All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 600
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NewsSeattle selects light rail extension option
USA: Seattle’s Sound Transit announced on July 23 that it had identified a preferred option to extend the light rail line to Federal Way. The southern extension would run from the future Angle Lake stop, along the west side of the I-5 motorway to the Federal Way Transit Center. ...
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NewsIstanbul calls metro car tender
TURKEY: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has called tenders for 75 four-car trainsets to operate on the future Line M7 of the Istanbul metro. The first tranche of deliveries would take place up to 42 months after the contract signing. Two trainsets are to be delivered 22 months after signing, with ...
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NewsHendy heads to NR
Sir Peter Hendy, who had served as Commissioner of Transport for London since February 2006, took over as Chairman of UK infrastructure manager Network Rail on July 17, replacing Prof Richard Parry-Jones. Former Eurostar Chairman Richard Brown has been appointed as Special Director, and will report directly to Secretary of ...
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NewsEastern DFC railway systems contract awarded
INDIA: Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp of India Ltd has awarded the railway systems contract for the 343 km Bhaupur (Kanpur) – Khurja section of the 1 840 km Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor to the AIL-ATSA joint venture of Alstom companies. This design-and-build lump sum contract announced on July 23 ...
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NewsOsaka Monorail extension planned
JAPAN: Plans to extend the 28 km Osaka Monorail were announced by Governor of Osaka Prefecture Ichiro Matsui on July 22. The 9 km extension from the southern terminus at Kadoma-shi would add four stations. Interchange would be provided at Kadoma-minami with the Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi metro line, at Konoikeshinden ...
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NewsEuropean Commission approves Fehmarn Belt financing model
EUROPE: Denmark’s proposed model for public financing of the planning, construction and operation of the Fehmarn Belt rail and road tunnel to Germany is compliant with EU state aid rules, the European Commission announced on July 23. The Commission decided that it did not need to ascertain whether public financing ...
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NewsIndia invests to boost coal haulage
INDIA: The Ministry of Coal plans to invest in 60 new railway lines and buy 200 rakes of wagons, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup announced in New Delhi on July 15. State-owned Coal India Ltd is expected to increase annual production from 494 million tonnes to 1 billion tonnes by ...
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NewsDB and SNCF extend Alleo cross-border co-operation
EUROPE: The ceremonial launch of Deutsche Bahn Class 407 trainsets on the Frankfurt to Paris Est route on July 23 was followed by the signing of an agreement to extend DB and SNCF’s Alleo cross-border operating partnership for a further five years to 2020. Around 12 million passengers have travelled ...
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NewsBeacon Rail Leasing buys 27 MRCE locomotives
EUROPE: Beacon Rail Leasing has bought 17 EMD Class 66 and 10 Siemens Eurorunner ER20 diesel locomotives from Mitsui Rail Capital Europe. The locomotives are between eight and 12 years old, and are used by various freight operators in continental European under existing lease agreements which are to remain ...
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NewsGatwick Express Class 387/2 EMU on test
UK: Static testing of the first of the Class 387/2 Electrostar electric multiple-unit cars ordered for Gatwick Express services has begun at Bombardier Transportation’s Derby plant. The 27 four-car Class 387/2 EMUs are scheduled to enter service between London Victoria station and Gatwick airport in 2016, replacing 1980s-built Class 442 ...
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NewsBNSF Logistics buys wind turbine transport specialist
USA: BNSF Logistics has acquired Transportation Technology Services, a Texas-based company which provides engineering and logistics services for the transport of over-sized loads by rail with a particular focus on wind turbine components. TTS manages a fleet of almost 2 000 wagons for various customers, with 1 200 having ...
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NewsMoscow metro tunnel breakthrough
RUSSIA: On July 21 Robbins tunnel boring machine Elena completed the first bore of the 1·7 km tunnel between Petrovskiy Park and Nizhnaya Maslovka stations on the future Line 13 of the Moscow metro. Boring of the second bore is due to start in September. Nizhnaya Maslovka station will ...
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NewsHigh speed line concessionaire TP Ferro in administration
EUROPE: TP Ferro, the company which holds the concession to build, operate and finance the high speed line between Perpignan in France and Figueres in Spain, announced on July 17 that it was applying to be placed into administration on a voluntary basis. The application was made to the commercial ...
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NewsHong Kong MTR places its largest ever train order
CHINA: Hong Kong MTR Corp has awarded CSR Qingdao Sifang a HK$6bn contract to supply 93 eight-car metro trainsets. These are intended to replace all the first-generation trains in operation on the Kwun Tong, Tsuen Wan, Island and Tseung Kwan O lines. Announcing the contract order on July 22, ...
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NewsTren del Valle launches with domestic DMUs
ARGENTINA: On July 21 President Cristina Fernández inaugurated by video link the Tren del Valle, a new service connecting the city of Neuquén with Cipolletti in Río Negro province. The first passenger services on this route for 22 years are operated with two DMUs purchased from Materfer for 20m pesos. ...
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NewsRussian tram funding approved
RUSSIA: The federal government has approved the allocation of a total of 384m roubles to eight regions for the purchase of trams and trolleybuses. The funds come from the federal budget and are being disbursed as part of a programme to increase industrial competitiveness. No details have been ...
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NewsWorld rail market July 2015
Canada: IVU Traffic Technologies is to supply VIA Rail with crew duty scheduling software, customised to reflect the way very long-distance trains are staffed with several crew teams, and to support seniority bidding whereby duty requests made by longer-serving staff have priority. India: Mumbai Metro Rail Corp has awarded ...
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NewsDenver selects light rail extension contractor
USA: Denver Regional Transportation District has selected a consortium led by Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Inc as preferred bidder to design and build an extension of the Southeast light rail line. The consortium also includes Parsons Brinckerhoff, Capitol Management, Transit Safety & Security Solutions, Systems Consulting and Communication Infrastructure Group. Other ...
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NewsEurostar e300 trainset refurbishment completed
EUROPE: The first of Eurostar’s ‘remodelled and redesigned’ trainsets is expected to return passenger service ‘in the coming weeks’, the cross-Channel high speed train operator announced on July 21. The refurbishment of the Class 373 trains dating from the launch of Eurostar services in 1994 is being undertaken at ...
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NewsUrban rail news in brief - July 2015
Keolis and privately-owned local group Nesma have signed a memorandum to form a strategic alliance to bid for public transport projects in Saudi Arabia. Delhi Metro Rail Corp and Rail Tel Corp of India have signed a memorandum of understanding for the roll-out of wi-fi on stations and potentially ...