Passenger rail news – Page 144
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NewsDB Regio selected for Rhein-Neckar operating contract
GERMANY: Baden-Württemberg's Ministry of Transport and the Rhein-Neckar and Rheinland-Pfalz Süd transport authorities have jointly selected DB Regio as preferred bidder for the S-Bahn Rhein-Neckar (Netz 6b) operating contract. The contract covers the operation of passenger services on lines in Baden-Württemberg and southern Hessen from December 13 2020. The ...
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NewsCaltrain board approves operating and capital budgets
USA: Caltrain’s board approved the operating and capital budgets for the financial year starting on July 1 at its monthly meeting on June 1. The $148·2m operating budget includes $20·5m in funding contributions from San Mateo County Transit District, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and the City & County ...
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NewsPresident opens Astana Nurly Zhol station
KAZAKHSTAN: ‘Nurly Zhol station is unique, there is no such station in the entire post-Soviet area’, said President Nursultan Nazarbayev when he officially opened the new passenger hub in Astana on May 31. The first passenger services began using the station on June 1, and the first international service arrived ...
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NewsMombasa – Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway opened
KENYA: President Uhuru Kenyatta officially opened the 472 km Standard Gauge Railway between the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa and Nairobi on May 31, travelling on the inaugural Madaraka Express passenger service. The previous evening he had launched an inaugural freight train from Port Reitz in Mombasa, waving a giant ...
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NewsBuenos Aires suburban network gets Tetra radio
ARGENTINA: A Tetra digital radio network has been installed on the Sarmiento, Mitre, San Martín, Belgrano Sur and Roca lines of the suburban rail network serving Buenos Aires. Indra supplied the system under a US$214m contract awarded in 2014 by federal railway operating company SOFSE. It is being used ...
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NewsLEO Express looking to buy Locomore
EUROPE: LEO Express is looking to acquire German open access operator Locomore, which recently filed for insolvency. Speaking to German newspaper Handelsblatt, Leo Express CEO Peter Köhler confirmed that the Czech open access operator, not currently present in the German market, has made an offer for Locomore. In ...
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NewsSNCF to rebrand TGV services as ‘inOui’
FRANCE: On May 26 SNCF confirmed local media reports that its TGV network of high speed passenger services is to be rebranded as ‘inOui’. SNCF will progressively introduce the inOui brand across its legacy TGV services by 2020, starting with those on the Paris – Bordeaux route from July 2, ...
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NewsKiwiRail and CRL funded in NZ$1bn budget allocation
NEW ZEALAND: The government has allocated almost NZ$1bn for rail investment as part of its annual budget unveiled by Finance Minister Steven Joyce on May 25, including support for national operator KiwiRail and a first tranche of capital investment for construction of Auckland's City Rail Link. The government has agreed ...
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NewsGreat Western Class 802s take shape
UK: Series production of the Class 802 electro-diesel trainsets for Great Western Railway’s West of England inter-city services between London, Devon and Cornwall is now getting underway at the Hitachi Rail Italy plant at Pistoia. Hitachi is supplying 22 five-car and 14 nine-car AT300 units to the FirstGroup franchise under ...
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NewsSeeking future rail megatrends
EUROPE: Late May saw the launch of an interactive forum on the Near 2050 project website aimed at enabling rail users, operators and specifying organisations to comment on their experience of the sector and predict how the rail mode might evolve over the next 35 years.Near2050 is being co-ordinated under ...
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NewsHohenzollerische Landesbahn orders Coradia DMUs
GERMANY: Alstom announced on May 24 that it had received an order worth €50m from Hohenzollerische Landesbahn for the supply of 10 Coradia Lint 54 diesel multiple-units. Scheduled for delivery by May 2019, they will operate on the routes from Ulm to Aalen, Langnau and Munderkingen. To be manufactured at ...
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NewsSTIF to fund €1∙1bn Paris suburban fleet
FRANCE: Ile-de-France transport authority STIF announced on May 23 that it will be providing 100% of the funding for an order for 83 Bombardier Régio2N double-deck EMUs, worth €1∙1bn. Of the new fleet, 69 trainsets will be deployed between the end of 2019 and 2021 to replace locomotive-hauled VB2N coaches ...
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NewsBridge works reflect progress on RFI’s Adriatic Corridor upgrading
ITALY: The weekend of May 20-21 saw two bridges replaced on the Bologna – Rimini line at Prati and Sabbioso as part of infrastructure manager RFI’s ongoing route modernisation programme on the Adriatic Corridor.Running for three years from 2015, the upgrading works cover the north-south line between Bologna and Lecce ...
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NewsCaltrain electrification funding confirmed
USA: The Federal Transit Administration confirmed on May 22 that it would execute a Full Funding Grant Agreement worth $647m for electrification of the Caltrain commuter rail corridor between San Francisco and San Jose.Caltrain had agreed contracts in July last year with Balfour Beatty and Stadler for electrification work and ...
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NewsIarnród Éireann deploys ticket sales software
IRELAND: Iarnród Éireann has deployed a Sqills S3 Passenger sales, distribution and revenue management software platform to replace legacy systems and introduce dynamic pricing capabilities.S3 Passenger enables fares to be set from a single source and updated in real-time across all sales channels, helping operators to optimise train occupancy ...
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NewsMÁV begins manufacturing coaches for international services
HUNGARY: National railway holding group MÁV has started series production of locally designed inter-city coaches for international services. The Hungarian government decided in April 2016 that it would provide financial assistance for MÁV to manufacture 20 hauled passenger coaches for international traffic plus a further 100 for domestic use. The ...
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NewsTrump urged to intervene in ‘emergency’ at New York Penn Station
USA: Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York State, wrote to President Donald Trump on May 21 requesting that the federal government treat the ongoing infrastructure and operational difficulties at New York Penn Station ‘as an emergency situation’ and provide funding for short- and long-term enhancements of the station.Two derailments within ...
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NewsWork starts on ‘metropolitan’ high speed link in Beijing
CHINA: Construction work started on May 21 on a Passenger-Dedicated Line linking Beijing with Bazhou, 80 km to the south. The route is one of several ‘metropolitan’ high speed railways planned around the conurbations of Beijing and Tianjin. With a view to future extensions to the south which would relieve ...
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NewsArriva operating contract to be extended
NETHERLANDS: The Province of Gelderland is to exercise an option for Arriva to continue to operate the Achterhoek – Rivierenland package of rail and bus services for a further five years. The extension will run from 2020 until December 2025. The Achterhoek – Rivierenland contract covers regional passenger services ...
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News250 km/h low-floor trainset for the Gotthard Base Tunnel rolled out
SWITZERLAND: President of the Swiss Confederation Doris Leuthard joined 500 guests at the official roll-out of the first compete EC250 Giruno 250 km/h inter-city trainset at Stadler’s Bussnang plant on May 18. ‘The Giruno sets a new standard, just like Switzerland did with the Gotthard Base Tunnel’, said Leuthard ‘This ...