News – Page 347
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NewsFinal handover of Benguela Railway ‘renews people’s hope’
ANGOLA: A ceremony at Lobito’s main station on October 3 marked the final handover of the Benguela Railway to the government from construction company China Railway 20 Bureau Group. The Chinese contractor had been working on rehabilitation of the 1 344 km line ...
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NewsInnoTrans 2020 exhibition space booked up
INNOTRANS: Floor space at the InnoTrans 2020 trade fair is now booked up, a year before the 13th InnoTrans event opens its doors on September 22 2020. The world’s largest rail industry event will have five themed ‘segments’, focusing on Railway Technology, Railway Infrastructure, Public ...
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Rail Business UKMerseyrail’s first Stadler train heads for testing
The first of 52 EMUs which Stadler is building for Merseyrail has been sent for dynamic testing (Photo: Stefan Schulthess Railroad, Aviation & Landscape Photography, Switzerland). UK: The first of 52 bespoke four-car electric multiple-units which Stadler Bussnang is building for Liverpool area commuter operator Merseyrail has ...
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NewsGold miner orders side-tipping wagons
KAZAKHSTAN: Gold and silver producer Polymetal has awarded United Wagon Co a contract to supply 55 side-tipping wagons to its Varvara site by the end of the first half of 2020. The Varvara opencast mine and processing plant is located in northwest Kazakhstan, 130 km southwest of ...
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NewsOuigo to link centres of Paris and Lyon from June 2020
FRANCE: SNCF will launch Ouigo low-cost high speed services between the city centres of Paris and Lyon in June 2020. Until now Ouigo passengers between the two cities have been obliged to use trains that either start or finish outside the city centre of Paris or Lyon. ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
TX Logistik demonstrated the Nikrasa loading system at an intermodal terminal in Oradea. Mercitalia subsidiary TX Logistik held an industry day at the Intermodal Vest terminal in Oradea on October 2 aimed at generating interest for an increase in intermodal services to and from Romania. The operator ...
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NewsGeopier launches subgrade strengthening GeoSpike
TRACK: Geopier Foundation Co has introduced its GeoSpike, which is designed to provide a low‐cost way to strengthen the subgrade without needing to remove the rails, sleepers or ballast. Pairs of polymer shells are installed between the sleepers, and filled with aggregate which is then compacted. The ...
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NewsWeChat booking for Swiss railways
SWITZERLAND: Scheidt & Bachmann has developed a Swiss Tourism & Attractions in-app ‘Mini Program’ for public transport operators who are targeting tourists from Asia where the WeChat platform is widely used. Traveller can use their mobile devices to purchase and receive tickets for services including the Glacier ...
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NewsComment: Safety first
The LRSSB will build on work undertaken by the safety steering group following a derailment at Sandilands in Croydon which killed seven passengers. Will technology make travel safer? It certainly has the potential to do so, as recent developments in the tram sector have shown. Several manufacturers, ...
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NewsCourt annuls directly awarded ÖBB operating contract
AUSTRIA: The Federal Administrative Court in Wien on October 3 annulled the direct award to ÖBB of a 15-year contract to operate passenger services in eastern Austria from December 2019. The court’s decision was welcomed in a statement issued by open access operator Westbahn, which had lodged ...
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NewsRailway supply industry news round-up
On October 1 Plasser & Theurer established Track Machines Connected GmbH. This business unit supersedes P&T Connected, which was set up in 2017 to launch Plasser’s ‘big data’ activity. TMC will offer services for collection and processing of rail infrastructure data. Czech construction group IDS has acquired ...
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NewsSwiss-German border railway modernisation agreed
EUROPE: Officials from the Land of Baden-Württemberg, the canton of Basel and DB Netz gathered in Laufenburg on September 30 to agree a package of enhancements for the Hochrheinbahn route which links Basel with Singen via Schaffhausen. The railway straddles the border between Germany and Switzerland, ...
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NewsNagoya Railway updates EMU fleet
JAPAN: Nagoya Railway Co has updated its regional rolling stock fleet by introducing four Series 9500 EMUs on the 444 route-km, 1 067 mm gauge Meitetsu network radiating from the city. The Series 9500 sets have been supplied by Nippon Sharyo and the first was placed into traffic on October ...
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NewsFerrmed launches modal shift optimisation study
EUROPE: Rail freight association Ferrmed has begun work on a study of modal shift optimisation on the European Union’s TEN-T corridors. Scheduled for completion by the end of next year, the study is intended to help EU member states prioritise actions to support modal shift, and to ...
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NewsBombardier and Leclanché sign battery traction MoU
A prototype Talent 3 EMU equipped for battery operation was unveiled at Bombardier’s Hennigsdorf plant in September 2018. INTERNATIONAL: Bombardier Transportation announced on October 2 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Leclanché SA which would see the Swiss company become its preferred global provider ...
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News1 800 km Menghua coal railway opens
Photo: Xinhua/DW News The north-south Menghua coal corridor opened on September 28. CHINA: The 1 813 km Menghua heavy haul coal railway opened to traffic on September 28 when an inaugural train left Haolebaoji at the northern end of the line. Now renamed in Chinese as the ...
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NewsLombardia trains on show at Expo Ferroviaria
ITALY: Two mock-ups of the next generation of suburban and regional trainsets for Lombardia were formally presented at the Expo Ferroviaria trade fair in Milano on October 1. Speaking at the event’s opening forum, Lombardia’s councillor for Infrastructure, Transport & Sustainable Mobility Claudia Maria Terzi ...
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NewsCat litter by rail
USA: Cat litter producer Intersand has begun construction of a rail-served production, packaging and distribution facility at the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor, Colorado. GWIP is owned by short line group OmniTRAX, whose Great Western Railway of Colorado will provide direct rail services to the new ...
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NewsNewag launches bi-mode multiple-unit
POLAND: Newag launched a bi-mode variant of its Impuls multiple-unit at the Trako fair, which took place in Gdańsk on September 24-27. The 36WEh has a maximum speed of 160 km/h when powered by 3 kV DC electrification and 120 km/h when using diesel power. The three-car ...
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NewsChile calls tenders for broad-gauge bi-mode trainsets
CHILE: Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado has called tenders for a fleet of passenger trains to replace the rolling stock currently used on its long-distance Santiago – Chillán service. The requirement is for six bi-mode trainsets of four or five cars with capacity for at least ...