All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 903
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NewsSBB and Hupac to form trans-Alpine freight operator
SWITZERLAND: On July 5 Swiss Federal Railways' freight business SBB Cargo and intermodal operator Hupac announced the formation of a new company to handle block and intermodal trains between Germany and Italy from early 2011. SBB Cargo International aims to optimise capacity and minimise locomotive and crew downtime in ...
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NewsArriva Nederland orders its 99th Stadler GTW
NETHERLANDS: Stadler announced a €140m order to supply Arriva Nederland with a further 38 GTW mul tiple-units on July 2, bringing its orders for the articulated units to a total of 99. Worldwide, Stadler has now sold 539 GTW units to operators in 10 countries. The latest Arriva order covers ...
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NewsPrivate funds sought for freight
INDIA: Two Ministry of Railways schemes to encourage private sector investment in rail freight capacity came into effect on May 31. Investors can apply for renewable 20-year agreements to establish freight terminals providing value-added logistics services to third parties. Terminals must be on private land, and can handle all traffic ...
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NewsNews in Brief
Unife and UIC have published Technical Recommendations for driver-machine interfaces in train cabs, describing basic functional and system requirements. Rusk County Rural Rail District has acquired the 25 km Henderson – Overton branch in Texas from Union Pacific with a view to reviving freight traffic which ceased in August 2009. ...
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NewsBulgaria to Turkey wiring underway
BULGARIA: Work is underway to electrify and upgrade the 19 km link between Svilengrad and the Turkish border. Part of the government's EU-backed Operational Programme for Transport which aims to fully integrate Bulgaria into wider EU transport networks, the project is being undertaken by Czech firm OHL ZHS under a ...
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NewsRio - São Paulo high speed rail bidding ready to start
BRAZIL: Bid documents for the concession to build and operate the proposed high speed line between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are expected to be issued before July 9, according to the Director of the government’s land transport directorate Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres. ANTT director Bernardo Figueiredo ...
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NewsUrban rail progress in Najaf and Baghdad
IRAQ: Canadian consortium TransGlobim International has announced a US$600m 30-year concession to finance, build and operate a 37 track-km monorail linking three major Shi'ite pilgrimage sites in Najaf. Construction is expected to take three years, and a second phase would extend the line to the international airport. The monorail is ...
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NewsBlack Sea bullet plan
GEORGIA: President Mikheil Saakashvili outlined his vision for fast trains to cut the 360 km Tbilisi - Batumi journey from 8 h to less than 3 h on May 31. Opening a construction base in Batumi for the upgrading of GRZ's main line, he said modern transport and communications were ...
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NewsGatwick Airport peoplemover shuttle reopens
UK: The 1·2 km rubber-tyred automated peoplemover which links the north and south terminals at London Gatwick airport in less than 3 min reopened on July 1, following a £43m modernisation by Bombardier Transportation, Costain Group and Vinci Construction.The twin-track elevated line opened in 1987, and airport owner Global Infrastructure ...
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NewsBTS SkyTrain receives new rolling stock
THAILAND: On June 25 Skytrain operator Bangkok Mass Transit System Public Co Ltd (BTSC) marked the arrival of its new fleet of 12 four-car trains from China with a Buddhist blessing ceremony. The event at Laem Chabang port in Sriracha was hosted by Keeree Kanjanapas, Executive Chairman & CEO of ...
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NewsFyra launch delayed again
NETHERLANDS: A further year's delay to the launch of high speed domestic services on HSL-Zuid has been confirmed by Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings, who has admitted to the Dutch parliament that there is no prospect of the AnsaldoBreda V250 trainsets entering revenue service before the December 2011 timetable change at ...
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NewsBanedanmark awards national GSM-R contract
DENMARK: Infrastructure manager Banedanmark has selected Nokia Siemens Networks and Ramboll Telecom for a turnkey contract to replace its analogue radio communications with GSM-R. The contract announced on June 29 is part of the national resignalling programme which will see ETCS Level 2 installed across the network in 2015-21. Nokia ...
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NewsRENFE unveils Class 112 high speed train
SPAIN: National operator RENFE unveiled the new Class 112 high speed train at its future home, the extended Santa Catalina rolling stock maintenance facility in Madrid, on June 29. A total of 30 Class 112s have been ordered from Talgo and Bombardier for the Madrid - Valencia high speed ...
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NewsDelhi Metro orders more Movias
INDIA: Bombardier Transportation announced an order to supply Delhi Metro Rail Corp with a further 74 Movia metro cars on June 30. The €83m contract has an option for a further 40 vehicles. Deliveries of the additional cars for the second phase of the metro will be competed in 2011. ...
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NewsCSR Zhuzhou to supply Gurgaon trains
INDIA: On June 21 Siemens signed a contract for CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive to supply five three-car trains for the 6·1 km six-station elevated metro line being built in Delhi by the Rapid MetroRail Gurgaon joint venture on a PPP basis. The vehicles will be delivered between November 2011 and ...
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NewsTube Lines sale completed
UK: Transport for London confirmed on June 27 that Tube Lines had become its wholly-owned subsidiary, following the conclusion of an agreement to purchase its shares from Bechtel and Amey. The latter had entered into an agreement to sell the PPP contractor for £310m on May 7.‘This deal opens a ...
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NewsBarcelona metro lines 9 and 10 reach La Sagrera
SPAIN: On June 26 José Montilla, president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, inaugurated a third section of Barcelona metro lines 9 and 10 from Bon Pastor to La Sagrera. TMB operated a 24 h service during the weekend and free commemorative tickets were distributed to mark the occasion.The 2·8 ...
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NewsSiemens Vectron locomotive on test
INTERNATIONAL: Fresh from its München assembly plant, a new Siemens multi-system electric locomotive targeted at European operators is being put through its paces at the Wegberg-Wildenrath test centre in Germany. Christened Vectron, the four-axle machine is destined to be one of Siemens' star exhibits at the InnoTrans 2010 event in ...
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NewsLA Gold Line extension breaks ground
USA: A groundbreaking ceremony was held in Los Angeles on June 26 for the 18·3 km first phase of the Gold Line Foothill Extension, which will take the light rail route from its current terminal in east Pasadena through the San Gabriel Valley to Azusa. However, only one contract ...
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NewsDB orders more double-deckers
GERMANY: Bombardier Transportation is to supply DB with a further 21 double-deck coaches for use in Sachsen-Anhalt from the end of 2010. The €34m contract announced on June 24 was placed under a 2003 framework agreement which covered 298 vehicles worth €411m with options for a further 300 (RG 8.03 ...