Passenger rail news – Page 278
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News
Trinidad rapid rail consortium confirmed
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: The Trinitrain consortium of Bouygues Construction, Alstom Transport and RATP Développement announced on April 11 that it had been selected by the government and its National Infrastructure Development Co to design, build, operate and maintain a two-line passenger rail system on Trinidad. The 'express' rail lines will ...
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Irish reopenings cleared
IRELAND: The government has approved the Railway Order permitting the reinstatement of the 7·5 km Clonsilla - Dunboyne route. Closed in 1963, the line is scheduled to reopen in 2010 as the first phase of the Navan line reopening project under the Transport 21 investment programme. The country's largest park ...
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Not so hot
NETHERLANDS:?National operator NS and infrastructure manager ProRail have been conducting trials with a patio heater on the platforms at Amsterdam Amstel station. Passengers standing on the platforms in the open air and feeling the cold can obtain 4 min of free warmth at the press of a button. The trials ...
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HighJet to compete with Pendolinos
CZECH REPUBLIC: Travel agent and bus operator Student Agency has announced plans to launch a Praha - Ostrava inter-city service by 2011. Chairman Radim Jancura said SA intends to purchase six electric trainsets from Siemens or Stadler for KC2bn. Branded HighJet, they will run in direct competition with Czech Railways' ...
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NewsTangshan rolls out its first 350 km/h train
CHINA: On April 11 Tangshan Locomotive & Rolling Stock Works rolled out the first CRH3 high speed train to be produced in China. The manufacturer said at the launch that the CRH3 is the first Chinese-built train to be designed for a top speed of 350 km/h, and marks the ...
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Free travel aims to move more passengers
AUSTRALIA: Melbourne commuter services scheduled to arrive before 07.00 can be used free of charge from March 31, under a plan to reduce crowding on the busiest services. 'Early Bird' tickets providing free morning travel are to be offered across all 15 Connex-operated lines, state Premier John Brumby announced on ...
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Airport link SPV
INDIA: Karnataka state government has created Bangalore Airport Rail Link Ltd as special purpose vehicle to develop a fast connection to the new international airport which is due to open on May 11. The partially-elevated line would start at a city centre terminal at BRV Grounds on Mahatma Gandhi Road ...
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NewsThameslink EMU procurement begins
UK: The Department for Transport announced on April 9 that it has begun the procurement of between 900 and 1 300 dual-voltage EMU cars as part of the £5·5bn Thameslink Programme to upgrade north-south commuter routes through London (RG 3.08 p172). Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said approximately 1 100 cars ...
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Veolia pulls out of Stuttgart S-Bahn bidding race
GERMANY: Veolia has withdrawn from the bidding process to run the Stuttgart S-Bahn. Announcing the decision on February 13, Andreas Winter, Head of Market Development & Communication for Veolia-Verkehr-Gruppe in Germany, said that his company was convinced that competitive bidding was possible for 'complex S-Bahnen and large urban public transport ...
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NewsTibet cruise train financed
CHINA: HSH Nordbank has completed a deal with RailPartners to finance the Tangula luxury trains which will run from Beijing to Yunnan and Lhasa from September (RG 8.07 p492). The bank is providing US$30m of the US$95m project financing, with RailPartners shareholders including TZG Holdings of Shanghai and Hong Kong ...
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NewsThrough ticketing is the missing element
Jean-Marc Charoud, Director for Network Development at French infrastructure company RFF, told EuroRail 2008 delegates on February 26 that trains 'will completely kill air traffic between Paris and Bordeaux' once the LGV Sud-Atlantique project is completed. This prediction is undoubtedly correct, but it is worth recalling that timings of around ...
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NewsHigh speed operators spread their wings
Europe's well-established high speed sector is broadening its horizons to improve access to its services. Speakers at Terrapinn's EuroRail 2008 conference in Milano explained how high speed rail can benefit from improved integration both on the ground and in the air
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InterCity fleet renewal poised to start
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn will call tenders later this year for 100 to 130 trainsets to replace its fleet of loco-hauled EuroCity and InterCity trains. Likely to be fixed-formation eight-car sets, they will be built to match the standards of DB's ICE fleet. In the meantime DB is evaluating offers for ...
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San Diego Sprinter opens at last
USA: Packed trains marked the first day of revenue service on the $486m 35 km Sprinter line which connects Oceanside with Escondido in California's San Diego County. Two earlier start dates had been missed because of problems with signals and level crossings. The California Public Utilities Commission issued a letter ...
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News
First Great Western admits franchise breach
UK: Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly announced on February 26 that the government was taking action to deal with 'unacceptably high' levels of train cancellations at First Great Western, issuing the operator with a Remedial Plan Notice. Cancellations during the second half of 2007 exceeded the threshhold marking a breach of ...
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São Paulo airport concession
BRAZIL: Bids are to be invited in May for a 35-year concession to build and operate the long-planned Airport Express rail link in São Paulo, with the aim of having the line in service by the end of 2011. The state government hopes to receive bids for the US$800m finance-design-build-operate ...
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Shanghai - Nanjing link approved
CHINA: The National Development & Reform Commission has formally approved the construction of a 300 km high speed line between Shanghai and Nanjing at a cost of 39·5bn yuan. The project is to be funded by the two cities, the province of Jiangsu and the Ministry of Railways. Construction is ...
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Sprinter on the start line
NETHERLANDS: Harry Hondius MSc rides the first of NS Reizigers' new-generation of Sprinter EMUs, which are due to enter service between Den Haag and Utrecht this year.
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FGC completes upgrade
SPAIN: On February 9 Catalan regional operator FGC introduced a new timetable on its metre-gauge route to Martorell, Igualada and Manresa, having completed a €264·7m programme of capacity enhancements to enable trains to operate every 5 min in the peaks between Barcelona Plaça d'Espanya and Martorell-Enllaç. Trains now operate every ...
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News'The nightmare scenario'
Thalys International's Chief Executive Jean-Michel Dancoisne explains how capacity constraints and cross-border regulatory inconsistency risk making his job anything but a dream.