Passenger rail news – Page 266
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News
Dallas commuter line grant
USA: Construction could get underway in April on the Denton County Transportation Authority’s A-Train commuter rail project now that a $250m grant has been received from the Texas Department of Transportation. The 33·8 km, five-station line will connect Denton to Carrollton, a transfer point to Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s ...
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NewsAlstom takes stake in Transmash
RUSSIA: Alstom Transport agreed on March 31 to take a 25% plus one share stake in Transmashholding. The move builds on an existing partnership between the two companies that has seen the Alstom-TMH joint venture selected by RZD as a strategic partner to supply 1 210 double-deck passenger cars. ...
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NewsMehdorn to step down from DB
GERMANY: The controversy over accusations that Deutsche Bahn had undertaken covert surveillance of its own staff claimed its most high profile victim on March 30, when Chairman & CEO Hartmut Mehdorn tendered his resignation. Although by the end of the day Mehdorn’s offer had not been formally accepted, it was ...
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NewsAFRA lobbies for French rail operators
FRANCE: A lobby group to represent new entrants in the French rail sector was formally launched on March 18. Association Française du Rail is intended to bring together 'all the actors who believe that the French railway sector will not achieve its full and sound development without an open competitive ...
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NewsNorthern Ireland Railways orders CAF DMUs
UK: A £105m order for 20 three-car diesel multiple-units was signed by Northern Ireland transport operator Translink, the Department for Regional Development and manufacturer CAF on March 25. The first of the Class 4000 trains will enter service at the end of 2011, with all 20 in traffic by ...
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NewsTalent 2 grows Bombardier’s regional train family
EUROPE: Designed to meet the crashworthiness requirements of EN 15227, Bombardier’s Talent 2 is the latest entrant in the competitive European market for regional EMUs. Dr Harry Hondius reports.
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NewsSidetrack - Raising the bar
CHINA: Children up to 1500 mm tall can now travel on half-fare tickets, the Ministry of Railways has announced. The previous height limit was 1400 mm, but this has had to be changed to reflect the increase in the average height of children as standards of living improve. ...
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NewsChina orders 100 high speed trains
CHINA: On March 16 the Ministry of Railways signed a contract with China CNR Corp for the supply of 100 CRH trainsets to operate the 1 318 km high speed line between Beijing and Shanghai at a maximum speed of 350 km/h. Total value of the deal is put at ...
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NewsLine E heads west again
FRANCE: The proposed extension of Paris RER Line E into the western suburbs is back on the cards, after Ile-de-France transport authority STIF decided to revive the project. RFF has commissioned Systra to undertake technical studies for a route serving La Défense and Mantes-la-Jolie. When the EOLE (Est-Ouest Liaison ...
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NewsAlstom next-generation EMU details revealed
UK: Alstom Transport revealed outline details of the X'trapolis UK electric multiple-unit design it is proposing for the British market at the Railtex exhibition in London. Having effectively been out of the UK regional train building market for almost a decade, Alstom feels the demand for around 1 200 ...
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NewsSecond generation Electrostar looks to export market
UK: More details of Bombardier's second generation Electrostar train were released at Railtex. Rather than a simple evolution of the existing Electrostar family supplied to customers in the UK and South Africa, the second generation unit is effectively a new design, drawing heavily on the Talent 2 and Spacium platforms ...
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NewsJylland contract stays with Arriva
DENMARK: Arriva has retained the contract to operate regional passenger services in western and central Jylland which it has run since 2003. The incumbent saw off bids for the replacement concession from DB Regio and the First Jylland joint venture of FirstGroup and DSB. The contract runs for eight ...
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NewsLondon’s cross-city line follows the RER model
CROSS-CITY: Many enhancements have been made to RER Line A since it was completed across the centre of Paris in 1977. Now carrying more than 60 000 passengers/h on each track, it offers similarities to London’s Crossrail project, making a comparison particularly instructive.
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NewsTurkey high speed launch
TURKEY: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to formally open Turkey's first section of 250 km/h railway on March 13. Passenger services will begin the following day, with four daily return trains and promotional fares being offered until April 2. Under construction since 2003, the section of line between ...
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NewsEurlings moves to rescue HSA
NETHERLANDS: The sorry saga of HSL-Zuid continues, with the news that Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings has put together a rescue package for High Speed Alliance, which he says was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy as a result of the delays in opening the high speed line between Schiphol and ...
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NewsPassenger services in Botswana to end
BOTSWANA: Botswana Railways' passenger service is to be suspended with effect from April 1, the Ministry of Works & Transport announced on February 25. The overnight train between Francistown and Lobatse accounts for less than 10% of BR's operating revenues, and loses P30m a year which has until now been ...
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NewsHS2 on the fast track
UK: Public consultation for the route of a high speed line from London to the West Midlands and eventually Scotland is expected to start next year. Announcing this in the keynote address at Railway Gazette International’s conference on Growth & the Capacity Challenge on March 10, Transport Minister Lord Andrew ...
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NewsArriva awarded Czech operating contract
EUROPE: Arriva's Vogtlandbahn subsidiary has been awarded a contract to operate regional passenger services on the 56 km line linking the Czech towns of Liberec, Varnsdorf and Rybniste via Zittau and Seifhennersdorf in Germany. Running for 10 years from December 2010, the contract was awarded jointly by the Liberec ...
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NewsThameslink Programme starts to take off
UK: ‘We are about to break cover’, commented Andrew Mitchell following a presentation to the Institution of Engineering & Technology in London on February 10. As Network Rail’s Major Programme Director for the Thameslink Programme, he is looking forward to March 22, when the past four years of preparation for ...
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NewsHigh speed frenzy follows election
USA: Not surprisingly, a request for expressions of interest to develop high speed rail corridors has attracted a considerable degree of attention, despite the country’s poor track record with privately-funded projects and the limited prospects for such schemes going ahead in the current economic climate. Legislation passed by Congress last ...