All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 245
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NewsTesting underway on Ankara – Sivas high speed line
TURKEY: Trial running on the Ankara – Sivas high speed line began on March 5, with Transport Minister Mehmet Cahit Turhan travelling on a test train on part of the route. The 405 km line has 49 tunnels with a total length ...
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NewsEast West Railway Co invites bids for ‘self-powered’ trains
UK: East West Railway Co has called tenders for the provision of rolling stock for use on future passenger services between Oxford, Milton Keynes, Aylesbury and Bedford. The Oxford to Cambridge railway promoter is seeking bids to supply a fleet of 12 or ...
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NewsRail unions call for action on coronavirus
UK: General Secretary of the TSSA trade union Manuel Cortes has written to Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps urging the government to convene a transport sector summit on tackling the Covid-19 outbreak. The summit would bring together train operators, representatives of devolved ...
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NewsCape Town commuter rail recovery plan announced
SOUTH AFRICA: Plans to restart Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s suspended commuter services on the Central Line between Cape Town and Chris Hani were announced by Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula on March 5. The route has been without services since November, when operations were ...
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NewsRotterdam port railway systems contract awarded
NETHERLANDS: Port of Rotterdam Authority has awarded VolkerRail the track, electrification and train protection systems contract for the Theemswegtracé freight line project. The 4·5 km line including a concrete viaduct and two steel-arch bridges across the Rozenburg lock and Thomassen Tunnel is being built to enable ...
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NewsRITES flotation oversubscribed
INDIA: The government’s plans to divest a further stake in railway consultancy RITES attracted mixed interest, with the initial offer being oversubscribed by 132% but retail interest failing to meet expectations. The Finance Ministry had announced its intention to reduce its holdings in various state-owned companies, in ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority and Zambia Railways Ltd have delivered an initial shipment of 1·1 million litres of oil from the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia under an agreement with Delta Energy Zambia which covers up to 6 million litres/month. ...
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NewsTailor-made approach switches freight from road to rail
EUROPE: DB Cargo Logistics has developed a tailor-made transport model to enable cross-laminated timber manufacturer Binderholz to switch its shipments of building products up to 20 m long from road to rail. This has included reopening a disused private siding at Binderholz’s Burgbernheim factory in Bayern to ...
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NewsFS Group gets to work in Uruguay
URUGUAY: The Ministry of Transport & Public Works has appointed Italy’s FS Group to provide it with technical advice during the Ferrocarril Central project to modernise the 273 km route between the port of Montevideo and Paso de los Toros. The upgrading project is being undertaken by ...
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NewsNorfolk Southern develops locomotive-mounted track-inspection technology
USA: Norfolk Southern’s track inspection group has developed a geometry measurement system which can be mounted on a locomotive where it will operate autonomously. This avoids the need to use a converted freight or passenger vehicle, which would require an external power supply and take up space ...
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NewsJacobs to support Sweden’s high speed rail programme
SWEDEN: Transport agency Trafikverket has awarded Jacobs a framework contract to provide planning, systems design and delivery consultancy services for the development of a Y-shaped network of high speed lines linking Stockholm with Göteborg and Malmö. The first phase of the high speed rail programme covers ...
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NewsRail Baltica implements planning, scheduling and risk management software
EUROPE: Rail Baltica project promoter RB Rail has begun rolling out planning, scheduling and risk reporting software to improve the management of its activities and resources and to speed up the implementation of the project. The need for such a system was highlighted in a review carried ...
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NewsRailCarCaddy provides cost-effective wagon mover
USA: DJ Products has launched RailCarCaddy, a compact battery-powered device for moving wagons of up to 100 tonnes around maintenance workshops and freight terminals. The coupler is quickly attached to a wagon, which staff can then move forwards or backwards to the desired ...
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NewsSighișoara – Brașov route upgrading contract awarded
ROMANIA: National railway CFR has awarded the Asocierea RailWorks consortium of Alstom, Aktor, Arcada and Euroconstruct a contract to modernise the Sighișoara – Brașov route.
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News2021 to be European Year of Rail
Source: Christophe Masse EUROPE: The European Commission has proposed designating 2021 as the European Year of Rail. Subject to the proposal being adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, a series of events would promote rail as a sustainable, innovative and safe mode of transport, highlighting ...
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NewsRailway supply industry news round-up
Škoda Vagonka has launched a KC1bn project to double the size of its Ostrava factory, adding a new paint shop and modern production facilities. ‘Under new owner PPF Group we are really successful’, said Petr Brzezina, Chairman of the board and President of Škoda Transportation Group. ‘That ...
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NewsFrench companies focus on change at InnoTrans 2020
INNOTRANS: ‘The rail industry as we know it is about to change’, says Clémentine Vallet, Project Manager, Operations at Business France which is organising two combined French rail industry stands in halls 3.2 and 11.2 at InnoTrans 2020. ‘Against the backdrop of the digital transformation in the ...
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NewsDirect London – Bordeaux trains could start in 2022, suggests SNCF
A direct London – Bordeaux service could be launched in 2022, President of SNCF International Diego Diaz suggested when commemorative boards were unveiled at London’s St Pancras station to mark a twinning agreement with Bordeaux Saint-Jean.
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NewsTurkish locomotive and rolling stock builders to merge
TURKEY: Three state-owned locomotive and rolling stock manufacturers are to be removed from the control of national railway TCDD and merged into a single new entity called Türasaş. The merger, announced in the country’s official gazette on March 4, will see locomotive manufacturer Tülomsaş, wagon builder Tüdemsaş ...
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NewsLightweight trains and no taboos in French secondary line rescue package
Source: Christophe Masse FRANCE: Development of lightweight rolling stock is one of several proposals put forward by the government to try and ensure the survival of much of the remaining network of secondary lines, many of which carry very limited traffic. Secretary of State for Transport Jean-Baptiste ...