Passenger rail news – Page 25
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NewsEl Insurgente passenger trains reach Mexico City
MEXICO: The El Insurgente suburban rail service has reached the western edge of Mexico City.
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NewsApp trial to help blind and low vision passengers navigate Boston stations
USA: The NaviLens smart phone navigation app for visually impaired people is being tested on Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Boston commuter rail network. Users scan brightly coloured QR-style codes posted in the stations, and the app will then help them find the correct platform, provide real-time ...
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In depthComment: Contrasting approaches to fixing things
The transport ministers of Britain and Germany are taking contrasting approaches to addressing the problems facing their railways. Dr Volker Wissing believes management reorganisation cannot solve DB’s problems, but his counterpart Louise Haigh is taking the opposite view with Labour’s rail reforms. Nick Kingsley suggests they could learn much from each other.
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NewsGotthard Base Tunnel fully reopens after derailment damage is repaired
SWITZERLAND: The 57 km Gotthard Base Tunnel has fully reopened, 389 days after a derailed freight train caused extensive damage to the slab track in the western bore of the world’s longest railway tunnel. ‘The Gotthard Base Tunnel is not only a connection between German-speaking Switzerland ...
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NewsVietnam plans rail reform as high speed line plan revived
VIETNAM: The Ministry of Transport has put forward proposals for rail reforms which aim to better meet local needs when planning transport infrastructure for 2030, and looking further ahead to 2050. Planning has also restarted for a much-discussed north-south 350 km/h high speed line. Under the ...
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Metro Report InternationalRhein-Ruhr fares reform to cut through the ‘tariff jungle’
GERMANY: Rhein-Ruhr transport association VRR is to implement its largest-ever fares reform in March 2025, aiming to clear the ‘tariff jungle’ by eliminating 500 of the current 650 ticket types and reducing the number of price levels from seven to three. VRR is committing to the ...
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Rail Business UKBill to take passenger train operations into the public sector makes progress
UK: The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill received its third reading in the House of Commons on September 3, as the first major piece of legislation to pass through the Commons under the recently-elected Labour government. The bill would end the award of passenger train ...
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Rail Business UKStation safety campaign draws on behavioural science
UK: Avanti West Coast is using posters and signage to make station facilities such as lifts, stairs and handrails ‘speak directly to customers’ as part of a ‘Take care. Get there’ safety campaign. The approach has been developed with Richard Shotton who applies findings from psychology ...
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NewsHomburg – Zweibrücken railway reopening agreement signed
GERMANY: A financing and implementation agreement has been signed to enable the reopening of the Homburg – Zweibrücken line with the December 2028 timetable change ‘After years of discussions and negotiations a major step has now been taken for local public transport’, said Minister-President of Rheinland-Pfalz ...
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NewsEnhanced passenger information system ordered for Queensland EMUs
AUSTRALIA: Singapore-based ST Engineering’s Urban Solutions business is to provide an enhanced version of its AGIL passenger information system for the 65 six-car electric multiple-units that Downer is to supply under the Queensland Train Manufacturing Programme. ‘In addition to strengthening our presence in Australia, this contract ...
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Rail Business UKInterview: ‘There’s more to do but we have made excellent progress’
UK: TransPennine Express is ‘making moves in the right direction but we’re under no illusion there’s still much more we need to do‘, the operator’s Managing Director Chris Jackson tells Rail Business UK.
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NewsChannel Tunnel shuttle Entry/Exit System preparations completed
EUROPE: Channel Tunnel concessionaire Getlink has completed a €80m three-year programme of changes to its car and lorry shuttle train terminals at Folkestone and Coquelles ahead of the introduction of the EU Entry/Exit System, which is now scheduled for November 2024. EES is an automated system ...
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NewsMock-up aims to ensure Queensland trains are accessible to all
AUSTRALIA: A mock-up built by Allweld Manufacturing is being used to gather feedback from future users including train drivers, people with reduced mobility and cyclists to ensure that a future fleet of electric multiple-units will be accessible for all. In 2023 Downer beat CAF and Alstom ...
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NewsNarrow-bodied EMUs ordered for Swiss line with restricted clearances
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways has awarded Stadler a SFr140m contract to supply 11 narrow-bodied electric multiple-units for use on Seetalbahn services from Luzern to Emmenbrücke and Lenzburg. The route between Emmenbrücke and Lenzburg was originally built partly as a roadside light railway, and vehicles are restricted ...
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NewsVR to divest infrastructure assets to facilitate Finnish rail competition
FINLAND: ‘Our strategy focuses on profitability, growth and creating a values-based VR culture’, VR Group CEO Elisa Markula said when she the presented the national operator’s H1 2024 results on August 16 and set out plans to divest some assets to facilitate competition. With the opening ...
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Rail Business UKLNER withdraws flexible off peak fares from more stations
UK: LNER’s pilot scheme withdrawing flexible Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak fares is to be expanded to cover journeys between London and more than 20 stations around and between Newcastle, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Edinburgh from September 30. In January, the nationalised operator launched a two-year ‘Simpler Fares’ trial ...
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Rail Business UKAll-day off-peak fare trial fails to achieve modal shift goals
UK: A pilot scheme which removed peak fares on ScotRail services in favour of offering cheaper off-peak fares all day is to end, after analysis found only ‘a limited degree of success’ in achieving modal shift from cars The Scottish government spent £40m subsidising the ScotRail ...
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NewsBilingual station signs installed in Austria
AUSTRIA: Austria Federal Railways has begun installing bilingual signs at stations in communities that are legally defined as bilingual. The first such signs were installed at St Michael ob Bleiburg/Šmihel pri Pliberku station. Four stations in the Land of Kärnten are to get signs in Slovenian, ...
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NewsBrussels – Venezia night train to serve winter sports and city break destinations
EUROPE: Open access night train operator European Sleeper is to launch a seasonal Brussels – Utrecht – Köln – München – Innsbruck – Verona – Venezia service to winter sports and city trip destinations. The service is being planned around school holidays, the peak winter sports ...
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Rail Business UKViewpoint: the fare evasion prosecution scandal explained
UK: Nathan Seymour-Hyde, Partner and Solicitor at Reeds Solicitors, explains how train operators misused the Single Justice Procedure and why up to 75 000 convictions for fare evasion offences have now been quashed.