News – Page 373
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Rail Business UKGWR prepares for December timetable recast
UK: More than three-quarters of all services operated by Great Western Railway are set to change with the introduction of a completely recast timetable on December 15, as the FirstGroup franchise operator moves to capitalise on the fruits of the Great Western Route Modernisation programme and increase capacity on some ...
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NewsOperail concerned about infrastructure charges
ESTONIA: State owned logistics company Operail has reported a net profit of €2·6m for the first three months of 2019, double the figure for the same period last year. Chairman Raul Toomsalu said the main source of profit was the lease fleet of 2 100 wagons, with revenue up 65% ...
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Metro Report InternationalRATP to test Solaris hydrogen bus
FRANCE: RATP is to test a hydrogen fuel cell bus in passenger service next year, after signing an agreement with manufacturer Solaris at the UITP Global Public Transport Summit 2019 on June 10. RATP will test a bus over a 10-week period between April and June as part of ...
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NewsCRRC launches ETCS-compatible signalling
SIGNALLING: CRRC Zhuzhou presented its SigThemis signalling at the UITP World Public Transport Summit 2019 in Stockholm on June 10. SigThemis supports ETCS levels 0, 1 and 2, and is compatible with baselines 2 and 3. It is also interoperable with Chinese Train Communication, and supports various levels of ...
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NewsRussian rolling stock innovation centre planned
RUSSIA: An agreement to establish a rolling stock engineering innovation centre was signed by Russian Railways, Sinara Group and technology partner Siemens Mobility at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. The partners said the centre would consolidate existing experience and acquire new expertise to provide engineering consultancy, design, and documentation ...
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NewsStadler sees success on six axles
EUROPE: Stadler says that its family of six-axle diesel, electric and bi-mode Eurodual locomotives are ‘30 to 40% better in terms of track forces’ than ‘most of the four-axle locos in use around Europe today’. Antonio García Ricos, Engineering Vice-President of Stadler Valencia, told the Transport Logistic trade show in ...
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NewsTambo Springs terminal ‘will change the face of Gauteng’
SOUTH AFRICA: The Southern Palace Joint Venture Consortium has won a 20-year concession to design, finance, build and operate a major intermodal terminal serving Gauteng province. Announcing the ‘historic public and private sector partnership’ on June 5, Transnet said the R2∙5bn terminal forming part of the Gauteng Integrated Transport Master ...
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NewsPassengers prevail over freight in capacity allocation dispute
SWITZERLAND: The need to provide a minimum level of network capacity for freight operators should not be understood in absolute terms, but instead all relevant interests need to be weighed up, the Federal Administrative Court has ruled in a dispute about train paths. As a result, its says the needs ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
Polish operator Industrial Division has ordered five Siemens Vectron locomotives for use by its Cargounit subsidiary. Three are to be used on north-south intermodal services and two on east-west services. Bombardier Transportation had also bid. Three EMD Class 66 locomotives currently used in Sweden are to be leased from Beacon ...
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NewsNew Mexico Rail Runner Express PTC deployment contract
USA: Wabtec has been awarded a $55m contract to implement Positive Train Control on the 160 km New Mexico Rail Runner Express route from Belen to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Wabtec is to supply its Interoperable Electronic Train Management System overlay which has been adopted by the principal freight operators. ...
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NewsZSSK RegioPanter EMU rolled out
SLOVAKIA: Škoda Transportation has rolled out the first of the Class 660 electric multiple-units ordered by national passenger operator ZSSK for use on regional services around Žilina. The €160m contract for 25 dual-voltage 3 kV DC/25 kV AC EMUs with a maximum speed of 160 km/h was signed in March ...
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NewsRussian Railways orders high speed trains
RUSSIA: Russian Railways has signed a €1·1bn order for a further 13 Velaro RUS high speed trains for use on the 650 km Moscow – St Petersburg route, Siemens Mobility announced on June 7. The 10-car 3 kV DC trainsets will be supplied by Siemens Mobility and the Ural Locomotives ...
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NewsIllinois votes to fund rail expansion
USA: Dedicated funding for two new inter-city rail services and urban rail expansion is included in a $45bn package of infrastructure investment approved by the Illinois state legislature on May 31. The six-year programme put together by Governor J B Pritzker allocates $33·2bn for transport projects. The majority of this ...
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NewsTrenitalia's ETR700 ex-Fyra trains to enter service on Adriatic Corridor
ITALY: The first four of 17 ETR700 trainsets originally built for Fyra services in the Netherlands and Belgium are to enter commercial service with Trenitalia on June 9, FS Group announced on June 3. The trains are branded Frecciargento and will initially operate between Milano and Ancona, with two return ...
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NewsJR East to trial fuel cell multiple-unit
JAPAN: East Japan Railway has started work on a new generation of hydrogen fuel cell trainsets, a decade after early experiments with its prototype New Energy Train. The railway set an objective to ‘diversify energy’ as part of its ‘Move Up 2027’ 10-year vision adopted last year, and it hopes ...
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NewsPoland – Luxembourg rail motorway service to launch this year
EUROPE: Polish freight terminal operator CLIP and Luxembourg’s CFL Multimodal are to launch a ‘rail motorway’ service between Swarzędz near Poznań and Bettembourg-Dudelange by end of this year. There will initially be four round trips per week, each with a capacity of 37 intermodal units. The Lohr piggyback system will ...
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NewsBombardier to supply 74 more double-deck coaches to Israel
ISRAEL: Bombardier Transportation has signed a contract to supply 74 Twindexx Vario double-deck coaches to Israel Railways. The €147m order announced on June 6 is an option on a framework agreement signed in October 2010 and will take ISR’s total fleet of Bombardier double-deck coaches to 586. ...
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NewsRailway supply industry news round-up
The EKZ joint venture of Alstom (75%) and Transmashholding (25%) has begun production of Prima M4 KZ4AT electric passenger locomotives at its plant in Nur-Sultan. ‘We are proud to widen our activities by launching the new production line for passenger locomotives in Kazakhstan, which diversifies the country’s industrialisation programme’. said ...
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NewsInfrastructure managers must do more to help freight, warns Mercitalia
EUROPE: Mercitalia Logistics Chief Executive Marco Gosso strongly criticised the performance of European infrastructure managers at the Transport Logistic trade show in München on June 6. Insisting that the FS subsidiary would ‘increase the pressure on infrastructure managers’, Gosso said that freight operators were still not being adequately compensated for ...
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NewsFirst Kiss for DB Regio
GERMANY: DB Regio has placed its first order for Stadler Kiss double-deck electric multiple-units, signing a €220m contract on June 5 for 18 four-car units for use in Schleswig-Holstein. This follows the award in April of a contract for incumbent and sole bidder DB Regio to continue to operate Elektronetz ...