All News articles – Page 5
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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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NewsAmtrak plans to serve Long Island as Metro-North seeks Penn access
USA: Amtrak announced on February 5 that it had reached agreement with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority covering two enhancements to passenger services. The first is a long-standing proposal to allow MTA Metro-North to use Amtrak infrastructure to reach Penn Station in Manhattan, while the second envisages investment to ...
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Rail Business UKRail at heart of £70bn northern England investment plan
UK: A transport investment programme worth up to £70bn over the next three decades was unveiled by Transport for the North on January 31. Rail spending features prominently in the multi-modal plan, which is intended to support the creation of around 850 000 jobs and deliver economic benefits worth around ...
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NewsMore trains and better security in SNCF-PACA agreement
FRANCE: SNCF President Guillaume Pepy and the President of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Renaud Muselier, signed a co-operation agreement on January 17 covering the development of regional passenger services in 2019-23. The improvement plan covers the remaining period within SNCF’s current agreement to operate local passenger trains. The contract to operate TER ...
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NewsBelarus orders more Flirts
BELARUS: Stadler announced on January 17 that it had received an order from Belarussian national railway BC for a further 10 Flirt trainsets. The 1 520 mm gauge, five-car Flirt EMUs will be delivered in 2020, joining an existing fleet of 18 trainsets supplied in various batches since 2010. ...
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NewsErmewa buys intermodal wagon fleet
EUROPE: SNCF’s wagon leasing subsidiary Ermewa announced on January 14 that it had acquired the intermodal fleet of Macquarie European Rail. The fleet comprises almost 600 vehicles made up of 60 ft, 80 ft and 90 ft container wagons. Ermewa says that the acquisition would ‘further strengthen’ its position in ...
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NewsAlstom train makes first run in Dakar
SENEGAL: President Macky Sall was among the invited guests who joined the first test run of an Alstom Coradia Polyvalent multiple-unit in Senegal on January 14. The train’s first run marks a further step in preparations for the opening of the 55 km Train Express Régional rail link between the ...
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NewsFrance to tender operation of two inter-city routes
FRANCE: The government on January 9 formally launched the process of opening the French domestic main line passenger railway to competition when it announced the publication of a Prior Information Notice covering two routes. Issued by the Ministry of Environmental Transformation & Sustainability and to be published this week ...
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NewsWorld rail market - December 2018
Afghanistan: The Afghanistan Railway Authority and Afghan National Insurance Co have signed a memorandum of understanding for fire, health, vehicle, railway equipment, third party and cargo insurance services. Finland: Helsinki transport operator HKL is to deploy Teleste’s S-Aware situational awareness platform to support decision making when to complex or ...
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NewsAGV demonstrator car arrives in Doncaster
UK: An intermediate car from Alstom’s Pégase AGV demonstrator arrived at the National College for High Speed Rail campus in Doncaster in early December, having been transported more than 1 000 km from the supplier's La Rochelle factory in France. Built in 2007, the car previously formed part of Alstom’s ...
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Rail Business UKRENFE joins MTR’s West Coast Partnership bid team
UK: MTR Corp announced on December 20 that Spanish national operator RENFE had joined its bid for the West Coast Partnership franchise. The Department for Transport invited three shortlisted bidders to tender for WCP in March this year. The contract will cover operation of inter-city services on the West Coast ...
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NewsConnection concerns raised as Ouigo expands
FRANCE: The European timetable change on December 9 marks a further expansion of SNCF’s low-cost high speed operation Ouigo. Routes to be added to the network include three daily return services between Paris-Lyon and Marseille, and three between Lille-Flandres and Marseille. When Ouigo was launched in April 2013, it operated ...
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NewsRFI completes Adriatic Corridor gauge clearance work
ITALY: Infrastructure manager RFI opened the double-track Frentani tunnel near Ortona south of Pescara on December 2. Built at a cost of €25m, the tunnel is 523 m long and has been excavated 30 m south of the existing single-bore Castello tunnel. RFI now intends to close this bore ...
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Rail Business UKUK railway news round-up
The parliamentary Transport Select Committee issued its formal report on December 4 examining the widespread disruption experienced across the network after the May 2018 timetable change. The committee makes a series of recommendations, including the ‘immediate priority’ of establishing national oversight for upcoming timetable changes with independent oversight of the ...
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NewsKorail-Supreme Railways merger plan back on
SOUTH KOREA: The government has revived plans to combine national passenger operator Korail with new entrant Supreme Railways, Korail’s Vice-President for Passenger Transport Hyungik Cho has told Railway Gazette. The Ministry of Land & Infrastructure has commissioned a feasibility study into the effects of the possible merger, and its conclusions ...
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NewsMore EU funding to enhance the Kosovan network
KOSOVO: A second tranche of EU funding worth €17·2m has been awarded to Kosovo to support rehabilitation of the railway between Fushë Kosovë and Mitrovicë, which is on the main line running south towards the border with FYR Macedonia and is part of pan-European Corridor X. The EU funding is ...
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NewsHopes rise for trans-Korean rail traffic
ASIA: The first train in a decade to cross the border between the two Koreas passed through the Demilitarised Zone on November 30 as negotiations begin to restore international rail traffic between the two countries. Staffed by 28 South Korean specialists, the test train is due to spend 18 days ...
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NewsPoroshenko inaugurates airport link in Kyiv
UKRAINE: On November 30, national railway UZ introduced an airport shuttle branded Kyiv Boryspil Express between the city’s Pasazhyrskiy station and its principal airport. The rail link to Boryspil airport has been completed within a budget of 480m hryvna; it required construction of a 4 km branch running south from ...
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NewsBrightline to negotiate land leases as Orlando – Tampa proposal progresses
USA: The state of Florida has chosen to accept a proposal from inter-city passenger company Brightline to develop a route between Orlando and Tampa, largely following trunk roads. Brightline had initially proposed the route as the third phase of its network; Florida Governor Rick Scott then issued a request for ...
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NewsNew York MTA to acquire Grand Central Terminal
USA: New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has agreed to purchase Grand Central Terminal and sections of the Hudson and Harlem commuter rail lines, correcting what it terms a ‘historical quirk’ of New York infrastructure ownership. The acquisitions, valued at $35m, were approved at an MTA finance committee meeting in mid-November. ...