All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 618
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NewsFrecciarossa 1000 to carry passengers in June
ITALY: Trenitalia is to put its first Frecciarossa 1000 high speed trains into revenue service with the start of the summer timetable on June 14, the national operator announced on April 25. The announcement was made during a non-stop run between Milano and Roma conveying Italian President Sergio Mattarella. He ...
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NewsWorld rail market April 2015
Australia: Jacobs Engineering Group is to provide environmental impact assessment services for the Sydney Rapid Transit extension of the North West Rail Link under Sydney Harbour (RG 7.14 p14). Germany: Init is to modernise ticketing systems on Bremen trams and buses by the end of 2017. The stored-value BOB ...
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NewsWorld rail infrastructure market April 2015
Austria: EIB is providing track contractor Swietelsky with a €50m loan to support the development of faster and cheaper maintenance methods. The project is being undertaken at Swietelsky’s R&D centre in Fischamend and includes the construction of two prototype maintenance vehicles. Egypt: National Authority for Tunnels has awarded Alstom, ...
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NewsElectric Traction - Motive Power and Energy Supply
by Andreas Steimel BOOK REVIEW: This 400-page book is a compilation of lectures held at Ruhr-Universität Bochum over the past 20 years, and is intended for readers with a solid knowledge of electric motors and electronics. After a short historical review of electric traction and mechanical drives, the ...
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NewsVossloh secures medium-term financing
VOSSLOH: On April 24 Vossloh Group announced that it had secured its medium-term financing with the successful closing of a syndicated loan of over €500m. The facility has been provided by a banking syndicate with 11 participants. The mandated lead arrangers and book runner are Bayerische Landesbank, Commerzbank, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg ...
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NewsPlatform edge Anywhere Door for multiple train types on test
JAPAN: Platform edge doors designed to accommodate multiple types of rolling stock with varying numbers of doors and locations on the car side are being tested by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Transportation Equipment Engineering & Service Co. The design is branded Dokodemo Door (‘Anywhere Door’), after a magical door which ...
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NewsChina backs Jakarta – Bandung high speed proposal
INDONESIA: On the fringes of the Asian-African Summit on April 22, President Joko Widodo and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the two countries to co-operate on the development of a high speed line between Jakarta and Bandung. Provisionally costed at US$6·7bn, ...
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NewsTrainline launches Apple Watch app
UK: Ticket retailer Trainline has announced a mobile app for Apple Watch, which it says will provide a ‘convenient and innovative new way for customers to check live train times, platform information, check their train is on route and access mobile ticketing straight from their wrist.’ The Apple Watch ...
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NewsTrenitalia orders more Jazz EMUs
ITALY: National operator Trenitalia has awarded Alstom two contracts totalling €170m for the supply of 25 more Jazz regional electric multiple-units. The orders announced on April 23 are options on a €440m contract signed in November 2012, and will take Trenitalia's Jazz fleet to 95 units. The Jazz design is ...
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NewsNS confirms direct order for 58 Stadler EMUs
NETHERLANDS: National passenger operator NS formally awarded Stadler Rail a €280m firm contract to supply a total of 58 Flirt electric multiple-units on April 22. Deliveries are scheduled by the end of 2016, On December 5 NS had announced plans to order around 60 off-the-shelf Stadler units to meet ...
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NewsCP Carga and EMEF to be privatised
PORTUGAL: The cabinet approved plans to privatise the freight and rolling stock maintenance subsidiaries of national operator CP at a meeting on March 26. The government says that it is planning to sell up to 100% of the share capital of CP Carga and EMEF. In both cases, the aim ...
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NewsRZD taking delivery of 68 locomotives
RUSSIA: Russian Railways is to take delivery of 68 Transmashholding 2TE25KM freight locomotives this year. Two prototypes completed in December and February and are currently undergoing trials at the Shcherbinka test circuit near Moscow. A development of the 2TE116U, the twin-section 2TE25KM has Kolomna 18-9DG engines rated at 2 650 ...
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NewsA Coruña - Vigo upgrade completed
SPAIN: Renfe introduced a new timetable on the A Coruña – Vigo route on April 18, featuring express services operated with Class 121 EMUs which according to the national operator have increased capacity by 40% and cut journey times by up to 58%. Renfe reports that 6 200 tickets ...
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NewsBeer to fund light rail line
CANADA: The province of Ontario has announced plans to raise funds for construction of the planned Hurontario – Main light rail project in the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area. The 23 km route would run southeast from Brampton, to the west of Toronto, to Mississauga and Port Credit on the ...
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NewsAlmaty metro extends west
KAZAKHSTAN: President Nursultan Nazarbayev opened a western extension of the Almaty metro line on April 18. The 2·7 km extension takes the line from Alatau to Moskva with an intermediate station at Sayran. Construction started in 2011. Two further extensions are planed: a 3·1 km section from Moskva ...
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NewsGWTR wins south Bohemia regional contract
CZECH REPUBLIC: The Jihočeský region has selected the GW Train Regio subsidiary of bus company ČSAD Jihotrans for a 15-year contract to operate regional passenger services on three lines totalling 229 km in the Šumava mountains from December 2016. Line 194 České Budějovice – Černý Kříž;Line 197 Číčenice – ...
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NewsERTMS User Group adopts formal specifications tool
EUROPE: The ERTMS Users Group has decided to use the ERTMSFormalSpecs open source tool as part of its process to manage change requests in the ERTMS specifications. Under a contract signed with the tool’s developer ERTMS Solutions on April 13, the ERTMS Users Group will make use of the ...
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NewsKVSZ to develop electric locomotive
UKRAINE: Rolling stock manufacturer Kriukov Car Building Works and national railway UZ are discussing plans to produce electric locomotives from 2017. KVSZ would build a prototype at its own expense, in the hope of winning an initial order to supply UZ with up to 40 units. KVSZ says its proposed ...
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NewsHydrogen-fuelled double-deck tram on test
UAE: The first of a fleet of fuel cell powered double-deck heritage-style open-top trams is now undergoing tests on the initial section of a line which will serve Emaar Properties’ Downtown Dubai development. Emaar says the tramway will operate between 16.00 and midnight on weekdays and from 15.00 to 23.00 ...
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NewsJapanese maglev testing tops 600 km/h
JAPAN: A new speed record for a magnetically levitated vehicle was set on April 21, when Central Japan Railway powered one of its Series L0 superconducting maglev units up to a maximum of 603 km/h on the test guideway in Yamanashi prefecture. According to JR Central, a speed of ...