The seats were removed from an eight-car CRRC Tangshan CR400BF-3087 Fuxing trainset to transport goods for retailers during China’s ‘Double 11’ shopping season.
Polish operator Lotos Kolej has ordered a Siemens Mobility Vectron multi-system locomotive, with support from the EU through the Centre for EU Transport Projects programme. Delivery is scheduled for 2021. ‘Provision of transport services at a high level requires a reliable traction fleet, and such is certainly the Vectron locomotive’, said President of the management board Anatol Kupryciuk. ‘We have experience in operating this locomotive, which is characterised by good traction parameters, is easy to use and provides drivers with high comfort.’
Russian Railways has opened a 600m rouble locomotive servicing point at Zabaikalsk on the border with China. It will initially be used to maintain main line and shunting diesel locomotives of both 1 520 and 1 435 mm gauges, with a capacity of 21 locos per day. Once electrification between Borzya and Zabaikalsk is completed next year, it will also be used by electric freight and passenger locomotives.
German wagon owners’ association VPI has begun providing online training ahead of the launched of a data exchange app for subscribers to the VPI European Maintenance Guide. This is designed to provide standardised data exchange between wagon keepers and workshops.
BLS Cargo has begun running freight trains for Italian company Ambrogio Intermodal through from Switzerland to Belgium using the same Siemens Vectron Re 475 locomotives throughout. Its Belgian subsidiary Crossrail Benelux hauls the trains in Germany and Belgium.
Work has begun on a €330m expansion and modernisation of rail facilities at the Polish port of Gdynia, co-financed by the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility. This will enable the port’s rail network to handle 740 m long trains with the 22 tonne axleloads.
P&O Ferrymasters has introduced a train service running four times per week each way between Lovosice in the Czech Republic and Rotterdam Europoort, with sea connections to various ports on the east coast of the UK. ‘This new service is the first to provide a direct multimodal link spanning from the Czech Republic to Britain and the first direct rail link between the Czech Republic and the Netherlands to use mega trailers’, said Managing Director Thorsten Runge. ‘Part of the train will stop at Duisburg, the world’s biggest inland port, which will be used as a gateway to connect Lovosice with other European terminals.’
Czech infrastructure manager Správa Železnic has selected lowest bidder RegioJet to provide banking locomotives for freight trains which are to be diverted onto the more steeply graded route between Kutná Hora and Brno via Havlíčkův during engineering works on the usual route via Česká Třebová.
Short line group OmniTRAX is seeking to appoint a CEO, after Kevin Shuba who has been Chief Executive since 2013 accepted a role with its parent company The Broe Group. OmniTRAX President Sergio Sabatini has become interim CEO.
The US Senate has confirmed Robert Primus and Michelle Schultz as members of the Surface Transportation Board, meaning it will have the full five members for the first time since the 2015 reauthorisation. The rail industry ‘looks forward to working with them to meet our shared goal of guaranteeing that railroads can deliver for shippers and the US economy’, said Ian Jefferies, President & CEO of the Association of American Railroads. ‘We look forward to robust, transparent discussions with them as they step into their new roles.’
