All Policy articles – Page 74
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NewsWagon fleet privatisation proposed
KAZAKHSTAN: The government is developing plans for the Kaztemirtrans freight business of national railway KTZ to transfer ownership of its wagon fleet to the private sector. Because of a shortage of wagons Kaztemirtrans currently uses foreign-registered vehicles for 20% of its traffic, and as neighbouring countries reform their wagon ownership ...
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NewsSlaskie abandons national operator PR in favour of local company
POLAND: Slaskie voivodship's in-house passenger operator Koleje Slaskie has been directly awarded a three-year contract to replace Poland-wide Przewozy Regionalne as the provider of all regional passenger services in the voivodship when PR's current five-year agreement ends in January 2013. PR operates nationally and is owned by the voivodship governments. ...
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NewsReforms proposed to cut SNCB losses
BELGIUM: In a bid to address the growing debts and operating losses incurred by the national railway, Minister of Public Enterprises Paul Magnette has announced proposals to abolish SNCB-Holding and split the business into two stand-alone companies, operator SNCB and infrastructure manager Infrabel. Last year the group’s accumulated debts reached ...
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NewsFreight sale heads Israeli reform programmme
ISRAEL: General Manager Boaz Zafir has confirmed that a subsidiary company to operate Israel Railways' freight services will begin operations during the third quarter of 2012. The company is due to be legally established by the end of June, ready for partial privatisation in early 2013 when a strategic ...
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NewsRolling stock acceptance delays at the centre of debate
EUROPE: Senior executives from the railway supply industry called for urgent action to address the problems of rail vehicle acceptance in a heated round-table debate at the UNIFE General Assembly in København on June 14. Pointing out that it took an average of 600 days to get new vehicles approved, ...
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NewsBulgarian rail freight privatisation process launched
BULGARIA: Plans for the sale of the BDZ Tovarnni Prevosi freight business of national railway operator BDZ EAD were formally announced by the government's Privatisation & Post-Privatisation Control Agency on June 12. The agency said the aim of the sale is to allow the freight business to survive, modernise and ...
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NewsBuenos Aires commuter railway concession revoked
ARGENTINA: Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido announced on May 24 that Trenes de Buenos Aires would be stripped of its concession to operate the Sarmiento and Mitre commuter networks. The decision to revoke the concession by means of a presidential decree had been taken because of inadequate rolling ...
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NewsFinal phase of KiwiRail turnaround funded
NEW ZEALAND: The government's 2012-13 budget unveiled on May 24 has allocated NZ$250m of capital funding to KiwiRail, the final instalment in a three-year NZ$750m package to support the national railway's Turnaround Plan announced in 2010. The funding will be used to remove capacity constraints and improve the reliability of ...
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NewsKazakhstan plans its place on the New Silk Road
KAZAKHSTAN: Speaking at the 25th meeting of the Council of Foreign Investors on May 22, President Nursultan Nazarbayev set out his vision for a 'New Silk Road' strategy to exploit the country's potential as an east-west and north-south transit hub by 2020. Rail projects in the strategy include the completion ...
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NewsNew board elected at Canadian Pacific as President and Chairman stand down
CANADA: Just hours before its annual shareholder meeting, Canadian Pacific Railway announced on May 17 that President & CEO Fred Green was standing down with immediate effect, after 34 years with the company, and would not be standing for re-election. Chairman John Cleghorn expressed his thanks to Green for ‘his ...
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NewsRailCorp to be split in New South Wales passenger shake up
AUSTRALIA: 'The biggest shake up to the state's railways in a generation' was announced by New South Wales Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian on May 15. The 'Fixing the Trains' initiative will see RailCorp replaced by two new organisations over the next 12 to 18 months. Sydney Trains is to be ...
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NewsPakistan's private rail freight plan awarded US funding
PAKISTAN: Private-sector logistics firm Premier Mercantile Services has been awarded a grant to study the feasibility of acquiring its own locomotive fleet. The US Trade & Development Agency signed the US$628 000 agreement on May 15. A US contractor is to be selected to undertake a feasibility study which would ...
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NewsFEVE to disappear
SPAIN: Under the 2012 national reform programme approved by the Spanish cabinet on April 27, metre gauge operator FEVE is to be spilt into infrastructure and train operating functions that would then be absorbed by their counterparts on the national network, ADIF and RENFE. This is expected to improve efficiency ...
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NewsISR reform agreed
ISRAEL: The government and Israel Railways board have approved proposals for structural reform. Passenger services, traffic management, infrastructure and telecoms would remain with ISR, but three subsidiary companies will be created to take responsibility for freight, maintenance, and real estate & business activities. The property business would be a 100% ...
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NewsNetwork Rail deep alliance goes live
UK: The 'deep alliance' between infrastructure manager Network Rail and passenger operator South West Trains went live on April 29, with a 'single senior joint management team' now responsible for infrastructure and train operations on NR's Wessex Route, one of the busiest commuter networks in Europe. Planned to run until ...
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NewsTenders called for US passenger cars
USA: US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced on April 20 that manufacturers had been invited to bid for a contract worth $551m to supply 130 double-deck cars for Amtrak services, under ‘a groundbreaking multi-state effort to jointly purchase standardised rail equipment’. With funding from the Federal Railroad Administration’s High Speed ...
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NewsRomania commissions strategic transport study
ROMANIA: The Ministry of Transport & Infrastructure has awarded AECOM a €2·2m contract to develop a national transport masterplan and development strategy. Intended to assist with applications for EU cohesion funding in 2014-20, the study will include short, medium and long term outlooks, suggesting infrastructure and policy needs for rail, ...
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NewsKiwiRail puts workshops up for sale
NEW ZEALAND: KiwiRail has decided to put its Hillside Engineering workshops business in Dunedin up for sale, following a reduction in its future workload for rolling stock construction and refurbishment. The railway announced on April 19 that it intended to advertise the business in ‘early May’, with the aim ...
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NewsERTMS accord signed
EUROPE: Additional measures to ‘facilitate’ the deployment of the European Rail Traffic Management System have been agreed by the European Commission and the rail sector, with the signing of a further memorandum of understanding in København on April 16. The signing formed part of an event organised by the Danish ...
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NewsGovernment to sell 25% stake in Georgian Railway
GEORGIA: The government announced plans to privatise a 25% stake in state-owned Georgian Railway on April 16. An initial public offering is planned for May, with global depositary receipts to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. GR is a vertically-integrated operator with a statutory monopoly on its 1 600 ...