News – Page 633
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NewsDenver commuters make a B Line for new service
USA: July 25 saw the opening of the first phase of the B Line in Denver. The electrified commuter route links Union Station with Westminster to the northwest, sharing the corridor with Union Pacific. Built under Denver Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks programme, the 9·6 km route is the initial ...
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NewsPresident inaugurates Abuja – Kaduna railway
NIGERIA: The 187 km standard gauge line between Kaduna and Abuja was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari on July 26. Nigerian Railway Corp had begun a period of trial operation on June 15, with passengers carried free of charge until the inauguration day when fares of N500 in standard class ...
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NewsHigh speed test centre grant must be repaid
SPAIN: The government has been ordered to recover money provided to infrastructure manager ADIF for the construction of a high speed test track near Málaga, following an investigation by the European Commission which concluded that this state aid was incompatible with EU rules. The government had planned to use its ...
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NewsKraków completes ex-Wien light rail vehicle rebuild
POLAND: City transport authority MPK Kraków marked the completion of the conversion of ex-Wien Line U6 light rail vehicles into street-running trams on July 15. MPK Kraków’s workshops converted the E6 motor cars and C6 trailers into 40 three-section EU8N trams. The middle section supplied by Autosan is low-floor, ...
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NewsTEM28 shunting locomotive on test
RUSSIA: A prototype TEM28 diesel shunting locomotive built at Transmashholding’s Bryansk Engineering Plant is undergoing four months of trials at Russian Railways’ Penza depot, where its performance is being compared with the earlier TEM18 design under identical operating conditions. The six-axle TEM28 is assembled with five modules containing the 895 ...
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NewsSmart machine to be launched at InnoTrans
PLASSER & THEURER: Under the slogan 'the smart machine', Plasser & Theurer is to launch a newly developed universal two-sleeper tamping unit for both plain line and turnouts at InnoTrans 2016. The 8x4 is intended to combine the flexibility of the universal split-head single-sleeper tamping units with the faster output ...
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NewsLyon – Torino tunnelling launched
EUROPE: The 2 400 tonne TBM ‘Federica’ that is now at work on a 9 km test bore for the Lyon – Torino project was launched by Prime Minister of France Manuel Valls during a ceremony held at Saint-Martin-La Porte on July 21. A total of 443 people are at ...
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NewsStadler selected for St Petersburg fast tram order
RUSSIA: St Petersburg fast tram concessionaire Transportnaya Koncessionnaya Kompanya has selected Stadler as preferred bidder to supply 23 three-section bidirectional Metelica trams. This replaces earlier plans for five three-section and 20 five-section trams. The trams will be 33·5 m long with capacity for 260 passengers, and Stadler will provide ...
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NewsBucurești tram funds allocated
ROMANIA: An amendment to the București city budget for 2016 has allocated €7·3m to transport authority RATB. Most of this will be used to modernise and procure trams. Modernisation work on 10 trams, budgeted at €4·2m, will include the replacement of the middle section with a low-floor middle. Bogies, ...
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NewsHigh-tech track
VOESTALPINE: Track and turnout supplier Voestalpine will be promoting the synergies between its Rail Technology and Turnout Systems businesses at InnoTrans, with a particular focus on digitisation and optimised asset management. The group will be launching an interactive tool to evaluate the life-cycle costs of different rail procurement and maintenance ...
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NewsSingapore to pilot account-based ticketing
SINGAPORE: Land Transport Authority and Mastercard have signed a partnership agreement for the launch of account-based metro and bus ticket payment by the end of this year. They aim is to attract at least 100 000 users for the pilot deployment. Mastercard customers will be able to use their contactless ...
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NewsSeamless station-to-train wi-fi roaming goes live
UK: ‘Seamless’ wi-fi which enables passengers to move from station to on-train networks without needing to reconnect their devices was launched by Chiltern Railways on July 25. On arrival at one of 28 stations from London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street, passengers log on to the free wi-fi connection ...
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NewsThree Chinese metro plans approved
CHINA: The National Development & Reform Commission has approved metro plans in three cities. Qingdao's second phase of metro development would add 181·7 km to the 50 km first phase now under construction; 40% of the cost is to be met by the government. All planned lines will be operated ...
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NewsRail freight news in brief
Union Pacific Corp has reported Q2 2016 net income of nearly $1·0bn, compared to $1·2bn for Q2 2015. Operating revenue was down 12% on the same period last year at $4·8bn and operating income down 15% at $1·7bn. ‘While the second quarter was again challenging from a volume perspective, we ...
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NewsSidi Bel Abbès tram on test
ALGERIA: The first tram for Sidi Bel Abbès has started dynamic testing on 4 km of the first 14·5 km of the city’s tram route, which is due to open for passenger service in late 2016. The CITAL joint venture of Alstom, Ferrovial and Entreprise Métro d'Alger is producing ...
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NewsNine - Valença electrification underway
PORTUGAL: Minister of Planning & Infrastructure Pedro Marques attended a ceremony at Barcelos station on June 24 to officially launch the €83∙2m project to electrify the 90∙8 km route between Nine, north of Porto, and Valença on the Spanish border. Tendering for the initial 42∙7 km between Nine and Viana ...
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NewsGovernment decides on TET network
FRANCE: On July 21 the government announced the implementation of its ‘route map’ for the Trains d’Equilibre du Territoire, the conventional long-distance passenger services operated by SNCF that include overnight and inter-regional trains. While TET services still perform an essential role in some parts of the country, the government says ...
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NewsD-Train to enter service on Coventry - Nuneaton line
UK: Vivarail announced on July 22 that an agreement had been reached for its prototype Class 230 D-Train diesel multiple-unit produced by rebuilding redundant London Underground vehicles to enter passenger service on the Coventry – Nuneaton line. The three-car DMU will be leased to West Midlands Combined Authority, maintained by ...
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NewsBrno takes delivery of new trams
CZECH REPUBLIC: Škoda Transportation has delivered the first two Elektra trams to Brno, with the remaining 18 to come by the end of the year. The KC1·2bn order for five-section low-floor trams from Škoda’s 13T family was placed in December 2015 as an option on a framework agreement dating ...
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NewsTibet signalling upgrade contract
CHINA: Qinghai–Tibet Railway Co has awarded Alstom and Casco a €15m contract to upgrade signalling systems and increase capacity on the 1 145 km Golmud – Lhasa route by the end of August 2018. Alstom said the Incremental Train Control System contract announced on July 19 was its first since ...