International Railway Journal - August 2007 - (Page 8)

News DB takes over EWS and Transfesa MAV Cargo next? G ERMAN RAIL (DB) is poised to acquire all of the shares in Britain’s largest railfreight operator English Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS), and a majority shareholding in Transfesa, Spain, after the takeover plans were approved by DB’s supervisory board. Subject to approval by the relevant authorities, DB will pay around €500 million for the EWS shares. EWS is 31% owned by Canadian National (CN), and two private equity firms, Berkshire Partners, United States, and Fay Richwhite, Switzerland. It carries around 100 million tonnes of freight a year and has annual revenues of approximately €770 million. EWS subsidiary Euro Cargo Rail is one of the few operators licensed to operate freight services in France, a factor which undoubtedly has enflamed DB’s interest in acquiring EWS. Nonetheless, DB insists the acquisition will not harm its relationship with French National Railways (SNCF) and that continued cooperation with SNCF remains its “avowed aim”. Transfesa operates freight services between Spain’s 1668mm-gauge network and the European standard-gauge network using wagons with interchangeable axles. It operated 3309 million tonnekm in 2005 and has a turnover of around €290 million. The purchase of the majority shareholding in Transfesa will give DB access to Spain and Portugal. DB Logistics chairman Mr Norbert Bensel said: “EWS and Transfesa will enable us to close important gaps in the DB Logistics railfreight network. As a result, we shall be better equipped in future to offer our customers attractive products.” L-R: Mr Norbert Bensel, DB Logistics’ chairman; Mr Keith Heller, chief executive of EWS; and Mr Hartmut Mehdorn, CEO of DB. “Sniffing around” in Hungary H AVING satisfied its appetite for acquisitions in western Europe, DB is turning its attention to expansion in the east, most notably in Hungary. The planned sale of former Hungarian State Railways (MAV) freight arm MAV Cargo later this year has attracted interest from Berlin, and Mehdorn has confirmed DB is “sniffing around” the operator with a view to making a bid. However, DB looks set to face fierce competition in the race to take over MAV Cargo. The list of interested bidders reportedly includes Rail World, United States; Austrian Federal Railways; PKP Cargo, Poland; CTL Logistics, Poland; Russian Railways; and Romanian Railways Group (GFR). India plans gauge-conversions Malaysia to start key upgrade I NDIAN Railways is to spend Rs 200 billion ($US 4.5 billion) converting another 5500km of track from narrow and metre-gauge to 1676mmgauge - but no timescale for the plan has been announced. India still has around 13,000km of metre and narrow-gauge track, even though it has been converting such lines to broad-gauge for some years. One of the latest projects, conversion of the 51km Katwa - Burdwan line, is due to be completed in 2012. T RACK doubling of Malaysia’s 392km Ipoh Padang Besar line, which forms a key section of the planned Singapore-Kunming Rail Link (SKRL), will start early next year, according to Malaysian transport minister Mr Chan Kong Choy. The project is being funded as a private finance initiative although the government and the Malaysian consortium that will lay the additional track, MMC-Gamuda, are still negotiating the final cost. The upgrading and electrification of the line south from Ipoh to Rawang, near Kuala Lumpur, is already underway and completion of the Ipoh - Padang Besar section in 2013 will provide a fully double-track railway between Kuala Lumpur and the Thai border. The government says it also expects track-doubling of the Seremban - Gemas section of the Kuala Lumpur Singapore line to begin next year. It has invited Ircon, India, to participate in the project. A YEAR to the day after the inaugural passenger train ran over the Qinghai - Tibet Railway, the first container train departed from the new intermodal terminal in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on July 1 bound for Xining. The 1956km line has carried 591,000 tonnes of freight and 1.5 million passengers in its first year of operation. Kampac wins Ghana contract A CONSORTIUM led by Kampac Oil, Dubai, is to build an 800km line in Ghana, at a cost of $US 1.6 billion. The line will run from the coastal town of Takoradi to Hamile in the northwest. The project includes redevelopment of the existing line from Takoradi to Kumasi. 8 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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