All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 338
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
ČD Cargo has begun taking delivery of 80 Zacns 88 m3 tank wagons ordered from Tatravagónka Poprad. Volvo, automotive logistics company ARS Altmann and Intermodal Container Logistics have begun delivering cars from China to Gent in Belgium by rail. Several round trips per week are planned, carrying 40 000 vehicles ...
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NewsBogie turntable redesigned for easier installation
TURNTABLE: Depot equipment specialist Mechan has revised the design of its bogie turntables, following 18 months of research into ways of overcoming common problems with pit construction. ‘As turntable pits need to be round, they are difficult to cast and don’t always end up level’, explains service engineer David Blagg. ...
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NewsTimber wagons ordered
RUSSIA: UniCredit Leasing has awarded United Wagon Co subsidiary TikhvinSpetsMash a contract to supply 50 timber wagons for use by Luzales, one of the largest logging companies in the Komi Republic. An initial 30 Type 13-6895 cars are to be delivered by the end of the third ...
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NewsThailand launches Cambodian border service
THAILAND: State Railway of Thailand launched a twice-daily passenger service between Bangkok and the Cambodian border on July 1. The service is aimed at Thai and foreign tourists and people visiting the Rong Kleua Market. The service is expected to promote cross-border trade with Cambodia, with significant growth in ridership ...
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NewsRailway supply industry news round-up
US wagon repair and storage company Appalachian Railcar Services has expanded its facility at Elk Mills in Maryland to create a full-service tank car workshop with interior and exterior blast and paint capability. Services include certification, accident repairs, cleaning and lining options, as well as 24/7 mobile repair capabilities for ...
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NewsSachsen line reopenings under consideration
GERMANY: Local transport authority VMS is studying options for reviving passenger services to Rochlitz and on the Pockau-Lengefeld – Marienberg line in Sachsen. Servies to Rochlitz ended in 2000, with passengers instead needing to travel by bus to Geithain for connections to Leipzig and Chemnitz. VMS is studying options and ...
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NewsCoach kits delivered to Kazakhstan
KAZAKHSTAN: Transmashholding’s Tver Carriage Works is supplying Tulpar-Talgo with kits for the assembly of Type 61-4447 coaches in Nur-Sultan. The Russian factory has supplied 137 complete coaches of various types to Kazakhstan over the past decade, and this is its first contract to supply kits for local assembly. The ...
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NewsCP and EMEF to merge ahead of market opening
PORTUGAL: The government has approved a €45m capital investment programme for both national operator CP and rolling stock maintenance business EMEF. To be funded from the state budget, the 2019-22 plan approved on June 27 has two parts. The first covers investment of €9m in 2019, primarily to enable EMEF ...
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NewsCalifornia High-Speed Rail Authority publishes northern route preferences
USA: California High-Speed Rail Authority has published its recommended alignments for two sections of the planned line in northern California. Public feedback will now be sought before the board makes a decision in September. Draft environmental documents would then be published in December 2019 and March 2020, ahead of a ...
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NewsFinnish passenger tendering plan put on hold
FINLAND: Recently-appointed Minister of Transport & Communications Sanna Marin has suspended plans to call tenders for the operation of regional passenger services in southern Finland. On June 27 the ministry said that the preparatory process had shown that it would not be possible to proceed as planned. A fair and ...
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NewsCisalpino Pendolinos to work Athens – Thessaloniki line
GREECE: Following its acquisition of national passenger operator Trainose, Italy’s FS Group has decided to deploy its 200 km/h ETR470 tilting trains to accelerate inter-city services on the Athens – Thessaloniki main line. This follows trials with one of Trenitalia’s multi-system ETR485 trainsets last year. The first of five ...
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NewsBranch lines’ future secured as Elster-Geiseltal operating contract signed
GERMANY: A contract for the operation of Elster-Geiseltal local passenger services from December 15 2019 was signed by Sachsen-Anhalt transport authority NASA and DB Regio Südost in the chapter house of Merseburg Cathedral on July 1. The contract covers the operation of service RB78 on the 35 km Geiseltal branch ...
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NewsBattery answer to Schleswig-Holstein’s diesel replacement question
GERMANY: Schleswig-Holstein transport authority NAH.SH has formally awarded preferred bidder Stadler a contract to supply a fleet of battery-powered Flirt Akku multiple-units for use on regional services from 2022. The €600m deal includes a firm order for the supply of 55 trains and the provision of 30 years of maintenance. ...
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NewsSlovakian upgrade awarded EU funding
SLOVAKIA: The European Union’s Cohesion Fund is to provide €285·5m to support upgrading of the line between Žilina and Púchov near the Czech border. This will fund works to permit 160 km/h running between Púchov and Považská Teplá, the construction of two tunnels and three large bridges and the refurbishment ...
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NewsKuala Lumpur – Singapore cost review consultants appointed
MALAYSIA: Project promoter MyHSR Corp has appointed two consultancies to identify options for reducing the cost of the Malaysian section of the proposed Kuala Lumpur – Singapore high speed line. In September last year the governments of Malaysia and Singapore agreed to put construction of the 350 km line on ...
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NewsAdelaide A-City fleet expansion
AUSTRALIA: The government of South Australia has awarded Bombardier Transportation a contract to supply a further 12 three-car A-City electric multiple-units to increase capacity on the Adelaide suburban network. The order announced on June 28 will take the A-City fleet to 34 units. The 1 600 mm gauge 25 kV ...
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NewsRENFE seeks to take on the TGV
FRANCE: On July 1, RENFE Operadora confirmed its intention to enter the French high speed passenger market, saying it had lodged the relevant applications with regulator Arafer, safety authority EPSF and infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau. The Spanish national operator would compete with incumbent SNCF on high speed routes initially using ...
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NewsSão Paulo state seeks to relaunch passenger network
BRAZIL: A state-wide X-shaped network of passenger services could be reintroduced to the main line network in São Paulo under plans being developed by Governor João Doria. The initial service would link São Paulo with Campinas, a distance of around 100 km. The proposals envisage adapting existing ...
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NewsChina out in front with the world’s fastest trains
INTERNATIONAL: China now has the fastest regular timetabled trains in the world, significantly faster than any other country, according to Railway Gazette’s biennial World Speed Survey, which appears in the July 2019 issue of Railway Gazette International magazine. Compiled by Jeremy Hartill of the Railway Performance Society, using data for ...
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NewsSwitzerland: Competitive stress
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways CEO Andreas Meyer believes that SBB could be forced into a position where it became a residual operator if the federal government were to pursue further its policy of on-rail competition. In an interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung on May 29, Meyer reiterated ...