News – Page 299
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NewsRailway supply industry news round-up
Vitaliy Starikov has become head of Russian wagon manufacturer RM Rail, succeeding Pavel Ovchinnikov who had held the post since 2012. His priorities are production diversification, higher manufacturability, market expansion, the development of special-purpose rolling stock model range, shortening design and lead times, increasing product life cycles, ...
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NewsIndian Railways starts double-stack electric operation
INDIA: Regular operation of electrically-hauled double-stack container trains on the Indian Railways network began on June 10, with the start of electric haulage on the 272 km Palanpur – Botad section of the Western Railway. IR began exploring the feasibility of running double-stack trains ...
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NewsBridge collapse interrupts railway to Murmansk
RUSSIA: The northern port city of Murmansk was cut off from the national rail network when a bridge over the River Kola collapsed on June 1. The bridge 15 km south of Murmansk was built in 1930 and renovated in 2014. Train services had already been stopped ...
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NewsAlpen-Sylt Nachtexpress links the Alps and the North Sea
EUROPE: RDC Deutschland has opened bookings for the Alpen-Sylt Nachtexpress, a seasonal overnight train between the German North Sea island of Sylt and Salzburg in Austria which will launch on July 4. ‘We believe in the successful renaissance of night trains in Europe’, said Managing Director Dr ...
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NewsCoronavirus crisis offers lessons for rail freight policy
EUROPE: The European Rail Freight Association says lessons about the key success factors for rail freight can be learned from the significant improvement in performance which has occurred as a direct consequence of the drastic reduction in passenger traffic during the coronavirus pandemic. Shippers have long been ...
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NewsReliability focus and capital investment in NJ Transit strategic plan
USA: Reconstruction of Hoboken Terminal to improve flood resilience and a trial of battery-electric trains are among the rail projects identified in the NJT2030 10-year strategic plan unveiled by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and NJ Transit President & CEO Kevin Corbett on June 8.
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Rail Business UKGB Railfreight to lease more intermodal wagons
UK: GB Railfreight has signed a contract to lease a further 52 WH Davis Ecofret2 three-section container wagons from VTG Rail UK. The announcement on June 10 follows a previous agreement covering 32 Ecofret2 wagon sets, which are due to enter service in 2020-21. Ecofret wagons are ...
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NewsTMH International completes DJJ acquisition
HUNGARY: A Transmashholding-led joint venture has completed its acquisition of the Dunakeszi Járműjavító rolling stock manufacturing plant in Hungary, which the group intends to develop as its main manufacturing and services hub for central and eastern Europe.
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NewsAddis Ababa – Khartoum railway study funded
AFRICA: Funding has been awarded for a comprehensive study of the technical, economic, environmental and social feasibility of building a 1 435 mm gauge railway linking Addis Ababa in Ethiopia with Khartoum in Sudan, together with an extension to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The two-year ...
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NewsPärnu – Latvian border Rail Baltica contract awarded
ESTONIA: Rail Baltica project promoter RB Rail has awarded a consortium of Indra subsidiary Protec and Obermeyer Planen + Beraten a €10·8m contract to provide design and construction supervision services for the 93·5 km section of the double-track route between Pärnu and the border with Latvia. To ...
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NewsNew York MTA implements 13-point reopening plan
Source: Joseph M Calisi USA: A 13-point plan to return subway and commuter rail services to pre-coronavirus levels was launched by New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority on June 8. The action plan includes: an increase in services; additional cleaning and disinfecting; mandatory use of face coverings ...
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NewsKoper Second Track loan signed
Source: drugitir.si SLOVENIA: The state company 2TDK, formed to construct the new alignment which will provide a second track between the port of Koper and the main line at Divača, has signed a €112·5m long-term loan agreement with banking group NLB. The loan signed on May 29 ...
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Rail Business UKNorthern review looks beyond Covid-19 recovery
UK: ‘Covid-19 has not changed our commitment to deliver a “new Northern” that will deliver real and tangible improvements for passengers’, said Managing Director Nick Donovan on June 8, as the operator published the results of the ‘100-day review’ commissioned when control of the franchise was transferred to the Department for Transport’s Operator of Last Resort on March 1.
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NewsAlliance targets doubling of freight market share
FRANCE: Plans to relaunch the rail freight business are now being finalised in preparation for formal presentation to the government by the end of this month. Drawn up by the Fret Ferroviaire Français du Futur alliance (4F), the proposals aim to double rail’s share of the freight ...
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NewsEuropean coalition to improve international rail travel
EUROPE: A willingness to co-operate to increase rail’s share of the international passenger market is a set out in political statement signed by a ‘coalition of the willing’ comprising all EU member states except Croatia, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta (the latter two having no railways) and including ...
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Rail Business UKRail supply chain needs clarity on future work to support coronavirus recovery planning
UK: Companies in the railway supply chain are largely confident that they can survive the coronavirus crisis as long as they gain visibility on future work by early autumn, according to the findings of a survey commissioned by the Rail Supply Group. RSG said the survey undertaken ...
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NewsRobotic welding at Tikhvin wagon factory
RUSSIA: United Wagon Co has installed a robot for welding open wagon components at its Tikhvin plant, ensuring high quality welds by minimising human variability. The company said the robot would release highly-skilled specialist electric gas welders to undertake other work which requires semiautomatic welding. The robotic ...
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NewsČortanovci tunnel drilling completed
SERBIA: Drilling of the 1 156 m long second bore of the Čortanovci tunnel was completed with a breakthrough ceremony on June 5. The 1 086 m first bore had been holed through on April 3. Under construction since August 2017, the Čortanovci tunnel and an adjacent ...
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Metro Report InternationalKobe line transferred to metro operator
JAPAN: Kobe Rapid Transit Railway Co’s Kitajin Line was transferred to Kobe City Transport Bureau on June 1, and is now branded as the Kobe Municipal Subway Kitakami Line. The 1 435 mm gauge line starts at Tanigami on the Kobe Electric Railway’s Arima Line, and runs ...
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NewsFirst trainset for Rielsfera low cost high speed rail services heads to Spain
SPAIN: The first of nine double-deck TGV Duplex trainsets being modified for use by SNCF’s Spanish subsidiary Rielsfera was despatched from the Technicentre Est-Européen at Pantin in France on June 6 following the installation of signalling and train protection equipment needed for operation in Spain.