which can be booked through its website and mobile app. Passengers can now book travel on SNCF and Thalys services, and Eurostar is to be added from October 8. Until now only selected connections were offered ...
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NewsPacific Surfliner Charger locomotive unveiled
USA: The first Siemens Charger locomotive for Pacific Surfliner services between San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles and San Diego was officially unveiled by Amtrak and Caltrans at Los Angeles Union station on October 1. Caltrans has ordered a total of 22 Charger locomotives, using about $100m of state, federal and ...
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NewsArriva wins Praha suburban rail operating contract
CZECH REPUBLIC: Praha transport authority ROPID has selected DB’s Czech subsidiary Arriva Vlaky to operate suburban train services on route S41 between Roztoky u Prahy and Hostivař via Holešovice and Libeň. Arriva’s first subsidised train operating contract in the Czech Republic will initially run for three years from the December ...
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NewsHigh speed trainsets to be delivered within three months
CHINA: China Railway Corp has awarded Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation a 2·2bn yuan contract to supply 10 CR400AF high speed trainsets within three months. The contract for five eight-car and five 16-car 350 km/h trainsets was awarded to the 50:50 joint venture of Bombardier Transportation and CRRC Sifang at ...
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NewsVestfoldbanen double-tracking inaugurated
NORWAY: Bane NOR’s ongoing reconstruction of the Oslo – Drammen – Skien Vestfoldbanen inter-city route reached another milestone on September 28, when the 22·5 km Larvik – Porsgrunn cut-off was formally opened by new Transport Minister Jon Georg Dale with a ceremony at Larvik. In use for revenue services since ...
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NewsAllianz acquires stake in NTV-Italo
ITALY: German insurance company Allianz has acquired an 11·5% stake in high speed open access operator NTV-Italo from Global Infrastructure Partners. Allianz is now the second largest stakeholder after GIP, ahead of co-founders Luca Cordero di Montezemolo and Gianni Punzo, Isabella Seragnoli, Flavio Cattaneo, Alberto Bombassei and Fund Peninsula.
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NewsMore ICE4s ordered as DB spends €1bn on inter-city fleet
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn ratified a decision to order more ICE4 inter-city trainsets for €700m at its supervisory board meeting in Berlin on September 26. DB Fernverkehr expects to order a further 18 seven-car trainsets from a Siemens-led consortium as an option on the 119 trains already planned for delivery by ...
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NewsA1 fast line to Jerusalem opens
ISRAEL: Passenger services on the A1 fast line between Ben Gurion Airport and Jerusalem began with a low-key launch on September 25. Travel is initially being offered free of charge, but must be pre-booked. At present only one of the two tracks is in use and electrified at 25 kV ...
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NewsEgyptian National Railways orders 1 300 coaches
EGYPT: A five-year contract worth more than €1bn covering the supply of 1 300 coaches was signed by Egyptian National Railways and the Transmashholding-Hungary Kft consortium on September 25. The agreement covers five types of coach: Third class with forced ventilation (500); Third class, with air-conditioning (500); Second class, with ...
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NewsKing inaugurates Haramain High Speed Rail
SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia became the latest country to launch high speed services on September 25, when the Haramain High Speed Rail line linking Makkah, Jeddah and Madinah was formally inaugurated by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The ceremony in Jeddah was also attended by the three regional governors ...
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Rail Business UKGrayling demands 'root and branch' review of UK railway
UK: A comprehensive review of the rail sector was announced by Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling on September 20. Responding to concerns over the passenger franchising model following the collapse of the Inter-City East Coast franchise, delays and cost over-runs with Network Rail’s investment programme, and operational problems ...
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NewsRefit agreed as French night trains reprieved again
FRANCE: Transport Minister Élisabeth Borne has authorised a €30m injection of funding to revitalise the country’s two remaining overnight trains which link Paris with Briançon in the Hautes-Alpes region and Latour-de-Carol in Pyrénées-Orientales with a portion for Rodez. Seeking to allay suggestions that the heavily subsidised services would be withdrawn, ...
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NewsGo-Ahead signs Flirt EMU order
GERMANY: Go-Ahead has awarded Stadler a contract to supply 22 four-car Flirt 3 electric multiple-units for use on the E-Netz Allgäu services on the München – Memmingen – Lindau route which it is to operate on behalf of the Länder of Baden-Württemberg and Bayern from December 2021. The 160 km/h ...
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NewsHong Kong high speed line opens
CHINA: Revenue services on the 26 km Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou – Shenzhen – Hong Kong high speed line began on September 23, when MTR Corp’s first Vibrant Express departed at 07.00 carrying around 500 passengers to Shenzhen Bei. Connecting Hong Kong to the extensive Chinese national high ...
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News‘Gorgeous beast' will change perception of rail travel
UK: Speaking at the unveiling at InnoTrans on September 20 of a Class 755/4 Stadler Flirt for Greater Anglia, Mark Swindell, CEO of investment company Rock Rail, described the four-car electro-diesel trainset as ‘gorgeous’. Wishing that Greater Anglia passengers were present to see ‘this beast’, he said that Rock Rail ...
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NewsIdeenzug moves from concept to reality
GERMANY: Some of the concepts being developed under the Ideenzug (Ideas Train) project will be implemented on a train running in commercial service by 2020. DB Regio has chosen the Muehlendorf – Muenchen route in Bayern for its pilot scheme under which two or three modules taken from the development ...
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NewsTraverso offers space and comfort
INNOTRANS: Swiss operator Schweizerische Suedostbahn and Stadler used the InnoTrans trade show in Berlin on September 19 to present what Stadler Group CEO Thomas Ahlburg described as the longest Flirt trainset yet built. The copper coloured eight-car low-floor units will replace SOB’s existing rolling stock on the St Gallen - ...
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NewsLocos for French leg of Paris - Moscow service
EUROPE: A deal for Voyages SNCF to lease three Bombardier Transportation locomotives from MRCE to haul part of Russian Railways’ Paris – Moscow passenger service was confirmed at InnoTrans 2018 on September 19. From December 2018, Voyages SNCF will extend its section of the route from Paris as far as ...
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NewsKorail to receive distributed power E320 EMUs in 2019
SOUTH KOREA: Testing and commissioning of the first of a fleet of high speed EMUs for Korail is expected to start by the end of the year. Hyundai Rotem will deliver 21 distributed power trainsets to a design known as E320 to Korail in 2019-21. Two of the sets will ...
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NewsRock and Pop launch ‘biggest ever' fleet renewal for Trenitalia
ITALY: FS Italiane President Gianluigi Castelli announced that the group was investing €6bn in new regional trains at the launch of two types of rolling stock at InnoTrans. In the ‘biggest-ever' fleet renewal programme, FS would receive 600 trains by 2023, with deliveries running at nine sets per month ...