Freight news – Page 90
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NewsCo-ordination and co-operation are key to rail freight growth
EUROPE: Strategies to enhance the competitiveness of rail freight were the main focus of discussions at the Rail Freight Day on December 6, which took place in Wien under the auspices of the Austrian presidency of the Council of the EU. Various speakers reflected on progress since the adoption of ...
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NewsWagon noise reduction scheme approved
ITALY: A scheme designed to encourage wagon owners to fit low-noise composite brake blocks to older wagons has been approved by European Commission under EU State aid rules. Open to all European Economic Area owners and operators of wagons on the Italian network, the scheme will make €20m available to ...
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Rail Business UKFreightliner awarded Mendip Rail contract
UK: The Mendip Rail joint venture of aggregate and cement producers Hanson Aggregates and Aggregate Industries has awarded Freightliner a long-term contract to haul an expected eight million tonnes of aggregate a year from quarries in Somerset to terminals in London and the southeast of England. The current contract is ...
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NewsState aid for road to rail freight shift approved
GERMANY: A German state aid programme designed to promote a shift of freight from road to rail has been given the go-ahead by the European Commission. A total of €350m is being made available in 2018-23 to cover up to 45% of the track access charges paid by freight operators, ...
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NewsHeavy freight locomotive delivered
AZERBAIJAN: National railway ADY has taken delivery of the first of 40 Prima T8 AZ8A twin-section 25 kV AC heavy freight locomotives ordered for use on the Baku – Tbilisi – Kars corridor. The EKZ joint venture of Alstom (75%) and Transmashholding (25%), which is based at Astana in Kazakhstan, ...
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NewsFerlemann demands ‘fundamental reform’ of DB
GERMANY: State Secretary for Transport Enak Ferlemann has instructed Deutsche Bahn to come up with a proposal for a revised business structure that would deliver a higher level of performance. Calling for initial proposals to be made available in January, he told Welt am Sonntag that he expected the DB ...
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Rail Business UKRail section of China to UK service extended
INTERNATIONAL: Freight forwarding company Davies Turner has extended the rail element of its Express China Rail less-than-container-load service linking Wuhan in China with the UK. Containers were previously transferred from rail to road in Warszawa, but now continue to Duisburg, from where they are sent by road under bond to ...
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NewsNorfolk Southern to move headquarters to Atlanta
USA: Norfolk Southern Corp has confirmed its intention to relocate its corporate headquarters from Norfolk in Virginia to Atlanta in Georgia. The railway’s operating team is already based in Atlanta, and the company has previously announced plans to consolidate eight regional dispatching centres in the city. NS announced on December ...
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NewsPresident launches Yucatan rail project
MEXICO: The Tren Maya project to develop two rail corridors serving the Yucatan Peninsula was formally launched on December 16 by recently-elected President Andrés Manuel López Obrador with a ceremony near the ancient Mayan ruins at Palenque. Expected to take four years to build, the project envisages the development of ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
Ukrainian Railways put the first of 30 TE33A Evolution Series diesel locos being supplied by GE Transportation into service on December 13. ‘Today’s launch of GE locomotives onto the network is a great demonstration of the successful start of our long-term co-operation with our American partners’, said UZ’s acting CEO ...
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NewsRail Freight Forward alliance to fight climate change
EUROPE: During the UN climate conference in Katowice, the Rail Freight Forward alliance of 14 European rail freight operators and four associations announced on December 14 a target of boosting rail’s market share from 18% to 30% by 2030. It suggests that this could save up to 290 million tonnes ...
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NewsSod-turning launches construction of 1 700 km Inland Rail corridor
AUSTRALIA: Construction of the 1 700 km Melbourne – Brisbane Inland Rail freight corridor was officially launched on December 13 when Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack turned a ceremonial first sod in Parkes, NSW. Scheduled to be completed in 2025, the Inland Rail project includes the construction of 600 km ...
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NewsPKP Cargo gains access from the Baltic to the Adriatic
SLOVENIA: The Advanced World Transport subsidiary of privatised Polish freight operator PKP Cargo purchased an 80% stake in Slovenian freight company Primol-Rail on December 6. Primol-Rail was founded in 2016, although it has not yet begun train operations. ‘This purchase creates the opportunity to enter the Slovenian market’, said PKP ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
On December 3 United Wagon Company announced that it is to supply 75 high capacity flat wagons to wood processing company Kastamonu. The wagons are being supplied in two batches; the first batch now being delivered has a loading capacity of 122 m3 and the second, to be delivered during ...
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CP launches next-generation grain haulage fleet
CANADA: Canadian Pacific formally unveiled its next-generation grain trainsets on December 4, during the opening of an upgraded loading terminal near Moose Jaw attended by Saskatchewan’s Minister of Highways & Infrastructure Lori Carr. Designated High Efficiency Product, the 2 590 m long unit trains are expected to carry 44% more ...
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NewsTrains return to Churchill
CANADA: The first VIA Rail passenger service for 18 months arrived at Churchill in northern Manitoba on December 4, having left Winnipeg two days earlier. Following the arrival of a freight train on November 25, the occasion marked the reopening of the Hudson Bay Railway, which provides the only land ...
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NewsVan carriers boost wagon flexibility
EUROPE: Mercitalia’s international rail freight subsidiary TX Logistik is piloting the use of specialist load carriers to transport commercial vehicles on intermodal pocket wagons. Branded as ‘roadrailLink’, the load carrier has been developed by Salzburg-based Vega International Car-Transport & Logistic-Trading (Vegatrans), and manufactured by Kässbohrer Transport Technik. Fitted with adjustable ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
NRE has announced details of the eight 1 067 mm gauge low-axleload diesel locomotives that it is to supply to Watco, which has won a seven-year contract to haul grain in Queensland for GrainCorp. The six-axle locos will have new NRE bogies with a 15·75 tonne axleload, a 2 250 ...
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NewsElectric locomotives handed over to Uzbekistan Railways
UZBEKISTAN: Two 3ES5K Yermak three-section 25 kV 50 Hz electric locomotives built at Transmashholding’s Novocherkassk plant in Russia were handed over to Uzbek national railway UTY on November 22. The 9·2 MW locomotives ordered in mid-2018 are intended to enable UTY to operate heavier trains in mountainous areas. The NEVZ ...
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NewsFreight association calls for English to be the second railway language
EUROPE: The conditions which are needed to make rail freight’s quality, reliability and cost of more attractive to customers were the main themes of the annual strategy day held by the European Rail Freight Association in Brussels on November 21. Bringing together organisations which want to promote ‘attractive, fair and ...