All Policy articles – Page 42
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NewsThree strategic decisions at OTIF General Assembly
INTERNATIONAL: Three strategic decisions were taken at the 13th General Assembly of the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail which was held at the end of September. These covered: the creation of a new appendix on the safe operation of trains, intended to open the way to the ...
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NewsCourt instructs PRASA to apply safety rules
SOUTH AFRICA: Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa must comply with the safety requirements set by the Railway Safety Regulator under a ruling made by the North Gauteng High Court on October 11. An initial court ruling on October 5 had lifted the suspension of PRASA’s operating licence imposed on ...
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Rail Business UKRegulator opens investigation into GTR and Northern passenger information
UK: The Office of Rail & Road announced on October 5 that it had opened an investigation into whether Thameslink Southern & Great Northern franchisee Govia Thameslink Railway and Arriva’s Northern had breached its requirements to do everything reasonably practicable to provide appropriate, accurate and timely information to their passengers ...
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Rail Business UKUK to retain EU rail standards following Brexit
UK: Legal requirements designed to promote common safety and technical principles across all European Union railways will need to be met by UK companies and suppliers whether or not a deal covering the UK’s expected departure from the EU is agreed, the Rail Safety & Standards Board said on October ...
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NewsInterim CEO sets out Rail Baltica priorities
EUROPE: Ignas Degutis has set out his priorities for the Rail Baltica project, having been appointed Interim CEO of tri-national project promoter RB Rail following the resignation of Baiba Rubesa. Rubesa held a personal press conference immediately after resigning on September 27, during which she strongly criticised the way the ...
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NewsFirst section of Moscow – Kazan high speed line to open in 2024
RUSSIA: A construction agreement covering the first section of the Moscow – Kazan high speed line was announced by RZD First Deputy Director Alexander Misharin at the ProMotion 1520 conference in Sochi on October 2. The agreement calls for work to start next year on a 301 km alignment between ...
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NewsOpen access operator's competition complaint upheld
FINLAND: Transport regulator Trafi has instructued state operator VR to make its charges for handling cross-border freight more transparent, following a complaint from the country’s only private operator. Fenniarail has been hauling trains between the Russia-Finland border and UPM’s paper mills since January. Its complaint related to VR’s pricing of ...
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NewsRail Baltica CEO resigns and condemns governments for 'playing poker’
EUROPE: Baiba A Rubesa resigned as CEO & Chairman of the Management Board of Rail Baltica project promoter RB Rail AS with immediate effect on September 27, and then held a press conference in a personal capacity during which she strongly condemned the ‘different and irreconcilable’ national ...
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Rail Business UKGrayling demands 'root and branch' review of UK railway
UK: A comprehensive review of the rail sector was announced by Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling on September 20. Responding to concerns over the passenger franchising model following the collapse of the Inter-City East Coast franchise, delays and cost over-runs with Network Rail’s investment programme, and operational problems ...
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NewsRefit agreed as French night trains reprieved again
FRANCE: Transport Minister Élisabeth Borne has authorised a €30m injection of funding to revitalise the country’s two remaining overnight trains which link Paris with Briançon in the Hautes-Alpes region and Latour-de-Carol in Pyrénées-Orientales with a portion for Rodez. Seeking to allay suggestions that the heavily subsidised services would be withdrawn, ...
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Rail Business UKOffice of Rail & Road publishes report into May timetable disruption.
UK: On September 20 the Office of Rail & Road published its interim inquiry report into what caused the May 2018 timetable disruption. The three-month inquiry has found that Network Rail, Govia Thameslink Railway, Northern, the Department for Transport and ORR ‘all made mistakes which contributed to the collapse ...
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NewsPepy promises to make SNCF ‘fit for the future’
INNOTRANS: The trade union strike action which has disrupted France’s rail network for much of this year has cost national railway group SNCF €780m, President Guillaume Pepy said at the InnoTrans trade show in Berlin on September 19. Speaking alongside SNCF Réseau President Patrick Jeantet, Pepy nevertheless painted a picture ...
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Rail Business UKRail market still growing, confirms UNIFE
INNOTRANS: Steady growth in the demand for railway products and services can be expected for the next six years, according to the 2018 World Rail Market Study compiled for UNIFE by Roland Berger and launched by UNIFE Chair Sabrina Soussan at InnoTrans on September 18. The seventh biennial study ...
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NewsMadrid - Montpellier open access service approved
SPAIN: National competition authority CNMC announced on September 17 that it had approved Intermodalidad de Levante SA's plans to launch an open-access passenger service between Madrid and Montpellier. The Air Nostrum subsidiary has applied to run two trains each way per day, calling at Zaragoza, Barcelona, Perpignan and Narbonne. EU ...
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Rail Business UKFare collection competition concerns raised
UK: The market for ticket gates is 'a near-monopoly, with buyers of gates potentially paying too much', and the market for ticket vending machines is 'delivering poor service quality with low availability of machines', the Office of Rail & Road said on September 13 when it published an update to ...
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NewsSNCF targets autonomous trains in five years
FRANCE: SNCF expects to see ‘semi-autonomous’ trains running on the French rail network by 2020 and fully automatic trains within five years, following the establishment of two consortia of suppliers and research institutes to develop and implement the technology. Providing an update on progress with the Train Autonome research programme ...
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Rail Business UKShared blame for Virgin Trains East Coast franchise failure
UK: Operators Stagecoach and Virgin and the Department for Transport share responsibility for the failure of the InterCity East Coast franchise earlier this year, the House of Commons Transport Committee says in a report published on September 12. The Intercity East Coast Franchise report also warns that the government’s proposal ...
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NewsDB spending halted as profits slump
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn Chief Executive Dr Richard Lutz has brought in emergency spending controls, amid reports of a third warning that the group’s 2018 profit target was unlikely to be achieved. According to local media, Lutz has written to senior executives warning that business had deteriorated in recent months rather ...
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NewsKuala Lumpur – Singapore high speed rail project officially postponed
ASIA: An agreement to delay construction of the planned 350 km Kuala Lumpur – Singapore high speed rail line by up to five years was signed by representatives of the governments of Malaysia and Singapore on September 5. The project is one of several approved by the previous Malaysian government ...
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News
Repairs to begin as Hudson Bay Railway sold
CANADA: Arctic Gateway Group has bought the 1 300 km Hudson Bay Railway and associated port facilities in Churchill from OmniTRAX, the government announced on August 31. This is expected to allow repairs to the flood-damaged infrastructure to get underway with the aim of restoring train services by the winter. ...