Hong Kong’s MTR Corp began trial running of empty trains on the East Rail Line cross-harbour extension from Hung Hom to Admiralty on February 1. ‘Staff training and hundreds of drills and exercises, simulating different operational scenarios, will be held to enable our colleagues to become fully conversant with the new railway systems and facilities‘, said Sammy Wong, Chief of Operating & Metro. Passenger services on this final element of the Shatin-Central Link programme are expected to start in June or July.
Main construction works for the 4·4 km Uithoornlijn extension of Amsterdam’s tram Route 25 from Amstelveen Westwijk to Uithoorn officially began on January 20. The extension will partly use the alignment of the disused Bovenkerk – Uithoorn railway, with stops at Aan de Zoom, Uithoorn and Uithoorn Centrum. Services will be operated using CAF 15G low-floor bidirectional trams when the extension opens in mid-2024.
The US Federal Transit Administration’s Transit Workforce Center has launched the American Transit Training Apprenticeship Innovators Network to help public transport bodies develop apprenticeships.
Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen and SaarLB have provided a €140m bond financing package for the 28 Stadler Citylink tram-trains which Saarbrücken’s Saarbahn Netz has ordered as part a joint multi-operator procurement of up to 504 vehicles. KPMG advised Saarbahn. ‘By providing the best possible financing solution and ensuring its professional execution, Helaba has supported us enormously’, said Saarbahn Netz Managing Director Peter Edlinger. ‘We explicitly welcome the involvement of SaarLB as our principal and long-standing banking partner.’
Sacramento Regional Transit District has ordered a further eight Siemens Mobility S700 low-floor light rail vehicles, as an option on an April 2020 order for an initial 20.
Construction of the Minneapolis Green Line extension is now expected to be completed in 2025 for opening in 2027, four years later than originally anticipated.
Moscow Metro has unveiled a new design of contactless ticket gates, supplied by Service Center Transtelematica.
Total Movements has delivered 3 000 tonnes of rail for the Bengaluru metro. ‘The complete consignment was required to be evacuated from the port on an urgent basis, hence our operations team made all the arrangements at a rapid pace. Specialised vehicles had to travel a distance of about 350 km in a single trip from the port to the site‘, the company said.
