Passenger rail news – Page 222
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NewsEIB increases Polish Pendolino loan
POLAND: The European Investment Bank announced on May 15 that it is increasing from €224m to €342m the value of a loan which PKP Intercity is using to fund the purchase of Alstom Pendolino trains. In May 2011 PKP Intercity and Alstom signed a €665m contract covering the supply ...
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NewsHitachi confirms UK assembly plant
UK: Hitachi Rail Europe announced on May 14 that it had signed a contract with preferred bidder Merchant Place Developments covering the construction and fit-out of a rolling stock manufacturing plant at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham. Hitachi said that construction of its ‘first train factory in Europe’ represented an ...
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NewsSiemens unveils Amtrak Cities Sprinter locomotive
USA: The first of 70 electric locomotives being built to operate Amtrak services in the Northeast Corridor was rolled out at the Siemens plant in Sacramento on May 13. The locomotive was officially handed over to Amtrak President & CEO Joseph Boardman by the President of Siemens Rail Systems USA ...
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NewsProbably the best suburban station in København
DENMARK: Main consultant and civil engineer Grontmij, railway engineer Atkins and Gottlieb Paludan Architects have been appointed to design a station serving a regeneration area on the site of the former Carlsberg brewery at Vesterbro in København, where brewing stopped in 2008. The new station is due to open in ...
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NewsCompetitive tendering planned for Queensland
AUSTRALIA: The Queensland state government has accepted recommendations to open up the passenger rail operations and infrastructure maintenance markets in its response to the final report of the Queensland Commission of Audit which was set up last year to provide strategic economic advice. In 'A Plan: Better services for Queenslanders', ...
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NewsIPL awarded £7m contract to develop ticketing data technology
UK: The Rail Settlement Plan subsidiary of the Association of Train Operating Companies, which supports the provision of network-wide ticket sales, has awarded IT services company IPL a £7m, five-year contract to design, build and support a new Product Management System. To be based on open-source technology, the PMS will ...
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NewsAKN orders Alstom diesel multiple-units
GERMANY: Schleswig-Holstein regional operator AKN Eisenbahn announced a €60m order for 14 Alstom Coradia Lint 54 diesel multiple-units on May 6. The DMUs are be built at Alstom's Salzgitter plant and delivered in the second half of 2015 to operate on service A1 between Neumünster and Eidelstedt. The two-car units ...
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NewsSNCF signs Franche-Comté TER agreement
FRANCE: SNCF President Guillaume Pepy joined Marie-Guite Dufay, President of the Franche-Comté region, in Bescançon on May 3 to sign an agreement covering the organisation, funding and operation of TER local passenger services in 2013-17. Under the agreement, Franche-Comté is to provide €49m for rolling stock modernisation, including the acquisition ...
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NewsClass 68 UKLight locomotives take shape
UK: The first of 15 Vossloh UKLight diesel-electric locomotives for freight and charter train operator Direct Rail Services is now under construction at the Vossloh España plant near Valencia in Spain. DRS expects the first locomotive to be sent to the Velim test circuit in the Czech Republic for ...
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NewsRoute selected for Roissy link
FRANCE: Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier announced on April 30 that he had selected the ‘centre-north’ route option for a 7 km connection between the Paris – Amiens main line and the LGV Interconnexion, the high speed bypass running to the east of the capital. It is expected that the new ...
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NewsFramework agreement for 450 Bombardier locomotives
GERMANY: DB announced a 10-year framework agreement for the supply of up to 450 electric locomotives from Bombardier Transportation on May 2. Finalisation of the deal, which is potentially worth up to €1·5bn, is subject to a regulatory standstill period. An initial firm order is to be placed for 110 ...
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NewsRailcare awarded Greater Anglia coach overhaul contract
UK: Porterbrook Leasing has awarded Railcare a £5m contract to undertake the C6 scheduled overhaul and additional corrosion repairs to 111 locomotive-hauled MkIII coaches operated by Abellio Greater Anglia on London - Norwich services. The work is scheduled to start in October 2013 for completion in July 2016, with five ...
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NewsMTR seeks to run mainline trains in Sweden
SWEDEN: Saying that the high number shows the success of deregulation of the rail market, infrastructure manager Trafikverket has announced that 46 applications have been made for train paths on the rail network in 2014. Of these, 27 are for passenger operators and 13 for freight, with the remainder being ...
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NewsZwolle - Enschede operations to be tendered
NETHERLANDS: An agreement to call tenders for the operation of passenger services on the Zwolle - Enschede line was reached by Overijssel province and Regio Twente on April 18. It is envisaged that tenders will be called later this year, with the new operator to take over in December 2014. ...
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NewsKfW IPEX-Bank finances Regentalbahn DMUs
GERMANY: KfW IPEX-Bank announced its second rolling stock funding deal with train operator Netinera on April 25. The agreement covers the purchase of 12 Pesa Link II diesel multiple-units for operation by Netinera's Regentalbahn subsidiary on Oberpfalzbahn branded services from Regensburg to Marktredwitz and Schirnding from December 2014. Regentalbahn ...
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NewsVR orders more driving and restaurant cars
FINLAND: National operator VR has awarded Transtech Oy a €55m firm order to supply a further 13 driving cars and 11 restaurant cars for inter-city services. The order for the double-deck vehicles is an option on a €90m contract for 12 driving and 15 restaurant cars which was placed in ...
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NewsSouth West Trains EMUs to get AC traction equipment
UK: Porterbrook Leasing has awarded Vossloh Kiepe UK a £40m contract to supply solid-state inverters and AC traction motors to replace electro-mechanical control equipment and DC motors on the 91 Class 455 electric multiple-units operated by South West Trains on the 750 V DC third rail network serving London Waterloo. ...
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NewsLow-energy ticket machine
LUXEMBOURG: National railway CFL has ordered 83 Dualis 2000 TSI self-service ticket machines and associated Dualis Cemas back-end systems from ICA Traffic. All the operating features of the machines including the 15 in touch screen display will be between 700 mm and 1200 mm above ground level to comply ...
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NewsAustralian high speed rail study published
AUSTRALIA: What Minister for Infrastructure & Transport Anthony Albanese called 'the most detailed and comprehensive study ever undertaken into high speed rail in this country' was published on April 11. The study identifies a potential 1 748 km route for a double-track electrified high speed line between Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra ...
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NewsBombardier signs ICx variation order
GERMANY: On April 8 Bombardier Transportation announced a €336m variation order to its framework agreement to supply components for the ICx inter-city trains which Deutsche Bahn has ordered from Siemens. This reflects DB's decision to add a further 170 vehicles to the initial order. Under the agreement with Siemens, the ...