All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 747
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NewsReliability focus for Paris suburban network
FRANCE: The government and Ile-de-France transport authority STIF have announced a 10-point strategy to improve the reliability of the rail network serving Paris and its suburbs. A total of €7bn is to be invested by 2017, with €2bn allocated to the RER network alongside the metro projects confirmed on March ...
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NewsISR training centre now open
ISRAEL: Israel Railways opened a US$2·7m training centre at Lod station last month. The new facility is intended to fill a skills gap which has developed in recent years, and offers specially developed training programmes for railway employees including signallers, shunters and refuelling staff. It is equipped with advanced technological ...
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NewsProducts & Technology in Brief
IXYS Corp is supplying hermetic power semiconductor thyristors and fast recovery diode capsules for N700A high speed trainsets. ‘The qualification of more of our products into the Japanese rail system builds on our growing business platform in the Japanese market against strong domestic competition, and continues our penetration of the ...
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NewsFirst Panamá metro trains delivered
PANAMA: Alstom has delivered the first three of 19 three-car Metropolis trainsets for the Panamá City metro. The trains are being built at Alstom’s Santa Perpètua de Mogoda factory in Spain and have recently been undergoing tests on the FGC network in Barcelona. The trains will be used on ...
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NewsHannover light rail vehicle assembly underway
GERMANY: Assembly of the first TW3000 high-floor light rail vehicles ordered by Hannover transport operator Üstra has begun at the HeiterBlick factory in Leipzig. The first vehicles will be delivered to Hannover later this year for testing, with revenue services likely to commence in early 2014. In April 2011 ...
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NewsArriva acquires Veolia Transport Central Europe
EUROPE: Transdev completed the sale of its Veolia Transport Central Europe subsidiary to DB Mobility on May 16. Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, said the sale of VTCE GmbH for an undisclosed price was the first step in a financial restructuring which aims to re-focus its international activities on 'promising markets ...
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NewsAll CFR Marfa privatisation bids rejected
ROMANIA: The Ministry of Transport announced on May 15 that it was to start afresh with its attempt to sell a 51% stake in national rail freight operator CFR Marfa. This follows its rejection of all three of the applications to prequalify which had been submitted by the May ...
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NewsCD orders more RegioPanter EMUs
CZECH REPUBLIC: National passenger operator CD announced a KC943m firm order for a further seven Škoda Vagónka RegioPanter electric multiple-units on May 15. The five three-car Class 640 units with 237 seats and two two-car Class 650 units with 145 seats will have aluminium bodyshells, first and second class seats, ...
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NewsTenders called for DLR operating concession
UK: Transport for London has issued the formal invitation to tender to four groups shortlisted to operate and maintain the Docklands Light Railway for 6½ years from September 2014. The ITT was issued on May 10, with final bids to be returned by September 9, TfL’s Acting Director, London ...
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NewsNews in Brief
Portuguese infrastructure manager Refer has estimated the cost of an electrified line to serve a proposed container terminal at Trafaria on the south bank of the Tagus at €150m. Moving container operations to Trafaria is part of a €1bn project to free up the north bank in Lisboa for a ...
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NewsPresident visits Arica - La Paz Railway
CHILE: President Sebastián Piñera visited the Chilean section of the Arica – La Paz Railway on May 13, travelling the 40 km from Arica to Poconchile accompanied by Transport & Telecommunications Minister Pedro Pablo Errázuriz and other dignitaries. ‘Today is a day of great historical significance’, said Piñera, ‘because 100 ...
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NewsFunding for four new stations announced
UK: Government contributions towards the costs of building of four new stations were confirmed by the Department for Transport on May 15. The money has been made available through the New Station Fund. This was announced in January, with local authorities, train operators and developers invited to bid for contributions ...
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NewsEIB increases Polish Pendolino loan
POLAND: The European Investment Bank announced on May 15 that it is increasing from €224m to €342m the value of a loan which PKP Intercity is using to fund the purchase of Alstom Pendolino trains. In May 2011 PKP Intercity and Alstom signed a €665m contract covering the supply ...
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NewsNanjing Line 4 traction equipment contract signed
CHINA: Nanjing Metro has awarded Alstom and its local joint venture Shanghai Alstom Transport Electrical Equipment Co a €28m contract to supply traction equipment for 174 cars ordered for Line 4. Alstom’s Optonix traction systems have been designed for the Chinese metro market. SATEE will provide the inverter, auxiliary ...
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NewsKnorr-Bremse opens bigger US plant
USA: State Governor Martin O'Malley attended the opening of Knorr-Bremse's new Rail Vehicle Systems manufacturing plant in Westminster, Maryland, on May 9. Knorr-Bremse said the growth of the US public transport market and three major orders for HVAC systems meant that its former plant in Westminster had reached the limits ...
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NewsMTU builds engine R&D facility
GERMANY: Tognum's MTU Friedrichshafen subsidiary held a groundbreaking ceremony for a €60m engine research and development facility on May 6. The facility will have seven test stands for the study of combustion processes, control systems, exhaust after-treatment and gas engines for rail and maritime applications. 'These test stands ...
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NewsHitachi confirms UK assembly plant
UK: Hitachi Rail Europe announced on May 14 that it had signed a contract with preferred bidder Merchant Place Developments covering the construction and fit-out of a rolling stock manufacturing plant at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham. Hitachi said that construction of its ‘first train factory in Europe’ represented an ...
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NewsSiemens unveils Amtrak Cities Sprinter locomotive
USA: The first of 70 electric locomotives being built to operate Amtrak services in the Northeast Corridor was rolled out at the Siemens plant in Sacramento on May 13. The locomotive was officially handed over to Amtrak President & CEO Joseph Boardman by the President of Siemens Rail Systems USA ...
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NewsPresidents open Kazakhstan to Turkmenistan rail link
ASIA: President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev wielded a pair of golden spanners to ceremonially tighten the final bolts to complete a rail link across the border between their countries on May 11. Built by Kazakh national railway KTZ and local contractors at a cost ...
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NewsSkoda-Kirov joint venture agreement
RUSSIA: Czech rolling stock manufacturer Škoda Transportation and Kirovsky Zavod signed a memorandum of understanding on April 22 for each to invest US$20m in the creation of an equally-owned joint venture to produce trams, metro trains and double-deck EMUs for the Russian market in St Petersburg. The Kirov-Škoda joint venture ...