All Railway Gazette International articles in September 2015 – Page 4
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NewsMünchen orders more Avenio trams
GERMANY: München utility body SWM has selected Siemens as preferred bidder to supply 22 low-floor trams. The €70m contract is to be signed following a 10-day standstill period. Starting in mid-2017, Siemens is to deliver nine two-section, nine three-section and four four-section Avenio trams. Operator MVG envisages that on ...
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NewsNew East Midlands direct award franchise agreed
UK: The Department for Transport and incumbent operator Stagecoach Group announced the agreement of a new directly-awarded East Midlands franchise on September 16. The current franchise covering inter-city services on the Midland Main Line and regional services across the East Midlands has been operated by Stagecoach subsidiary East Midlands Trains ...
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NewsYaroslavl plans fast tram lines
RUSSIA: Yaroslavl tram operator Yargorelektrotrans has announced plans for two fast tram lines. A feasibility study is expected to be completed soon. One route would link the main line station to the airport, southeast of the city. The other would be a north-south route intended to serve the city’s ...
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NewsEBRD signs Kosovo infrastructure upgrading loan
KOSOVO: The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development has signed a €39·9m senior loan with infrastructure manager Infrakos to finance a three-stage modernisation of the 148 km railway linking Macedonia with Serbia via Fushë Kosovë and Mitrovicë. EBRD will also support improvements to asset management, track access charges and workforce ...
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NewsUS$4∙8bn for freight renaissance
ARGENTINA: Minister of the Interior & Transport Florencio Randazzo announced on September 8 that China Machinery Engineering Corp had signed a letter of intent to double the amount of funding it is providing to revive Argentina’s rail freight network. ‘It is a second tranche of US$2⋅4bn which we will entirely ...
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NewsVorgebirgsbahn electrification contract
GERMANY: Häfen & Güterverkehr Köln has awarded SPL Powerlines Germany a contract to install electrification equipment as part of the doubling of 2·1 km of single track line between Brühl and Badorf on the Vorgebirgsbahn inter-urban light rail Line 18 between Köln and Bonn. The work began this month ...
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NewsQuality improvements in new Rurtalbahn contract
GERMANY: Following the first competitive tender for the route, on September 9 transport authority Nahverkehr Rheinland selected incumbent Rurtalbahn GmbH for a contract to operate hourly local passenger service RB21 on the 26 km Düren – Linnich northern branch of the Rurtalbahn network for four years from 2016. The ...
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NewsØstfold ETCS pilot line goes live
NORWAY: Services on an 80 km section of the Østfoldbanen southeast of Oslo are now running under ETCS Level 2, following the formal commissioning of the first phase of Jernbaneverket’s national ERTMS roll-out. The ETCS installation on the plot line between Ski and Sarpsborg was inaugurated by Transport Minister Ketil ...
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NewsParis Line 18 contract awarded
FRANCE: Société du Grand Paris has awarded the Linéov Group consortium of SNC-Lavalin, Algoé and Transamo a project management assistance contract for Paris metro Line 18. The contract covers both the construction and operation phases. Linéov Group will advise SGP on project management, and oversee all the contractors and ...
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NewsTransNamib orders GE locomotives
NAMIBIA: National railway TransNamib signed a US$22·7m purchase agreement for six GE Transportation C23EMP locomotives on September 11. The 1 067 mm gauge diesel locomotives are scheduled to be delivered to Walvis Bay within the next 18 to 20 months. They will be used to haul sulphuric acid ...
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NewsPortland opens Orange Line
USA: Portland light rail operator TriMet inaugurated the MAX Orange Line between Portland and Milwaukie on September 12. The 11·7 km route is operated as a southern extension of the existing Yellow line. Startling at SE Park Avenue in north Milwaukie, the route runs north to OMSI before crossing ...
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NewsNew York opens Subway Line 7 extension
USA: New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority inaugurated an extension of the Subway’s 7-Flushing Line on September 13. The 2·4 km extension runs west from 42 Street/Times Square before turning south to reach a new station at 34 St-Hudson Yards. ‘This station is the centrepiece of an ambitious plan to ...
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NewsMobile Maintenance Train enters service
UK: The first of eight self-propelled Mobile Maintenance Trains which Robel is supplying to infrastructure manager Network Rail has entered service. The key feature of the MMT is the extendable cover over the floodlit working area, which provides staff with protection from the weather and from trains passing on ...
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NewsRailmark forms Transit Services business unit
USA: Railmark Holdings Inc has announced the formation of a Railmark Transit Services business unit, consolidating its lubrication, equipment heating and rolling stock component activities alongside its train operations, rolling stock maintenance, marketing, accessibility modification and other passenger rail support services. Railmark plans to ‘significantly’ expand the range of ...
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NewsWorld rail infrastructure market September 2015
Algeria: EMA has awarded a three-year contract to extend the Constantine tram line to a consortium of Alstom, Corsan, Corviam and Cosider. Austria: ÖBB-Infrastruktur has awarded Hochtief, Implenia and Thyssen Schachtbau a €457m contract for NATM construction of the 7·4 km twin bore eastern section of the Semmering base ...
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NewsWorld rolling stock market September 2015
Australia: UGL and Unipart Rail have won an A$131m contract to modernise Sydney Trains’ 446 Tangara EMU cars by July 2018. Mitsubishi Electric will upgrade the traction systems. Interfleet supported the tendering process. Bulgaria: A Siemens-Newag consortium submitted the lowest bid to supply 20 three-car trainsets for the future ...
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NewsCommuter prognosticator avoids delays which haven’t happened yet
SWEDEN: Mathematician Wilhelm Landerholm of Queue AB and Stockholm commuter train operator Stockholmståg have developed an algorithm which can be used to forecast potential delays, helping network control staff to make decisions which will minimise the potential impact and also prevent ripple effects before they would have occurred. Real-time feeds ...
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NewsMetrolinx orders computer-based integrated control system
CANADA: Regional transport agency Metrolinx has awarded Alstom a €113m contract to provide a computer-based integrated train control system covering the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area. Commissioning is scheduled for late 2018. Announcing the contract on September 10, Alstom said its Iconis technology would provide a single control centre ...
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NewsDfT seeks ideas to secure Island Line’s future
UK: The Department for Transport announced on September 11 that it would undertake public consultation on proposals to secure the future of the 13·5 km isolated line on the Isle of Wight by turning it into ‘a separate and self-sustaining business’ during the life of the next South Western franchise, ...
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NewsTurkish GSM-R interoperability testing completed
TURKEY: Italian certification group RINA has successfully completed interoperability testing of the GSM-R base station sub-system access network supplied to national railway TCDD by Huawei, and the GSM-R network switching sub-system core network supplied by Nokia. Huawei said TCDD has typical multi-vendor GSM-R infrastructure, with Nokia, Kapsch and Huawei elements. ...