All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 387
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News'Tomorrow’s Trains Today' funding announced
UK: The winners of £3·5m of government funding under the ‘First of a Kind: Demonstrating Tomorrow’s Trains Today’ innovation programme were announced by Transport Minister Jo Johnson on February 12. T The FOAK competition is part of the Department for Transport’s wider Accelerating Innovation in Rail scheme. The first ‘challenge’ ...
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NewsNew alignment opens with the longest railway tunnel in the Balkans
GREECE: The first train ran on the recently-completed 54 km Tithorea – Lianokladi line on February 2, following the formal handover of the new line on January 31. The route forms part of a 106 km double track alignment which is being built between Tithorea and Domokos to replace a ...
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NewsInternational consortium formed to bid for Kuala Lumpur – Singapore High Speed Rail project
ASIA: The formation of a consortium to bid for work on the Kuala Lumpur – Singapore high speed rail project was announced by Malaysian construction company George Kent, Alstom, Siemens, Italian state railway FS Group and track contractor Porr on February 12. The companies said the consortium was ‘a powerful ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
In co-operation with TurkRail, Hupac has launched a twice-weekly shuttle connection carrying tanks, swap-bodies and containers between Rotterdam, Duisburg and Istanbul Halkali with as transit time of one week. The 65 000 m2 Arken Combi Terminal at the Port of Göteborg was officially opened on February 7, enabling freight to ...
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NewsSerbia – Bulgaria line modernisation agreement signed
SERBIA: An agreement to co-finance modernisation of the 104 km line from Niš to Dimitrovgrad near the Bulgarian border was signed by the European Investment Bank, the Ministry of Construction, Transport & Infrastructure and railway infrastructure manager Infra ŽS on January 31. Upgrading of the single track non-electrified line is ...
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NewsNetwork Rail awards Stoneblower operating contract
UK: Infrastructure manager Network Rail has appointed Balfour Beatty to operate and maintain of its fleet of Stoneblowers, which pneumatically inject ballast under the sleepers to fill voids and restore track geometry. The four-year contract is worth more than £40m. It covers a minimum of 2 800 maintenance shifts per ...
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NewsElectric buses enter service in Bettembourg
LUXEMBOURG: Voyages Emile Weber subsidiary Autocars Pletschette put seven electric buses into service in Bettembourg on February 8. They are in service on the 13 km, 23-stop Line 305, which becomes the country’s first bus route to use only battery buses. VDL has supplied the fleet of Citeas LLE-99 ...
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NewsFlytoget’s first CAF Oaris trainset nears completion
NORWAY: Dynamic testing with the first of eight four-car Oaris trainsets that CAF is building for Norwegian operator Flytoget is due to begin in April. One set will travel to Velim in the Czech Republic for trials before the trains enter service on Flytoget’s Airport Express service between Gardermoen Airport ...
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NewsEurostar to launch London – Amsterdam service in April
EUROPE: Direct London – Amsterdam high speed services will begin on April 4, cross-channel high speed operator Eurostar announced on February 9. Offering a journey time of 3 h 41 min between London St Pancras and Amsterdam Centraal, Eurostar will run an initial two trains per day. However, there will ...
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NewsSingapore – Malaysia metro joint venture
ASIA: Malaysia’s Prasarana and Singapore’s SMRT have accepted a Letter of Offer jointly issued by Malaysia’s Prime Minister’s Department and Singapore’s Land Transport Authority for the two companies to form a joint venture to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Johor Bahru – Singapore Rapid Transit System Link cross-border ...
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NewsONCF orders 30 Alstom electric locomotives
MOROCCO: Alstom is to supply 30 electric locomotives to ONCF for €130m. Announcing the contract on February 8, the national railway said this was the first order to be placed under a planned wider rolling stock acquisition programme which would include locomotives, multiple-units and wagons. The 3 kV DC Prima ...
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NewsUncertainty derails Aurizon’s Galilee plans
AUSTRALIA: Prospects for the construction of rail links to serve controversial mining developments in Queensland’s Galilee Basin coal reserves have been thrown into doubt after heavy haul operator Aurizon announced on February 9 that it had decided to withdraw its application for funding from the federal government’s Northern Australia Infrastructure ...
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NewsRailway supply industry news round-up
Ontario Northland has obtained locomotive engine line boring equipment, which it says makes it the only railway in Canada offering in-house line boring capabilities to external customers. ‘Our line boring machine is a portable computerised unit that is capable of driving multiple different cutting heads, we can bore 6 to ...
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NewsHigh speed operator accepts takeover bid
ITALY: Open access high speed train operator Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori SpA announced on February 7 that its shareholders had decided to accept a €1·98bn takeover bid from international fund manager Global Infrastructure Partners III. The deal was ratified by a board meeting the following day, which also confirmed that NTV ...
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NewsDen Haag – Rotterdam upgrade to support a train every 5 min
NETHERLANDS: A €300m infrastructure investment plan which is designed to facilitate the operation of a train every 5 min between Den Haag and Rotterdam from the 2025 timetable change was announced by the Ministry of Infrastructure on February 5. The plan includes quadrupling the section of the route between Rijswijk ...
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NewsEurostar aims to tread more lightly with new environmental targets
EUROPE: Eurostar marked the 10th anniversary of its Tread Lightly environmental programme with the unveiling on February 6 of an ‘ambitious’ 10 point plan to reduce its environmental impact. CEO Nicolas Petrovic said the high speed train operator had already achieved a 32% reduction in carbon emissions through Tread Lightly, ...
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News'Dynamic and aspirational' year brings record sales at Knorr-Bremse
GERMANY: Knorr-Bremse’s Rail Vehicle Systems and Commercial Vehicle Systems divisions contributed equally to record group sales in 2017, the company announced on February 7. ‘For us, the past financial year was particularly dynamic and aspirational, so we are all the more delighted at our strong growth’, said executive board Chairman ...
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NewsRoma tram extension receives funding
ITALY: Roma Municipality has allocated €5m towards a tram extension. It will now ask the Ministry of Infrastructure & Transport for more funds towards the estimated €20m project cost. The 1·5 km extension of lines 5 and 14 from Piazza Vittorio Emanuele to Largo Corrado Ricci would run along ...
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NewsUK railway news round-up
Network Rail announced on February 6 that CEO Mark Carne had informed the board of his intention to retire from the company later this year. The timing would ensure that a new CEO can be established in the role before the start of the next five year regulatory control period ...
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NewsKnorr-Bremse to address industry challenges at ‘key’ InnoTrans 2018 trade fair
INNOTRANS: Knorr-Bremse sees InnoTrans 2018 and German motor vehicle show IAA as its ‘key’ trade fairs this year, the rolling stock and commercial vehicle braking and subsystem supplier said when announcing its preliminary results for 2017 on February 7. The company will be using the two trade fairs to showcase ...