International Railway Journal - January 2008 - (Page 7) In brief Morocco to open three new lines OROCCAN Railways (ONCF) plans to open three new lines during the first half of this year. These comprise a 45km line to serve the new port of Tangiers Med, a 50km link to enable trains to run directly from Tangiers to Rabat and Casablanca without having to reverse at SidiKacem, and a 117km branch from Taourit to Nador in the northeast of Morocco. The first phase of Tangier Med port opened in July 2007 and has an initial capacity of 3.5 million containers a year rising to 8.5 million by 2015. ONCF expects to carry 250,000 TEUs a year and operate between six and 10 train a day. Renault, France, is to build a new car factory near the port which will produce up to 400,000 cars a year. Renault has approached ONCF to transport cars from the factory to the port. continued from page 5 France Marseille’s modernised SaintCharles station was completed in December 2007 at a cost of ƒ230 million. The station serves the TGV Mediterranée line from Paris. M India NGEL Trains is leasing 14 five-car and four four-car Stadler Flirt emus for use in the MaasRhein-Lippe network, which runs from Dusseldorf to Oberhausen, Dortmund and Hamm, and between Venlo (in the Netherlands), Mönchengladbach, Düsseldorf, Hagen, and Hamm, operated by Keolis. The order is valued at ƒ85 million and the trains will be delivered by the 2009 timetable change. A Electrification of the Tirupati Katpadi line has been completed at a cost of Rupees 1.1 billion ($US 26.9 million). Indonesia PT Zebra Nusantara and PT Kereti Api Indonesia have agreed to build a railway connecting the Jababeka industrial estate in West Java with Tanjunk Priok Port in north Jakarta. A memorandum of understanding was signed in November last year. China plans record bond issue C HINA’S Ministry of Railways is to issue Yuan 45 billion ($US 6 billion) of bonds to fund capital investment. This is the largest single amount since railway bonds were first issued in 1995 and will increase the total value of railway bonds to Yuan 113.7 billion. The money raised will be used to fund the purchase of locomotives and rolling stock and 21 railway projects. These include the construction of a second line between Hailar and the inland port of Manzhouli on the Russian border to relieve freight congestion on the existing 186km line, a passenger line between Zhengzhou and Xi’an, and electrification of the Qinshihuang - Shenyang line. Japan The Construction and Transport Ministry plans to revise legislation to support local railway operators. It will approve a two-tier system whereby local governments can own railway facilities and land on which they lie, and lease them free of charge to operators. The ministry also plans to revise the subsidies to improve operators’ ability to fund infrastructure repairs. Angel orders locos for B-Cargo NTV poised to order HS fleet I L EASING company Angel Trains has awarded Bombardier a contract to supply and maintain 35 Traxx multi-system electric locomotives, which will be leased to Belgian National Railways’ (SNCB) freight arm B-Cargo. The order is part of a master purchase agreement signed in 2005, and takes the number of Traxx locomotives on order for B-Cargo up to 40. The 10-year maintenance contract covers preventive and corrective maintenance, which will be carried out by SNCB employees at SNCB workshops under the supervision of Bombardier. The total value of the contract is ƒ175 million, which includes the initial order of five locomotives and maintenance. CB Rail also placed a ƒ57 million order in December for five ac and 10 multi-system locomotives equipped with the European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2. TALY’s new open-access high-speed rail operator, Nuevo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), plans to award a contract this month for a fleet of up to 25 high-speed trains. Three companies are bidding for the contract: Alstom with its new AGV, Bombardier with Zefiro, and Siemens’ Velaro. Mr Giuseppe Sciarrone, one of the founders of NTV, refuted press reports that the contract had already been awarded to Alstom. “We are still deciding which company to award the contract to,” he told IRJ. “We will present the project and announce our final decision on the trains later this month. We plan to start the services by the end of 2010.” Sciarrone is managing director of open-access freight operator Rail Traction Company and a former head of passenger services with Trenitalia, with which NTV will compete. NTV is led by Mr Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, who is chairman of Fiat, president of Ferrari, and chairman of Confindustria. Netherlands Railion started operating on the Betuwe route in December last year, promising journey time improvements of 90 minutes. Railion is fitting 22 series 6400 locomotives with European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) equipment for use on the line in addition to 26 series 189 locomotives already fitted. Passenger growth on Arriva’s Friesland and Groningen operations is said to be around 20% - and in places on its services as high as 40%. It follows the introduction of new Stadler GTW dmus, but in response to this growth, Arriva has ordered three more trains to try to cope with demand. Poland Railfreight volumes rose by just 0.2% in the third quarter of last year following a good IRJ January 2008 7
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