News – Page 400
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
LGIM Real Assets has provided £200m in long-term debt financing on behalf its clients including Legal & General Retirement Institutional to support Equitix and SMBC in the purchase of 60 Stadler trainsets for use by the Wales & Borders operator on the Valley Lines. Translink has awarded British Steel an ...
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NewsBucurești airport rail link tendering underway
ROMANIA: Infrastructure manager CFR has called tenders for the design and construction of a 2·95 km rail connection to Terminal 1 at Henri Coandă International Airport, which would allow the operation of a direct rail service from the airport to București Nord station. The alignment would include a 1·5 km ...
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News‘Battle plan’ to save France’s rural railways
FRANCE: A report into the condition, usage and prospects of almost 9 000 route-km of secondary railway is to be handed to government before the end of March. According to Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne, the report will form part of a ‘battle plan’ to save a broad swathe of the ...
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NewsSantiago – Valparaíso proposal submitted
CHILE: Proposals to build a high-performance railway between the capital Santiago and the port of Valparaíso have been formally submitted to the Ministry of Public Works by the Tren Valparaíso Santiago consortium of local firm of Sigdo Koppers and China Railway Engineering Corp. According to the promoters, the US$2·5bn project ...
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NewsMitsubishi to adds to the Ina Line’s ‘rainbow’ of trains
JAPAN: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering is to supply one more six-car Model 2020 Automated Guideway Transit rubber-tyred light metro trainset for use on Saitama New Urban Transit Co’s Ina Line in Greater Tokyo. MHI delivered three Model 2020 sets in 2015, with the first entering service in November that ...
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NewsHigh speed line approved
CHINA: Construction of the 176 km Chengdu – Zigong Yulin Passenger-Dedicated Line has been approved, with a budget of 35·9bn yuan and opening planned for 2023. The Chengdu – Tianfu section will be built for 250 km/h operation, and the Tianfu – Zigong section for 350 km/h. There will be ...
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NewsCalifornia high speed rail plan scaled back
USA: A scaling back of the high speed rail project in California was announced by Governor Gavin Newsom in his first State of the State address on February 12. Newsom said the project ‘as currently planned’ would ‘cost too much and take too long’, and added that there had been ...
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Rail Business UKNetwork Rail reorganisation aims to bring ‘radical change’
UK: Plans for a reorganisation designed to ‘put passengers and freight users first’ and address concerns about poor operating performance on the increasingly busy network were announced by infrastructure manager Network Rail on February 12. ‘The need for radical change is clear’, said Chief Executive Andrew Haines, reflecting on his ...
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NewsFirenze tram route T2 inaugurated
ITALY: Firenze tram Route T2 was inaugurated at noon on February 11, ahead of the entry into passenger service at 14.30. Travel on the route is free for two weeks. The opening ceremony was attended by President Sergio Mattarella, Minister of Transport & Infrastructure Danilo Toninelli, Mayor Dario Nardella, Toscana ...
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NewsAqaba railway feasibility study agreed
JORDAN: The Saudi Jordanian Investment Fund and the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority have signed a memorandum of understanding to undertake feasibility and technical studies for the development of a 195 km railway connecting a planned inland dry port at Ma’an with port facilities around Aqaba. The existing 1 050 ...
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NewsAmber Rail Freight Corridor becomes operational
EUROPE: The Amber Rail Freight Corridor has become operational, as the first new corridor to be established since the original nine defined in 2010. Prearranged trains paths are now available for the 2019-20 timetable year through the corridor’s ‘one stop shop’. Designated as RFC 11, the Amber RFC is ...
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NewsTatra-Yug delivers tram to Alexandria
EGYPT: The first of 15 high-floor trams that Tatra-Yug is supplying to Alexandria Passenger Transportation Authority began test running on February 10, having arrived in Alexandria four days earlier. The tram is expected to enter revenue service on the 32 route-km standard gauge network in late February. It is ...
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Rail Business UKInterim East Midlands franchise awarded
UK: The Department for Transport has directly awarded incumbent Stagecoach Group subsidiary East Midlands Trains an interim contract to continue to operate the East Midlands passenger franchise. The new short-term contract announced on February 12 will start when the most recent extension of the current franchise expires on March 3 ...
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NewsPhase change material cooled container developed
CONTAINER: The University of Birmingham and CRRC Shijiazhuang have developed a container that uses phase change material in place of traditional refrigeration technology. The material changes between liquid and solid depending on the temperature, with the phase change absorbing or releasing energy to maintain the interior of the container ...
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NewsChaoma inter-city railway agreed
CHINA: An agreement for the construction of the Chaoma inter-city railway was signed by municipal authorities in Hefei and Ma'anshan and the Anhui Province Investment Group on January 27. The 76 km line will start at Chaohu Dong station in Hefei city, pass though Hanshan county and Zhengpugang Xinqu in ...
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NewsRhomberg Sersa wins Irish maintenance contract
IRELAND: Iarnród Éireann has selected Rhomberg Sersa Rail Group as preferred bidder for a €40m contract to provide track maintenance services, including the operation of 14 on-track machines owned by the national railway. Rhomberg Sersa expects to employ 56 people to undertake work under the contract announced on February 11, ...
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NewsDB and ODEG awarded operating contracts
GERMANY: On behalf of the Länder of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg–Vorpommern and Sachsen-Anhalt, Berlin-Brandenburg transport authority VBB has awarded the four Netzes Elbe-Spree regional passenger train operating contracts to DB Regio Nordost and ODEG. The contracts covering 17 routes will run for 12 years from December 2022. The international tender specified ...
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Metro Report InternationalMaintenance vehicle delivered to Philadelphia
USA: Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority has taken delivery of a maintenance vehicle and a flat wagon with driving cab for use on the Norristown High Speed Line rapid transit route. The Plasser American PMC50 vehicle is fitted with a National Crane 400B crane, a hydraulic tool power circuit and ...
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Metro Report InternationalEmission-free bus funding announced
UK: The government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles is providing a total of £48m for emission-free buses and associated infrastructure in various cities, Buses Minister Nusrat Ghani announced on February 6. The 19 successful bidders that took part in the ultra-low emission bus scheme competition last year are to ...
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NewsADB grant to help CAREC countries move from landlocked to land-linked
ASIA: The Asian Development Bank has awarded a US$2m regional technical assistance grant to support the development of railway strategies and institutional capabilities in the Central Asia Regional Economic Co-operation countries. CAREC comprises Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and six multilateral institutions. ...