All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 769
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NewsPioneer Railcorp buys Maumee & Western Railroad
USA: The Michigan Southern Railroad Co subsidiary of short line group Pioneer Railcorp completed the purchase of Maumee & Western Railroad Corp from RMW Ventures in late December. The 80 km line linking Woodburn, Indiana, and Liberty Center, Ohio, will be operated under the name Napoleon, Defiance & Western Railway. ...
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NewsNetwork Rail publishes 2014-19 Strategic Business Plan
UK: Network Rail published its Strategic Business Plan on January 8, setting out proposals to spend £37·5bn in 2014-19. The plan is the infrastructure manager's response to the publication last year of the UK and Scottish governments' High-Level Output Specifications outlining what the railway is required to deliver in Control ...
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NewsTrapeze acquires Seasam Group's public transport activities
FINLAND: Trapeze has acquired the Seasam House passenger information system business from Seasam Group. Seasam House has been renamed Trapeze Finland and is to be integrated with Trapeze's European activities, selling products from the Trapeze portfolio as well as its existing proprietary products. The transaction was completed on December ...
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NewsHigh speed line opens between Barcelona and Figueres
SPAIN: The Prince of Asturias joined Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, President of the Catalunya regional government Artur Mas and Development Minister Ana Pastor on January 8 to officially open the completed high speed line between Barcelona Sants and Figueres Vilafant. Revenue services were due to start the following day. RENFE ...
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NewsMinneapolis awards Southwest LRT contracts
USA: Two contracts each valued at $16·8m have been awarded by the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities for preliminary engineering work on the 25·4 km Southwest light rail line in Minneapolis. AECOM will be responsible for the western section of the route, while the eastern section is to be ...
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NewsCNR Tangshan signs Turkish tram contract
TURKEY: Samsun Metropolitan Municipality has awarded CNR Tangshan Railway Vehicles a contract to supply five 100% low-floor trams to increase passenger capacity on the city's light rail network. The €7·5m contract signed on December 17 requires the first tram to be delivered by December 2013 and the last by February ...
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NewsDLR operating contract extended to 2014
UK: On January 7 Transport for London announced that Serco Docklands will have its contract to operate the Docklands Light Railway extended by 18 months. The contract extension is worth around £100m and will cover the period from April 2013 to September 2014. The terms are the same as in ...
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NewsKaohsiung picks CAF to build catenary-free trams
TAIWAN: Kaohsiung City Government’s Mass Rapid Transit Bureau announced on January 4 that it had selected a consortium of CAF and Evergreen Construction to build the first stage of the city’s catenary-free circular light rail line. Now expected to cost NT$15·6bn, the 22·1 km route with 36 stops will link ...
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NewsHoek van Holland railway to be converted to metro
NETHERLANDS: Proposals to convert the 24 km railway between Schiedam Centrum and Hoek van Holland for metro operation were approved by Stadsregio Rotterdam and the municipalities of Maassluis, Vlaardingen, Schiedam and Rotterdam on December 17. The cost is put at €318m, including the purchase of 18 additional Bombardier Swift three-section ...
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NewsGerman operating contracts awarded
GERMANY: Bayern transport agency Bayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft and Rhein-Main transport authority RMV have selected DB Regio for a contract to operate hourly Main-Spessart services between Frankfurt, Aschaffenburg and Würzburg for 12 years from December 13 2015. Trains will continue on to Schweinfurt and Bamberg every 2 h. DB Regio plans to ...
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NewsNews in Brief - January 2013
Brazilian environmental protection agency Ibama has granted approval for upgrading works to commence on 100 km of metre gauge infrastructure as part of the Transnordestina project. This covers the section from Salgueiro in the state of Pernambuco to Missão Velha in Ceará. From April 2 Air France is to ...
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NewsMore Flirts for Belarus
BELARUS: Last month Belarusian Railways signed a firm order for Stadler Bussnang to supply a further six Flirt electric multiple-units in 2013-14. The five-car EMUs are intended for regional routes and will offer greater comfort and more luggage space than the units which Stadler has delivered for Minsk suburban services. ...
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NewsRailway planned to link Cambodian steel plant and port
CAMBODIA: Under an agreement worth up to US$11bn, a 405 km north-south railway is to be constructed as part of a Chinese-funded investment to build steel production and port facilities in the country. The railway would be built by China Railway Group under contract to the Chinese-backed ...
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NewsLatest Moscow metro extension opens
RUSSIA: On December 24 Alma-Atinskaya opened to become the 187th station on the Moscow metro. The station serves the Bratyevo district in the southeast of the city and becomes the new southern terminus of Line 2, at the end of a 3·1 km extension from Krasnogvardeyskaya. Three entrances lead into ...
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NewsGeorge to head Interfleet
Richard George is to take over as Managing Director of Interfleet Technology at the end of February, with the retirement of David Rollin after almost 20 years in the post. Having been appointed MD in 1994, Rollin led the management buy-out of the former British Rail business unit in 1996 ...
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NewsAbellio orders Talent 2 electric multiple-units
GERMANY: Bombardier Transportation's Hennigsdorf plant is to supply 20 three-car and 15 five-car Talent 2 electric multiple-units to Abellio Rail NRW under a €172m contract announced on December 31. The EMUs are to be deployed on Saale-Thüringen-Südharz services which Abellio is to operate from December 2015 under a 15-year contract ...
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NewsCalgary light rail goes west
CANADA: The western leg of Calgary’s CTrain light rail line was officially opened on December 8. The opening ceremony for the C$1·4bn West LRT project was attended by the mayor of Calgary Naheed Nenshi, the Premier of Alberta Alison Redford and Transportation Minister Ric McIver. The 8·2 km extension includes ...
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NewsPakistan Railways signs Night Coach Express PPP agreement
PAKISTAN: A public-private partnership agreement for Shalimar Group to manage an overnight Lahore - Karachi passenger service was signed by Pakistan Railways on December 26. The Night Coach Express is scheduled to start in early January, with Shalimar Group managing commercial aspects of the service and PR responsible for ...
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NewsSão Paulo calls bids for airport rail link
BRAZIL: Prequalification bids have been invited for construction of a rail link to São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport. Announcing the go-ahead for the project in December, state governor Geraldo Alckmin said the winning bidder would be selected in early 2013, with the aim of starting construction in March and completing ...
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NewsUrban rail news in brief - January 2013
EIB is lending €20m to the Czech city of Olomouc to co-finance infrastructure projects including the construction of 1·4 km of tram line in Nove Sady. Malaysia’s Land Public Transport Commission has reportedly given the go-ahead for the state of Melaka and Mrails International to build a 272m ringgit natural ...