News – Page 391
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Rail Business UKTrains ordered for 2021 launch of ‘high-quality, low fare’ London – Edinburgh service
UK: FirstGroup has finalised an order for five Hitachi AT300 electric trainsets which it will use to launch a London – Edinburgh open access service in autumn 2021. The £100m deal completed on March 20 is being financed by Beacon Rail Leasing and includes 10 years of maintenance by ...
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NewsProRail and Arriva launch automation trials
NETHERLANDS: ProRail, Arriva and Stadler have started a week-long trial of automatic train operation on the Groningen – Zuidhorn line in the north of the country, with a modified GTW DMU successfully undertaking a first run on the evening of March 15. Operating in Grade of Automation 2, with a ...
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NewsBielefeld – Hannover high speed line proposed
GERMANY: Commissioner for Rail and Parliamentary Secretary of State for Transport & Digital Infrastructure Enak Ferlemann has said that a new 300 km/h line needs to be built between Bielefeld and Hannover. Speaking to Deutsche Presse Agentur on March 18, Ferlemann said that the new line was required to ...
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
An independent organisation should be established to enhance accountability and enable a more joined-up, long-term approach to decisions about the railway in England and Wales, Rail Delivery Group Chief Executive Paul Plummer told the Accelerate Rail conference on March 19. ‘We are calling for a new arms-length organising body to ...
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NewsHyderabad metro reaches Hitech City
INDIA: Telangana & Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan, Telangana Chief Secretary S K Joshi and Hyderabad Metro Rail Managing Director N V S Reddy inaugurated the western section of Hyderabad metro Line 3 on March 20. The route from Ameerpet to Hitech City extends the initial section ...
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Rail Business UKEurotunnel awards Shuttle refurbishment contract
EUROPE: Channel Tunnel concessionaire Eurotunnel has appointed Bombardier Transportation to undertake the mid-life refurbishment of its nine passenger Shuttle trainsets, which carry cars, coaches and their occupants between the terminals in the UK and France. The contract announced on March 20 is worth €150m over seven years, with deliveries of ...
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NewsInteroperability needed in South America, says UIC
SOUTH AMERICA: The International Union of Railways and the Latin American Railway Association signed a memorandum of understanding in São Paulo on March 19 covering co-operation in staff training and education, railway engineering, passenger and freight transport, tourist trains and the exchange of data. ‘Railways in Latin America should be ...
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NewsFTA stalls federal support for Gateway Programme
USA: The Federal Transit Administration on March 18 announced that it had ranked the Gateway Programme to increase rail capacity between New York and New Jersey with a ‘medium to low’ financing status, making it ineligible at present for federal Capital Investment Grants. The ranking applies both to the planned ...
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Metro Report InternationalFirst stage of ‘highly complex’ London Underground resignalling goes live
UK: The first section of the London Underground network has been switched over to a Thales signalling system which is being rolled out across the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines under Transport for London’s Four Lines Modernisation programme. The complex network of interlinked tracks collectively known as ...
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NewsCoventry very light rail vehicle design unveiled
UK: The University of Warwick’s Warwick Manufacturing Group has published the design of the very light rail vehicle that it is developing with Transport Design International. TDI is working with automotive company RDM to build a prototype vehicle by mid-2020 for testing at the Very Light Rail National Innovation ...
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NewsTransdev orders the 1 000th Coradia Lint
GERMANY: Transdev’s Bayerische Regiobahn has awarded Alstom a €150m contract to supply 41 two-car Coradia Lint diesel multiple-units. The 140 km/h DMUs are scheduled to be delivered from Alstom’s Salzgitter plant by September 2022, and will be used on Augsburger Netz Lot 2 regional passenger services covering routes from ...
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NewsUrban transport news in brief
Berlin transport operator BVG has ordered 15 Solaris Urbino 18 electric buses. The €13·2m order includes charging infrastructure. The Thai government has approved two extensions of the Bangkok Red Line: from Taling Chan to Salaya and from Rangsit to Thammasat University. The estimated costs are 10·2bn baht and 6·5bn ...
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NewsRailways are coming into Ghana in a big way, says President
GHANA: ‘The railways are coming in a big way into Ghana, and we shall open up our country for the development that we all desire’, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said in his state of the nation address last month. He was ‘glad to be able to report’ that services ...
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NewsEMUs to increase capacity in eastern Austria
AUSTRIA: National railway ÖBB’s passenger business has awarded Siemens Mobility a firm contract to supply a further 24 Cityjet three-car Desiro ML electric multiple-units for use in Wien, Niederösterreich and Burgenland from mid-2020. These will replace older vehicles, increase capacity to accommodate rising ridership, and support upgrading of the Marchegger ...
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NewsMoscow suburban operator orders rolling stock
RUSSIA: Central Suburban Passenger Co has awarded Transmashholding’s Demikhovsky factory a contract to supply 21 Class EP2D electric multiple-units, to be financed by Sberbank Leasing. The 11-car 3kV DC EMUs will be 244 m long with a capacity of 2 866 passengers. Three will have folding steps for use at ...
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NewsRail Cargo Group locomotive order
AUSTRIA: ÖBB has exercised an option for Siemens Mobility to supply a further 61 Vectron MS electric locomotives for use by Rail Cargo Group on cross-border routes in several countries. The national railway has now placed firm orders for a total of 108 Vecton locomotives within a January 2017 framework ...
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NewsTesting starts on M7 and T5 routes in Istanbul
TURKEY: Istanbul Mayor Mevlüt Uysal inaugurated test runs on a driverless metro line and catenary-free tram route on the European side of the city on March 19. The driverless metro Line M7 has been under construction since 2014. The 24·5 km east-west route from Kabataş to Mahmutbey will serve ...
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NewsTenders called for București metro Line M6
ROMANIA: The Ministry of Transport called tenders on March 15 for a contract to build the initial section of București metro Line M6. Bids are due by April 18 for the 48-month contract with an estimated value of 1·27bn lei. The contract will cover the southern half of the ...
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NewsStadler announces IPO plan
SWITZERLAND: Plans for an initial public offering and listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange were announced by rolling stock manufacturer Stadler on March 19. The IPO is planned for ‘the coming months’, subject to market conditions. It would consist entirely of secondary shares held directly and indirectly by Executive Chairman ...
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NewsSuburban operator orders EMUs
RUSSIA: Central Suburban Passenger Co has awarded Transmashholding’s Demikhovsky factory a contract to supply 21 Class EP2D electric multiple-units, to be financed by Sberbank Leasing. The 11-car 3kV DC EMUs will be 244 m long with a capacity of 2 866 passengers. Three will have folding steps for use at ...