All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 465
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NewsSNCF buys 45% stake in BLS Cargo
SWITZERLAND: BLS has agreed to sell a 45% stake in its freight subsidiary BLS Cargo to SNCF Logistics, the French national railway’s freight business. The deal announced on February 16 is subject to regulatory approval. BLS would remain the majority shareholder with a 52% stake, and Ambrogio Group would retain ...
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NewsImproving Talgo accessibility
SPAIN: Renfe has begun a €5·7m project adapt 15 Series VI Talgo coaches to improve access for passengers with reduced mobility. The seating layout of the vehicles will be modified to provide space for wheelchairs to manoeuvre. Each of the coaches will have two wheelchair spaces with securing points, as ...
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NewsKano light rail contract signed
NIGERIA: Kano state’s Ministry of Works, Housing & Transport has signed the commercial contract for the construction of a four-line light rail system in the city of Kano, China Railway Construction Corp announced on February 11. The US$1·85bn contract was signed by the state government and a consortium of ...
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NewsBluetooth-enabled ticket gates demonstrated
UK: Railway Gazette attended a demonstration of Bluetooth Low Energy fare validation technology at Thales UK’s Crawley offices on February 9. Organised by rail standards body RSSB, this showed how Bluetooth could be used to improve the throughput of passengers through a ticket gateline at busy stations.Among the applications being ...
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NewsLahore Orange Line receives more funding
PAKISTAN: Industrial & Commercial Bank of China has signed an agreement to provide US$20m in short-term financing for the Orange Line metro project currently under construction in Lahore. Work on the Orange Line began in October 2015. In December 2015 China Exim Bank signed a soft loan agreement for ...
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NewsKnorr-Bremse to supply brakes for Alstom’s Indian locomotives
INDIA: Alstom has awarded Knorr-Bremse a contract to supply the complete braking systems for the 800 Prima twin-section WAG12 electric locomotives which it is to deliver to Indian Railways in 2018-28. Knorr-Bremse is to supply the brake control units, air treatment systems and bogie equipment. These will be based on ...
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NewsLille pursues airport tram link
FRANCE: The construction of a 10 km light rail line between Lille and Lesquin Airport via Ronchin is expected to go ahead during the period of the city’s next public transport operating concession, according to the President of the Métropole Européenne de Lille, Damien Castelain. Under development ...
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NewsProduction of Devon and Cornwall trainsets begins in Italy
UK: Hitachi announced a 'milestone' in the production of electro-diesel inter-city trainsets for Great Western Railway services from London to Devon and Cornwall on February 15, with the delivery of the first AT300 bodyshell to its plant at Pistoia in Italy. Hitachi is building a total of 93 trainsets for ...
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NewsInnoWaggon increases round wood capacity
SWEDEN: Innofreight has handed over the first of 144 wagons which are being supplied under the Austrian company’s largest order to date. These are to be used from July on a 10-year timber haulage contract awarded to Hector Rail by forest products company SCA Skog, which will be the first ...
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NewsSeibu Railway unveils Series 40000 EMUs with rotating seats
JAPAN: The first of eight Series 40000 EMUs being built for Seibu Railway’s 1 067 mm gauge Tokyo suburban routes was unveiled on February 13. The 10-car sets are scheduled to enter revenue service from March 25. An evolution of the railway’s earlier Series 30000 design, the aluminium-bodied trainsets are ...
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NewsSerbian infrastructure contractor privatised
SERBIA: The government has sold a 90·6% stake in rail infrastructure construction and maintenance company ZGOP to Kazakh transport infrastructure contractor Zhol Zhondeushi for €3·6m. The contract was signed on February 8. ZGOP is based in Novi Sad and has 290 employees. Austrian, Russian, Chinese, French and Turkish companies ...
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NewsAlgarve electrification timetable
PORTUGAL: Infraestruturas de Portugal has announced the timetable for electrifying at 25 kV 50 Hz the 46 km Tunes – Lagos and 56 km Faro – Vila Real de Santo António routes in the Algarve as part of its 2020 investment programme. Following design and environmental impact studies, a contract ...
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NewsTramino XL presented in Leipzig
GERMANY: The first Solaris Tramino XL was presented to the public in Leipzig on February 11, and is on display until February 19 at the Leipziger Messe. In February 2015 Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe selected Solaris to supply five trams for €7·7m, with options for up to 36 more. LVB exercised ...
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NewsBerner Oberland-Bahn EMU enters service
SWITZERLAND: The first of six Stadler ABDeh 8/8 electric multiple-units ordered by Berner Oberland-Bahn entered revenue service on the metre-gauge route between Interlaken Ost, Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald on February 13. This followed a ceremony on February 10 during which a depot at Zweilütschinen was formally opened and the first of ...
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NewsTrams delivered to Nizhny Tagil
RUSSIA: Uraltransmash has delivered 30 trams to Nizhny Tagil. Three are already in regular service, with the remaining 27 expected to enter service by the end of February. The partly low-floor Type 71-407 trams are being purchased under a seven-year leasing deal with Sberbank Leasing. The total cost is ...
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NewsTrenitalia completes c2c acquisition
UK: Italian national railway FS Group has completed the first step in its plan to establish a major presence in the UK rail market, with the closing of Trenitalia UK’s acquisition of Essex Thameside franchisee c2c from National Express Group. The transaction was completed on February 10, after the Department ...
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NewsPesa to supply more trams to Łódź
POLAND: Pesa submitted the best offer to supply 12 trams to Łódź, city transport operator MPK Łódź announced on February 10. The Bydgoszcz-based supplier is to supply five-section trams from its Swing family for 99·6m złoty, with deliveries due to be completed before the end of September 2018. ...
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NewsWorld rail freight news round-up
The VIIA Britanica 'rail motorway' service connecting Calais with Le Boulou near the Spanish border resumed operating on February 7. It had been suspended on July 10 2016 after migrants had attempted to gain access to lorry trailers on the approaches to Calais. The China-Europe Land-Sea Fast Intermodal ...
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NewsA pivotal year for Norfolk Southern
USA: ‘2016 was a pivotal year as Norfolk Southern began implementing its new strategic plan’, said Chairman, President & CEO James A Squires when presenting the railway’s annual results on January 25. ‘We delivered $250m of productivity savings and recorded our best ever operating ratio, notwithstanding challenging business conditions.’ Net ...
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NewsBiomass paint tested on Polish locomotives
POLAND: Rolling stock manufacturer Newag is using two Type 15D diesel locomotives to test paint supplied by Lankwitzer Lackfabrik which incorporates Covestro’s Desmodur Eco N 7300 coating hardener made from renewable raw materials. ‘The coating formulated with this product performs just as well as a conventional coatings, but uses primarily ...