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HARSCO, United States, announced on February 26 that it has won orders with new customers in China.

The company will supply 20-stone rail grinders to metro operators in four Chinese cities, all of which are in the process of expanding their networks. Harsco declined to give details of its customers or the value of the contracts.

Deliveries of the machines, which are all planned for production in 2013, are scheduled for the second half of this year.

ALSTOM and Thales have been selected by JR East to negotiate a contract to install communications-based train control (CBTC) on the Ayase - Toride Joban Local suburban line in Tokyo with a view to awarding a contract to one of the companies in December. JR East plans to introduce CBTC on the line in about 2020.

JR East says it wants to "drastically change and improve" its Tokyo suburban network through "innovations that incorporate a conceptual breakthrough and are completely free from conventional ways of thinking." JR East says is keen to achieve innovations in technology, by eliminating track circuits and reducing the number of cables, as well as operational innovations such as bi-directional running.

JR East started the tender process in June 2012, and the following month received expressions of interest from 10 manufacturers in both Japan and overseas, which were then invited to submit proposals by the end of October.

China's high-speed railway line linking Beijing and Shanghai has recorded over 100 million passenger trips since it started operation in June 2011, railway authorities announced on Thursday.

Built with an investment of 217.6 billion yuan (34.7 billion US dollars), the 1,318-km railway linking Beijing and Shanghai has shortened the travel time between the two major cities to about five hours from the previous eight hours or more.

China has been steadily expanding its rail network as trains are the most commonly used vehicles for the country's long-distance travellers.

In December last year, the high-speed line linking Beijing and Guangzhou -- the world's longest -- went into official service, bringing China's total high-speed rail network in operation to a length of more than 9,300 km.

The Beijing-Guangzhou line is one of four north-south lines expected to serve as backbones for the country's high-speed railway network, which also features four east-west lines.

China's rail construction boom took a hit in 2011 following a deadly train collision near the eastern city of Wenzhou, the accident resulting in 40 deaths and 172 people being injured.

Investment and construction gradually picked up last year as the country set the aim of having around 120,000 km of railway lines in operation by 2015, including 18,000 km of high-speed lines.

China's Ministry of Railways (MOR) may merge with the Ministry of Transport later this year, the 21st Century Business Herald reported Tuesday, citing an insider from the MOR. As of yet though, neither ministry has officially commented on the matter.

The MOR was established in 1949 to help the newly founded People's Republic of China accomplish one of its first development goals: expanding the national railway network.

Yet, over the past several decades, many of the MOR's duties have overlapped with those being carried out by the Ministry of Transport, stoking public resentment about the inefficiency of the government and the need for planners to streamline the country's sprawling bureaucracy.

If planners choose to reshuffle the country's existing government organs, they should start with the MOR. This relic from a bygone era has not only found itself mired in debt, but has proven largely incapable for improving rail travel or controlling rail logistics costs.

BEIJING -- On a crisp Saturday late last year, after participating in a conference on the crisis of capitalism and the future of world socialism, I took the subway to the Beijing Nan (south) rail station. I arrived less than 15 minutes before the scheduled departure of my bullet train to Nanjing, 620 miles away.

I quickly passed through minimal security, and took my assigned seat with time to spare. (Had I missed my train, I was told that I could exchange my ticket for another without penalty.) The train was sleek, the cars were clean but not exceptionally fancy. The train left on time.

The train maintained about 188 miles per hour. I was sure that the view from the window would be dizzying. But with elevated tracks and spotless windows, I had to struggle to unglue my nose from the window when we reached Nanjing, a little over three and a half hours after departing. The one quirk was the onboard clock was one minute slow, although the train left and arrived on time. Can the laws of relativity be fiddling with the clock, I wondered?

In the first three hours of my trip, I must have seen a million trees but not one forest. The trees all appeared to be less than 20 years old, and primarily of a single species. China suffered severe deforestation until recently, but it is now reforesting. All I could think of is that if a beetle fell from Mars and took a liking for that one species, the fumes of decay would soon choke life on Mars. But as we neared Nanjing, the number of species grew, with pleasing clumps of young evergreens. Modern China has a way of correcting itself.

The Nanjing bullet train station, the largest in China, is itself brand new. Like the Beijing station, it is connected to the city subway and bus lines. It is also almost exclusively solar-powered.

My Nanjing host told me that China now has 5,000 miles of bullet-train lines, spanning east to west as well as north to south. Weeks later, China inaugurated the world's longest high-speed rail line, from Beijing to Guangzhou, and the network now exceeds 5,800 miles.

The train covers the distance from New York to Washington or Boston in about an hour, more than three times the speed of Amtrak trains, at about the cost of budget buses. Special windows have been built to keep the view clear on the bullet train. My host also informed me that freight is now gradually replacing the previous high-speed passenger lines, which ran at almost 125 mph. This of great importance as it helps to raise the overall labor productivity in China.

China's new rail network is one face of the "stimulus" package rolled out following the open outbreak of crisis in capitalist countries in September 2008; some 20 million Chinese workers producing for export lost their jobs in a space of a few weeks.

But in sharp contrast with stimulus packages in capitalist countries, China's package created some 20 million new jobs by the spring of 2009. That includes about 500,000 to develop the five main bullet-train lines, soon to grow to eight lines spanning 11,000 miles by late 2015. The stimulus projects built on the existing five-year plan, with a concentration on addressing environmental concerns. Rail, for example, has about one-thirtieth the carbon footprint of planes, and less than half the footprint of trucks and buses.

I left China shaking my head in happy disbelief.

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A deputy of the National People's Congress (NPC) has suggested free rail travel during major four festivals to especially benefit the low-income groups, the "New Press Daily" reports.

Zhu Lieyu, lawyer and deputy of the NPC, said since private sedan owners can drive on expressways for free during the Spring Festival, Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, Labor Day holiday and the National Day holiday, those who can't afford private cars should enjoy free rail travel during these holidays.

According to China's Property Law, infrastructures such as expressways, railways and pipelines are the assets of the state. State assets are also the assets of the people. Thus, people have the right to share the bonus and participate in operation and management of state assets, explained Zhu.

In response to argument that free transportation will cause over-crowding and congestion, Zhu said the problems are caused by bad organization, the policy itself should not be blamed. Railway stations should distribute tickets to control the number of passengers.

Except high-speed and D-series trains, all other trains can distribute free tickets during holidays. Related authorities should hire more staff and coordinate free and charged rail lines to avoid over-crowding.

As the annual sessions of China's National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference draw near, deputies across the nation have started to gather in Beijing and will issue new proposals during the political event.

A Libyan cargo ship with four diesel locomotives made by China CNR Corporation Limited (CNR) aboard set sail for Buenos Aires Monday from the port city of Dalian in northeastern China's Liaoning province and began its two-month voyage.

Previously, 22 railway coaches developed by CNR, a leading manufacturer of railway transport equipment in China, were shipped to Buenos Aires on Feb. 6 from Dalian; they are expected to arrive at the end of March, which marks the first time that the combination of locomotives and coaches made by CNR debuts in South America.

At the end of June 2011, the contract between CNR and Federal Planning, Services and Public Investment of Argentina became formally effective. The deal, worth 320 million U.S. dollars and including 20 diesel locomotives and 220 railway coaches, was the biggest export one in China's railway transportation equipment industry.

The locomotives were designed for Argentina and meet the E.U.'s latest emission standards, with speed including 120 km per hour and 160 km per hour. All the locomotives will be used on main lines, according to experts from China CNR Corporation.

As one of the most widespread railways in South and North Americas, Argentina railway has four different routes, linking with lines of Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay. To strengthen the role of railway transport in the national economy, Argentine government decided to update more than 7,000 kilometers rail lines and railway transportation.

Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile will unveil lightRadio Metro Radio on February 26th at the Global TD-LTE Initiative’s (GTI)  “TDD Night” during Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona. Available now for large-scale commercial deployment in China Mobile’s trial TD-LTE network, which spans 13 cities in China, lightRadio Metro Radio will bring high-performance 4G services to residents in densely populated areas of Shanghai, Nanjing and Qingdao.

According to company, in China, lightRadio Metro Radio will be deployed in busy indoor and outdoor locations, such as shopping malls and stadiums where coverage can suffer either from the large number of consumers trying to access a network, or because the density of buildings impedes the radio signal. In these locations it can be traditionally either too difficult or costly to deploy a macro cell base station. lightRadio Metro Radio will provide a cost-effective alternative.

Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile signed a co-creation agreement in January 2012 to conduct joint development and test activities on a series of lightRadio TD-LTE projects to speed the deployment of LTE in China. lightRadio Metro Radio houses two lightRadio cubes, fully integrated with a directional antennae, allowing it to provide the coverage normally associated with a much bulkier, heavier remote radio unit linked to an external antenna via an RF coaxial cable.

lightRadio Metro Radio has been short-listed for the GTI’s “Innovation award”, which recognizes innovation in the LTE industry and encourages the development of innovative products that address the challenges faced by GTI operators.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Construction of a light rail system in New Taipei is expected to start this year once the Executive Yuan has given the go-ahead for the project, the Bureau of High Speed Rail under the transportation ministry said yesterday.
The New Taipei City Government's plan is to build a light rail system that will serve as an extension from the Tamsui Station of the Mass Rapid Transit system. The two lines will cover a total of 13.99 km and will have 20 stations, as well as a maintenance workshop, the bureau said.

The first phase of construction will comprise a 9.55-section that will be composed of elevated and ground-level sections, the bureau said, adding that this part will be completed in six years after construction begins.

The remaining 4.44-km ground-level section will include six stations and will be finished in 11 years, the bureau said.

The Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the New Taipei City Government will be responsible for meeting the NT$15.3 billion (US$518 million) cost of the project, it said.

"AUSTERITY and economy in expenditure" with "no wastage permitted" was the remedy prescribed by India's minister for railways Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal for Indian Railways (IR) at today's 2013-14 budget announcement to parliament after he revealed that IR will record a loss of Rs 246bn ($US 4.53bn) in the financial year which ends on March 31.

Bansal says that "a sharp rise in input costs" has resulted in a "deterioration of IR's services." However, he says that the fiscal measures being taken by the ministry are already helping to improve the railway's financial position.

"As a result of our consistent efforts at maintaining strict financial discipline during the year, the operating ratio is 88.8%," Bansal says. "This is a source of great satisfaction as the operating ratio has consistently been over 90% since 1997-98."

Revenue in 2012-13 is expected to come in at Rs 1.28 trillion, short of the Rs 1.35 trillion target, after IR reported lower than expected earnings from passengers and freight traffic. Despite this, Bansal has set IR a revenue target of Rs 1.46 trillion for 2013-14, and is aiming to raise the additional funds from increasing revenues from passenger services and railfreight traffic. Passenger fares are expected to bring in Rs 422.1bn in 2013-14 compared with Rs 325.5bn in the current financial year due to a 5.2% expected increase in passengers using the network, while railfreight is expected to raise Rs 935.54bn next year compared with Rs 859.56 in 2012-13.

However, Bansal steered clear of increasing fares as a means of closing the funding gap, a move that many in the cabinet wanted to avoid following a fare increase on January 22, and the upcoming general election. A proposed fare increase by previous railway minister Mr Dinesh Trivedi in last year's budget announcement ultimately cost him his job.

Bansal says that IR plans to invest Rs 633.63bn in the 2013-14 financial year and will receive Rs 260bn in budgetary support. There is also a plan to raise Rs 151bn from the market and Rs 60bn through PPPs.

These funds will predominately be spent on increasing capacity on existing lines. This will involve building 500km of new lines, converting 450km of narrow and metre-gauge track to broad gauge, and track-doubling 750km of single-track lines, as well as investments in improving passenger safety.

"The thrust of the plan is on track-doubling, safety and passenger and staff welfare for which I have increased the outlay from about Rs 110.41bn in 2012-13 to Rs 130.22bn, an increase of 16%," he says.

Other investment highlights include:

? introduction of 67 new express trains

? introduction of 26 new passenger services, as well as eight demu and five electric multiple unit mainline services

? 72 additional services to be introduced in Mumbai and 18 in Kolkata

? extended internet ticketing hours and the start of mobile ticketing services, and

? free wifi services on some trains.

Planned investments for the 2012-13 financial year have been reduced from Rs 601bn to Rs 522.65bn, while the Indian Planning Commission has tentatively pegged IR's investment target for the 12th Five Year plan from 2012-17 at Rs 5.19 trillion. Budgetary support will amount to Rs 1.94 trillion, with IR expected to contribute Rs 1.05 trillion.

TITAGARH Wagons and FreightCar America announced on February 22 that they have agreed to dissolve their Indian joint-venture company Titagarh FreightCar Private Limited, which was formed in 2008 with the aim of manufacturing and selling aluminium-bodied coal wagons in India.

The two companies say the joint venture began the process of seeking approval from the Indian Railways Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) soon after its inception. However, in a statement, FreightCar America said that over time it became apparent that approval would not be obtained within an acceptable timescale and Titagarh FreightCar informed the RDSO last June that it would no longer pursue approval for the design.

"We had big plans for the joint venture company when it was incorporated, but those plans were not realised despite considerable effort," says Titagarh Wagons vice chairman and managing director Mr Umesh Chowdhary. "After lengthy discussions, Titagarh Wagons and FreightCar America have decided to dissolve the joint venture and part ways amicably."

chief minister Nabam Tuki on Wednesday thanked Union railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal for including Arunachal Pradesh in the rail network of the country. The Union minister, in his budget speech on Tuesday had announced that an Assam-Arunachal railway link would be commission in the coming fiscal.

The state's proximity to China has prompted the Centre to include this remote state in the country's railway network. Union railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal in his budget speech on Tuesday had said nation security was a top priority for the railways. He had said the Harmuti (Assam)-Naharlagun (Arunachal Pradesh) would be commissioned within the financial year 2013-14. He also said the Parasuram Kund-Rupai railway link would be treated as a project of national importance.