All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 670
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NewsCAF metro trains enter service in Bucureşti
ROMANIA: The first CAF trainset entered service on Bucureşti metro Line M2 this month. By the end of the year the total fleet of 16 is expected to be in operation on the 18·6 km route. Operator Metrorex ordered 16 six-car trainsets from CAF in November 2011 for €97m. ...
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NewsDirect award as Berlin S-Bahn tender delayed
GERMANY: The Länder of Berlin and Brandenburg have announced their intention to directly award DB subsidiary S-Bahn Berlin GmbH an interim contract for the operation of the capital's ‘Ring’ group of S-Bahn services. The direct award contract would run for 69 months from December 17 2017, giving the transport ...
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NewsAtkins to design Qatar Gold Line
QATAR: Atkins has been selected as lead designer for the Doha metro Gold Line project. The east-west line from Airport City North to Al Rayyan South is scheduled to open by 2019 under Phase 1 of Qatar’s four-line metro plan. The design contract announced on July 30 is worth £80m ...
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NewsMálaga light rail opens
SPAIN: The two-line Málaga light rail network opened on July 30. The east-west 6·7 km Line 1 runs at-grade from Andalucía Tech to Universidad, after which it goes into a tunnel. The eastern terminus is El Perchel, where interchange is provided with the underground Line 2, which runs 4·6 ...
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NewsVp buys Balfour Beatty trackside plant business
UK: Balfour Beatty Rail completed the £5·5m sale of its UK trackside plant and equipment business to engineering and equipment rental specialist Vp plc on July 28. The TP&E business has approximately 60 staff and operates locations in the southeast. Following the sale it is to be integrated into Torrent ...
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NewsAxtone acquires HSW-ZS
POLAND: Axtone has acquired 100% of the shares of HSW Zakład Sprężynownia, which produces hot rolled coil springs for rail vehicles and other applications. Around 60% of its production is for export, with the company holding certifications in Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the USA. Announcing the ...
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NewsSiemens focuses on efficiency and integration at InnoTrans
SIEMENS: ‘Efficient and integrated mobility’ is the slogan for Siemens’ presence at InnoTrans 2014, where it will be highlighting global trends including digitisation, automation and smarter electrification technology. Europeans will have their first chance to see a full-size mock-up of the Inspiro driverless metro trains ordered for use in Kuala ...
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NewsGBW Railcar Services established
USA: The Greenbrier Companies and Watco announced the formal establishment of their equally-owned GBW Railcar Services wagon repair joint venture on July 21. The companies said GBW has ‘the largest independent railcar repair shop network in North America’, with a total of 38 repair, refurbishment and maintenance workshops. ‘GBW will ...
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NewsMilitary workshops to build 1 050 wagons
ARGENTINA: Military equipment manufacturer Fabricaciones Militares is to build 1 050 wagons for state-owned freight operator Trenes Argentinos Cargas y Logística SA, under a contract worth 972m pesos that was signed on July 28 in the presence of Defence Minister Agustín Rossi and Minister of the Interior & Transport Florencio ...
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NewsWashington metro paperless ticket contract
USA: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has awarded Cubic Transportation Systems an $8m contract to convert more than 500 vending machines selling magnetic stripe ‘farecard’ tickets to sell and load value onto SmarTrip contactless smart cards. This forms part of WMATA’s plan to eliminate paper ticketing by early 2016. ...
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NewsAlstom-TMH freight loco certified for operation
RUSSIA: Alstom and Transmashholding have obtained certification for the operation of their jointly-developed 2ES5 twin-section 25 kV AC freight locomotives, ahead of the planned entry into revenue service on the Baikal-Amur Magistral route later this year. In June 2011 Russian Railways ordered 200 2ES5 locomotives for delivery by 2020. ...
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NewsSNCF orders more Francilien EMUs
FRANCE: SNCF has exercised an option for 22 additional eight-car Francilien electric multiple-units for use on Transilien suburban routes H and K around Paris, Bombardier Transportation announced on July 29. The firm order has been placed under a 2006 agreement for up to 372 units, and takes the total ...
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NewsCubic wins London ticketing system maintenance contract
UK: Cubic Transportation Systems has beat rival bids by LG CNS and Scheidt & Bachmann to win Transport for London’s ‘Electra’ contract to maintain its ticketing and fare collection equipment. This includes 1 900 ticket gates at London Underground and London Overground stations, 1 800 stand-alone validators including those ...
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NewsTransportation not affected by Bombardier Inc reorganisation
BOMBARDIER: A corporate reorganisation of Bombardier Inc which is scheduled for completion by January 1 2015 will not directly affect the Transportation business segment, where implementation of the ‘OneBT’ cost reduction and standardisation strategy continues as planned. Following the reorganisation the group will have four business segments, all reporting ...
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NewsDetroit streetcar breaks ground
USA: Construction of the M-1 light rail project in Detroit officially started on July 28. The first stage of construction, due to last 120 days, includes utility relocation and drain installation along Woodward Avenue. Total construction is to last 27 months. Also known as the Woodward Avenue Streetcar, the ...
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NewsWork starts to bridge Thailand – Cambodia missing link
SOUTHEAST ASIA: A ground-breaking ceremony at Poipet in Cambodia on July 25 marked the start of work to reinstate the cross-border railway to Thailand. The ceremony was attended by Cambodia’s Deputy Minister for Public Works & Transport Guang Sun and Thailand’s Permanent Secretary for Transport Soithip Traisuth. The attendees viewed ...
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NewsLima metro opens Line 1 extension
PERU: The third phase of Lima metro Line 1 opened at 06.00 on July 25. The 12·4 km extension runs north from Grau to Bayóvar on an elevated alignment. This adds 10 stations to Line 1, which is expected to increase its ridership to 250 000 passengers/day. Services run every ...
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NewsSilver Line opens in Washington
USA: The Silver Line of the Washington metro was inaugurated on July 26. The 18·8 km first phase of the line, which will eventually serve Dulles International Airport, branches off from the Orange Line between East Falls Church and West Falls Church and runs to Wiehle Avenue in Reston with ...
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NewsNippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp to form rail subsidiary
JAPAN: Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp has announced plans to restructure three subsidiary companies with effect from April 1 2015. This would see the rail engineering activities of its NSST subsidiary merged with the railway maintenance equipment business of NSKI to form a new dedicated railway sector company, ...
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NewsONCF awards GSM-R contract
MOROCCO: A consortium of Thales, Huawei and Imet has been awarded the first GSM-R deployment contract under national railway ONCF’s nine-year roll-out programme. The €30m contract announced on July 25 covers 712 km of the network, comprising four conventional routes where existing radio systems will be replaced with GSM-R as ...