All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 644
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NewsBorcad supplying Genio seats
CZECH REPUBLIC: Unveiled earlier this year, Borcad’s Genio seat is intended for both regional and inter-city applications. Derived from the manufacturer’s previous Regio+ model, Genio is being fitted to the Siemens Desiro Cityjet EMUs for ÖBB and the Škoda-built NIM Express trainsets for DB Regio, which use both the first ...
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NewsSaint-Etienne selects CAF trams
FRANCE: Saint-Etienne has selected CAF to supply 16 Urbos trams for its metre gauge network. The contract, announced on December 10, is worth €42m, with the first vehicles scheduled to be delivered in early 2016. In contrast to the current fleet, the 100% low-floor five-section trams would be bidirectional. ...
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NewsAntwerpen’s Liefkenshoek tunnel opens
BELGIUM: The 16·2 km Liefkenshoek rail link between the left and right banks of the River Schelde in the north of Antwerpen was officially opened on December 9, ahead of the start of commercial freight services on December 14. The electrified rail link including a 6 km twin-bore tunnel under ...
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NewsŚląskie voivodship announces second direct award
POLAND: Śląskie voivodship has announced that it intends to directly award national regional passenger train operator Przewozy Regionalne a contract to continue to operate local services which connect with other regions. The contract is to run for three years from the December 2016 timetable change, and cover the following routes: ...
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NewsFrom China to Spain by rail
INTERNATIONAL: The first direct rail freight service to operate between China and Spain arrived at ADIF’s Madrid Abroñigal intermodal terminal on December 9, welcomed by Spanish Development Minister Ana Pastor. Carrying a total of 30 containers, the train had left Yiwu in China on November 18, covering 13 000 km ...
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NewsDB announces €28bn five-year infrastructure spending plan
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn announced a €28bn five-year spending plan for 2015-19 on December 8. Dr Volker Kefer, Managing Director responsible for the Infrastructure & Services division, said it formed the biggest modernisation programme in the history of the network. The announcement follows federal government approval of the LuFV II agreement, ...
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NewsVilnius - Minsk electric train order
LITHUANIA: Czech rolling stock manufacturer Škoda Vagonka has won a KC750m contract to supply three three-car Class 575 double-deck electric multiple-units to Lithuanian national operator LG for use on cross-border services between Vilnius and Minsk in Belarus. LG and its Belarus counterpart BC plan to reduce the journey time ...
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NewsStandard gauge line reaches Hekou
CHINA: Test running on the 142 km standard gauge line between Mengzi and Hekou in southern Yunnan province began at the start of December. When commercial passenger services start in early 2015, a journey between the provincial capital Kunming and the Vietnamese border should take around 6 h 30 min. ...
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NewsNS plans Stadler Flirt order
NETHERLANDS: National passenger operator NS has revealed plans to order ‘around 60’ Stadler Flirt electric multiple-units to meet its short term capacity requirements. NS announced the planned order on December 5, when it confirmed that following the regulatory standstill period it had signed a firm contract worth more than €500m ...
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NewsMoscow Metro extends Line 1
RUSSIA: A 1·4 km southern extension of Moscow metro’s Line 1 opened on December 8, taking the line from Yugo-Zapadnaya to Troparyevo. Troparyevo is the network’s 196th station. It lies at a depth of 12 m and has an island platform. The station was designed by Inzhproekt. The main ...
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NewsBucureşti metro train order delayed
ROMANIA: Bucureşti metro operator Metrorex announced on December 3 that it has postponed selecting a bidder to supply 51 metro trainsets, owing to the ‘complexity of the offers’. The winner was due to be announced on December 1, but will now be announced by March 10. On September 22, ...
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NewsToilet upgrading contract
UK: TRB Lightweight Structures has been awarded a contract to supply PRM-TSI compliant Universal Access Toilet Modules for the refurbishment and upgrading of the sleeping cars used on First Great Western’s London – Penzance Night Riviera. Combining innovative design with lightweight composite engineering, TRB’s customisable toilet module has been designed ...
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NewsSeat innovation on test
UK: The H series seating for Hitachi Rail Europe's AT200 regional EMU family has been developed by the Quantum Seating joint venture of Automotive Trim Developments and GRM Consulting. The seats have been derived from Quantum's M100 design, which harnesses automotive technology including lightweight aluminium construction to keep the weight ...
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NewsSwiss border link inaugurated
SWITZERLAND: The first section of the FMV cross-border rail link will open for revenue service on December 15, following a formal dedication on November 27 attended by representatives from canton Ticino, the federal government, SBB and TILO, the cross-border transport operator for Ticino and Lombardia. Partially funded by the federal ...
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NewsAlstom increases stake in Kazakh joint venture
KAZAKHSTAN: Alstom has acquired a further 25% stake in the EKZ locomotive production joint venture from national railway KTZ. The restructuring now leaves Alstom as the lead shareholder in EKZ, which is based in Astana where it also has a loco production factory. KTZ and Russian supplier Transmash Holding ...
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NewsKorail EMU order announced
SOUTH KOREA: National railway operator Korail has ordered a batch of 22 regional EMUs from Hyundai Rotem at a cost of 154·4bn won, the company announced on December 1. Due for delivery from April 2016 onwards, the trains are intended to operate on two lines which are currently under construction. ...
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NewsTransnet seals MoU with CSR Zhuzhou
SOUTH AFRICA: Parastatal transport holding group Transnet announced on December 4 that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive, paving the way for the Chinese manufacturer to set up facilities to build and maintain electric locomotives in South Africa, and develop other railway equipment for ...
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NewsChinese-backed standard gauge project edges forward
THAILAND: The National Legislative Assembly voted on December 4 by a majority of 187 in favour of approving a memorandum of understanding between the Thai and Chinese governments over the construction of a north-south standard gauge main line corridor. According to the 2015-22 Thai infrastructure development plan, the corridor would ...
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NewsIran – Turkmenistan – Kazakhstan rail link inaugurated
ASIA: The final link in the north-south railway corridor connecting Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was officially inaugurated on December 3, in a ceremony attended by Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and his counterparts Hassan Rohani of Iran and Nursultan Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan. The celebrations at Incheh Borun on the border between ...
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NewsFRA waives Buy America rules on high speed train prototypes
USA: The Federal Railroad Administration has approved a waiver on Buy America procurement rules covering the supply of up to four high speed trainsets for the US market. The letter dated November 24 is a response to requests from both Amtrak and the California High Speed Rail Authority, who are ...