Passenger rail news – Page 248
-
NewsWeinberg tunnel holed through
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways held celebrations in Zürich on November 22 to mark the breakthrough of the Weinberg tunnel, which forms the centrepiece of the Durchmesserlinie cross-city rail link project. The tunnel boring machine finally reached its destination below the city’s Hauptbahnhof following a 4·5 km drive under the Limmat ...
-
NewsPrivate commuter operator launches
RUSSIA: Perm Express launched commuter services on 47 km of the Sverdlovsk Railway between Perm II and Divya on November 1. The privately-owned company was formed in January and received a passenger licence in September. Perm Express is independent of both Russian Railways and the regional government, which operate commuter ...
-
NewsTalent 2 to work Leipzig S-Bahn
GERMANY: Bombardier Transportation confirmed on November 19 that DB Regio had placed a further order for Class 442 Talent EMUs valued at around €200m. The 36 three-car and 15 four-car EMUs will be used on the new Mitteldeutsche S-Bahn network radiating from Leipzig, which is due to open in ...
-
NewsBDZ becomes holding company
BULGARIA: Plans to restructure state rail operator BDZ on a holding company model were signed-off by Minister of Transport, Communications & Information Technology Alexander Tsvetko on October 22. National Railway Infrastructure Company is already responsible for infrastructure. The latest plans will see BDZ EAD established as a holding company with ...
-
NewsItalian open access passenger operator launches
ITALY: Privately owned open access operator Arenaways launched its first passenger service on November 15, competing with state-owned passenger operator Trenitalia between Milano and Torino. Arenaways received confirmation of its two daily paths in each direction on November 12, however it did not obtain approval to call at intermediate stations ...
-
NewsUkrainian Railways to order Korean trainsets
UKRAINE: Visiting South Korea on November 2, Deputy Prime Minister Borys Kolesnikov announced a provisional agreement for UZ to buy 160 km/h inter-city trainsets from Hyundai-Rotem, as the first step in a programme to renew the national railway’s rolling stock fleet. A protocol signed in Changwon covers ...
-
NewsConnecticut orders more M-8 commuter cars
USA: The state of Connecticut has exercised an option for another 42 M-8 commuter EMU cars from Kawasaki Rail Car Inc, bringing the total order to 342 vehicles costing $860m. The announcement was made by outgoing Governor Jodi Rell on November 15, when she and a group of Department of ...
-
NewsTalgo to renew Kazakh inter-city train fleet
KAZAKHSTAN: Talgo announced an order to supply KTZ with 420 coaches on November 11, part of an agreement signed the previous week which could see the national railway's fleet of 3 000 inter-city vehicles replaced. The initial contract is worth more than €300m for the Spanish firm, with further revenue ...
-
NewsMoscow - St Petersburg high speed study to be submitted next year
RUSSIA: A report setting out the functional requirements for a Moscow - St Petersburg high speed line is to be completed by the start of 2011, Denis Muratov, Director-General of RZD's high speed rail subsidiary Skorostnye Magistrali, told the High Speed World 2010 conference in Madrid on November 9. The ...
-
NewsAlstom pursues Eurostar challenge
EUROPE: The European Commission confirmed on November 4 that it was reviewing Eurostar International’s decision to order e320 Velaro trainsets from Siemens as part of its planned £700m expansion programme. Described as ‘preliminary’, the four-week investigation has been triggered by a complaint from Alstom alleging that Eurostar’s tendering process ...
-
NewsSwivel seats
INTERIORS: London-based design agency SeymourPowell has released its FLEX saloon layout targeted at the premium long-distance rail travel segment. The agency claims that, by using six swivelling seats, a major increase in internal layout permutations is possible, with the loss of just four to five seats from the overall capacity ...
-
NewsJR Central unveils L0 maglev
JAPAN: Central Japan Railway announced on October 26 that it is to build 14 pre-production maglev vehicles as prototypes for the 500 km/h trainsets that it expects to put into commercial operation on the Chuo Shinkansen route between Tokyo and Osaka from 2027 onwards. The first five-car trainset will be ...
-
NewsSuburban expansion in Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla
SPAIN: Under its 2009-15 investment programme for the Madrid suburban network, the Ministry of Development has awarded study and design contracts worth a total of €22m. Prorail Ingenieros Civiles is to design the Humanes – Illescas extension of route C5, including track doubling, electrification and two stations, while Técnicas ...
-
NewsArriva awarded 10-year Polish operating contract
POLAND: On October 26 Kujawsko-Pomorskie voivodship selected incumbent Arriva RP for a 10-year contract to operate local passenger services on non-electrified routes from December 11. Arriva's bid included a lower subsidy than the rival tender from Przewozy Regionalne, the former PKP regional train business. A joint venture of Arriva ...
-
NewsDaegu - Busan high speed line opens
SOUTH KOREA: Passenger services on the 129 km Daegu - Busan second phase of the high speed rail network began on November 1, following the formal inauguration and celebrations on October 28. Construction of the 420 km high speed route between Seoul and Busan began in 1992. In 1998 it ...
-
NewsAmtrak orders Siemens 200 km/h Cities Sprinter locomotives
USA: Siemens Mobility has won a $466m order to supply Amtrak with 70 ACS64 'Amtrak Cities Sprinter' electric locomotives with a top speed of 200 km/h, the supplier announced on October 28. Deliveries are scheduled to run for six years from 2013, with the locomotives being deployed on the Northeast ...
-
NewsQueensland orders 'next generation' diesel Tilt Train
AUSTRALIA: A third diesel Tilt Train has been ordered to replace existing rolling stock on Queensland Rail's Cairns - Brisbane Sunlander service, Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh announced on October 27. It will be built at the Maryborough works of Downer EDI, which supplied the two diesel and two electric ...
-
NewsKazakhstan signs contract for 295 Alstom-TMH locomotives
KAZAKHSTAN: The Chairman of state railway Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, Askar Mamin, signed a €1·3bn firm order for 295 electric locotives with Alstom and Transmash Holding when President Nursultan Nazarbayev visited French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on October 27. The order covers 200 KZ8A twin-unit freight locomotives and 95 KZ4A ...
-
NewsKorea's HEMU-400X high speed train to roll in 2011
SOUTH KOREA: Hyundai Rotem plans to complete a prototype of the HEMU-400X high speed train during 2011. Launched as the Hanvit 400 project in 2007, the HEMU-400X is a distributed power trainset with a design speed of 400 km/h. With four axles powered by synchronous induction motors on each car, ...
-
NewsNext side of Yangtze Delta high speed rail triangle opens
CHINA: The Shanghai - Hangzhou Passenger-Dedicated Line opened on October 26, with 350 km/h running cutting the 202 km journey between the cities from 1½ h to a fastest journey time of around 45 min. There will also be semi-fast and stopping trains serving the nine stations on the route, ...