Brazil: China’s Ziyang loco works was due this month to ship 20 units to Brazil. Beijing wagon works is also reported to be interested in entering this market.
Bulgaria: BDZ expects to invite bids by the end of this year for 125 locomotives, 11000 wagons and 1000 km of track materials being sold to raise 130m lev as part of a restructuring programme.
Germany: Gniewczyna SA of Poland has delivered the first of 854 coal wagons to German Railway, ordered in 1999 at a cost of DM80m.
Great Britain: Oscar Faber is to assist with a study of the Manchester area for the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority, Railtrack and Greater Manchester PTE, which aims to identify development priorities for the heavy and light rail networks over the next 20 years.
Union Railways (South) Ltd has awarded the last two contracts for the connection between Section 1 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and the Railtrack network at Fawkham Junction. By summer 2002 Westinghouse Signals Ltd is to upgrade signalling and telecommunications systems for £6·7m; Seeboard Contracting Services is to upgrade traction power supplies for £4·3m.
Westinghouse Signals Ltd has been awarded Contract 104A by Union Railways (North) Ltd, covering signalling modifications for the eastern track slewing component of staging work for CTRL Section 2 at St Pancras. With construction due to start in mid-2001, associated trackwork and telecommunications contracts are out to tender.
Hungary: MAV is planning to call tenders for refurbishment of up to 160 commuter coaches costing up to HF780m. The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development is lending 40m euros towards MAV’s 220m euros rolling stock refurbishment programme.
Italy: Isotta Fraschini Motori has won a 24bn lire contract to supply V1712NF 370 kW diesel engines to repower 135 FS Class 245 diesel-hydraulic shunting locos; deliveries are due for completion by the end of 2002. Under a 7bn lire contract, 1260 kW V1712T2F engines are being supplied for 25 Class 146 shunters that Firema is building for FS.
Libya: Silvertown UK Ltd is to supply Andre elastomeric bearings to support 38 bridges on the 200 km Tripoli - Misratah route now under construction.
Malaysia: Motorola is to supply a Tetra digital trunked radio network worth 7·6m ringgit to link drivers and control staff on the Kuala Lumpur Express Rail Link (RG 10.00 p646), as part of a communications system worth DM40m being supplied by Siemens.
Netherlands: NS Railinfrabeheer has awarded GEKA Bouw and Victor Buck Steel a 43m guilders contract to design and build a 237m span over the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal at Utrecht by 2002, as part of the quadrupling of the Amsterdam - Utrecht main line.
As part of the BB21 train control system (RG 10.99 p615), MobiRail is to supply NS Railinfrabeheer with GSM-R radio, which is expected to replace Telerail for communication between drivers and control centres within two years.
Romania: Under the World Bank-funded Integrated Rail Information System project and in conjunction with ICL, Datastream Systems is supplying its MP5I asset maintenance system to CFR SA. It will manage 250 sites and support 750 users, running Intergraph’s GeoRail geographic information system.
South Africa: Spoornet is to introduce Internet-based services for its freight customers, including expected consignment arrival times and claims management. It is eventually hoped to offer complete supply chain management, as Spoornet introduces logistics services such as warehousing and inventory control.
Spain: Four consortia led by Adtranz, Alstom, Cobra and Siemens have submitted bids for the supply of eight traction substations for the Madrid - Lleida high speed route, worth up to Pts19bn including maintenance until 2004.
GIF is to call tenders for the supply and delivery of welded rail for the Madrid - Lleida high speed line, to be laid from construction bases at Madrid, Calatayud, Salillas and Zaragoza. The work is expected to take 14 months within a budget of Pts5·6bn.
Syria: Syrian Railways has called tenders for supply of 10 five-coach trainsets, each with seats for 300 passengers.
Turkey: TCDD has received bids for the supply of 23 electric locomotives from Adtranz and Siemens. A submission from Alstom was not accepted.
TCDD has re-invited bids by December 20 for the supply of five tilting trains to run on the Istanbul - Ankara route.
USA: Johnstown America has delivered 220 AutoFlood II hopper wagons to Northern States Power Co for the transport of coal. The five-pocket cars feature automatic discharge and an aerodynamic body profile to reduce drag.
Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway has purchased 31 Cantrac LT remote control systems from Canac. Digital radio links allow locomotives at both ends of a train to be controlled from one cab.
