Etihad Rail is developing a freight terminal at Dubai Industrial City. ‘With a capacity of 5 million tonnes, the terminal will connect the industrial and manufacturing centres in the UAE, open new trade routes, and support the country’s sustainable development’, explained Etihad Rail CEO Shadi Malak.
Finland’s VR Transpoint suspended freight traffic with Russia on March 27 because of sanctions on Russian Railways. However operations restarted on March 30, after UK authorities clarified that the sanctions did not apply to the contracts. ‘The specific interpretation of the British authorities and banks is that the sanctions do not apply to our operations’, said Lauri Sipponen, President & CEO of VR Group. ‘Therefore, we can continue with the important railway export, import and transit traffic while keeping the Finnish export industry running.’ Allegro passenger services between Helsinki and St Petersburg were suspended on March 28 and remain suspended.
Spain’s infrastructure ministry, ADIF and local representatives met on March 23 to consider proposals to upgrade the route between Granada and Almería as part of the Mediterranean Corridor, cutting freight transit times from southern ports to the French border. Plans include 25 kV 50 Hz electrification and ETCS Level 2, lengthening of passing loops for the operation of 750 m long trains, installation of 1 435 mm gauge track, cut-offs to eliminate sharp curves and loading gauge enhancement to enable the movement of high cube and rolling motorway services.
On April 2 Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation said it had initiated the nationalisation of almost 1 400 wagons in the Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk regions which had been identified as being owned by entities in Russia and Belarus.
Risalpur Locomotive Factory has produced 20 hopper wagons for Pakistan Railways.
In late March RENFE Mercancías and Transfesa Logistics operated their first humanitarian container service from Spain to Ukraine, leaving Madrid-Abroñigal with 400 tonnes of goods in 21 containers. Haulage to the French border was provided by RENFE Mercancías, where the wagons changed gauge, and were formed into a DB Cargo train via Köln to be integrated with a regular humanitarian service to Ukraine. MSC supplied some of the containers, Grupo Alonso handled the containers at Madrid-Abroñigal and numerous organisations and municipal councils arranged local collecting points for donations.
The fourth Islamabad – Tehran – Istanbul freight train departed on March 19 carrying six containers of high-value products for Turkey. Nine eastbound trains had run since services resumed after a decade during December, with traffic including rice.
Cando Rail & Terminals has appointed Lisa Smith to the newly created role of Assistant Vice-President of Safety, Environmental & Regulatory. An accredited safety auditor, Smith was previously Director of Corporate Safety and has 25 years of railway operations, management and safety experience.
Bulgaria’s Minister of Transport Nikolay Sabev has invited experts from Germany to prepare a plan for the development of multimodal transport. The project is being supported by French development agency AFD. ‘Good geographical location is not enough for an efficient transport network, it is necessary to ensure connectivity through the development of combined transport’, said Sabev.
ITS ConGlobal is to use the Octopi cloud-based terminal operating system from Navis at its Mid-Willamette Valley Intermodal Center which is to open on a greenfield site in Millersburg, Oregon later this year. The terminal will have connections to the Union Pacific and Portland Western railroads and Interstate 5.
