South African state-owned freight logistics company Transnet has signed a "ground-breaking" agreement with the China Development Bank that is expected to yield a loan in the region of US$5-billion (R45-billion) to help finance the country's massive rail infrastructure upgrade programme.

 

The agreement, signed during a meeting between President Jacob Zuma and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Pretoria on Tuesday, would enable Transnet and the China Development Bank to "identify opportunities ... for future collaboration in Transnet's infrastructure upgrade programmes," Transnet said in a statement.

 

The cooperation agreed upon would include "the financing of the construction and upgrade of railway and port infrastructure and localisation of equipment manufacturing.

 

"In addition, the two agreed on future collaboration on research and development initiatives, manufacturing, marketing and the construction of cross-border infrastructure throughout the continent," Transnet said.

 

Transnet Group chief executive Brian Molefe said the agreement, signed as the 5th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit got under way in Durban on Tuesday, was proof of the opportunities created by South Africa's membership of the grouping.

 

Transnet last year announced an unprecedented R300-billion capital investment programme to revamp and expand its ports, rail and pipelines infrastructure and equipment, saying it would create over half-a-million new jobs while making its freight rail division the fifth-largest in the world.

 

The company plans to spend the lion's share of this, R205-billion, on rail projects - R151-billion on freight rail - as it pushes to increase its freight rail volumes from about 200-million to 350-million tons by 2019, while increasing its market share of South African container traffic from around 79% to 92%.

 

This increase would significantly reduce the cost of doing business in South Africa, Transnet said at the time, citing internal studies showing that rail in the country was on average 75% cheaper than road transport.

 

The company said that about two-thirds of the required funding for the programme would be raised internally and the remainder in the international debt capital market.

 

As part of this programme, Transnet has already awarded contracts to a number of manufacturers, including the United States' General Electric, Finnish crane maker Kalmar, and China South Railways.

 

In October, a consortium led by Chinese manufacturer CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive (CSR) was named as the winning bidder to supply Transnet with 95 electric locomotives.

 

Transnet will pay R2.6-billion (about $300-million) for the 95 locomotives, the first 10 of which are being assembled in CSR's factories in China, while the remainder will be made in South Africa.

 

 

 

 

 

SINGAPORE Land Transport Authority (LTA) has signed a $S 119m ($US 96m) contract for a second batch of 45 Movia C951 metro cars from Changchun Bombardier Railway Vehicles (CBRC), China.

 

Bombardier owns 50% of CBRC and its share of the contract is worth around $US 46m.

 

Delivery of the additional vehicles will begin in 2016, following on immediately from the initial order of 73 three-car trains, five of which have already been delivered. The first 11 sets are due to enter service this October on the initial 4.3km section of the Downtown Line between Chinatown and Bugis, which is currently being commissioned.

 

The 16.6km Stage 2 from Bugis to Bukit Panjang will be completed in 2015 while the final 21km eastern section from Chinatown to Expo will open in 2017. The line will be operated by SBS Transit and when it is completed will be one of the longest driverless metro lines in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MITSUBISHI Heavy Industries (MHI) has started construction of what it describes as Japan's first comprehensive railway system verification facility.

 

The Mihara test centre, which is being built at MHI's Wadaoki plant in Hiroshima prefecture, will open in the first half of 2014. It will have a 3.2km test loop capable of testing trains built to various international standards at speeds of up to 100km/h, as well as signalling and communications systems, and noise on curves.

 

The centre is designed to strengthen Japan's railway competitiveness, which MHI says is a pillar of the country's infrastructure export strategy, by helping to verify compliance with international standards and developing new products. It will also assist in improving maintenance systems. The centre will be available for use by other companies and organisations.

 

The new test track will complement the existing test tracks at Wadaoki for conventional rail, peoplemovers, and the HSST maglev system. MHI plans to add additional facilities in the future to enable comprehensive verification testing.

 

 

 

  

 

VOITH Engineering Services has been awarded a contract worth around €7m to develop a low-floor LRV for Xiangtan Electric Manufacturing Group, China.

 

Voith says work was due to begin on the project at the end of March and is due to conclude by late-2014. The company will train 15 Xiangtan staff at its facility in Chemnitz, Germany, and will also be responsible for all manufacturing planning for the vehicles at the Chinese plant.

 

"The plan is to generate a complete line of vehicles from the low-floor tram now being developed that will meet various customer requirements in different Chinese regions," says manager for development and technology Dr Frank Salzwedel.

 

Voith Engineering Services has already developed a low-floor LRV concept for CNR.

 

 

 

 

JAPAN's Mitsubishi Electric Corporation says it has installed the world's first auxiliary power supply system incorporating silicon carbide power modules in a series-production train.

 

The modules are currently being fitted to Type 1000 cars being built for Tokyo Metro's Ginza Line. Testing is expected to start soon prior to the trains entering service in June.

 

Mitsubishi Electric says by incorporating silicon carbide power modules in auxiliary power supply systems it is able reduce power loss by 30% and cut transformer noise by 4dB due to a 35% improvement in the distortion rate of output voltage waveforms.

 

Compared with using silicon, silicon carbide enables the auxiliary power supply system to be 20% smaller and 15% lighter. The main specifications of the new system are a rated voltage of 600V dc, a two-level voltage-type pulse-width modulation (PWM) inverter, an output voltage of 140kVA, and natural air cooling.

 

The new auxiliary power supply systems use technologies developed for silicon carbide inverters which include high-voltage silicon carbide inverters for 600/750V dc Type 01 trains for the Ginza Line, which were introduced in February 2012, and for Type 15,000 1.5kV dc trains for Tokyo Metro's Tozai Line in January.

 

 

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COMMERCIAL services began on March 16 on the 1.5km link between Daikanyama and Shibuya in Tokyo, completing the connection between Fukutoshin metro line and suburban lines to the south-west of the city.

 

The new line replaces an existing viaduct and runs completely underground, passing beneath the JR Yamanote Line and entering the new Shibuya station, where it connects with the Fukutoshin Line. The new Shibuya station has two island platforms, which accommodate 10-car trains. \

 

The former surface Shibuya station will be redeveloped for commercial use and as part of the redevelopment, the JR and Ginza Line stations will be rebuilt to improve passenger flow.

 

 

 

 

 

EAST Japan Railway Company (JR East) began scheduled operations at 320km/h on the Tohoku Shinkansen with the timetable change on March 16.

 

Series E5 Hayabusa trains now operate at up to 320km/h on the Utsunomiya – Morioka section of the Tohoku Shinkansen, reducing the journey time for the 713km trip between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori to 2h 59m.

 

On the same day JR East also introduced Series E6 Super Komachi high-speed trains on Tokyo – Akita services. The E6s operate in multiple with E5s between Tokyo and Morioka and are currently limited to 300km/h, although they will operate at up to 320km/h from Spring 2014.

 

The introduction of the new trains has allowed JR East to withdraw the last of its Series 200 trains, which were built in 1980-86.

 

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have agreed to provide a $US 260m loan to support the construction of Ho Chi Minh City metro Line 5.

 

Representatives of the bank signed a memorandum of understanding with Mr Nguyen Huu Tin, vice-chairman of the municipal's people's committee in the city on March 13.

 

The $US 857m initial phase involves construction of the 8.8km section from an interchange with Line 1 at Cua Sai Gon to Bay Hien on Line 2 in Tan Binh district.

 

In the longer-term the line will be extended 8.2km south to Ben xe Can Guoc. With the completion of this phase, Line 5 will have capacity for around 526,000 passengers per day.

 

Construction is already underway on Lines 1 and 2, which are both due to be completed in 2017, with the ADB and EIB providing finance for Line 2.

 

 

 

 

 

CONSTRUCTION has been completed of the first metro line in the Chinese city of Harbin and a fleet of 17 six-car trains has been delivered by CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles ready to start trial operation.

 

The line partly uses a former air-defence evacuation tunnel built during the Second World War. Line 1 is 17.5km long with 18 underground stations and links the city's East and South mainline stations via the city centre.

 

Each train, which comprises four motored cars and two trailers, has an aluminium alloy car body and is mounted on CW2100 bogies. Bombardier supplied the traction and auxiliary systems as well as the train control equipment.

 

The trains have sliding pocket doors, environmentally-friendly high-voltage ac (HVAC), air purification, an intelligent real-time information display, and a passenger information system.

 

Two more lines are planned. Line 2 will run from the northwest via the city centre to the eastern suburbs, while Line 3 will encircle the city centre. Two further lines are proposed to create a 143km network.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kazakhstan transit traffic by road in 2012 increased by 20 percent.

 

This has been announced by the Minister of Transport and Communications of Kazakhstan Askar Zhumagaliyev at the Government Hour in the Majilis.

 

"Last year compared to 2011 there increased dynamic repair of roads. Repairs covered 2.2 thousand kilometers of roads of national significance, and 3.6 thousand kilometers of local ", said A.Zhumagaliev.

 

According to him, the condition of automobile roads has improved by 4 percent, as a result there has been an increase in transit traffic by 20 percent, reports Kazinform.

 

 

 

 

 

It is planned to start constructing the Astana-Almaty high speed rail line in 2013, Kazakh Minister of Transport and Communications Askar Zhumagaliyev said during a government hour in the Majilis (a lower chamber of the Kazakh parliament) on Monday.

 

"It is planned to begin constructing the railway this year," he said. "The travel time between the two large cities of the republic will be reduced from 12 to five hours."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus increased customs duties for the import of milk products such as butter, cottage cheese and several sorts of cheeses from April 1, KyrTAG reported on Monday.

 

The duties will be increased till June 30, 2013.

 

The duties for cottage cheese and several sorts of over 40 percent fat cheeses will be increased to 18.3 percent from 15 percent.