Freight news – Page 126
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NewsDB Schenker Rail orders Vectrons for Italy
ITALY: On November 30 Siemens announced a contract to supply DB Schenker Rail with eight Vectron DC electric locomotives for use in Italy from late 2016. The freight operator will lease the 5·2 MW locomotives from Unicredit Leasing. Jochen Eickholt, CEO of Siemens Mobility Division, said 23 locomotives ...
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NewsIndian Railways signs 12 000 wagon deal
INDIA: Indian Railways has signed agreements worth Rs25bn for the SAIL-RITES Bengal Wagon Industry joint venture to supply 1 200 stainless steel wagons and refurbish 300 existing wagons every year for the next 10 years. The two agreements will enable production to start shortly at a Rs1·2bn factory at ...
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NewsTransnet tests diesel and electric locos
SOUTH AFRICA: Transnet Freight Rail has taken delivery of the first of 233 Class 44 diesel locomotives ordered from General Electric in March 2014. The order was one of four placed at the time for a total of 1 064 locomotives. Four Class 44 locomotives, each rated at 3 120 ...
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NewsEthiopia – Djibouti railway carries first freight
AFRICA: The first freight train to operate on the new standard gauge railway between Djibouti and Addis Ababa arrived at a temporary unloading facility in Merebe Mermersa, 112 km south of Ethiopia's capital, on November 21.Construction of the railway has not yet been completed, but freight services have been launched ...
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NewsCP proposes Norfolk Southern merger
NORTH AMERICA: Canadian Pacific confirmed on November 17 that it had written to Norfolk Southern Corp, proposing a ‘business combination’ to ‘create a transcontinental railroad’ which it feels could become ‘a new industry leader’. Rumours of a bid had emerged a week earlier on November 9, after an earlier proposal ...
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NewsBrookfield Rail reaches interim grain deal
AUSTRALIA: Infrastructure manager Brookfield Rail has signed a new track access agreement with Western Australia’s grain handling company CBH Group covering grain train operations in 2016. The contract will replace the current interim agreement which is due to expire at the end of this year, midway through the main shipping ...
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NewsThree EU Rail Freight Corridors launched
EUROPE: The Scandinavian–Mediterranean, Baltic–Adriatic and North Sea–Baltic rail freight corridors were officially launched on November 10. They join six which have been operations since November 2013, completing the EU’s European Rail Network for Competitive Freight. Set up under Regulation 913/2010, the RFCs are a European Commission initiative intended ...
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NewsUP opens beer wagon cleaning facility
USA: A ceremony on November 3 marked the opening of Union Pacific’s $40m Kinney County Railport in Texas, which will undertake food-grade cleaning and repairs on boxcars used to carry packaged beer from Mexico to the USA. The site between Eagle Pass and Brackettville covers 40 ha, with ...
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NewsSemi-automated containerised coke unloader inaugurated
AUSTRIA: A facility for the rapid semi-automatic unloading of coke delivered to Voestalpine’s Leoben/Donawitz site in containers has been inaugurated by the steel maker, technology supplier Innofreight and ÖBB’s freight division Rail Cargo Group. The RockTainer ORE system of modular steel containers is designed to speed-up unloading, improve safety ...
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NewsLow-emission locos enter service in Chicago
USA: Government officials joined Norfolk Southern at 47th Street intermodal yard in Chicago on November 5 to inaugurate a fleet of remanufactured low-emission diesel shunting locomotives. Intended to offer cut particulate emissions by 76% and reduce NOx pollutants, the GP33ECO locomotives are remanufactured from EMD GP50 locomotives repowered with ...
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NewsWeekly Shenyang – Hamburg train launched
INTERNATIONAL: As part of the United Transport & Logistics Co joint venture of the national railways of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, RZD Logistics subsidiary Far East Land Bridge launched a weekly block train service from Shenyang to Hamburg on October 30. FELB has operated an eastbound service since 2008, ...
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NewsUnited Wagon Co awarded first tank wagon contract
RUSSIA: United Wagon Co’s TikhvinChemMash tank wagon business has won its first order, covering the supply of 105 methanol tanks to chemical company Metafrax. Production is to begin by the end of the year, with entry into service planned for 2016. Announcing the contract on November 3, UWC said the ...
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NewsInland Rail technical services tender called
AUSTRALIA: The federal government has called tenders for a contract to provide major technical advisory and engineering services for the proposed Melbourne – Brisbane Inland Rail project, and a briefing session is to be held in Brisbane on November 13. In parallel, Infrastructure Australia is considering the business case to ...
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NewsCongress extends PTC deadline by three years
USA: The potential shutdown of many rail services on January 1 has been avoided, after Congress approved a three-year extension of the federally-mandated December 31 deadline for the installation of Positive Train Control. The installation of PTC by the deadline was not considered feasible by the industry, and without ...
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NewsMonitoring tank wagons via satellite
EUROPE: Chemical supplier SABIC is to equip its fleet of 500 chemical tank wagons with ATEX Ovinto Sat M2M tracking and monitoring systems developed by Ovinto based on Globalstar satellite communications technology. Ovinto Sat collates data from various sensors and GPS devices on each of SABIC's wagons, and sends information ...
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NewsCalais opens Modalohr terminal
FRANCE: A terminal for loading lorry semi-trailers onto Modalohr swing-tray wagons was officially opened at the Port of Calais on October 23. Costing €7m, it has been funded by the combined operating company for the ports of Calais and Boulogne as well as the European Union. From January 12 2016 ...
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NewsLas Heras line to be revived for freight
ARGENTINA: The isolated 285 km route running from Puerto Deseado to Las Heras in Santa Cruz province is to be reopened for freight traffic at a cost of 90∙1m pesos, the government announced on October 5. Disused since 1978, the route is being upgraded to move materials for state-owned ...
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NewsNorfolk Southern to stop accepting traffic ahead of PTC deadline
USA: Ahead of the now unachievable December 31 deadline for the introduction on PTC on routes carrying passenger trains and certain hazardous freight traffic, Norfolk Southern announced on October 20 that it would stop accepting shipments of poisonous-inhalation-hazard commodities with effect from December 1. NS has also written to Amtrak, ...
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NewsWagons arrive from China
ARGENTINA: Minister of the Interior & Transport Florencio Randazzo visited the Port of Buenos Aires on October 16 to inspect the first shipment of 150 wagons to arrive from China, financed by a US$2⋅47bn loan that is being used to fund 3 500 new wagons, 100 diesel locomotives and the ...
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NewsTrinity Industries and Element Financial extend wagon alliance
USA: On October 14 the TrinityRail Asset Management Co subsidiary of Trinity Industries announced an extension of its alliance agreement with Element Financial Corp, which expects to acquire additional wagons leased to third parties worth up to $1bn in 2016-19. As with purchases made under the existing alliance agreed in ...