News – Page 495
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NewsHybrid OLE maintenance machine completes endurance testing
AUSTRIA: The HTW 100 E³ hybrid motor tower vehicle developed by Plasser & Theurer for overhead line inspection and maintenance has been successfully tested in the Climate Wind Chamber at Rail Tec Arsenal in Wien. Launched at the IAF track technology fair in Münster last June, the HTW 100 E³ ...
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NewsHydrogen train to be tested in the UK by 2020
UK: The Rail Safety & Standards Board is working with Alstom with the aim of piloting a hydrogen powered train in late 2019 or early 2020, RSSB Chief Executive Mark Phillips said on February 12. Philips was responding to a speech by Transport Minister Jo Johnson, who said he ‘would ...
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NewsNorfolk Southern positioning for growth
USA: Norfolk Southern has announced plans to invest $1·8bn in capital projects during 2018, as it pursues the objectives set out in its Strategic Plan adopted in 2016. With a focus on improving service and operational efficiency while maintaining safety, the capital spending will be broadly in line with the ...
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News'Tomorrow’s Trains Today' funding announced
UK: The winners of £3·5m of government funding under the ‘First of a Kind: Demonstrating Tomorrow’s Trains Today’ innovation programme were announced by Transport Minister Jo Johnson on February 12. T The FOAK competition is part of the Department for Transport’s wider Accelerating Innovation in Rail scheme. The first ‘challenge’ ...
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NewsNew alignment opens with the longest railway tunnel in the Balkans
GREECE: The first train ran on the recently-completed 54 km Tithorea – Lianokladi line on February 2, following the formal handover of the new line on January 31. The route forms part of a 106 km double track alignment which is being built between Tithorea and Domokos to replace a ...
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NewsInternational consortium formed to bid for Kuala Lumpur – Singapore High Speed Rail project
ASIA: The formation of a consortium to bid for work on the Kuala Lumpur – Singapore high speed rail project was announced by Malaysian construction company George Kent, Alstom, Siemens, Italian state railway FS Group and track contractor Porr on February 12. The companies said the consortium was ‘a powerful ...
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Metro Report InternationalSingapore metro upgrade contracts awarded
SINGAPORE: Land Transport Authority has awarded three contracts for the upgrade of power supply and track circuits on the North-South and East-West metro lines. Meiden Singapore has won two contracts totalling S$500m to upgrade the power supply, and a separate S$73m contract has gone to a consortium of Siemens ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
In co-operation with TurkRail, Hupac has launched a twice-weekly shuttle connection carrying tanks, swap-bodies and containers between Rotterdam, Duisburg and Istanbul Halkali with as transit time of one week. The 65 000 m2 Arken Combi Terminal at the Port of Göteborg was officially opened on February 7, enabling freight to ...
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NewsSerbia – Bulgaria line modernisation agreement signed
SERBIA: An agreement to co-finance modernisation of the 104 km line from Niš to Dimitrovgrad near the Bulgarian border was signed by the European Investment Bank, the Ministry of Construction, Transport & Infrastructure and railway infrastructure manager Infra ŽS on January 31. Upgrading of the single track non-electrified line is ...
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NewsNetwork Rail awards Stoneblower operating contract
UK: Infrastructure manager Network Rail has appointed Balfour Beatty to operate and maintain of its fleet of Stoneblowers, which pneumatically inject ballast under the sleepers to fill voids and restore track geometry. The four-year contract is worth more than £40m. It covers a minimum of 2 800 maintenance shifts per ...
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NewsElectric buses enter service in Bettembourg
LUXEMBOURG: Voyages Emile Weber subsidiary Autocars Pletschette put seven electric buses into service in Bettembourg on February 8. They are in service on the 13 km, 23-stop Line 305, which becomes the country’s first bus route to use only battery buses. VDL has supplied the fleet of Citeas LLE-99 ...
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NewsFlytoget’s first CAF Oaris trainset nears completion
NORWAY: Dynamic testing with the first of eight four-car Oaris trainsets that CAF is building for Norwegian operator Flytoget is due to begin in April. One set will travel to Velim in the Czech Republic for trials before the trains enter service on Flytoget’s Airport Express service between Gardermoen Airport ...
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NewsEurostar to launch London – Amsterdam service in April
EUROPE: Direct London – Amsterdam high speed services will begin on April 4, cross-channel high speed operator Eurostar announced on February 9. Offering a journey time of 3 h 41 min between London St Pancras and Amsterdam Centraal, Eurostar will run an initial two trains per day. However, there will ...
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NewsSingapore – Malaysia metro joint venture
ASIA: Malaysia’s Prasarana and Singapore’s SMRT have accepted a Letter of Offer jointly issued by Malaysia’s Prime Minister’s Department and Singapore’s Land Transport Authority for the two companies to form a joint venture to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Johor Bahru – Singapore Rapid Transit System Link cross-border ...
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NewsONCF orders 30 Alstom electric locomotives
MOROCCO: Alstom is to supply 30 electric locomotives to ONCF for €130m. Announcing the contract on February 8, the national railway said this was the first order to be placed under a planned wider rolling stock acquisition programme which would include locomotives, multiple-units and wagons. The 3 kV DC Prima ...
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NewsUncertainty derails Aurizon’s Galilee plans
AUSTRALIA: Prospects for the construction of rail links to serve controversial mining developments in Queensland’s Galilee Basin coal reserves have been thrown into doubt after heavy haul operator Aurizon announced on February 9 that it had decided to withdraw its application for funding from the federal government’s Northern Australia Infrastructure ...
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NewsRailway supply industry news round-up
Ontario Northland has obtained locomotive engine line boring equipment, which it says makes it the only railway in Canada offering in-house line boring capabilities to external customers. ‘Our line boring machine is a portable computerised unit that is capable of driving multiple different cutting heads, we can bore 6 to ...
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Metro Report InternationalAlstom and SNC-Lavalin to build Montréal’s automated metro
CANADA: CDPQ Infra announced the winning bidders for the construction and operation of the Réseau Électrique Métropolitain automated metro project in Montréal on February 8. Construction is due to start in April, with testing to start at the end of 2020 and passenger services on the first branch beginning ...
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NewsHigh speed operator accepts takeover bid
ITALY: Open access high speed train operator Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori SpA announced on February 7 that its shareholders had decided to accept a €1·98bn takeover bid from international fund manager Global Infrastructure Partners III. The deal was ratified by a board meeting the following day, which also confirmed that NTV ...
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NewsDen Haag – Rotterdam upgrade to support a train every 5 min
NETHERLANDS: A €300m infrastructure investment plan which is designed to facilitate the operation of a train every 5 min between Den Haag and Rotterdam from the 2025 timetable change was announced by the Ministry of Infrastructure on February 5. The plan includes quadrupling the section of the route between Rijswijk ...