All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 382
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
Canadian Pacific Railway has launched its CP TempPro service for transporting products requiring strict temperature control. Port of Tilbury London Ltd is seeking expressions of interest in the design and construction of facilities including new and relocated rail lines on the site of a former power station. Novotrans is ...
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NewsChannel Tunnel interconnector installation train completed
EUROPE: Clayton Equipment Ltd has designed, built and commissioned for Balfour Beatty a 500 m long construction train that will be used to install high-voltage cabling in the Channel Tunnel, under the ElecLink project to provide an electrical connector between the national grids of France and the UK. Existing main ...
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NewsKaliningrad – Moscow piggyback trial
RUSSIA: A lorry trailer has been transported from Kaliningrad to Moscow on a domestically-produced wagon as a part of a trial to assess the viability of cross-border piggyback operation. The trial aimed to verify that a regular piggyback service would be practical on the route, where loads must undergo customs ...
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First Coradia trainset in Africa enters service
ALGERIA: Minister of Public Works & Transport Abdelghani Zalene attended a ceremony on March 2 to open buildings at Alger’s Agha station and mark the entry into service of national railway SNTF’s first Alstom Coradia Polyvalent electro-diesel multiple-unit. Public services between Alger and Oran were scheduled to start the following ...
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NewsSmartron freight locomotive launched
GERMANY: Siemens has launched the Smartron electric locomotive, a version of its successful Vectron modular locomotive family which is intended to provide German freight operators with faster delivery times and a lower price through the use of a standard configuration. Smartron offers ‘one standard version, one standard contract, one standard ...
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NewsETC to prepare Rail Baltica operational plans
EUROPE: Rail Baltica project promoter RB Rail has awarded ETC Transport Consultants a contract to prepare short, medium and long-term operational plans for the future standard gauge line linking the Baltic States. The plans are intended to take into account physical, technical, human and organisational factors, with the aim of ...
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NewsSiemens announces plans for UK rolling stock factory
UK: Plans to invest up to £200m to create a ‘state-of-the-art factory to manufacture and commission trains’ at Goole in the East Riding of Yorkshire were announced by Siemens on March 2. Siemens has signed a long-term agreement to lease a 27 ha site on the Goole 36 development adjacent ...
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NewsElectrification envisaged in Ireland's 10-year transport plan
IRELAND: Suburban electrification, main line upgrading and new rolling stock are among the transport improvements envisaged in the government’s 2018-27 National Development Plan published on February 16. The €2bn DART Expansion Programme proposes a series of enhancements to the Dublin suburban network, ahead of the construction of the long-planned cross-city ...
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NewsRailway supply industry news round-up
Rolls-Royce’s MTU business has announced an agreement for it to be the exclusive supplier of diesel engines to Knoxville Locomotive Works. MTU Series 4000 and 2000 engines produced in Aiken, South Carolina, will be used on KLW’s SE Series four- and six-axle locomotive designs which were awarded EPA Tier 4 ...
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NewsDG Move highlights Brexit concerns for rail sector
EUROPE: ‘In view of the considerable uncertainties’ surrounding the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility & Transport issued a ‘Notice to Stakeholders’ on February 27. This is intended to inform operators, suppliers and other bodies of the ‘legal repercussions which need to ...
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NewsKöln and Wuppertal order hydrogen fuel cell buses
GERMANY: Van Hool has won a contract to supply 30 hydrogen-electric buses to Köln and 10 to Wuppertal, the manufacturer announced on February 28. To be built at Van Hool’s Koningshooikt factory in Belgium, the A330 buses are due to be delivered to RVK Köln and WSW Wuppertal from ...
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NewsGovernment spares rural railways but backs Spinetta reforms
FRANCE: In announcing on February 26 his response to the Spinetta review of the state of France’s national railway, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe rejected a proposal to close up to 9 000 route-km of secondary railway. Former Air France-KLM Chief Executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta had issued his wide-ranging report into the ...
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NewsD-Trains ordered for Bedford – Bletchley
UK: Vivarail has reached an agreement to supply three two-car Class 230 D-Train diesel-electric multiple-units to West Midlands Trains for operation from December on the Marston Vale Line between Bedford and Bletchley. Vivarail’s D-Train uses aluminium bodyshells and bogies from former D78 metro trainsets withdrawn from service by London Underground. ...
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NewsDB Cargo plans digital, low-noise wagon fleet by 2020
GERMANY: The DB Cargo management board has approved a ‘high double-digit million’ programme to fit its entire German wagon fleet with tracking, monitoring and telematics equipment. More than 1 000 wagons are currently equipped with telematics, a further 19 000 are scheduled to be retrofitted by the end of 2018, ...
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NewsJakarta metro train rolled out
INDONESIA: The first trainset for the Jakarta metro was rolled out from Nippon Sharyo’s Toyokawa Plant on February 21. The second is due to be completed on March 7, and both will be shipped from the port of Toyohashi, with arrival at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta expected on March ...
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NewsUK railway news round-up
On February 28 the government laid before parliament the Welsh Ministers (Transfer of Functions) (Railways) Order 2018 which, subject to approval, would devolve responsibility for procurement and management of the Wales & Borders franchise. As well as continuing with current funding arrangements, the UK government will also provide an extra ...
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NewsInnoTrans 2018 hackathon announced
INNOTRANS: The first InnoTrans hackathon will be held at this year’s event, when Hack Partners will bring together 80 innovators from around the world for a four-day competition focusing on the future of rolling stock, improving customer experience and tackling operational challenges. The hackathon will be launched at Messe Berlin’s ...
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NewsSBB’s Twindexx EMUs enter service
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways ran the first of its fleet of Bombardier Transportation Twindexx double-deck electric multiple-units in commercial service on February 26. The first train was IR2368, the 11.55 from Zürich to Olten and Bern. When SBB signed a contract with Bombardier on May 12 2010 for 59 double-deck ...
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NewsDebt burden tempers SNCF growth in 2017
FRANCE: Announcing its results for 2017 on February 27, SNCF Group reported revenue of €33∙5bn, up 4∙2% on the year before ‘thanks to commercial momentum’ driving strong growth in passenger and freight traffic. Combined with ‘strict financial discipline’ and a cost-cutting programme that generated €830m of savings in 2017, this ...
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NewsEurostar reports a £58m profit
EUROPE: Eurostar International Ltd has reported a preliminary unaudited operating profit of £57∙6m for 2017, with sales revenue up 11% at £880m from £794m the year before. Passenger-journeys were up 3% at 10∙3 million from 10 million in 2016. 'Last year we saw a real revival in the US market ...