All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 387
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NewsGemas – Johor Bahru resignalling contract awarded
MALAYSIA: National operator KTMB has awarded a consortium of Ansaldo STS Malaysia and Pestech Technology a 264m ringgit contract for the resignalling of the Gemas – Johor Bahru main line in the south of the country. The 198 km metre-gauge route has 11 stations and a depot at Kempas ...
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NewsČeské Budějovice receives battery buses
CZECH REPUBLIC: The first batch of a total of 11 electric buses that Škoda Electric is supplying to České Budějovice arrived in the city on October 3, ahead of entry into passenger service expected on November 1. Škoda is supplying its 29 BB model, based on the Solaris Urbino ...
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NewsWagon maintenance deal
RUSSIA: United Wagon Co and Uralchem-Trans have signed an agreement to develop a service centre at Murashi on RZD’s Gorky Railway which would repair and maintain modern wagons produced at UWC’s Tikhvin plant. The Murashi depot has been servicing Tikhvin wagons managed by Uralchem Holding’s transport subsidiary since 2016. Uralchem-Trans ...
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NewsWellington infrastructure spending funded
NEW ZEALAND: A NZ$196m package of improvements to the Wellington regional rail network was announced by Transport Minister Phil Twyford on October 9. NZ Transport Agency funding of NZ$193m is being provided through the National Land Transport Fund to support infrastructure renewals and capacity enhancement under two business cases put ...
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NewsTunnel opens on Novokuznetsk avoiding line
RUSSIA: Completed by Russian Railways at a cost of 7bn roubles, a second bore of the 1 158 m long Tomusinksy tunnel north of Novokuznetsk opened for revenue service on October 3. The second bore alleviates a significant bottleneck formed by the original single-track tunnel, opened in 1967. This ...
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NewsŠkoda presents Mannheim tram mock-up
GERMANY: Škoda Transportation has presented a 16·5 m long mock-up of the ForCity Smart trams that it is supplying to Rhein-Neckar transport authority RNV in Mannheim. Earlier this year RNV awarded Škoda Transportation a €250m contract to supply 80 trams, with options for 34 additional vehicles. They ...
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NewsElectric locomotive works to be privatised
UKRAINE: The State Property Fund of Ukraine has begun preparations to privatise the Dnipropetrovsk Electric Locomotive Plant in the city of Dnipro (formerly Dnipropetrovsk). The plant is to be sold in an auction, but the starting price and date have not been announced. The plant is equipped to produce main ...
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NewsSolaris signs Kaunas trolleybus contract
LITHUANIA: Kaunas public transport operator UAB Kauno Autobusai has signed a €29·4m contract with Solaris Bus & Coach for the supply of 85 trolleybuses. Deliveries of the low-floor Trollino 12 vehicles are due in 15 months from contract signing. The trolleybuses will have capacity for 85 passengers, including 27 ...
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NewsSNCB updates Hasselt workshops
BELGIUM: An extension to the SNCB rolling stock workshops at Hasselt was formally opened on October 8, with a ceremony attended by CEO Sophie Dutordoir, the new Managing Director of SNCB Technics Gerd de Vos, Governor of Limburg Herman Reynders and the Mayor of Hasselt Nadja Vananroye. Under development since ...
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NewsUnion Pacific launches Unified Plan 2020 to improve performance
USA: On October 1 Union Pacific began the phased roll-out of its Unified Plan 2020, an operating plan designed to implement ‘precision scheduled railroading’ principles with the aim of achieving an operating ratio of 60 by 2020 and 55 in the longer term. UP said the implementation of precision scheduled ...
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NewsFirst Caen tram delivered
FRANCE: The first Citadis X05 tram arrived at the Fleury-sur-Orne depot in Caen on October 4, having left Alstom’s La Rochelle factory two days earlier. In November 2016 the city awarded Alstom a €52m contract to supply 23 trams for the 16·8 km three-line network which is ...
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NewsNorthern Latitudinal Railway concession signed
RUSSIA: Having been approved by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in mid-August, a formal concession agreement covering construction of the Northern Latitudinal Railway was signed at the ProMotion 1520 forum in Sochi on October 3. The SShKh consortium will be responsible for financing, building and operating the 113bn rouble line, which ...
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NewsVTG completes Nacco acquisition
EUROPE: Hamburg-based wagon leasing group VTG increased its total fleet to more than 94 000 vehicles on October 5, with its acquisition of CIT Rail Holdings (Europe) SAS and the associated Nacco Group. The takeover announced on July 1 2017 had been approved by the relevant competition regulators in ...
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NewsPolymer sleeper research partnership
AUSTRALIA: The University of Southern Queensland has formed a partnership with Austrak and Laing O’Rourke to develop and deploy fibre-reinforced polymer composite materials as an alternative to timber in sleepers and bridge transoms. The A$10m project has been backed by an A$3m grant from the government’s Co-operative Research Centre – ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
Matthew Rose is to step down as Executive Chairman of BNSF Railway in April 2019, having held the role for six years. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer from 2000-13. ČD Cargo has cancelled a tender for the supply of five high-power main line diesel locomotives for cross-border operation ...
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NewsBreakthrough for new Albula tunnel
SWITZERLAND: Rhätische Bahn’s 5 860 m long new Albula tunnel was holed through on October 2. Train services are expected to start in late 2021 or early 2022, with more than 15 000 trains carrying 1·2 million passengers/year. The existing 5 864 m long tunnel on the Chur – St ...
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NewsBlockchain-based locomotive data analysis trial announced
RUSSIA: Locomotive and rolling stock supplier Transmashholding has announced a partnership with blockchain developer Vostok to provide verified and distributed fleet data collection, analysis and storage. Vostok’s private blockchain platform is to be integrated with the SmartMaintenance diagnostics and forecasting system developed for TMH by data mining company ...
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NewsTexas Central names contractor and starts engineering design
USA: High speed rail promoter Texas Central announced on October 4 that it had appointed Italian civil engineering group Salini Impregilo to lead the civil construction consortium that would build its proposed Houston – Dallas route using Japanese Shinkansen technology. It has also issued a Limited Notice to Proceed, allowing ...
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NewsCatania metro extension delayed
ITALY: The extension of the Catania metro to Monte Po is now due to open in June, rather than this month as previously envisaged. Work on the 1·7 km section from Nesima began in December 2015. Tunnelling was completed in March this year, but the two stations are not ...
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NewsInland Rail PPP concession launched
AUSTRALIA: The public-private partnership to build and maintain a key section of the Inland Rail corridor through southern Queensland was launched on October 4, at an event in Toowoomba attended by federal Infrastructure Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack. Australian Rail Track Corp has invited registrations ...