Urban rail – Page 401
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NewsHajj trains shipped to Makkah
SAUDI ARABIA: Chinese manufacturer CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles has shipped the first 24 of 204 metro cars which will be used to transport pilgrims around Makkah, Mina, Muzdalifah and Arafat during the 2010 Hajj (MR 9.09 p12). The cars were due to arrive in Jeddah on May 20. The order ...
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NewsGroundbreaking in Boston
USA: A groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 3 marking the start of a $17·4m project to double-track 6·4 km of the Haverhill commuter line between Lawrence and Andover. Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Mullan led a group of local elected officials in wielding shovels at Andover station, the starting point of ...
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NewsMünchen unveils refurbished tram
GERMANY: The first of München’s 50 Type R2.2 low-floor trams to undergo a mid-life refit was revealed by operator MVG on May 17. Supplied in 1994-97, the three-section cars are all to be refurbished by the end of 2011 under a programme valued at €15m. Following a European tender, the ...
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NewsTram testing starts in Alger
ALGERIA: On May 15 Algerian Transport Minister Amar Tou witnessed the start of trial running on Alger’s first tram project, which will run from Carrefour des Fusillés, near Hessein Dey railway station, to Dergana in the eastern suburbs of the capital city. The initial trials are being carried out ...
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NewsPesa presents Warszawa Swing tram
POLAND: On May 12 Pesa Bydgoszcz presented the first Swing Type 120Na 100% low-floor tram for Tramwaje Warszawskie’s standard gauge network. The vehicle will be shipped to Warszawa at the end of May to start trial running. The five-section tram is 30·1 m long and 2 350 mm wide with ...
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NewsTrams return to Washington
USA: Plans for a 60 km, eight-route tram network were formally unveiled by District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty and other city officials on May 5, at the start of a four-day DC Tram Showcase. Centrepiece of the event was one of three low-floor cars purchased from Czech supplier Skoda-Inekon ...
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NewsMarseille metro extended
FRANCE: Line 1 of Marseille’s rubber-tyred metro was extended to La Fourragère on May 6. Construction of the 2·5 km extension from La Timone, with intermediate stations at La Blancard, Louis Armand and Saint-Barnabé, started in September 2005 and cost €417·5m.The new service to the predominantly residential western suburbs ...
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NewsTramwaje Warszawskie signs EBRD loan
POLAND: Tramwaje Warszawskie signed a loan agreement with EBRD on May 11 which will provide up to 200m zloty towards the operator’s 3·2bn zloty investment programme. EBRD will provide 50% from its own funds with the rest syndicated to commercial banks. The programme includes buying 186 trams to replace part ...
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NewsToronto orders more Rockets
CANADA: Toronto Transit Commission on May 6 approved an order for another 186 Rocket subway cars from Bombardier. The cars will be formed into 31 six-car trainsets, 21 of which will replace life-expired rolling stock. The other 10 sets will equip the Spadina subway extension to York, which is now ...
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NewsTracklaying completed on Dublin tram extension
IRELAND: Sparks flew in Dublin on May 5 when the final piece of track was welded in place on the Luas Line B1 Cherrywood tram extension. On hand to witness the occasion, which took place at the Brewery Road bridge in Sandyford, were Councillor Marie Baker, Chairperson of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown ...
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NewsTube Lines purchase brings London Underground PPP to a close
UK: Transport for London announced on May 7 that it had reached an agreement to buy London Underground infrastructure PPP contractor Tube Lines from its shareholders. The £310m deal is set to be completed by June 30, with Tube Lines becoming a subsidiary of the transport authority. Ferrovial subsidiary Amey ...
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NewsCBTC trials on New York’s Flushing Line
USA: New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority has awarded Kawasaki Rail Car an $87·1m contract for 23 new R188 subway cars equipped with communications-based train control; delivery is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2012. The R188 is designed for use on Division A of the New York City Transit network, ...
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NewsMore metro stations opened in Dubai
UAE: A further seven stations entered service on Dubai’s driverless metro network on April 30, taking the total number in operation to 18.The newly-opened Red Line stations are Emirates, Airport Terminal 1, Al Karama, Emirates Towers, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Marina and Ibn Battuta. A further three – GGICO, ...
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NewsWork starts on Praha metro extension
CZECH REPUBLIC: Praha Mayor Pavel Bém, city councillor Radovan Šteiner, Praha Public Transport Co Director General Martin Dvorák and other officials launched work on a 6 km western extension of Praha metro Line A on April 12, by laying a foundation stone at the site of Červený Vrch station. The ...
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NewsShanghai now the world's longest metro
CHINA: The departure of the first train on Shanghai metro Line 10 at 09.00 on April 10 signalled several significant achievements. The start of trial operation on Line 10, exactly 15 years to the day after the inauguration of the first section of Line 1, makes Shanghai's metro network the ...
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NewsEMUs arrive in Izmir
TURKEY: CAF has delivered the first two of 22 three-car air-conditioned EMUs which will work the reconstructed suburban lines from Izmir to Menderes and Aliaga - an 80 km network with 32 stations. The €123m order was placed by Izban, a joint venture of state railway TCDD and Izmir Metropolitan ...
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NewsEntertainment by tram
AUSTRALIA: A 2·8 km western extension of Adelaide's Glenelg tram route from City West to the Entertainment Centre at Hindmarsh opened on March 22. The route is worked by 11 Bombardier Flexity Classic low-floor trams and six recently-acquired Alstom Citadis 302 five-section trams originally built for Madrid's Metro Ligero network. ...
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NewsFirst tram arrives in Edinburgh
UK: On April 27 City of Edinburgh Council Leader Jenny Dawe received a key to the first of 27 low-floor CAF trams that will eventually work the light rail network being developed in the Scottish capital.The seven-module bi-directional tram was transported by road across Europe to Edinburgh in three sections, ...
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NewsBergen Bybanen gets the green light
NORWAY: The first phase of the 9·8 km Bybanen light rail project between Bergen town centre and Nesttun is due to be opened by Queen Sonja on June 22. The government has given its go-ahead for plans to extend the line to Rådal, and the project will now be reviewed ...
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NewsHung Hom station design revealed
CHINA: Atkins has released its preliminary designs for the new station to be built at Hung Hom as part of the Shatin – Central Link project. When SCL is completed in 2019, Hung Hom will become a key interchange to East Rail and West Rail services on MTR’s north-south and ...
