Urban rail – Page 387
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NewsLake Oswego streetcar
USA: The Portland and Lake Oswego city councils have voted to move ahead with a $458m streetcar route linking the two communities, which includes a junction with Portland’s existing streetcar network on the South Waterfront. Once initial approvals are received from Multnomah County, Clackamas County, the regional Metro Council and ...
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NewsCarbon credits fund Tallinn tram fleet renewal
ESTONIA: The government intends to spend €45m raised through the sale of surplus carbon credits to purchase up to 16 trams for use in Tallinn. The sale of an undisclosed number of Assigned Amount Units to Spain was approved during a cabinet meeting on May 5. The new vehicles could ...
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NewsDenver commuter rail design
USA: The Federal Transit Administration has granted a Record of Decision to the largely-unfunded 29 km North Metro commuter line in Denver, clearing the way for final design to begin. The route would follow BNSF Railway and former Union Pacific rights-of-way from Denver Union Station to 162nd Avenue in Thornton. ...
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NewsMurcia tram line 1 inaugurated
SPAIN: Tranvía de Murcia launched services on its 17·5 km V-shaped light rail network on May 28.The main route has 24 stops and runs from Estadio Nueva Condomina in the northeast to the University of Murcia campus in the northwest, via the city centre. A branch with four stops connects ...
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NewsScomi wins Line 17 monorail project in São Paulo
BRAZIL: Metro São Paulo awarded the Monotrilho Integracao consortium of Scomi, Andrade Gutierrez, CR Almeida and Montagens e Projetos Especiais a R$1·4bn turnkey contract to build the Line 17 monorail on June 2.The 18 km elevated Gold Line with 18 stations will link São Paulo-Morumbi on Line 4 with Jabaquara, ...
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NewsToronto Rockets to enter service in June
CANADA: The first of 420 new Rocket subway cars being built for Toronto Transit Commission by Bombardier will enter revenue service on the Yonge-University line in June, according to TTC. The first four cars have been undergoing testing for several months, and more are now being delivered from Bombardier’s ...
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NewsUrban rail news in brief - June 2011
Under a programme to ‘improve’ public transport in Toshkent 26 km of tram track is being removed from the city centre and trams will be restricted to the inner ring road. Four new sections of track totalling 16 km are being built and 20 trams will be ...
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NewsSão Paulo Line 4 growth
BRAZIL: São Paulo metro opened Pinheiros station between Faria Lima and Butantã on the driverless Line 4 on May 16. It is expected to increase daily ridership from 50000 to 80000. Operating hours on the Paulista – Butantã section of the Yellow Line were extended on May 2. The ...
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NewsDresden Messe tram extension opens
GERMANY: Music, dancing and vintage trams featured in opening celebrations for an extension of Dresden tram Line 10 to the exhibition centre on May 29. The 'Messelinie' extension runs for 1·3 km from the former terminus at Friedrichstadt, which has been renamed Vorwerkstraße, and has four stops. Studies for ...
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NewsFirst Stadler Variobahn arrives in Potsdam
GERMANY: The first Stadler Variobahn for the Potsdam tram network was officially presented to transport operator ViP on May 13. The vehicle will now be tested and certified prior to entering commercial service, which is provisionally set for September 17. ViP placed a €25m order for 10 Variobahn low-floor trams ...
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NewsAlstom enters 'second tier' Chinese metro signalling market
CHINA: A joint venture of Alstom and CASCO announced contracts totalling €85m for the supply of Urbalis CBTC signalling equipment for metro projects in Shanghai and Kunming on May 24. The contracts are 'important milestones', according to Ling Fang, Managing Director of Alstom Transport China, as they demonstrate that Alstom ...
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NewsTramino and Moderus Beta trams go into service in Poznan
POLAND: The first series-build Solaris Tramino for Poznan was handed over to city transport operator MPK on May 23, and is expected to enter service this week. 'Poznan's passengers will experience one of the most comfortable trams in Europe', said Krzysztof Olszewski, founder of bus manufacturer Solaris which has ...
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NewsOttawa O-Train extension proposed
CANADA: The Ottawa Transit Commission approved C$200 000 for a study into a southern O-Train extension to Leitrim Park & Ride and Riverside South at a meeting on May 18. The line would use the corridor designated for the proposed north-south LRT line that was scrapped by City of Ottawa ...
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NewsRabat - Salé tram network launched
MOROCCO: King Mohammed VI visited Rabat-Salé on May 18 to inaugurate the 19·5 km tram network with 31 stops and the 1·2 km Hassan II Bridge which carries the shared central section over the Bouregreg river. The ceremony was attended by local officials, including Lemghari Essaki, Chairman ...
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NewsEast London Line to Clapham Junction underway
UK: TfL announced on May 19 that its contractor Birse Metro had begun work to build the 1∙3 km of new track, using a disused alignment, that will enable East London Line services to reach Clapham Junction. The new corridor will run from south of Surrey Quays station to join ...
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NewsAtlanta orders Siemens Avanto streetcars
USA: Siemens Industry Inc has been awarded its first North American street-running tram order, a $17·2m contract from the city of Atlanta for four cars based on the S70 Avanto light rail vehicle platform. They will be used on a 4·3 km line with 12 stops linking the Martin Luther ...
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NewsSound Transit dedicates University Link TBMs
USA: Senator Patty Murray and Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff joined Sound Transit board members in Seattle on May 16 to launch the first of three tunnel boring machines that will excavate the twin tunnels for the 5·1 km light rail link to the University of Washington.The extension starts ...
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NewsWorld Bank loan supports Kunming urban rail project
CHINA: The World Bank has approved a US$300m loan towards the US$1·7bn construction of Kunming metro Line 3. The loan is intended to support ‘compact, transit-oriented urban development by providing high quality, integrated public transport on the East-West Line 3 corridor’. The 19·5 km underground line will ...
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NewsWomen-only metro inaugurated
SAUDI ARABIA: King Abdullah rode on the recently completed driverless metro during his inauguration of the Princess Nora Bint Abdul Rahman University campus in Riyadh on May 15. As well as being the largest women-only university in the world, PNU is said to be the largest single-site university. Transport within ...
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NewsJeddah airport peoplemover contract awarded
SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Binladin Group has awarded Bombardier Transportation a US$96m contract to supply an automated peoplemover for the King Abdulaziz International Airport Development Project in Jeddah. Saudi Binladin Group recently won a contract to design and build a new terminal at the airport to handle rising ...
