Passenger rail news – Page 280
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NewsArgentina confirms high speed rail consortium
AN INTERNATIONAL consortium led by Alstom has been formally selected to build South America's first high speed railway, President Cristina Fernández of Argentina officially announced on January 16. The Veloxia consortium was named as preferred bidder for a turnkey contract to construct the Buenos Aires – Cordoba line in June ...
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NewsVision of US passenger growth
AMBITIOUS PROPOSALS for expansion of inter-city passenger services in the USA were unveiled in Washington DC on December 6. The 'Vision for the Future' report calls for investment of $357·2bn between now and 2050. The report was compiled by a working party formed of state transport authorities and regional rail ...
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NewsFirst Flirt to Algeria
STADLER has begun rolling out 64 four-car Flirt EMUs ordered by SNTF for Alger suburban services at a cost of SFr600m. Top speed of the 25 kV 50 Hz standard gauge units is 120 km/h, and deliveries will run until the end of 2010.
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NewsVIA loco rebuild contract
ON DECEMBER 12 VIA Rail Canada announced it had awarded a C$101·5m contract for the rebuilding of its fleet of GM-built F40 diesel locos over five years. The project is being funded under a C$691·9m investment package announced by the government on October 11 (RG 11.07 p673), and will see ...
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NewsChina rolls out 300 km/h trainset
THE FIRST Chinese-built high speed trainset capable of 300 km/h operation was rolled out at Sifang Locomotive works on December 22. The design is derived from East Japan Railway's E2-1000 Shinkansen trains, and follows from a batch of 60 CRH2 sets developed by a Kawasaki-led consortium and assembled by Sifang ...
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Demonstrating the power of hydrogen
A pan-European consortium aims to demonstrate a hydrogen fuel cell powered passenger train in Denmark during 2010
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East Coast franchise handover
NATIONAL Express Group began operating the UK's prestigious InterCity East Coast franchise on December 9, replacing Great North Eastern Railway which had held the previous franchise until the operator and its parent company hit financial difficulties. The new agreement covering 200 km/h services between London, Yorkshire and Scotland via the ...
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NewsSiemens high speed train sets sail for China
THE FIRST of the CRH3 high speed trains being supplied to Chinese Railways has left Bremerhaven in Germany onboard M/S Gjertrud Maersk for the six-week sea journey to Tianjin. The 60 eight-car trains were ordered in November 2005 from a consortium of Siemens Transportation Systems and Tangshan Locomotive & Rolling ...
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NewsGreat Western regional refurbishment underway
UK: Diesel multiple-units operated by First Great Western on west of England regional services are undergoing an £11m refurbishment to bring them up to modern standards of reliability and appearance. During November the operator returned to service the first of 17 Class 150 two-car DMUs to be modernised by Cardiff-based ...
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NewsBombardier to run GO Transit
GREATER TORONTO Transit Authority has awarded Bombardier Transportation a five-year contract to operate GO Transit commuter rail services, valued at C$131·3m. GTTA announced on November 9 that Bombardier's bid had been selected over tenders from SNC-Lavalin and Veolia Transportation Rail. From June 2008 the company will be responsible for providing ...
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NewsTaiwan's high speed line takes off
A celebration on October 24 marked the formal completion of the high speed line between Taipei and Kaohsiung. THSRC Chairman Nita Ing talks to Chris Jackson about the challenges of transforming the company from a builder to an operator and paying off the US$16bn cost of the world's biggest BOT ...
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NewsRailjet to take off next year
Austrian Federal Railways is preparing to take delivery of the first of 67 push-pull railjet trainsets able to run at 230 km/h
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NewsVIA Rail fleet to roll on
CANADA: Inter-city and long-distance passenger trains are to benefit from a C$691·9m funding package unveiled on October 11. Hon Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure & Communities, said 'we are launching the largest capital program in VIA Rail's history'. The five-year package will ensure that VIA's 'current network and service ...
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China awards €1bn high-speed train contract
A BILLION euro order for 40 high-speed trainsets including 20 sleeper trains was signed by China's Ministry of Railways and manufacturer Bombardier Sifang Power (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd on October 31. The 16-car electric multiple-units will be 430 m long and capable of speeds up to 250 km/h. The order ...
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NewsMorocco to order Duplex TGVs
MOROCCO: The dream of high speed trains in North Africa moved a step closer on October 22, when Alstom Transport announced that it had been selected to supply a fleet of 18 TGV Duplex trainsets to Moroccan national railway ONCFM. Subject to final negotiations, the order is ...
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NewsSkåne springboard as Arriva expands
Arriva's experience of working with local governments helped the company win a nine-year concession to run the Pågatåg network in Sweden
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NewsBangkok Desiro deliveries begin
THE FIRST two of the nine Desiro electric multiple-units which are being built for Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport rail link left the German port of Bremerhaven for the five-week journey to Thailand on September 8. The trains sailed onboard the cargo ship MV Pegasus Leader and are expected to arrive at ...
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NewsReturn of the inter-city train
Investment by individual states has brought a dramatic growth in inter-city rail travel on some US corridors, and may trigger the political breakthrough required for the development of true high speed lines
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Karelian Trains awards Pendolino contract
ON SEPTEMBER 5 Alstom announced it had been awarded a €120m contract by Karelian Trains to supply four 1520 mm gauge Pendolino tilting trains for use on 220 km/h services between Helsinki and St Petersburg. In May Alstom had been named as the sole bidder for the contract, which includes ...
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Inter-regional TGV line will have an international impact
Spectacular time savings will follow completion of France's first inter-regional TGV line over the 140 km between Dijon and Belfort in December 2011. Reporting from RFF's construction headquarters at Besançon, Murray Hughes finds that the line will change Europe's railway geography