Argentina: National Railway Equipment Co of the USA is supplying two E2300 diesel locomotives to Ferrosur Roca. They are similar to the General Motors GT22 design already operated by the railway.
Austria: Last month ÖBB placed a €76m order for a further 17 Class 4124 four-car Bombardier Talent EMUs, bringing its total Talent fleet to 188 units. The 15 kV/25 kV dual-voltage units with Elin EBG electrics will be delivered by May 2009 for use on services to Hungary.
France: SNCF has awarded Thales a €15m four-year maintenance support contract extendable for two years covering 2 300 ticket gates on the Transilien network.
Italy: FNM subsidiary Nordcargo has agreed a nine-year lease of three out of a batch of 10 Traxx E483 DC electric locos ordered from Bombardier by Angel Trains in 2005. They will be delivered by the end of this year.
South Korea: Last month Rail.One began work on a contract to supervise the installation of Rheda 2000 ballastless track which has been selected for use on the Kyungbu Line, the Taegu - Busan second phase of the high speed line from Seoul (RG 4.04 p227). The German firm is to supply Sampyo E&C with 150 000 twin-block concrete sleepers to be produced at a recently-completed plant in Sangju.
Netherlands: On October 24 Betuwe Route infrastructure manager Keyrail signed a contract for maintenance of the dedicated freight line with Strukton Infra, which had installed ERTMS and erected electrification equipment. Five parties had participated in tendering for the contract, which runs for three years from January 1 2008 with an optional two-year extension subject to meeting cost and performance targets.
Norway: NSB has awarded Bombardier a €64m contract to refurbish 56 Class 5 coaches dating from 1977-81, including new doors, windows, HVAC and seats. BT5000 bogies will be fitted during the work, which will be carried out in Norway and Hungary from November 2008 to June 2010.
South Africa: Voestalpine is to supply 84 turnouts for the Gautrain standard-gauge line, including swing-nose crossings suitable for speeds of up to 200 km/h. Deliveries will run from January 2008 to November 2009.
Spain: A joint venture of Acciona Infraestructuras and Obras Subterráneas has been awarded a €113·8m contract for civil works on the 4·7 km Aranjuez - Ontígola section of the Madrid - Valencia high speed line. Work is due to take 24 months.
Arcelor España has been awarded a contract worth €50·3m to supply 51 000 tonnes of rail for track renewals on the conventional network. Under a separate contract worth €13·4m, turnouts are to be supplied by a joint venture of Amurrio, Felguera Melt, Jez Sistemas Ferroviarios and Talleres Alegría.
ADIF has awarded Dimetronic a €10m contract to install digital ASFA intermittent ATP equipment (RG 6.05 p303) on a further 211 vehicles. With the first converted trains now back in service, Renfe is installing 2 650 sets of onboard equipment at a cost of €80m.
Thales Rail Signalling Solutions has been awarded a €11·4m contract to install signalling including LZB and ASFA on the direct connection outside Madrid between the high speed lines to Sevilla and Barcelona. Work is due to take 18 months to complete.
Switzerland: Rhätische Bahn has placed a further SFr50m order with Stadler for five four-car single-voltage EMUs, to be delivered by July 2012 (RG 7.07 p404).
Taiwan: THSRC has placed a €10·5m order with Windhoff for six 100 km/h maintenance vehicles of two types, and three trailers, which will be delivered by summer next year.
Turkey: TCDD has added an additional two trainsets worth €37m to its €180m order placed with CAF of Spain in 2005 for 10 high speed trains based on Renfe's Class 120 (RG 12.05 p752). With the fleet due to enter service between Istanbul and Ankara in 2008, the first unit was expected to be shipped to Turkey last month.
UK: Scottish Borders Council has appointed consultancy Scott Wilson as engineering advisor for the Waverley Railway Project in a contract which is expected to be worth up to £9m by the time the 47 km line is reinstated, now planned for winter 2011.
USA: On October 10 The Greenbrier Companies and the Rail Services division of GE Equipment Services announced an agreement for the supply of 11 900 tank and covered hopper wagons over eight years, marking Greenbrier's entry into the US tank car market. Delivery of the first 3 400 wagons is scheduled for 2008-11.
Capital Metro has selected RailComm to provide its Domain Operations Controller track warrants and centralised train control for the 52 km Austin - Leander commuter line scheduled to open in autumn 2008.
RailComm is also to supply CTC for the Washington County commuter rail project, a peak-hour service between Beaverton and Wilsonville over the Portland & Western Railroad which is due to start in late 2008.
