News – Page 368
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NewsFinnish passenger tendering plan put on hold
FINLAND: Recently-appointed Minister of Transport & Communications Sanna Marin has suspended plans to call tenders for the operation of regional passenger services in southern Finland. On June 27 the ministry said that the preparatory process had shown that it would not be possible to proceed as planned. A fair and ...
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NewsCisalpino Pendolinos to work Athens – Thessaloniki line
GREECE: Following its acquisition of national passenger operator Trainose, Italy’s FS Group has decided to deploy its 200 km/h ETR470 tilting trains to accelerate inter-city services on the Athens – Thessaloniki main line. This follows trials with one of Trenitalia’s multi-system ETR485 trainsets last year. The first of five ...
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NewsBranch lines’ future secured as Elster-Geiseltal operating contract signed
GERMANY: A contract for the operation of Elster-Geiseltal local passenger services from December 15 2019 was signed by Sachsen-Anhalt transport authority NASA and DB Regio Südost in the chapter house of Merseburg Cathedral on July 1. The contract covers the operation of service RB78 on the 35 km Geiseltal branch ...
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Rail Business UKAtkins’ digitalisation programme bears fruit as interlocking goes live
UK: The first implementation of Atkins’ digital interlocking technology on a UK passenger-carrying line was commissioned on June 22-23. Atkins’ Strategic Rail Market Director Scott Kelley said the deployment was ‘a step change for the domestic signalling market’, with the project being ‘unique in that it involved new technologies, software ...
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NewsBattery answer to Schleswig-Holstein’s diesel replacement question
GERMANY: Schleswig-Holstein transport authority NAH.SH has formally awarded preferred bidder Stadler a contract to supply a fleet of battery-powered Flirt Akku multiple-units for use on regional services from 2022. The €600m deal includes a firm order for the supply of 55 trains and the provision of 30 years of maintenance. ...
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Metro Report InternationalSFO AirTrain operating contract awarded
USA: The City & County of San Francisco has awarded Bombardier Transportation a new contract to operate and maintain the SFO AirTrain automated peoplemover at San Francisco International Airport. The contract is worth $220m over 10 years, and has an option for an additional five years. Bombardier supplied the SFO ...
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NewsSlovakian upgrade awarded EU funding
SLOVAKIA: The European Union’s Cohesion Fund is to provide €285·5m to support upgrading of the line between Žilina and Púchov near the Czech border. This will fund works to permit 160 km/h running between Púchov and Považská Teplá, the construction of two tunnels and three large bridges and the refurbishment ...
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Metro Report InternationalFTA grant for Dallas light rail capacity improvement
USA: Dallas Area Rapid Transit has signed a $61m grant agreement with the Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration for the lengthening of platforms at 28 stops on the Red and Blue lines. The grant announced on June 27 is part of FTA’s Capital Investment Grants programme. ...
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NewsKuala Lumpur – Singapore cost review consultants appointed
MALAYSIA: Project promoter MyHSR Corp has appointed two consultancies to identify options for reducing the cost of the Malaysian section of the proposed Kuala Lumpur – Singapore high speed line. In September last year the governments of Malaysia and Singapore agreed to put construction of the 350 km line on ...
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NewsAdelaide A-City fleet expansion
AUSTRALIA: The government of South Australia has awarded Bombardier Transportation a contract to supply a further 12 three-car A-City electric multiple-units to increase capacity on the Adelaide suburban network. The order announced on June 28 will take the A-City fleet to 34 units. The 1 600 mm gauge 25 kV ...
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NewsRENFE seeks to take on the TGV
FRANCE: On July 1, RENFE Operadora confirmed its intention to enter the French high speed passenger market, saying it had lodged the relevant applications with regulator Arafer, safety authority EPSF and infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau. The Spanish national operator would compete with incumbent SNCF on high speed routes initially using ...
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NewsSão Paulo state seeks to relaunch passenger network
BRAZIL: A state-wide X-shaped network of passenger services could be reintroduced to the main line network in São Paulo under plans being developed by Governor João Doria. The initial service would link São Paulo with Campinas, a distance of around 100 km. The proposals envisage adapting existing ...
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Rail Business UKGenesee & Wyoming to be acquired in US$8·4bn deal
INTERNATIONAL: A consortium of Brookfield Infrastructure, GIC and Brookfield’s institutional partners has agreed to acquire short line group Genesee & Wyoming Inc in a US$8·4bn transaction. The consortium would pay US$112 per share in cash, with G&W becoming a privately held company. ‘We believe this transaction is an excellent ...
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NewsChina out in front with the world’s fastest trains
INTERNATIONAL: China now has the fastest regular timetabled trains in the world, significantly faster than any other country, according to Railway Gazette’s biennial World Speed Survey, which appears in the July 2019 issue of Railway Gazette International magazine. Compiled by Jeremy Hartill of the Railway Performance Society, using data for ...
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Rail Business UKNew trains launch ‘genuine transformation’ of Northern services
UK: The first nine of 101 diesel and electric multiple-units being supplied to Northern by CAF entered passenger service on July 1. ‘Over the course of the rest of this year, the new trains will be introduced into towns and cities right across the north, marking a genuine transformation of ...
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NewsSwitzerland: Competitive stress
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways CEO Andreas Meyer believes that SBB could be forced into a position where it became a residual operator if the federal government were to pursue further its policy of on-rail competition. In an interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung on May 29, Meyer reiterated ...
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Rail Business UKAachen students scoop IMechE Railway Challenge
UK: A team of students from Aachen University of Applied Science was named champion of the eighth Railway Challenge organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, after successfully completing a series of on-track challenges at the Stapleford Miniature Railway on June 29-30. Open to students, apprentices and ...
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NewsMotorola wins Israel Railways communications contract
ISRAEL: Motorola Solutions has won a contract to supply Israel Railways with up to 3 000 push-to-talk over cellular mobile devices equipped with its WAVE group communication service, and to operate and maintain the network for three years. Hot Mobile will act as the mobile network carrier. ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
TX Logistik is to launch a thrice-weekly Ocean Rail Logistics service between the Port of Rotterdam and Kornwestheim near Stuttgart on July 1. ‘The new service now also connects businesses in Baden-Württemberg with the busiest seaport in Europe’, said Berit Börke, Chief Sales Officer at TX Logistik. ‘We are using ...
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Metro Report InternationalSiemensstadt S-Bahn funding agreement
GERMANY: The long-disused S-Bahn branch to the Berlin suburb of Siemensstadt and Gartenfeld is set to be reactivated following the signing of an agreement between Deutsche Bahn’s Board Member for Infrastructure Ronald Pofalla and the city’s Mayor Michael Müller on July 28 to fund the necessary planning studies at an ...