The aim of the new pact is to introduce improvements to customer services by the end of this year, strengthen reliability from next year, and upgrade rolling stock by 2015.

 

SBB and Trenitalia reorganized international passenger operations between Switzerland and Italy following the termination of their Cisalpino joint venture, and today each operator is responsible for its own section of the route. Under the new agreement, passengers who have booked first class with either operator will be able to use the lounges in Zürich and major cities in Italy, and international online tickets will be available from this autumn.

 

From June 2014, departures times of Zürich – Milan EuroCity and Zurich – Lugano InterCity services will be adjusted to enable passengers to connect with Trenitalia high-speed trains from Milan. From 2015, almost all Milan services will be operated by ETR 610 Pendolino tilting emus, coinciding with the start of Expo 2015, which will be staged in Milan. In addition, the two railways have set out new uniform standards for customer satisfaction, punctuality, and the quality and availability of rolling stock.

 

 

 

 

 

The so-called Danube Bridge 2 is only the second rail crossing of the river between the two countries, after the bridge between Giurgiu, south of Bucharest, and Ruse in Bulgaria, which was completed in 1954.

 

The new cable-stayed bridge carries a road and a single-track railway, which creates a new rail link between Craiova in southwestern Romania and Mezdra, 80km north of Sofia. The €226m project, which included the construction of 5km of new railway on the Romanian side of the river, was funded with the aid of a €106m European Union grant. The bridge was built by Spanish construction company FCC under a contract awarded in January 2007.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The three-section 27.6m-long vehicle is the first of two pre-series LRVs, and will undergo a month-long evaluation on the city's tram network before entering passenger service in July or August. Transtech will deliver the second pre-series vehicle by the end of the summer, and the 38 production vehicles will enter service between 2015 and 2018.

 

Each LRV accommodates up to 199 passengers, 88 of them seated, and features low-energy LED lighting.

 

Traction systems were supplied by Voith, and a separate motor-gear unit with a continuous output of 65kW drives each of the eight axles, which receive power via two EmCon double traction inverters. Voith also provided wheels, axles, bearings, drive-related vehicle control, and the diagnostics system.

 

The vehicles are equipped with an intelligent braking energy management system, which allows braking energy to be stored in specially-designed onboard heat exchangers for use in the heating system if it cannot be fed back to the grid via the overhead catenary.

 

The LRVs are also able to automatically prevent excessive horizontal acceleration in curves by measuring the offset angle between the bogie and the vehicle to determine the curve radius. If the vehicle is travelling too fast, a control device automatically limits the speed, minimising centrifugal forces.

 

 

  

 

Quinn was the first CEO of KiwiRail after the country's railway infrastructure and rolling stock was bought back from Toll Holdings in 2008.During his time as CEO Quinn has overseen a $NZ 100m ($US 79m) growth in annual freight revenue together with around $NZ 1.4bn of capital investment in network improvements, new locomotives, freight wagons and passenger rolling stock, as well as Cook Strait ferries.

 

In a statement, KiwiRail chairman Mr John Spencer said: "With the KiwiRail turnaround plan well initiated the KiwiRail Board feel it is time for a new chief executive to implement the next steps in driving the plan. The board and Quinn want to ensure a smooth transition so that we don't lose our momentum. We will conduct a thorough search for a suitably qualified replacement."

 

 

 

 

The fare cuts were introduced as part of a raft of measures including the launch of 10-trip passes, an increase in tickets sold by yield management, and the introduction of more flexibility in return tickets, with the aimed of stemming the decline in high-speed passenger numbers, which fell 2.6% last year.

 

The highest ridership increases have been on Barcelona – Malaga (26%) and Barcelona – Seville (28%) services, while the number tickets sold for Madrid – Barcelona trains increased by 16%.

 

Load factors as measured by Renfe (total tickets sold against the total number of seats offered) reached 75% and revenues remained stable with 0.18% year-on-year increase in the four months concerned. As a result of the climb in traffic, Renfe now expects to break its current annual record of 22 million high-speed passengers this year.

 

Sources in Renfe contacted by IRJ stated that due to a relatively low demand for business travel, the company intends to focus on continuing to expand its still weak market share in the leisure travel segment, with more special offers and longer trains on weekends and public holidays.

 

 

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Much of the current record level of overall growth is due to two years of extremely high procurement in Russia, the world's largest freight wagon market. However, Russia's growth rate is set to fall by 14% per year after these procurements were found to be more than enough to meet long-term demand, meaning that overall market expansion is unlikely to match 2011-12's figures in the foreseeable future. Continued growth is expected in the after-sales service market, which is currently worth €9bn per year, due to increases in overall fleet sizes.

 

Despite the upcoming growth contraction in Russia, the market will continue to grow markedly in other regions. Asian railways are projected to increase orders for new freight wagons by 8% annually up to 2017, while the relatively small markets of the Middle East and Africa are also set to grow by 14% year-on-year. In spite of difficult economic circumstances in Europe which means that its market size remains at historically low levels, the withdrawal of life-expires wagons is prompting growth of slightly less than 3% per year. And in North America, what SCI Verkehr describes as a "demand boom," is prompting steady growth of 3% per year.

 

Driven by demand for raw materials, open wagons are the most important type of freight wagon yet the decline in the Russian market has resulted in a slump in demand. An increase in containerisation is driving sales of flat wagons while growing demand for oil products will increase the need for tank wagons, particularly in North America.

 

At present, 45% of freight wagons around the world are owned by incumbent railways compared with 55% in 2010, reflecting the growth of smaller private companies.

 

The study also found that the growth of Chinese manufacturers has resulted in a slight shift in the behaviour of freight wagon manufacturers which traditionally have supplied a single continent or secured their largest orders from within their home market. Manufacturers from China are increasingly delivering to Africa and South America, and more recently to Australia and the Asian region of the CIS. They are also making the first tentative steps into the European marketplace.

 

 

 

The contract comprises six 19-21m and six 28-32m-long vehicles, together with upgrading of the network's main depot to maintain the new LRVs and the provision of specialist servicing equipment.The deadline for expressions of interest is July 18.

 

The five-line network is currently being modernised with the aid of a €10m grant from the EU Regional Operational Programme, and a 1.9km extension to Nicolaus Copernicus University is due to open this year.

 

Minister for transport Mrs Gladys Berejiklian says the requirements are set out in tender documents for the operations contract, with the formal request for proposals due to be issued later this month.

 

"Fully-automated train technology has been in use around the world for 30 years, keeping customers safe and ensuring rapid transit systems like the one we are building operate fast and efficiently, while catering for future growth," she says. "This technology is focused on safety and reliability – there's no point building a 21st century system with 20th century technology."

 

Platform screen doors will be installed at stations, making boarding and alighting faster and safer.

 

At the beginning of May two consortia, Northwest Rapid Transit and TransForm, were announced as the shortlisted bidders for the Operations, Trains, and Systems (OTS) contract for the NWRL, part of which requires the design and delivery of rolling stock along with signalling and control systems.

 

The consortia have until the end of this year to finalise their proposals and the OTS contract will be awarded in the second half of next year.

 

It is not clear whether the requirement for an automated railway was included in the original call for expressions of interest, as this is the first time the NSW government has mentioned driverless operation in public.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Department for Transport (DfT) decided in 2008 to procure the trains for Thameslink under a Public Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, which covered the design, finance, production, and maintenance of the train fleet. In June 2011, two years after the contract was originally due to be signed, Cross London Trains, a consortium of Siemens, Innisfree and 3i Infrastructure, was selected as preferred bidder for the fleet of 1150 emu cars. However, delays have continued to blight the process and the contract has still not been signed.

 

The report says the DfT still expects to let a contract shortly which will require Siemens to deliver the first trains by December 2015 and the final sets by 2018. This would require Siemens to deliver the first trains within less than two years and seven months of contract award. Siemens told IRJ recently that it has already invested a considerable sum in design work to ensure it will be ready to start production when the contract is signed.

 

The NAO says the delay to the rolling stock contract raises questions over whether the DfT underestimated the scale of the work, time, and skills required to negotiate a "complex" PFI deal. It claims that the delays will add logistical complexity to the infrastructure, particularly around accommodating a new train design, and complicates the process of letting the new franchise because of uncertainty over the schedule for rolling stock delivery.

 

According the NAO, Siemens remains confident the trains can be delivered within the reduced timescale. However the report suggests the problems in procuring the trains could prevent the overall project being completed on time, and notes that the DfT has not fully investigated whether the 2018 deadline can realistically be met with a revised timetable for delivering the new trains. The report says that this evaluation cannot be carried out until a contract has been signed with the supplier.

 

The NAO also observes that the delays will have a knock-on effect on the electrification of other parts of the network because of the impact on the planned cascade of emus that are due to released by the delivery of the Siemens trains. Additional Electrostar emus have been ordered from Bombardier in order to provide an interim boost in fleet capacity, but the NAO says the additional procurement raises questions over who bears the risk that these trains will still be needed when the Thameslink programme is completed. It also questions the DfT's role in securing trains and managing their deployment.

 

The report suggests the infrastructure elements of the project have been handled more successfully. So far, the DfT has kept Thameslink within its original budget of £3.55bn (2006 prices), which it agreed with Network Rail in 2007. Phase one was completed on schedule and within budget, despite revisions to plans for Blackfriars and Farringdon stations, and Blackfriars Bridge being worse condition than expected. Phase 2 has been re-planned to ensure the project remains within budget, although changes the redevelopment of London Bridge station mean commercial income from the project has fallen by £900m, bringing the cost-benefit ratio down to 1.4 to 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We have found several irregularities in the contract, and ALL has failed to make the required investments in infrastructure and rolling stock," says minister of transport Mr Florencio Randazzo.

 

However, in a statement issued on June 4, ALL said it had not received any official confirmation of the termination from the Argentine government, although it intends to take "all necessary legal measures" when the decision is formally confirmed.

 

The government claims that ALL has carried out only 9.75% of the works required in the contract and has accumulated debts of nearly Pesos 237m ($US 44m). Last year the government initiated a full audit of the ALL Central and ALL Mesopotámico networks, which despite their size carry just five million tonnes of freight per year.

 

 

 

 

 

Nine AVE services per day and will operate in each direction between Madrid and Alicante, cutting the journey time by 50 minutes to 2h 20min.

 

Renfe will use class 100 and 112 AVE trains, increasing capacity over existing services by 40% or 6300 seats per day, with trains stopping at Cuenca, Albacete and Villena. Tourist class tickets will be sold at a full fare of €64.90, with a 50% discount offer for the first week of operation, which is valid until June 25.

 

The line is a 239km branch off the Madrid – Valencia high-speed line, and the initial 74km section as far as Albacete was inaugurated in December 2010.

 

Although this dedicated high-speed line has been designed and built for a maximum commercial speed of 300km/h, services on the newest section will be limited to 200km/h until ERTMS testing is completed. Journey times will be further reduced when the system is fully operational.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The twin-unit 2ES20 asynchronous traction freight locomotive will be capable of operating under 3kV dc and 25kV ac electrification systems.

 

The agreement was signed by RZD president Mr Vladimir Yakunin, TMH CEO Mr Andrey Bokarev and Alstom Transport CEO Mr Henri Poupart-Lafarge.

 

TR Trans, the 50:50 joint venture between Alstom and TMH, will now set up a development team for the 2ES20 project with the aim of finalising the technical design by September. The first prototype locomotive will be ready for testing by September 2013 and will be delivered to RZD by December 2014.

 

The partners already have a contract to supply 200 2ES5 25kV twin-section freight locomotives to RZD, which was signed in May 2011. The first 2ES5s are currently undergoing trials and will enter service at the end of this year.