All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 679
-
NewsHuawei awarded north–south line GSM-R contract
TURKMENISTAN: Huawei has been awarded a contract to supply GSM-R for the 133 km Buzhun – Serhetyaka and 23 km Bereket – Chilmammet sections of the north-south railway which is under construction to link Uzen in Kazakhstan with Bereket and Etrek in Turkmenistan and Gorgan in Iran. Huawei has ...
-
NewsSalvador metro begins trial operation
BRAZIL: President Dilma Rousseff inaugurated the first phase of the Salvador metro on June 11, two days before the city is due to host its first FIFA World Cup match. The 7·3 km section of Line 1 between Lapa and Retiro is running in trial mode until mid-September. Until ...
-
NewsStorm damage is worse than thought, warns DB
GERMANY: Initial inspections have found that damage to the rail network in the Rhein-Ruhr region caused by a major storm on June 9 is worse than had been feared, Deutsche Bahn announced on June 11, and it is not clear when it will be possible for services to return to ...
-
NewsPraha control centre under construction
CZECH REPUBLIC: Infrastructure manager SŽDC has begun work on a control centre at Praha-Balabenka which will house 130 dispatchers controlling train operations across 2140 km of main line in the west of the country. The five-storey building is being built by Metrostav at a cost of KC383m with commissioning ...
-
NewsTalgo trains to replace Sapsan on Nizhny Novgorod route
RUSSIA: The Talgo rolling stock which is currently under construction for Federal Passenger Co will replace Siemens Sapsan trainsets on the Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod route, Russian Railways announced on June 11. The Sapsan trainsets, designated Velaro RUS by the manufacturer, are to be concentrated on the Moscow – ...
-
NewsSydney Rapid Transit to serve cross-Harbour tunnel
AUSTRALIA: New South Wales Premier Mike Baird and Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian announced plans for the Sydney Rapid Transit project on June 11. The scheme would extend the North West Rail Link now under construction through the city centre to Bankstown in the southern suburbs. It is one of ...
-
NewsRail Industry Training & Recruitment in Brief
SNCF and DB have pledged to relaunch their apprentice exchange programme, 50 years after it was first introduced. The programme forms part of the formal training of apprentices at both groups, and also offers a ‘range of socio-cultural opportunities’ aimed at ‘broadening the horizons’ of young railway staff. Built ...
-
NewsUnited Wagon Co to offer transport services
RUSSIA: United Wagon Co has established a subsidiary to offer freight transport services to the coal, metallurgical and chemical sectors using modern wagons produced at its Tikhvin plant. Vostok1520 is intended to complement the UWC group’s Tikhvin manufacturing and Rail1520 leasing activities. It is initially focusing on local routes within ...
-
NewsExtra station to serve Shinagawa redevelopment
JAPAN: East Japan Railway has announced plans to build a 50th station on its busy Yamonote Line circular suburban railway in southern Tokyo. As yet un-named, the station is intended to spur urban development on a 13 ha site currently occupied by stabling sidings for the 1 067 mm gauge ...
-
NewsExpress trams in STIF budget
FRANCE: Paris regional transport authority STIF has authorised an order for the first tranche of rolling stock for the Tram-Express Nord project, previously known as Tangentielle Nord. One of four key items in the budget agreed by the STIF board on June 5, the €88m procurement decision covers 15 Alstom ...
-
NewsInspect the inspection services
SGS: Experts from independent verification and validation company SGS will be on hand at InnoTrans 2014 to discuss the company's wide portfolio of rail services designed to help operators, infrastructure managers and financiers deliver projects and ensure the continued performance of their business. Services include certification of new and upgraded ...
-
NewsSaudi Landbridge supervision prequalification begins
SAUDI ARABIA: The Public Investment Fund’s railway development body Saudi Railway Co has invited applications to prequalify for the construction supervision consultancy contract for the Saudi Landbridge project. Applications are to be submitted by July 22. The Landbridge would involve the construction of around 1 200 km of railway ...
-
NewsMumbai metro opens
INDIA: The first phase of Mumbai metro Line 1 was officially opened on June 8, when Maharastra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan flagged off the first service from Versova. The 11·4 km east-west line runs on an elevated alignment between Ghatkopar and Versova with 12 stations. Interchanges with suburban lines ...
-
NewsNot so fast
CZECH REPUBLIC: Plans to raise the maximum speed on principal lines from 160 km/h to 200 km/h have been put on hold by infrastructure manager SŽDC, which now believes the benefits would not justify the cost of eliminating all level crossings and upgrading signalling systems. The plan was first put ...
-
NewsRelieving bottlenecks around Marseille and Nice
FRANCE: Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier announced last month that studies are to be taken forward for projects to increase capacity around Marseille and Nice. The government hopes that the projects will be approved as being of public utility in 2017. With the emphasis now on upgrading the existing network ...
-
NewsMTR Express to use Hagalund depot
SWEDEN: National station and railway property company Jernhusen announced on June 2 that it had signed a 10-year agreement to provide new open access inter-city operator MTR Express with stabling and maintenance facilities for six Stadler Flirt EMUs which will operate Stockholm – Gøteborg inter-city services from March 2015. The ...
-
NewsDB orders multi-engine locos for Sylt Shuttle service
GERMANY: Deustche Bahn has awarded Bombardier Transportation a contract to supply seven Traxx Multi-Engine diesel-electric locomotives for use on the Sylt Shuttle car-carrying service across the 11 km Hindenburgdamm causeway which connects the North Sea island of Sylt with mainland Schleswig-Holstein. The contract announced on June 6 has been placed ...
-
NewsAAE acquires majority stake in ZSSK Cargo wagon fleet
SLOVAKIA: European wagon leasing company AAE has been selected to acquire a majority stake in the Cargo Wagon fleet management subsidiary of state-owned freight operator ZSSK Cargo for €7m. In July 2013 the government approved a restructuring plan under which ZSSK Cargo is to concentrate on freight operations, with its ...
-
NewsBNDES funds São Paulo Line 6
BRAZIL: On June 4 national development bank BNDES announced that it had agreed to provide R$4∙47bn to the São Paulo state government, 39∙2% of the cost of building metro Line 6 in the city of São Paulo. The state government is providing 13∙9% from its own resources, with the remaining ...
-
NewsHefei and Hangzhou order metro trains
CHINA: Hefei Urban Rail Transit Co has awarded rolling stock supplier Nanjing SR Puzhen Rail Transport Co a 0·9bn yuan contract to deliver trainsets for Phases 1 and 2 of its Line 1 project in 2015-16. Hangzhou Metro Group has awarded NPRT a 1·1bn yuan contract to supply trainsets for ...