Railway policy news – Page 69
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NewsGovernment invites bids for 171bn pesos PPP concession
PHILIPPINES: The Department of Transportation & Communications has issued a prequalification request for a 171bn pesos PPP project worth covering the rehabilitation and extension of the Main Line South, which links Manila with Bicol province on the island of Luzon. According to DOTC, the project is the largest PPP to ...
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NewsFreight operators fined €49m for operating cartel
EUROPE: The European Commission has fined subsidiaries of Austrian Federal Railways and Deutsche Bahn €17·4m and €31·8m respectively for operating a cartel in the block train sector between July 2004 and June 2012. Kühne+Nagel was also part of the cartel with the Express Interfracht and Schenker businesses, but was ...
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NewsCP Carga and EMEF bidders announced
PORTUGAL: Meeting on July 9, the cabinet gave its approval for negotiations to start with three of the four bidders for CP Carga, the freight business of the national train operator. The three bidders are Atena Equity Partners, Cofihold and Mediterranean Shipping Company Rail (Portugal) Operadores Ferroviários SA, the latter ...
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NewsSerbian railway restructuring approved
SERBIA: State railway company Železnice Srbije is scheduled to be restructured with effect from July 15, after government approval was granted on July 2 for the implementation of plans which were finalised in May. The restructuring will create four businesses: ŽS Holding, ŽS Infrastructure which will be responsible for managing ...
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NewsTET revival plan presented
FRANCE: On July 7 Secretary of State for Transport Alain Vidalies presented the government’s proposals for reviving the Trains d’Equilibre du Territoire, SNCF’s network of conventional long-distance passenger services which have seen traffic fall by 20% since 2011. From €330m in 2014, operating losses are expected to rise to an ...
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NewsTransport projects selected for €13·1bn of European co-funding
EUROPE: ‘Flagship initiatives’ including the Rail Baltica standard gauge line, the Brenner base tunnel and the Fehmarn Belt fixed link are amongst the 276 transport projects which the European Commission has selected to receive €13·1bn of Connecting Europe Facility funding under the September 2014 call for proposals. Other projects selected ...
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NewsPakistan Railways ‘out of intensive care’
PAKISTAN: Minister of Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique has said Pakistan Railways is now ‘out of intensive care’. The federal budget for 2015-16 has allocated Rs41bn for PR’s non-staff costs, a business class Karachi – Islamabad passenger service has been launched and freight services to Iran restarted. The 2015-16 budget ...
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NewsElectrification on hold as Network Rail spending is ‘reset’
UK: Infrastructure manager Network Rail’s agreed works programme for Control Period 5 from 2014 to 2019 is to be reviewed and ‘reset’, Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin told the House of Commons on June 25, with the planned electrification of the Midland Main Line and trans-Pennine routes to ...
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NewsEU to revise ERTMS deployment plan
EUROPE: Speaking at Unife's 2015 General Assembly in Bucuresti on June 18, European Co-ordinator Karel Vinck announced an update of the ERTMS deployment plan. Conceding that insufficient information had been available when the plan was adopted on July 22 2009, he reported that the European Commission had now agreed to ...
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NewsMore concessions to boost Brazilian investment
BRAZIL: President Dilma Rousseff announced on June 9 that R$198∙4bn is to be invested in transport infrastructure under a new concessions programme, with the aim of stimulating the economy and boosting the export sector. Total investment is expected to reach R$69∙2bn between 2015 and 2018. This would be followed by ...
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NewsTechnical pillar of the Fourth Railway Package agreed
EUROPE: The final wording for the three legislative measures in the technical pillar of the European Commission’s Fourth Railway Package was agreed on June 17 at a meeting between the Latvian Presidency of the European Council and the European Parliament’s Transport & Tourism Committee. Coming a few days before the ...
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NewsUkraine plans railway sector reform
UKRAINE: Minister of Infrastructure Andrii Pyvovarsky has presented a draft bill for the reform of the rail sector and a plan to restructure the management of national railway UZ. The bill is to be submitted to parliament by October, with approval expected by the end of the year. Pyvovarsky said ...
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NewsFS appoints privatisation advisors
ITALY: Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane has appointed advisors to assist with the flotation of a minority stake in the business, the state railway holding group announced on May 28. The advisory team will be led by McKinsey & Co, working with Ernst & Young Financial Business Advisors Spa and the ...
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NewsTransport MEPs call for cross-border intermodal ticketing
EUROPE: Member states in the European Union should co-operate to share timetable and fare information in order to boost the development of intermodal ticketing, according to a report adopted by the European Parliament’s Transport & Tourism Committee on May 28. Due to be presented to the full Parliament in July, ...
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NewsUrgent action needed to reverse TET decline
FRANCE: Urgent action is needed to save SNCF’s network of conventional long-distance passenger services, says Philippe Duron in his foreword to a report on the future of these Trains d’Equilibre du Territoire, submitted to the government on May 26. Socialist MP for Calvados, Duron has presided over a committee of ...
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NewsIndustry calls for co-ordinated European action on metal theft
EUROPE: A joint statement calling for EU-wide action against metal theft was issued on May 26 by a coalition of 11 associations representing the rail, public transport and energy sectors. The signatories include CER, UIC, UITP and railway police association COLPOFER. The statement calls on EU policy makers to take ...
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NewsNew Zealand increases rail funding
NEW ZEALAND: Additional funding for KiwiRail was announced in the budget presented by Finance Minister Bill English on May 21, although he also called for savings to be identified. The national railway is to get NZ$210m from the Future Investment Fund in 2015-16, and a further NZ$190m was announced as ...
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NewsZSSK Cargo wagon sale approved
SLOVAKIA: Competition authority PÚSR gave a final approval for the wagon sale and leaseback deal between national rail freight operator ZSSK Cargo and leasing company VTG on May 12. The entry of a strategic partner to Cargo Wagon is part of a plan to consolidate the freight business which the ...
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NewsCompetition on the Bratislava – Košice corridor
SLOVAKIA: National passenger operator ZSSK reduced the number of premium IC trains on the Bratislava – Košice main line from three to two daily train pairs from April 15. ZSSK hopes this will reduce losses on the 445 km route between the two largest cities to €1·2m this year, compared ...
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NewsFirst long-distance services to be tendered
SLOVAKIA: As part of long-term plans to liberalise the long-distance passenger market, the Ministry of Transport has announced that it is to call tenders this year for the operation of subsidised passenger services on the 230 km Bratislava – Banská Bystrica route via Šaľa, Levice and Zvolen. The government ...