All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 412
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NewsStadler breaks ground on Utah factory
USA: A groundbreaking ceremony took place on October 13 for Stadler’s rolling stock factory in Salt Lake City. The $50m final assembly plant is being built near Salt Lake City airport and has a link to the Denver – San Francisco line. The modular factory is designed to accommodate ...
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NewsÖBB coach tender back on track
AUSTRIA: Tendering for a fleet of coaches for daytime and overnight inter-city services for national operator ÖBB is to resume following withdrawal of an objection by Siemens. The company had complained in August about changes to the specification for a framework contract that included an initial tranche of 200 km/h ...
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NewsTampere tram order finalised
FINLAND: Škoda Transportation subsidiary Transtech announced details of its tram order for Tampere on October 16. The firm order for 19 ForCity Smart Artic trams is worth €104m, and the framework contract includes options for up to 46 more vehicles, which would be delivered in three tranches. ...
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NewsPolish service approved as LEO Express aims to develop a central European network
EUROPE: Czech open access operator LEO Express expects to announce the launch date for its planned Praha – Ostrava – Katowice – Kraków open access service in the near future, after Polish regulator UTK completed the certification process and granted train paths on October 13. Daily services would leave ...
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NewsŠkoda to supply trams to Sofia
BULGARIA: Škoda Transportation has won a contract to supply 13 trams to Sofia, the manufacturer announced on October 13. Škoda’s first tram order from Bulgaria is worth KC610m, which includes spare parts and staff training. The operator is financing the purchase through EU funds. Škoda will supply its ...
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NewsKaliningrad – Lithuania border station commissioned
RUSSIA: Border facilities for passengers and freight crossing between Kaliningrad oblast and Kybartai in Lithuania were commissioned at Chernyshevskoye in the east of the Russian exclave on October 2. Border formalities were previously undertaken 10 km west in Nesterov. Construction of the 1·9bn rouble facility started in 2005, and the ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
Canadian Pacific has reached an exclusive agreement to use Bluegrass Farms' intermodal terminal in Jeffersonville, Ohio to serve the Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton markets. The farm consortium will continue to own the facility, and operate it on behalf of the railway company. CP has also come to an agreement with ...
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NewsFatigue crack detection system developed
UK: A prototype system for identifying fatigue cracks at switches and crossings has been developed by TWI Ltd with funding from RSSB and Network Rail. Based on technology used for the long-range testing of pipelines, it uses a low frequency ultrasonic method which is less affected by the cast ...
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NewsTimber wagons grow capacity and chop costs
RUSSIA: United Wagon Co subsidiary TikhvinSpetsMash is supplying forest products company Vologodskie Lesopromyshlenniki with a batch of Type 13-6852-02 high-capacity timber wagons. The design was developed by the All-Union Research & Development Centre for Transportation Technology. The wagons have a 25 tonne axleload, which along with making the maximum use ...
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NewsFocus on renewals in £47·9bn Network Rail funding plan for 2019-24
UK: The Statement of Funds Available for Network Rail’s infrastructure operations, maintenance and renewals in England and Wales during Control Period 6 from April 1 2019 to March 31 2024 was announced by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling on October 12. Scotland is covered under a separate process. The SoFA would ...
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NewsSudhir Rao
INDIA: Sudhir Rao has been appointed Managing Director of Bombardier Transportation in India. A graduate from the University of Michigan, he has worked for 34 years in the automotive sector, most recently as Chairman & Managing Director of Skoda Auto India.
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NewsRailway supply industry news round-up
GE Transportation announced on October 7 that Chief Executive Officer Jamie Miller is to become GE's Chief Financial Officer from November 1. Global Services leader Pascal Schweitzer will be acting CEO of GE Transportation until Miller’s successor is named. On October 9 leasing company Angel Trains announced that £100m of ...
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NewsNorwegian passenger service tendering underway
NORWAY: Invitations to tender for the Lot 1 Sør passenger train operating contract were issued to prequalified bidders by Jernbanedirektoratet on October 12, when the national railway agency also announced plans for further competitive tendering. The Lot 1 Sør contract covers inter-city services on the Sørlandet line to Stavanger, Jær ...
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NewsRail Baltica agreement ratified by all three parliaments
EUROPE: The intergovernmental agreement for the development of the Rail Baltica 1 435 mm gauge route has now been ratified by all three of the Baltic States, after the Lithuanian parliament voted 96 in favour and 0 against with one abstention on October 10. The agreement sets out principles including ...
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NewsVoters back second line to Slovenian port
SLOVENIA: A government proposal to build a second track on a new alignment to increase speeds and capacity on the route from the port of Koper to the main line at Divača has been backed by voters in a referendum. The existing single-track line is 44·3 km long, but the ...
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NewsUK railway news round-up
The Department for Transport has published guidance to local authorities on mitigating security vulnerabilities outside railway, bus and coach stations. Advice on the prevention of terrorist activities in public environments includes staff vigilance, mitigation, rubbish management, bicycle storage, street environments, vendors and vending machines, parking control, CCTV, construction works and ...
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NewsFirst Flexity Wien tram nearing completion
AUSTRIA: The first of 119 Flexity trams that Bombardier Transportation is building for to Wiener Linien is nearing completion at the manufacturer’s plant in the capital. The Wien transport operator awarded Bombardier a framework contract in 2015 covering up to 156 trams. The €431m base order for 119 trams ...
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NewsProduction of next-generation Acela Express fleet underway
USA: Production of the bodyshells and principal components for the Avelia Liberty high speed trainsets ordered for Amtrak’s premium Acela Express service has begun at Alstom’s Hornell factory in New York state, the manufacturer has confirmed. The fleet is expected to enter service in 2021-22. Alstom displayed a ...
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Production starts at Indian electric locomotive factory
INDIA: Alstom officially commenced production at its newly-built electric locomotive factory at Madhepura in Bihar state on October 11. The plant has been developed on a 100 ha greenfield site by a joint venture of Alstom (74%) and Indian Railways (26%) under a contract for Alstom to supply 800 Prima ...
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NewsFaiveley Transport awarded Paris EMU subsystem contracts
FRANCE: Faiveley Transport has been awarded contracts totalling more than US$100m to supply subsystems for 71 X'Trapolis Cityduplex double-deck electric multiple-units which SNCF has ordered from a consortium of Alstom and Bombardier Transportation for use on Paris suburban lines D and E. Wabtec company Faiveley Transport is to ...