International Railway Journal - October 2008 - (Page 8) News France to set up rail regulator T HE French government has decided to set up a Commission for Railway Regulation to ensure nondiscriminatory access to the French rail network. While France already has a number of open-access railfreight operators, the international passenger market will be open to competition on January 1 2010, and Air France and Veolia are in negotiations about setting up a high-speed rail operation (see page 6). The new rail regulator is expected to come into force during the first half of next year, once legislation has been approved by parliament. There will be seven commissionaires who will be appointed for seven years, plus a staff of around 60, and a budget of ƒ8 million. The same bill will also allow the creation of so-called short line freight railways in France, where operation and infrastructure management will be combined on a small scale. The objective is to make small flows of railfreight competitive and viable. SBB buys more Flirts WISS Federal Railways (SBB) has exercised an option to buy an additional 32 Stadler Flirt four-car emus for regional services. The SFr 418.6 million ($US 372.3 million) order includes 19 trains for the RER Vaudois network around Lausanne, 11 trains for Tilo services in the Ticino region of southern Switzerland, and two additional units for Basle S Argentine high-speed struggles against mounting oppostion ORE than a million Argentines have signed an internet petition opposing the construction of South America’s first high-speed line. Under Argentine law, citizens can propose laws to the Senate if the total number of signatures exceeds 1.5% of the voting population. The petition’s author says the Senate should consider using the funds to rebuild Argentina’s existing 18,000km network, suggesting that revitalising the network could be achieved for $US 3.1 billion less than the cost of the 710km Buenos Aires - Rosario Cordoba high-speed line. The government argues that the project will be selffinancing, because all of the S-Bahn Line S1 from Mulhouse (France) to Basle and Frick/ Laufenburg. The trains will be delivered in 2010. The Tilo trains will be used on cross-border services from Lugano to Varese and Como in Italy, which will be extended to Milan Malpensa Airport. Tilo already operates a fleet of 19 Flirt emus. The latest order will take SBB’s Flirt emu fleet to 74 trains. M finance will come from French banks. One of these banks, Natixis, lost $US 2.2 billion in the first half of 2008. The petition is another blow for the project, which has already been stalled by a doubling of the interest rate Argentina pays for international finance, caused by a dispute between the government and farmers over taxes earlier this year. The government recently said it would pay its entire $US 6.7 billion debt to the Paris Club nations using existing foreign exchange reserves, which would end its difficulties getting low-cost foreign finance for the highspeed line and other major infrastructure projects. New Berlin airport rail links to open on time G ERMAN Rail (DB) has announced that the new Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI) airport, which is being built to the south of the existing Schönefeld airport, will be served by rail when it opens on November 1 2011, although not all of the planned links may be completed by then. The airport will have an underground through station which will be served by an extension to the S-Bahn from Schönefeld, plus new main line links to the Görlitz and Dresden lines. However, part of the Dresden line is currently disused. It is planned to start construction at the end of next year, although not all approvals have been granted yet. “There is no doubt the infrastructure to link BBI station will be completed by October 30 2011,” says Mr Ingulf Leuschel from DB. “The eastern link is a real challenge due to the uncompleted project approval procedure, but when all the parties are on board, this link to the airport should also open on time.” RZD starts Libyan line Wabtec buys SCT for $US 300 million ABTEC, United States, has sealed a deal to buy Standard Car Truck (SCT), United States, for around $US 300 million. SCT has annual sales of R USSIAN Railways (RZD) has begun construction of the 554km section of Libya’s coastal railway from Surt to Benghazi. The $US 3.17 billion line will eventually form part of the planned east-west railway that will connect the Tunisian and Egyptian borders via Tripoli, paving the way for a North African rail network. Construction of the Surt Benghazi line will take around four years. China Railway Construction Corporation has a contract to build the adjoining 352km section of the coastal line from Al Khums to Misratah and Surt. W $US 225 million and manufactures components for locomotives and freight wagons - mainly bogies. Wabtec says it will finance the deal with a new $US 500 million credit facility. It expects the deal to be completed in the fourth quarter. Wabtec president and CEO, Mr Albert J Neupaver, said: “Standard Car Truck has a world-class portfolio of products and will be a strong strategic fit for Wabtec. The company will enable us to provide freight car customers with a broader, value-added package of bogie components and assemblies. With our combined knowledge of intrain braking forces and design capabilities, we will be uniquely qualified to advance stabilisation technology for the industry.” 8 IRJ October 2008
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