Prototype News

Tram order announced as Spårväg City launched

News from Railway Gazette International - Mon, 08/23/2010 - 05:48

SWEDEN: Trams returned to central Stockholm with ceremonies to launch Spårväg City on August 21, and free rides were provided before the start of revenue service two days later. The Spårväg City project has seen the 3·2 km Djurgårdsstaden heritage tram line modernised, rebranded as Line 7 and extended a short distance west to Sergels Torg from the previous terminus at Norrmalmstorg.

The day before the launch Bombardier Transportation announced a €21m contract to supply six new 70% low-floor Flexity Classic trams for the line. Stockholm transport authority SL will lease the cars from Norwegian financial services group DnB NOR, with delivery scheduled for March to July 2011.

Meanwhile, Bombardier and DnB NOR have arranged for SL to lease three Flexity Classic trams from Frankfurt and three from Norrköping until the new cars are delivered. These are being used to provide a 15 min frequency service, doubled in the peaks.

SL has awarded heritage tram operator Stockholms Spårvägar a contract to operate the route until the end of 2013, with an option for a further two years. Line 7 is to be extended from west to Hornsberg and northeast Ropsten by 2014, and SL intends to award a long-term operating contract for the extended service during 2011.

The Norrmalmstorg - Waldemarsudde heritage service run by SS since the line was reinstated in 1991 continues to operate at weekends, now designated Line 7N.

Categories: Prototype News

AECOM buys Tritech Rail

News from Railway Gazette International - Sun, 08/22/2010 - 21:00

UK: International technical and management support services company AECOM has acquired Tritech Rail, a civil engineering consultancy specialising in rail infrastructure surveying, design and electrification work.

'We are now able to offer clients a broader range of services including infrastructure surveying and design, route clearance and structure gauging analysis, project and technical support from feasibility through to commissioning', said David Watters, Managing Director of AECOM's European Transportation business.

Wigan-based Tritech was founded in 1999 as a permanent-way engineering consultancy. It has undertaken surveying for the East London Extension and Derby Etches Park depot projects, and design work for London Underground's Victoria Line upgrade and the Thameslink programme. Outside the UK it has undertaken surveying for Dublin's DART.

Categories: Prototype News

AECOM buys Tritech Rail

News from Railway Gazette International - Sun, 08/22/2010 - 21:00

UK: International technical and management support services company AECOM has acquired Tritech Rail, a civil engineering consultancy specialising in rail infrastructure surveying, design and electrification work.

'We are now able to offer clients a broader range of services including infrastructure surveying and design, route clearance and structure gauging analysis, project and technical support from feasibility through to commissioning', said David Watters, Managing Director of AECOM's European Transportation business.

Wigan-based Tritech was founded in 1999 as a permanent-way engineering consultancy. It has undertaken surveying for the East London Extension and Derby Etches Park depot projects, and design work for London Underground's Victoria Line upgrade and the Thameslink programme. Outside the UK it has undertaken surveying for Dublin's DART.

Categories: Prototype News

Track component firm bought

News from Railway Gazette International - Sat, 08/21/2010 - 21:00

USA: Atlantic Track & Turnout Co has purchased the assets of Memphis-based Mid-South Rail.

The acquisition will augment Atlantic's specialist trackwork manufacturing capacity, particularly in the areas of highly engineered products such as spring frogs. Atlantic will now sell reconditioned switches crossings and other railway equipment produced by Mid-South.

Categories: Prototype News

Track component firm bought

News from Railway Gazette International - Sat, 08/21/2010 - 21:00

USA: Atlantic Track & Turnout Co has purchased the assets of Memphis-based Mid-South Rail.

The acquisition will augment Atlantic's specialist trackwork manufacturing capacity, particularly in the areas of highly engineered products such as spring frogs. Atlantic will now sell reconditioned switches crossings and other railway equipment produced by Mid-South.

Categories: Prototype News

Gold Coast groundbreaking

News from Railway Gazette International - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 21:00

AUSTRALIA: Queensland Premier Anna Bligh turned the first sod on the A$949m Gold Coast Rapid Transit project at the site of the new Gold Coast University Hospital in Southport on August 1.

The event marked the start of work by Leighton Contractors on the shell of the terminus station at Griffith University. Construction of the station floor, walls and roof will involve the removal of 18000 tonnes of soil and installation of more than 550 bored piles.

Three consortia have been shortlisted for the PPP contract to design, build, operate and maintain the 13 km light rail corridor from Griffith University to Broadbeach, which is due to open in 2014. They are:

• GC Connect: MTR Corp, John Holland, Itochu Corp and Royal Bank of Scotland Group;
• Move GC: Veolia Transport, Alstom, Leighton Contractors and Macquarie Capital Group;
• GoldlinQ: Keolis, Downer EDI, Bombardier Transportation, McConnell Dowell Constructors and Plenary Group.

Selection of a preferred bidder is expected in March 2011.

Categories: Prototype News

Gold Coast groundbreaking

News from Railway Gazette International - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 21:00

AUSTRALIA: Queensland Premier Anna Bligh turned the first sod on the A$949m Gold Coast Rapid Transit project at the site of the new Gold Coast University Hospital in Southport on August 1.

The event marked the start of work by Leighton Contractors on the shell of the terminus station at Griffith University. Construction of the station floor, walls and roof will involve the removal of 18000 tonnes of soil and installation of more than 550 bored piles.

Three consortia have been shortlisted for the PPP contract to design, build, operate and maintain the 13 km light rail corridor from Griffith University to Broadbeach, which is due to open in 2014. They are:

• GC Connect: MTR Corp, John Holland, Itochu Corp and Royal Bank of Scotland Group;
• Move GC: Veolia Transport, Alstom, Leighton Contractors and Macquarie Capital Group;
• GoldlinQ: Keolis, Downer EDI, Bombardier Transportation, McConnell Dowell Constructors and Plenary Group.

Selection of a preferred bidder is expected in March 2011.

Categories: Prototype News

GAUTRAIN’S “THIRD-WORLD BUREAUCRACY”

News from Railways Africa - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 01:44

Letter in the Johannesburg Sunday Times, 115 August 2010:

“I travelled on the Gautrain on 13 July 2010 with two overseas visitors, a small baby and my son with his five-year-old daughter. We were helped efficiently on the outward journey [to Sandton] but, coming back, we jumped on the train just as it was leaving, to return to Rhodesfield. No staff in sight, or any info of where we were to sit for Rhodesfield.

“When we arrived at Rhodesfield, the doors did not open and we had to carry on to the airport. We then alighted and returned to the same train only to be told by the most senior lady worker that we would have to return to Sandton and come back again. Really! We were definitely not going to do that. We then proceeded to the back of the train and she told us in no uncertain terms that we could not go back there. She eventually did take us back there and we alighted at Rhodesfield.

“There are only three stations , so why don’t the doors open to allow people off? We were not impressed with this third-world bureaucracy.”

Categories: Prototype News

CHIPATA-MCHINJI LINE TO OPEN

News from Railways Africa - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 01:39

The Chipata-Mchinji line will be officially opened on 27 August, Zambian Eastern Province minister Isaac Banda told the press. The government has invited Malawian and Mozambique officials to attend the function.

Banda said the date was set to coincide with the hosting of this year’s Kulamba traditional ceremony of the Chewa-speaking people of Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, scheduled to take place in Katete on 28 August.

Building of the Chipata-Mchinji railway was launched in 1982 as a bilateral project between Zambia and Malawi but the Zambian Government abandoned it 10 years afterwards because of lack of funds. The scheme was revitalised in 2006 by late president Levy Mwanawasa.

In 2009, the government allocated another K10 billion in the national budget for completion of the line.

Categories: Prototype News

150TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEM TRAIN TO CULLINAN

News from Railways Africa - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 01:39

On Sunday 26 September, Friends of the Rail will be running a special steam train from Hermanstad (Pretoria) to Cullinan and return. This is to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first public train to run in South Africa (Durban to the Point in 1860).

The September run, double-headed by class 19D and 24, will be free in a reserved coach to all paid up members of the Railway Society of Southern Africa and to members of Reefsteamers. Staff are to dress in period costume (old SAR guards’ and ticket collectors’ uniforms). There is to be a short ceremony with invited guests and a run-past at Cullinan before the return departure.

Contact Arno on 082 293 4616 for enquiries and bookings

Categories: Prototype News

TANGA-MUSOMA RAILWAY

News from Railways Africa - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 01:38

East African Community (EAC) secretary-general Juma Mwapachu says a new railway is being planned to link the port of Tanga in Tanzania with Musoma on Lake Victoria, with onward connection to Kampala in Uganda, “to boost the economy and facilitate smooth implementation of the bloc’s “common market protocol.” It is by no means a new concept, having been on the drawing board far too long, in the view of press commentators. Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has been quoted saying the Musoma link was “the lifeline of the Uganda of his dreams”.

With a rated capacity for 4.1 million tonnes of dry cargo, 6 million tonnes of bulk liquids, 3.1 million tonnes of general cargo and a million tonnes of containerised traffic, the port of Dar-es-Salaam port is severely stretched. It handles about 95% of Tanzania’s international trade in addition to serving neighbouring landlocked countries such as Zambia, Malawi, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Development at the port of Tanga, with a current annual handling capacity of 500,000 tonnes, would reduce the load on Dar meaningfully

Categories: Prototype News

WESTERN CAPE METRORAIL: “NEAR TERMINAL DECLINE”

News from Railways Africa - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 01:38

This article appeared in Blits, newsletter of Western Cape Metrorail, on 5 August 2010. It was reprinted from the Cape Argus:

“Let nobody deceive themselves, Metrorail in the Western Cape is in near terminal decline. We have this on no lesser authority that the national minister of transport. Speaking in the National Council of Provinces in February, he said that unless there was urgent and significant investment in Metrorail, then the commuter rail systems would collapse in every major city in SA in the next 10 years. ’There has been no such investment, and to the best of my knowledge, none is planned, despite government promises of massive infrastructural investment. If Cape Metrorail collapses, it will take the whole public transport system down with it, and all our very real hopes and plans for creating a great world city will turn to dust. Greater Cape Town will become an urban sprawl, its transport arteries clogged and congested; its atmosphere even more polluted; its economy stagnating and its apartheid configuration forever institutionalised.

‘Currently, Metrorail carries over half of our commuters. It operates on less than 60% of the trainsets it requires. Those it has are, to the greatest extent, long past their scrapping date. The result is grossly overcrowded peak hour trains that are almost invariably late, often because a train ahead of them has broken down.

‘At the heart of the deteriorating quality of rail infrastructure is the national government’s underinvestment in rail services. As the rolling stock deteriorates and the infrastructure crumbles, the number of Metrorail passengers has increased by 150,000 over the last 3 years as the current economic recession bites. I have seen at first-hand the misery of the daily commute to work or school, particularly for women and schoolchildren on my numerous train trips since becoming minister. Bluntly, the current state of rail passenger services is an affront to the human dignity of commuters.

‘We need at least 40 additional trainsets to provide decent passenger rail services. The greatest needs are on the Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain lines and on the section from Kraaifontein to Bellville. We need trains that get people to work on time, that are safe and that operate for 18 hours a day, and don’t close down at 7.00 pm. We need scheduled road-based transport that gets commuters to the stations, or to their destinations in areas where there is no rail transport. But above all, Metrorail needs to be recapitalised.

‘What then is the problem? Lucky Montana, the CEO of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) and Metrorail, shares the concern of the national minister and myself. Prasa’s capital requirements have been known to its parent Department of National Transport for years. National Transport does not have budget to meet those capital requirements.
‘Successful cities and urban regions around the world are investing heavily in public transport, with significant benefits for their citizens, the environment, the economy and in the reduction of energy costs. In the end, we have learned that nothing more profoundly determines the future of our cities – for better or worse – than their public transport systems.

‘Unlike Los Angeles, and despite the limitations of our mountains and the sea, we already have a surprisingly good commuter rail network. If its creaking infrastructure and its shortage of rolling stock is addressed, it could carry a million commuters a day, reliably and safely. This is the Metrorail I am determined to see in the Western Cape. A rehabilitated Metrorail then becomes the basis for integrating bus rapid trans¬port and conventional bus and taxi operations into a public transport system that will transform the lives of our commuters; invigorate our local economy; bridge the apartheid barriers of the City; reverse the increasing congestion on our roads and improve the quality of life for all.

‘It is clear to me that for this vision to be realised there needs to be one central authority for transport in the metropolitan area, embracing Cape Town; Paarl, Stellenbosch and Malmesbury. This authority would include all the major public transport players including Metrorail. There is also considerable private sector interest that needs to be accommodated. Simultaneously, a sustainable public trans¬port funding model needs to be developed. We have the expertise in Cape Town to do both of these, and there is also some R900m of subsidy that National Treasury provides for the various transport operations in the Metro.

‘At the heart of any sustainable funding solution lies effective integration. This implies rationalisation of services; appropriate bus configurations; schedules based on passenger needs; removal of duplication and competition; integrated fares and excellent operational management. Many of the urban public transport systems around the world are driving down passenger/mile costs at the same time as they are increasing market shares and improving services.

‘In Cape Town we have special challenges because our highest commuter densities are far from the city centre and our commutes are, by international standards, very long. They are, however, challenges, and not insuperable obstacles. To move effectively toward both of these goals, the city and the province are developing seamless co-ordination and a common vision. Last year we formed the transport steering committee made up of the top political and administrative management in transport; finance and law enforcement from the city and the province to achieve just that.

‘Whilst I and my department are totally committed to improving public transport, the challenge is daunting. Bureaucracies will have to be breached; long-held assumptions overturned; sceptics converted, and, in the final analysis, National Treasury persuaded that the proposal is financially sound and in the best public interest.

‘In my first days of office, I asked one of the most respected academic elders in the province what were those things that this administration should and could do that would most positively improve the lives of our people. Without hesitation he replied “fix education and get a decent public transport system going”.
Both of those undertakings are under way. Neither are easy nor short-term. Both require the active collaboration of other spheres of government. Nevertheless, by 2014, we will have tangible results to show, and irreversible processes will be under way’”.

Categories: Prototype News

BOND ISSUE TO HELP FUND NAIROBI LINE

News from Railways Africa - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 01:33

Kenya Railway Corporation (KRC) plans to issue bonds to fund part of a $US200 million upgrade to the rail system in the capital Nairobi, Mugo Kibati, head of the government’s long-term development plan (“Vision 2030”), told reporters on 16 August.

A new 7km rail line is to link the capital’s airport to the city centre. The project includes upgrading 160km of existing track in Nairobi. Kenya’s Treasury has allocated $23.65 million this fiscal year (July-June) for the work. “We expect construction to start in the next 60 days,” KRC managing director Nduva Muli said on 16 August.

Categories: Prototype News

THEY WENT THE EXTRA MILE

News from Railways Africa - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 01:16

During the period 11 June to 11 July, the 22 eight-coach trainsets allocated to Cape Town’s Southern Line operated an additional 68 weekday, 43 Saturday and 26 Sunday services . According to Metrorail, these extra trips were well supported. At the end of July, timetables reverted to normal.

Categories: Prototype News

LATEST ON UGANDA & RVR

News from Railways Africa - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 01:12

In the words of The EastAfrican, what has been going on at Rift Valley Railways (RVR) “involves a colourful cast of inept public officials and World Bank advisors, scheming businessmen and profiteers, political sharks, an ambitious and untouchable Kenyan investment house and a brash private equity operator from Egypt with lots of cash.”

Ugandan businessman Charles Mbire is said to have acquired his 15% stake in the Rift Valley Railways (RVR) consortium with strong backing from the World Bank’s private
sector lending arm and German-backed development lender KfW. This is believed to pave the way for RVR to lock in loans urgently needed to fund infrastructure rehabilitation and to buy rolling stock. Reportedly “four new lenders” have made commitments. Equity Bank is said to have signed a $US20 million deal. African Development Bank has committed $30 million. The emerging Market Fund for Africa has committed $20 million.

Mbire, says The EastAfrican, was recently appointed as one of the International Monetary Fund’s regional advisors and “easily passed the extensive due diligence that IFC is obligated to carry out on its potential business partners.”

Earlier, says the paper, “it appeared like RVR’s never-ending shareholder saga was headed for more weeks of drama” with suggestions that Uganda wanted to exclude the Pakwach
and Kasese branch lines from a pending re-signing of the RVR concession. Both, serving areas targeted for economic development (including copper mining and oil exploration) were omitted from the original deal. Citadel Capital of Egypt, the new majority shareholder in RVR, has asked that the branchlines be included now.

The EastAfrican speculates that the Pakwach line “is critical because of political undercurrents. It is the link to the region that opposes Museveni most stridently. Citadel has promised Museveni that it can get trains running on the northern line in 24 months. Museveni is reportedly encouraged by this prospect. He needs to demonstrate to the people of the north that he cares for their welfare.”

Categories: Prototype News

TWO BLUE TRAINS FOR SALE: R1 ASKED

News from Railways Africa - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 01:10

Transnet is negotiating to sell the Blue Train [actually there are two sets] to the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) for R1, acting CEO Chris Wells states in Transnet’s annual report released on 10 August. He says previous attempts to dispose of Transnet’s 100% shareholding in the luxury train service were terminated when a deal could not be reached with the preferred bidder. Prasa then approached Transnet as a potential buyer.

Prasa Rail’s Tumisang Kga- boesele says the sale was to have been completed by the start of the 2010-11 financial year, but Prasa was awaiting confirmation of state financial support for the Blue Train, which is forecast to make a R65m loss in 2010-11. “When we took over Shosholoza Meyl we only received R400m in subsidies, yet we had to carry a loss of R1.2bn. We cannot afford to have the added cost of the Blue Train without additional support,” he explained.

Categories: Prototype News

TUNIS: ALSTOM TO SUPPLY MORE CITADIS TRAMS

News from Railways Africa - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 01:04

The Tunis transit authority, Transtu, has awarded Alstom a €58 million contract to supply 16 additional Citadis tramsets, as well as maintenance services for its entire existing fleet. The new vehicles will be identical to the 39 delivered between 2007 and 2009. In operation since October 2007 on the network’s line 1, the trams carry over 460,000 passengers per day. Tunis was the first city in the Maghreb region to acquire the Citadis technology. Algiers, Casablanca, Constantine, Oran and Rabat now also utilise vehicles from the Citadis tramway range.

Categories: Prototype News

GAUTRAIN FEEDER BUS STRIKE

News from Railways Africa - Fri, 08/20/2010 - 01:03

On 17 August, the Gautrain bus service, which operates feeder routes to the Sandton, Marlboro and Rhodesfield stations, came to a complete standstill when the drivers embarked on an illegal strike related to wage demands. The Gautrain bus operating company, Mega Express, was able to come to an agreement with the employees, who agreed to return to work on 18 August.

The strike came without notice and in spite of an industry-wide wage agreement established earlier this year at the South African Road Passenger Bargaining Council.

Categories: Prototype News

Wagon wheelsets

News from Railway Gazette International - Thu, 08/19/2010 - 21:00

FRANCE: Wheel and axle supplier GHH-Valdunes entered the wheelset maintenance business with the inauguration of a dedicated workshop in June.

Located at its existing Trith-Saint-Léger production near Valenciennes, the European Wheelset Centre is focused primarily on the market for wagon wheelsets. Liberalisation of the rail freight sector across Europe in recent years has seen the emergence of many new operators who are looking for suppliers and contractors offering a fast and high quality service at low cost.

With European regulations introducing the certified Entity in Charge of Maintenance from May 2009, the maintenance market which had been dominated by state-owned incumbents is starting to open up; GHH-Valdunes estimates that it could eventually be worth as much as €18bn a year.

EWC will offer services over a 800 km radius, covering France, Benelux, Germany, Switzerland and northern Italy. It is designed to overhaul more than 100 types of wheelset, with a target time of 15 days, including transport.

GHH-Valdunes is already negotiating with several potential customers including SNCF, SNCB and wagon leasing group Nacco. The company expects its turnover from service activities to rise five-fold to €10m/year by 2014.

Categories: Prototype News

Budget crunch hits Czech rail projects

News from Railway Gazette International - Thu, 08/19/2010 - 07:23

CZECH REPUBLIC: On August 9 Transport Minister Vít Bárta called an immediate halt to all railway upgrading projects being undertaken by infrastructure manager SZDC with funding from the State Transport Infrastructure Fund.

The move is part of aggressive austerity measures announced by the new government which came to power in July; Bárta is faced with a shortfall of KC4bn this year and the need to cut KC17bn from the transport infrastructure budget.

The embargo affects 31 rail projects valued at KC90·2bn, mostly for upgrading work on transit corridors 3 and 4. They include Praha - Plzen - Cheb, Praha - Tábor - Ceské Budejovice and Detmarovice - Ceský Tesín - Mosty u Jablunkova, modernisation of the junctions at Olomouc and Prerov and electrification of the Otrokovice - Zlín - Vizovice route. Other projects to be suspended include the installation of GSM-R and ETCS.

Several controversial schemes have been stopped at the planning stage, such as relocation of the main station in Brno and construction of a new alignment through Ústí nad Orlicí.

Except for safety-related works, no more construction will be undertaken this year, and the ban may extend into 2011 unless the government can negotiate lower prices. The road sector is also affected, with most highway construction schemes also halted.

Bárta believes that construction costs are too high, and there have been suggestions that some of the bigger companies have incorporated profit margins of up to 20% in their bids. The minister plans to launch a thorough investigation into the pricing, quality and timekeeping of existing contracts before allowing work to resume.

According to Vaclav Matyas of the country’s association of civil engineering contractors SPS, the firms would be willing to negotiate changes to the contracts, deleting ‘nonsensical’ elements such as noise protection barriers in open country. However, cutting unit costs would be more difficult, and if a compromise cannot be reached the whole affair may end up in court.

Categories: Prototype News