International Railway Journal - August 2007 - (Page 12)

Transit news Metronet calls in the administrators M ETRONET, the publicprivate partnership (PPP) contractor responsible for maintaining and upgrading two-thirds of the London Underground network, has gone into administration after the PPP Arbiter refused to grant the consortium emergency funding to cover a massive cost overrun. Metronet had requested London Underground pay an extra £551 million over the next 12 months to cover additional costs incurred in the upgrading of the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria (BCV) lines. However, arbiter Mr Chris Bolt ruled that Metronet would only receive an additional £121 million in infrastructure service charges, saying “if Metronet BCV had delivered in an efficient and economic way, its costs would have been lower than baseline in the first four years of the contract.” Metronet made its request to the arbiter as part of its application for an extraordinary review of the PPP agreement covering the BCV lines. The consortium had argued that London Underground had forced it to carry out work outside the scope of its existing contract and that it should be paid for any additional work undertaken. The arbiter’s 2006 annual report showed station refurbishments cost an average of £7.5 million, compared with £2 million projected in the contract, while refurbishment of track and tunnels was costing £5.7 million/km, almost double the £3 million projected cost. Metronet’s other contract for the Sub-Surface Lines (SSL) appears to have overspent by a similar amount to BCV, and the consortium was seeking a total additional payment of £992 million for the first sevenand-a-half-year period of the 30-year contract. Consortium member Bombardier says it will write off its investment in Metronet and expects to lose up to £82 million. Bombardier says the administration of Metronet will not affect its contracts to supply new trains for London Underground. Accountant Ernst & Young has been appointed as administrator, and maintenance is expected to continue as planned. However, Mr Tim O’Toole, London Underground managing director warned investment plans could be scaled back. Delhi chooses Bombardier metro trains construction in Delhi, which will treble the size of the network to 121km by 2010. The first trains will be delivered in time for the opening of the first phase 2 section from Shahdara to Dilshad Garden in December 2008. The order will be completed in time for the Commonwealth Games, which will be held in Delhi in 2010. Car bodies, bogies and propulsion systems for the first eight trains will be manufactured in Germany and Sweden, with production shifting to India. All trains delivered so far for Delhi metro have been built to a design by Rotem, Korea. Dublin metro takes shape T D T ELHI Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has awarded Bombardier a €427 million contract to supply 85 four-car Movia metro trains. The trains will be used on the lines being built as part of the second phase of metro Amsterdam awards cargo tram concession HE MUNICIPALITY of Amsterdam has awarded City Cargo Amsterdam (CCA) a 10-year concession to operate freight trams on the city’s light rail network. The decision to award the concession follows a successful trial in March, when CCA used a converted passenger-carrying LRV (pictured). CCA expects to start commercial services in the second half of 2008 using 10 purpose-built freight LRVs, which have yet to be ordered. A fleet of 400 “E-car”, electrically-powered trolleys will be provided to transport goods between the LRVs and customers’ premises. CCA plans eventually to have a fleet of 50 LRVs serving 13 E-car interchange points around the city. The project will require investment of around €150 million and must operate without subsidy from the municipal authorities. HE IRISH Railway Procurement Agency has unveiled its preferred route for Dublin’s planned orbital light metro line. Metro West will run for 25km from Tallaght in the western suburbs of the city to Blanchardstown and Abbotstown before joining the planned Metro North line at Metropark. The line will have 20 stations, three of them with park-and-ride facilities. Interchanges with the Luas light rail network will be at Tallaght and Belgard. Three potential maintenance depot sites have been identified at Abbotstown, adjacent to the National Sports Campus, and Silloge. The line will be built as a public-private partnership and construction is expected to start in 2009-10 with opening planned for 2014. Bombardier has formed a consortium with Spain’s Formeto Construcciones y Contrats (FCC), Macquire Bank, and Allied Irish Banks to bid for the contract to build Dublin’s first light metro line. FCC says Transdev, France will run Metro North if the consortium succeeds in its bid for the €2 billion project. 12 IRJ August 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of International Railway Journal - August 2007

Contents This month News Market News Transit News News Analysis Voith Goes For Maxima Impact First Gauge-Changeable Loco Under Test Power Surge China Feels the Need For Speed A Firm Foundation For Chinese High-Speed Testing Times on the Betuwe Route Tough Tests For Mass Transit Software A Measure of Success Rendezvous Full Contact List Advertisers Index The Last Word

International Railway Journal - August 2007

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