Passenger rail news – Page 111
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NewsVIA Rail selects Siemens to replace Québec - Windsor corridor fleet
CANADA: Siemens has been awarded a C$989m contract to supply a fleet of 32 push-pull inter-city trainsets to enter service on the Québec City - Montréal - Toronto - Windsor corridor from 2022, national passenger operator VIA Rail announced on December 12. Each trainset will be formed of one locomotive ...
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NewsArriva wins expanded Danish regional operating contract
DENMARK: Incumbent Arriva has beaten off two rival bids to win the next contract to operate regional passenger services in western and central Jylland, in a deal which includes the transfer of two routes currently operated by national passenger operator DSB. The DKr1·6bn contract awarded by the Ministry of Transport, ...
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NewsCRRC wins Egyptian EMU order
EGYPT: CRRC Qingdao Sifang has won an order to supply 22 six-car electric multiple-units to operate on a railway linking Cairo to 10th of Ramadan City. The 120 km/h EMUs will be designed with wind- and sand-resistant components to cope with conditions on the 68 km route with 11 ...
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NewsVictoria to fund The Overland in 2019
AUSTRALIA: The government of Victoria is to increase its financial support for The Overland passenger service between Melbourne and Adelaide to ensure that it can continue to run until the end of 2019. Operator Great Southern Rail is also to undertake a full review of the service in early 2019 ...
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NewsFSE orders EMUs
ITALY: A €24·2m firm order for Polish manufacturer Newag to supply regional operator Ferrovie del Sud Est with six more three-car Impuls II electric multiple-units was finalised on December 7. In December 2015 FSE ordered an initial five of the Impuls II EMUs, designated ETR.322 in Italy, with an option ...
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NewsGo-Ahead and Transdev selected for Bayern operating contracts
GERMANY: Bayern railway authority BEG named the preferred bidders for two Augsburger Netze passenger operating contracts on December 7. Award of the contracts is subject to no objections being received during the 10-day regulatory standstill period. Go-Ahead is preferred bidder for Lot 1, which is to be awarded by ...
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NewsICF prepares to launch next-generation MEMU
INDIA: A prototype for the next generation of Mainline Electric Multiple-Unit for Indian Railways is expected to be rolled out for test running on December 15, according to Integral Coach Factory General Manager Sudhanshu Mani. Developed at the ICF plant in Chennai, the MEMU family is designed to cater for ...
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NewsSNCF to run fuel cell train in 2022
FRANCE: National operator SNCF expects to start testing hydrogen technology during 2021, and to run its first fuel cell powered train in the first quarter of the following year, according to Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Rail Systems & Technology, Pierre Izard. Addressing a meeting of regional government representatives on December ...
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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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NewsSiemens presents first Mireo EMU
GERMANY: Siemens presented the first Mireo electric multiple-unit at its Wildenrath test facility on December 6. The aluminium-bodied modular articulated EMU design is intended for commuter and regional services. DB Regio became the launch customer in February 2017 when it placed a firm order for 24 three-car units. These ...
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Rail Business UKTranslink orders more CAF DMU cars
UK: Northern Ireland transport operator Translink has ordered a further 21 diesel multiple-unit cars from CAF to cope with increasing ridership on the Northern Ireland Railways network. Funded by £50m from the Department of Infrastructure, the intermediate vehicles have been ordered as an option on the contract under which CAF ...
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NewsRhein-Ruhr-Express trains are ready to roll
GERMANY: The first Desiro HC EMUs being built for Rhein-Ruhr Express services by Siemens Mobility are on course to enter service with the December 9 timetable change, following their formal approval by the Federal Railway Office using its new authorisation process. Under a €1·7bn contract from a consortium of local ...
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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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NewsBelfort – Delle reopening to revive Franco-Swiss link
EUROPE: The 22 km missing link between Belfort in eastern France and Delle on the border with Switzerland is to reopen for passenger trains with the European timetable change on December 9, following a formal opening ceremony on December 6 to be attended by French Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne and ...
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Rail Business UKOyster and contactless payment to be extended further outside London
UK: Acceptance of Oyster and contactless payment is to be extended to Hertford North and Epsom next year, Rail Minister Andrew Jones announced on November 30. Ticket barriers will be modified to accept Oyster and contactless cards at Epsom, Cuffley, Bayford and Hertford North early next year. Stations up ...
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NewsTrains return to Churchill
CANADA: The first VIA Rail passenger service for 18 months arrived at Churchill in northern Manitoba on December 4, having left Winnipeg two days earlier. Following the arrival of a freight train on November 25, the occasion marked the reopening of the Hudson Bay Railway, which provides the only land ...
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NewsNSW to study regional high speed rail options
AUSTRALIA: The New South Wales state government has commissioned a study of four preferred corridors for high speed rail services, which it believes could transform travel patterns on regional routes radiating up to 300 km from Sydney. Announcing the study on December 3, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said ‘we know ...
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Wien – Bratislava upgrading inaugurated
AUSTRIA: The first phase of modernisation work on the Wien – Marchegg – Bratislava route was formally inaugurated on November 30, paving the way for expansion of the Austrian capital’s S-Bahn network with the December 9 timetable change. Double-tracking and electrification of the 3·7 km section between Erzherzog-Karl-Straße and a ...
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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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NewsFNM orders Stadler EMUs for TILO services
EUROPE: An agreement was signed in Milano on November 30 for Stadler to supply nine six-car electric multiple-units which FNM will lease to Trenord for use on TILO cross-border services between Lombardia in Italy and Ticino in Switzerland. FNM called tenders last year, and has placed the €114·4m order in ...