All Policy articles – Page 71
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NewsAustralian high speed rail study published
AUSTRALIA: What Minister for Infrastructure & Transport Anthony Albanese called 'the most detailed and comprehensive study ever undertaken into high speed rail in this country' was published on April 11. The study identifies a potential 1 748 km route for a double-track electrified high speed line between Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra ...
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NewsInfrastructure funding in demand
INTERNATIONAL: Greater government investment in rail infrastructure is needed, although few industry leaders believe that sufficient funds will be made available, according to a multi-modal study published by the Norton Rose international legal practice on March 15. Entitled The Way Ahead - Where are you now?, the group's fourth annual ...
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NewsZambia Railways rehabilitation programme
ZAMBIA: The government has released US$120m in funding to enable Zambia Railways to start work on a three-year rehabilitation programme. A second track is planned on the 900 km line from Chingola to Livingstone, along which a second weekly passenger train has been launched. The Ndola – Luanshya branch is ...
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NewsCFR Marfa privatisation bids invited
ROMANIA: The Ministry of Transport formally advertised the sale of a 51% stake in national rail freight operator CFR Marfa on April 5. The starting price is 797m lei. Documentation will be available from April 9, with preliminary and non-binding offers to be submitted by April 23. The prequalified bidders ...
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NewsFRA assesses Northeast Corridor upgrading options
USA: The Federal Railroad Administration issued on April 2 a Preliminary Alternatives Report to mark the start of the Department of Transportation’s formal study of options to develop the Boston – New York – Washington Northeast Corridor. FRA says its report, entitled ‘NEC Future’, is the first step to developing ...
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NewsRegioJet awarded pilot Czech operating contract
CZECH REPUBLIC: The Ministry of Transport announced on March 26 that it had awarded private operator RegioJet a contract to run subsidised passenger services on the 144 km Ostrava - Opava - Krnov - Olomouc route for 15 years from December 2014. This is intended as the pilot for the ...
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NewsEast Coast to join revised franchising programme
UK: An 'immediate start' to re-letting the InterCity East Coast franchise was announced by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin on March 26, when he unveiled a 'detailed transparent timetable' for the replacement of all passenger train operating franchises over the next eight years. ICEC has been run by the Department ...
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NewsOil to fund electrification and reduced journey times
DENMARK: Electrification of all main lines 'as soon as practicable' and works to reduce each leg of a København - Odense - Aarhus - Aalborg journey to 1 h are to be financed from North Sea oil revenues through a DKr27·5bn Togfonden DK infrastructure investment fund, the government announced on ...
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NewsRail at heart of US$68bn investment programme
THAILAND: Construction of four standard-gauge dedicated passenger lines and the doubling of 3 000 route-km of metre-gauge lines is at the heart of a US$67·6bn infrastructure investment bill approved by cabinet ministers in Bangkok on March 20. Rail infrastructure accounts for the lion’s share of the planned capital outlay, with ...
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NewsUnified railway law aims to boost Europe - Asia freight
INTERNATIONAL: A joint declaration expressing willingness to create a common legal regime for rail traffic across Asia and Europe was signed by 37 countries at a ministerial meeting in Genève on February 26. The aim is to establish 'a unified set of transparent and predictable' legal conditions for international rail ...
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News'No delay' to High Speed 2 as legal challenges dismissed
UK: Under-Secretary of State for Transport Simon Burns confirmed on March 15 that there would be ‘no delay’ to the planned High Speed 2 railway between London and the north of England after a series of legal challenges to the project were dismissed at the High Court ...
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NewsLegal framework to support Islamabad - Istanbul freight
PAKISTAN: The Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail expects that Pakistan will become its 49th member state in September, after the government deposited an application for accession to the COTIF convention on February 21. The convention sets out a legal framework for international rail transport, and Pakistan's accession is ...
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NewsMinistry of Railways to be abolished under Chinese reform plan
CHINA: Proposals to abolish the Ministry of Railways and split its functions between the Ministry of Transport and a new railway operating body are included in a report on institutional reform of the State Council which was unveiled on March 10. The reform of the cabinet aims to clarify ...
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NewsEl Salvador looks to rail for logistics future
EL SALVADOR: Port and infrastructure authority CEPA has signed an agreement with Spanish consultancy Tramrail, which is to assist with the revival of the country’s 914 mm gauge rail network. As well as resuming freight operations, new passenger services are planned from the capital San Salvador to Sitio del Niño ...
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NewsRevenue and investment down in Indian Railways budget
INDIA: Revenue shortfalls and lower investment were the main themes of the Indian Railways budget, presented by Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on February 26. The year ending March 2013 saw freight and passenger revenue both fall short of target. Freight revenue was Rs859·76bn, compared with the budgeted Rs893·39bn, ...
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NewsNo private finance for Crossrail train fleet
UK: Plans for private finance to meet the majority of the estimated £1bn cost of procuring around 600 electric multiple-unit cars and associated maintenance facilities for Crossrail have been dropped, Transport for London announced on March 1. The largest single contract to be awarded under the Crossrail project is now ...
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NewsEuropean Court of Justice rules on vertical separation
EUROPE: On February 28 the European Court of Justice ruled on four infringement cases brought by the European Commission regarding the extent to which Directive 91/440 and the First Railway Package require infrastructure managers to be independent of train operators. The court found that Hungary (case C 473/10) and Spain ...
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NewsA vision of rail in 2050
EUROPE: A high-level vision of the future shape of rail transport was officially launched at the European Rail Awards in Brussels on February 26, hosted by CER and UNIFE. Entitled ‘Challenge 2050’, the pan-sector study outlines the rail sector’s ‘shared perception’ of what Europe’s railways could look like in the ...
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NewsPolish rail closure proposals announced
POLAND: PKP PLK has announced plans to close 2 000 route-km of railway. The decision comes after a six-month study of 458 sections of the network totalling nearly 7 300 route-km, out of a total of 21 600 route-km. Of the three scenarios proposed in the study, the ‘mild’ ...
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NewsKuala Lumpur - Singapore high speed railway agreement
ASIA: An agreement to build a high speed railway between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore is included in the joint statement issued by the Prime Ministers of Malaysia and Singapore following their annual retreat on February 19. The Joint Ministerial Committee has been tasked with looking into 'the details and modalities' ...