Swiss railway news – Page 17
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NewsSBB orders locomotives with ‘working and waiting’ cabs
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways’ Infrastructure business has awarded preferred bidder Alstom a €175m contract to supply 47 Prima H4 electro–diesel locomotives. The four-axle locomotives are scheduled to enter service in 2018, and will be used to haul infrastructure trains and for shunting in yards at Lausanne and Limmattal. Alstom ...
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NewsDurchmesserlinie project completed
SWITZERLAND: The eight-year Durchmesserlinie project to increase capacity by eliminating the need for east–west trains to reverse at Zürich Hauptbahnhof was officially completed with a ceremony marking the end of Phase 2 on October 26. Phase 1 of the 9·6 km Durchmesserlinie comprised the 4·8 km S-shaped Weinberg Tunnel ...
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NewsSBB orders maintenance fleet
SWITZERLAND: To handle rising volumes of infrastructure construction and maintenance traffic, Swiss Federal Railways has placed two orders totalling SFr265m for Alstom to supply 47 mainline and shunting locomotives and Windhoff 35 self-propelled infrastructure maintenance vehicles. SBB had called tenders in March 2014 as part of programme to renew its ...
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NewsSBB Cargo and DB Schenker extend trans-Alpine contract
SWITZERLAND: An extension of SBB Cargo’s contract to haul Germany – Italy trans-Alpine transit freight trains on behalf of DB Schenker was signed by representatives of the two companies inside the Gotthard base tunnel on September 25. DB switched its Gotthard transit contract from BLS to SBB in December 2013. ...
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NewsSwiss government funds more maintenance
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways has secured a 15% increase in infrastructure funding from the government for the next three-year performance contract covering 2017-20. Due to be submitted to parliament after a hearing in September, the increase is justified by a predicted 9% rise in gross tonne-km and additions to the ...
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NewsDB Netz buys SBB’s Rail Control System
GERMANY: Infrastructure manager DB Netz has licensed the Rail Control System train control and dispatching package developed by Swiss Federal Railways, and plans to deploy it across the German network from 2019. Introduced by SBB in 2009, RCS is also used by BLS and SOB. Belgium’s Infrabel was the first ...
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NewsMock-up verifies Stadler’s Gotthard train design
SWITZERLAND: Stadler Rail and Swiss Federal Railways are using a full-size wooden mock-up to verify the planned interior design of the 29 Giruno trainsets ordered in May 2014 for use on services from Basel and Zürich to Milano via the Gotthard base tunnel. The mock-up at Stadler’s Bussnang factory ...
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NewsStadler Rail switches its focus from east to west
STADLER RAIL: Swiss rolling stock manufacturer Stadler Rail has announced plans to shift the focus of its growth plans away from the CIS and Middle East markets and towards the UK and the USA. On June 19 Stadler said the Swiss national bank’s decision to uncouple the franc from the ...
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NewsMixed fleet for cross-border RER
EUROPE: The Rhône-Alpes region of France has announced that it is to order a fleet of 17 Régiolis EMUs for the RER Franco-Valdo-Genevois network that will connect Evian, Saint-Gervais, Annecy and Bellegarde with Genève and Lausanne in Switzerland. Worth €220m, the order is to be placed under the framework agreement ...
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NewsSBB approves pre-series Twindexx EMU
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways has confirmed that two Bombardier Transportation pre-series Twinindexx Express double-deck long-distance electric multiple-units meet its quality standards and technical requirements, ahead of the start of test running in Switzerland. SBB announced the approval on June 8, when it formally unveiled one of the pre-series EMUs and ...
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NewsSwitzerland unveils biggest timetable shake-up since Bahn 2000
SWITZERLAND: This year’s timetable change on December 13 will be ‘the most ambitious since the introduction of Bahn 2000 in 2004’, Swiss Federal Railways announced on May 26. Long-distance services are set to expand by 660 000 train-km, or about 1%, while regional services will increase by 2·3 million train-km, ...
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NewsStrong franc brings Huber+Suhner structural changes
SWITZERLAND: Cable, connector and antenna systems supplier Huber+Suhner announced measures to cope with the impact of ‘negative effects due to the strong Swiss franc’ on May 12. The changes will lead to around 25 early retirements and 25 redundancies at its Herisau and Pfäffikon sites in 2015, along with ...
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NewsSBB prepares for Gotthard base tunnel opening
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways is embarking on a major programme to modify long-distance rolling stock for operation through the Gotthard base tunnel, the company announced on April 30. In addition, it is launching an extensive staff training programme to prepare for the start of operations on December 11 2016. Announcing ...
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NewsABB wins Swiss substation contracts
SWITZERLAND: ABB has received turnkey contracts worth US$30m from Swiss Federal Railways and private operator Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn to supply three traction substations by 2018. The manufacturer says that this will help the operators to increase capacity by strengthening and stabilising their power supplies. The SBB order covers 132/66/15/11 ...
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NewsBLS Cargo orders Vectron locomotives
SWITZERLAND: BLS Cargo announced an order for Siemens to supply 15 Vectron multi-system electric locomotives on March 27. They are scheduled to be delivered in three batches, with the first to enter traffic in the second half of 2016 and the last in 2018. The locomotives are to ...
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NewsSBB awards on-track plant contracts
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways has awarded contracts totalling SFr136m a year for the lease of 65 tampers, cranes and other track maintenance plant over periods of five to 10 years. The contracts are due to come into effect at the end of 2015, when the current agreements signed in 2006 ...
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NewsFirst Ceneri base tunnel breakthrough
SWITZERLAND: A final blast at noon on March 17 broke through the southern end of the western bore of the Ceneri base tunnel on the Gotthard corridor, 13 months ahead of schedule. The base tunnel’s twin 15·4 km bores are being excavated south from the Vigana portal, north from ...
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NewsZEB funds ease Bern traffic flows
SWITZERLAND: The release of a fifth tranche of funding under the ZEB railway infrastructure development programme paves the way for Swiss Federal Railways to start work on six enhancement projects worth a total of SFr170m. The biggest of these is the long-standing scheme to separate traffic flows at Wylerfeld east ...
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NewsSNCB Logistics launches Swiss Xpress
EUROPE: Belgian national freight operator SNCB Logistics has launched a fast single wagonload service between Antwerpen and Basel, which has reduced the transit time from seven to four and a half days. SBB Cargo provides feeder services in Switzerland. The Swiss Xpress trains leave the Belgian port on Mondays, ...
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NewsSBB orders more ETR610 tilting trains
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways has exercised an option for Alstom to supply an additional four ETR610 New Pendolino tilting trainsets for use on the north–south Gotthard and Simplon corridors from 2017. The SFr120m order announced on January 30 follows two previous orders for seven and eight trainsets. The 250 ...