Passenger rail news – Page 105
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NewsMarmaray suburban rail corridor across Istanbul opened
TURKEY: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan officially opened the 77 km Marmaray suburban rail corridor across Istanbul on March 12, 15 years after construction began. The President rode an inaugural train from the opening ceremony at Kartal on the Asian side of the route east as far ...
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Rail Business UKLNER Azuma Class 800 authorised for passenger service
UK: InterCity East Coast operator LNER has finally received approval for its Class 800 ‘Azuma’ trainsets to enter passenger service on the East Coast Main Line, subject to the completion of final testing. In a letter to manufacturer Hitachi Rail Europe, the Office of Road & Rail has authorised the ...
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Rail Business UKNorthern Class 331s to serve Leeds from May
UK: Regional franchisee Northern expects to put its first CAF-built Class 331 EMUs into passenger services between Leeds and Doncaster with the May 19 timetable change, having received regulatory authorisation from the Office of Road & Rail. The approval applies to the 31 three-car sets and the 12 four-car versions. ...
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NewsRegioJet orders Elf.eu multiple-units
CZECH REPUBLIC: RegioJet has awarded Pesa Bydgoszcz a contract to supply seven two-car Elf.eu electric multiple-units for use on subsidised passenger services which it is to operate under contract to the Ústí nad Labem regional authority. The order signed on March 7 is worth more than KC500m, with deliveries scheduled ...
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NewsFlytoget Oaris lands in Oslo
NORWAY: The first of eight Oaris EMUs being built by CAF for Oslo airport express operator Flytoget was officially unveiled on March 5. Ordered in April 2015, the four-car Class 78 units will join Flytoget’s existing fleet of 16 Adtranz-built Class 71 trainsets, providing a 50% increase in capacity to ...
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NewsCBTC and more EMUs in Mumbai suburban expansion
INDIA: A further programme of enhancements to increase capacity on the Mumbai suburban network was formally approved by the national government’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on March 7, and is expected to be completed in five years. Mumbai’s 385 route-km suburban network currently carries around 8 million passengers/day on ...
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NewsRENFE seeks ‘pro-active’ international expansion
SPAIN: RENFE will be adopting an ‘unprecedented and pro-active’ approach to international expansion as its domestic market faces more liberalisation under the EU’s Fourth Railway Package, the Spanish incumbent’s President Isaías Táboas Suárez told the Rail Live trade show in Bilbao on March 6. Suárez highlighted RENFE’s participation in ...
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NewsProtectionism dilutes the competitive dynamic
COMMENT: Are incumbent state operators expanding their low-cost high speed offer to try and keep new entrants out of a liberalised inter-city market, and how might this fit with European competition policy, asks Railway Gazette Managing Editor Nick Kingsley.
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NewsNSW inter-city fleet order increased
AUSTRALIA: The New South Wales government has awarded the RailConnect consortium a A$130m contract to supply a further 42 double-deck electric multiple-unit cars, taking its New Intercity Fleet order to a total of 554 vehicles. The additional vehicles will enable peak services on the South Coast Line to be increased ...
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NewsSNCF brings forward Ouigo expansion to Toulouse
FRANCE: Originally envisaged for 2020, Ouigo low-cost high speed services between Paris and Toulouse are now to begin running on July 6. The SNCF subsidiary has announced that ticket sales for its first trains will open on March 26. Ouigo will initially operate one train each way per day, calling ...
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NewsWestmecklenburg operating contract awarded
GERMANY: Following an tendering process, the Land of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern announced on March 1 that it had awarded incumbent Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn a contract to continue to operate Teilnetz Westmecklenburg regional passenger services for six years from the December 15 2019 timetable change, when its current contract ends. The package covers routes ...
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NewsEurostar sets new ridership record
EUROPE: The introduction of direct London – Amsterdam trains and a strong increase in business travel contributed to record Eurostar ridership during 2018, the operator announced on March 5. Reporting its annual results, the cross-Channel high speed operator said 11 million passengers had used its international services during the year, ...
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NewsTBMs ordered for Łódź cross-city tunnel
POLAND: The contractor building the Łódź cross-city tunnel has signed a contract for Herrenknecht to supply two tunnel boring machines. Work on the project is expected to begin in mid-2019, with the first TBM ready by the end of the year. A 13·04 m diameter TBM, the largest used ...
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Rail Business UK5G roll out to begin on South Western Railway
UK: FirstGroup has announced that its Rail Division will be the exclusive supplier of Blu Wireless’s 5G communications for ontrain connectivity. This follows a 2½ year development programme undertaken with Network Rail, the Department for Transport and the Department for Culture Media & Sport. Roll-out is to begin ...
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NewsInlandsbanan acquires DMUs for local services
SWEDEN: Inlandsbanan has acquired five second-hand Alstom Lint diesel multiple-units for the planned launched of a regular passenger service on part of its route. Inlandsbanan is owned by 19 local authorities and operates seasonal tourist-focused passenger services along the north – south inland route from Gällivare to Mora. It has ...
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Rail Business UKFirst new Stansted Express trainset delivered
UK: The first of 10 Stadler Flirt electric multiple-units which Greater Anglia has ordered for use on Stansted Express branded services between London Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport was delivered to the operator’s Norwich depot on February 28. It will now undergo safety and performance testing before it is approved ...
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NewsCustom announcements to create an audio brand for DB stations
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Station&Service has appointed Acapela Group to create digital public address announcements for use at its 5 400 stations. Acapela said the German-language announcements would be custom-made to provide a ‘pleasant unique voice experience’, with an audio brand identity that would be recognisable as belonging to ...
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Rail Business UKPut customers first, Williams tells UK rail sector
UK: The rail industry needs ‘to adapt to a fast changing world’, and ensure that it focuses on the needs of passenger and freight customers, according to former British Airways Chief Executive Keith Williams, who was last year commissioned by Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling to undertake a ...
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NewsRedlands Passenger Rail construction contract awarded
USA: Construction work for the 14·5 km Redlands Passenger Rail Project in southern California is on course to start later this year, following the selection of Flatiron Construction Corp as preferred bidder for the $154m main works contract. The $312m Redlands project is being promoted by San ...
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NewsUN convention to speed up cross-border rail travel
INTERNATIONAL: The text of an international agreement which has been developed to streamline cross-border passenger rail travel was adopted by the Inland Transport Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe at its meeting in Genève on February 22. The Convention on the Facilitation of Border Crossing Procedures for ...