News Feeds

MALAYSIA: Pilgrims and tourists wanting to visit the Batu Caves and temple complex north of Kuala Lumpur can now use the KTMB Komuter service from Sentul following the opening of Batu Caves station at the end of July.

The 520m ringgit project to double-track and electrify the existing 7·5 km branch line between Sentul and Batu Caves, including construction of three intermediate stations at Batu Kentonmen, Kampung Batu and Taman Wahyu, started in November 2006. The journey from Sentul takes about 15 min. Estimated ridership is 10000 passengers/day.

Once people get into their heads that maybe the personal automobile is not really such a good idea -- in other words, after they have moved beyond the biodiesel/electric car phase, as if the only problem with the personal automobile is the fuel it uses -- they usually fixate on bicycles. I say "fixate" because this often becomes an eco-fetish like so many other such things, as if more bicycles were better, and if you could just get enough bicycles in one place, you could "save the world."

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If rhetoric could move mountains I'd like to see the Rocky Mountains moved to northern Michigan so I could view the magnificence of Lake Superior from the top of Long's Peak. Unfortunately I'm not expecting to see that day.

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CANADA: Toronto regional transport agency Metrolinx has taken over the project to provide a 'premium express rail shuttle' to Pearson International Airport, following the failure to finalise a contract with the Union Pearson Air -Link Group subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin which was selected for a finance, build and operate concession in 2003.

On July 30 Metrolinx released a statement saying 'financial market conditions prevented acceptable terms' being agreed. SNC-Lavalin said it was 'disappointed', but lenders are reluctant to finance projects where the concessionaire carries the full revenue risk and 'an agreement that met our own standards of risk tolerance could not be reached with interested lenders'.

As a result the provincial government has asked Metrolinx to design, build and own the link, which would be operated by its GO Transit commuter train division. The province will work with UPAG to build on the design work that has been completed.

Progress was delayed by a lack of consensus on route options and the choice of diesel or electric traction; a new electrification study will be released this December. The latest version of the scheme had been unveiled in January 2009, and would see 25 km of GO Transit's Georgetown route from Union Station doubled and 3·3 km of new alignment built into the airport. The spur and diesel trains are estimated to cost C$300m, with premium fares charged so the service covers its costs.

Construction has begun along the Georgetown South Corridor, with the aim of opening for the 2015 Pan American Games. More than 5 million people a year travel between the city centre and the airport, and this is predicted to reach 9 million by 2020.

• Metrolinx has placed a C$54m order for four Lovat tunnel boring machines for the Eglinton Crosstown light rail project. The initial Kennedy metro station - Jane Street section of the two-phase 31 km light rail link to Pearson airport includes an 11 km tunnel.

Mongolia's parliament has approved construction of a 1100 km railway linking the Tavan Tolgoi coal deposits with Saynshand and the existing line from Russia to Bayantumen. This 1520 mm gauge option was chosen in preference to a shorter standard gauge line to China in the hope of developing new coal export markets via Russia.

The Austrian Land of Tirol has awarded Zillertalbahn a contract for operation of the 760 mm gauge line until 2034. The Land will pay €730000 a year, and investment plans include new stock.

China's Ministry of Railways held a ceremony in Xuzhou on July 19 to mark the start of tracklaying on the 1318 km Beijing - Shanghai high speed line, which is scheduled to open in 2012.

Over the next two years DB AG is to concentrate the management of its DB Schenker freight and logistics division near Frankfurt Airport. Mainz and Essen will remain as the headquarters of DB Schenker Rail Deutschland and Schenker AG, and DB Chairman Dr Rüdiger Grube stressed that the corporate headquarters would remain in Berlin.

The Dutch Transport Ministry has allocated €18m for fitting 350 signals on the core network used by hazardous freight with an improved form of ATB in an effort to cut the number of signals passed at danger.

On July 7 Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding to undertake feasibility studies for extension of Pakistan Railways lines from Chaman to Kandahar and from the Khyber Pass to Torkham and Jalalabad.

Czech Export Bank is lending Azerbaijan €215m towards modernisation of the Baku - Boyuk Kesik line.

The UK government has delayed its decision on whether to proceed with the DfT-led Intercity Express Programme until the national comprehensive spending review is published in October. The Hitachi-led Agility Trains consortium is preferred bidder to supply a fleet of long-distance trains, but a government-commissioned review questioned the 'wisdom and practicality' of IEP 'in its present form', suggesting 'further reflection and analysis' of credible alternatives is needed.

Left unaddressed during the past 3 years in most of the debates between economists has been the problem of energy. The reason is simple: post-war economists don't do energy, except as an ever-expanding resource that the credit system and technology makes available. For the post-war economist, the supply curve of energy--save for brief lags--is always coming back into rough equilibrium with the economy.

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UK: London Underground’s first air-conditioned S-Stock train departed Wembley Park shortly after 10.30 on August 2 bound for Watford. Joining passengers on board the Metropolitan Line train were Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy and Howard Collins, Chief Operating Officer of LU.

Boris Johnson described the train as the ‘coolest ride in town’ while Howard Collins hailed the event as ‘a great day for LU staff and a proud moment for the project team’.

London Underground placed a £1·5bn order with Bombardier Transportation in 2003 to supply 191 through-gangway trains to replace its ageing Sub-Surface Line fleets. The first 58 trains will replace the 1960s A60 stock currently working the Metropolitan Line. Originally due to enter service in October, the eight-car train completed trial passenger runs on July 31 and got the all-clear to start operating three daily return trips between Wembley Park and Watford from August 2. According to Collins, the number of trips will gradually be increased over the next few weeks.

The next trainset is due to arrive in September, and the entire Metropolitan Line fleet should be deployed by the end of 2011. Following completion of enabling works, the eight-car trains, designated S8, will start running as far as Baker Street by October and eventually to Aldgate.

A further 53 trainsets for the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines will be rolled out from 2012. Delivery of the final 80 trains for the District Line is expected to start in 2013. All trains are due to be operational from 2015. However, the full capacity increases anticipated by LU will not be achieved until the existing SSL signalling has been replaced, in 2018 at the earliest. Two bidders have now been short-listed for the resignalling contract.

The Sub-Surface network comprises 300 route-km and carries one-third of LU’s 1 billion-plus annual ridership.

Read more about London Underground's upgrade programme in our interview with LU COO Howard Collins and Director of Line Upgrades David Waboso in the September issue of Metro Report International.

RUSSIA: Sapsan services were extended from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod with a ceremonial launch on July 30. 'Now this city, with its population of over a million, will be linked to Moscow and St Petersburg by a high speed, reliable, and comfortable means of transport', said RZD President Vladimir Yakunin at the city's Moskovsky station.

Sapsan services have carried over 880 000 passengers since the launch of the Moscow - St Petersburg route on December 17, with average occupancy almost 86%, according to RZD.

'Sapsan is becoming a symbol of everything new and progressive', said Yakunin. 'It is not only changing the profile of domestic rail transport. Sapsan represents our country's prudent approach to development, with an emphasis on breakthrough technology'.

Work began in 2006 to modernise infrastructure on the 460 km Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod line to accommodate the Siemens-built Velaro RUS trains. This included reconstruction of 54 platforms, upgrading 139 km of overhead line and fencing 331 km of the route. The trainsets are designed for running at up to 250 km/h, however the average speed on the Nizhny Novgorod route is around 160 km/h because of the use of existing infrastructure.

Four of the eight Sapsan trainsets are equipped for both 25 kV AC and 3 kV DC for this service. The daily through train leaves St Petersburg at 15.00, calling at Moscow at 19.20 and arriving in Nizhny Novgorod at 23.25. The return working leaves at 15.05 and arrives in St Petersburg at 23.24.

I find myself these days especially attentive to people talking about their preparations for a post-peak oil world. I am partly learning and partly measuring myself against their level of preparation. If they are, in my evaluation, further along than I am, my focus is even more intense. That has turned out to be an important clue for me about what it will take to convince the public about the dangers of peak oil.

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JORDAN: The kingdom of Jordan became the 46th member of the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail on August 1, and the first member to accede with associate status. When planned international rail services develop the country will seek full voting membership of OTIF, which provides a legal framework for international rail transport.

Jordan currently has no international rail traffic, but the Ministry of Transport wants to participate in efforts to develop interoperability as part of its plan to invest €2·6bn in rail during 2011-14 under the Arab Mashreq International Railway Network project adopted by Middle Eastern countries in 2003.

The ministry's long-term aim is for Jordan to become a transit point on a rail corridor between Europe, the Middle East and the Gulf, with connections from the Red Sea port of Aqaba to existing OTIF members Iraq and Syria and the North-South Railway now under construction in Saudi Arabia. This will provide onward links to the Gulf Co-operation Council countries. Key traffic is expected to include cement from Jordan to Iraq, reliving pressure on port facilities in Iraq.

Minister of Transport Alaa Batayneh said joining OTIF at an early stage shows 'a clear commitment to the future performance of carriage by rail geared to transcontinental requirements based on the contractual conditions for international passenger and freight traffic described in the Uniform Rules'.

• Montenegro became the 45th member of OTIF on July 1.

AUSTRALIA: July 1 saw the formal split of Queensland’s state-owned railway QR Ltd into two business units as part of the state’s privatisation strategy which will see coal and freight operator QR National listed on the Australian Securities Exchange later this year.

QR National takes over QR Ltd’s heavy haul coal operations in Queensland, together with the coal railway infrastructure, plus open access coal haulage in New South Wales and general freight and intermodal operations throughout Australia. Other parts of the state’s rail network, together with Brisbane suburban services plus inter-city and rural passenger operations, have been transferred to the new Queensland Rail, which has its headquarters at Ipswich.

Undertaking a roadshow last month to brief investors ahead of the flotation, QRN CEO Lance Hockridge said the company was now ‘Australia’s largest railway’ and predicted that the IPO would be ‘highly attractive’. Pointing out that freight demand in Australia is expected to double by 2050, he felt the biggest challenge would be keeping up with growth. Asked whether he expected QRN to become an international business, he said that ‘we have enough to do at home for now’.

On July 1 QRN announced a revised A$250m contract with Jellinbah Resources which will see 5·1 million tonnes of coal a year moved to Gladstone for export over the next 10 years. QRN expects to achieve a 30% share of the Hunter Valley coal traffic in NSW by 2012, although rival Pacific National has recently won major contracts for coal movements in Queensland and NSW worth A$320m.l

-2050 Pathways Analysis
-UK energy scenarios: working with a flawed model
-DECC publishes plans for achieving 2050 targets
-DECC lays out six possible futures for low-carbon energy

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"Transition Together", the street-by-street behaviour change programme developed by Transition Town Totnes and now being piloted in 10 other communities, has just completed analysing the data that has come back from the first 4 groups, comprising 32 households in Totnes. They have completed all 7 of the sessions set out in the workbook, and the data offers a fascinating first look at whether the process works or not. The results from the other 31 groups currently underway are expected this Autumn. Here, Fiona Ward of Transition Together shares the results that have emerged.

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FRANCE: With the aim of producing a definitive document by the end of this year, on July 12 the government published for consultation its SNIT transport infrastructure plan that should see €170bn invested over the next 20 to 30 years. Allocated 51·9% of this total, rail is the top priority with 4000 km of new construction expected to divert 2·5 billion passenger-km a year from road and 2 billion pass-km from air.

SNIT includes those high speed projects already approved under the Grenelle de l’Environnement programme, where a second package of legislation aimed at tackling climate change came into force on July 12. Projects to be launched before 2020 include LGV Sud Europe Atlantique from Tours to Bordeaux, Toulouse and the Spanish border. After 2020 work is expected to begin on a second high speed line between Paris and Lyon, running for 410 km via Orléans and Clermont-Ferrand and costing up to €12bn, as well as a second Paris – Calais route via Amiens or Rouen that would cost up to €4·8bn.

Another objective is to transfer at least 10 billion tonne-km of freight from road to rail by 2030; improving the quality and reliability of freight paths is one of the 60 specific actions identified in the SNIT programme. Freight projects include more autoroute ferroviaire services, loading gauge enhancement, electrification and work to provide capacity for longer trains.

Urban transport has been allocated 32·3% of the SNIT budget. As well as a driverless metro around Paris, projects include new light rail systems or extensions to existing networks in 18 cities.

EUROPE: 'This autumn we will send an ICE3 test train through the tunnel beneath the English Channel as part of our preparations for possible train service to London', Deutsche Bahn Chairman & CEO Dr Rüdiger Grube said during his presentation of the German national rail company's half-year results on July 28.

Grube said DB is also in talks with SNCF to launch a passenger service from Frankfurt to Lyon and Marseille from 2012, and will organise a Swiss-German rail summit in the second half of this year to build on the July 9 memorandum of understanding to expand cross-border traffic in partnership with SBB.

DB has been interested in operating international passenger services to London for some time. ICE3 trainsets do not meet current rules for carrying passengers through the Channel Tunnel, however the four-system Class 407 Velaro D trainset unveiled at Siemens' Krefeld plant in April was developed specifically for international services, and includes additional fire safety measures.

Earlier this year a review by the Intergovernmental Commission which oversees Channel Tunnel safety recommended permitting the use of non-splitable trainsets, trains shorter than the current 375 m minimum length, and rolling stock complying with the fire safety requirements of the European Technical Specification for Interoperability rather than existing Channel Tunnel-specific rules.

NETHERLANDS: State railway holding company NS has reached an agreement to sell its civil engineering subsidiary Strukton to Oranjewoud, which is active in the infrastructure, water, safety and sports sectors in Europe and the USA.

NS felt there was insufficient synergy between its other activities and Strukton, which has operating businesses covering PPP, facilities management, civil engineering and property and construction, as well as Strukton Rail which provides infrastructure, rolling stock, data and consultancy services.

The Strukton board said it supports the deal announced on July 23. 'Strukton will have a shareholder with a long-term vision for the business', said Strukton Group CEO Durk ten Wolde.

The transaction is subject to approval by the Dutch, Norwegian and Belgian competition authorities, but no objections are anticipated and completion is expected in the third quarter of this year. Strukton has 6 230 staff and reported revenue of €1·37bn and profit of €13m in 2009.

INDIA: Japan International Co-operation Agency signed a further loan agreement for the 1 483 km Western Dedicated Freight Corridor on July 26, making the planned route between Delhi and Mumbai Japan's largest official development assistance project.

The latest loan provides the Indian government with ¥1·6bn repayable over 40 years to fund design reviews and tender preparation for the 552 km second phase of the Western DFC, which will be suitable for 100 km/h running and 30 tonne axleloads.

It follows the signing in March of a ¥90·3bn loan for construction of Phase 1 between Rewari and Vadodara. Phase 2 will extend this north from Rewari to Dadri near Delhi, and south from Vadodara to Mumbai. Bids for consultancy services will be invited shortly, with a view to the design stage being completed by September 2012. The intention is that Japanese technology will be used.

India's current five-year plan puts acceleration of freight and improved access to ports among the government's top national priorities for 2007-12. The Western DFC is part of the Delhi - Mumbai Industrial Corridor Initiative, which aims to link industry and ports in six states to create an industrial belt stretching 150 km either side of the railway.

• Ircon International has invited bids for pre-feasibility studies for a Delhi - Agra - Lucknow - Varanasi - Patna high speed line.

USA: Wabtec Corp has completed the purchase of the first of two businesses which it is buying from Canada-based Global Railway Industries Ltd under agreements reached on July 14.

The acquisition of G&B Specialties Inc for $35m was completed on July 28, and Wabtec expects to close the purchase of Bach-Simpson Corp for $10m by the end of October.

Railway supply industry consolidator Global has been in default under its credit facilities since the fourth quarter of 2008. Last year a special committee was formed to assess strategic options, including debt restructuring and the sale of all or part of the company. Global is also relocating its headquarters from London, Ontario, to Lachine in Québec to reduce costs.

Founded in 1979 and based in Berwick, Pennsylvania, G&B Specialties produces track and signalling products, with 100 employees and annual revenues of $20m. Based in London, Ontario, Bach-Simpson was formed in 1946 and produces electronic instrumentation and event recorders for the rail sector, with revenues of about $10m.

Wabtec expects the transactions to be accretive in the first year. Around 15% of the sale price will be held in escrow for potential indemnification claims.

AUSTRALIA: On July 12 Victorian Premier John Brumby unveiled the routes for two rail links in Melbourne as part of the A$38bn Victoria Transport Plan launched in 2009.

The A$4·3bn Regional Rail Link involves the development of a new commuter service from West Werribee to the city, entailing construction of new tracks on the existing corridor through Sunshine and Footscray and new stations at Tarneit and Wyndham Vale. The project is designed to separate regional and suburban services, providing dedicated tracks for regional trains from Geelong, Bendigo, and Ballarat and increasing capacity on suburban routes.

The A$4·5bn Metro Rail Tunnel would link Dynon and St Kilda Road with five underground stations. This would carry a 'metro -style' service from Sunbury to St Kilda, increasing capacity by 12000 passengers/h.

Several projects in the plan are already approaching fruition. On June 6 a A$36m station was opened at Coolaroo between Roxburgh Park and Broadmeadows on the Craigieburn Line. This was followed by a ceremony at Diggers Rest on June 26 to mark the start of work to extend the 1·5 kV DC electrification by a further 15 km from Watergardens to Sunbury on MTM's Sydenham commuter line.

Meanwhile, this month will see the return of V/Line passenger trains to the 60 km Ballarat - Creswick - Clunes - Maryborough route following a A$50m project to reinstate a service withdrawn in 1993. Abigroup is undertaking civil works at Maryborough and Creswick stations while Rail Signalling Services is responsible for upgrading eight level crossings. There will be a daily Maryborough - Ballarat return service with connections to Melbourne.

UK: Network Rail has awarded Invensys Rail a £32m contract for resignalling the Thameslink route through central London. On completion, this will allow the operation of 24 trains/h between Loughborough Junction and Kentish Town.

Under the contract announced on July 26, Invensys Rail will design, supply and commission the signalling. It says that 'the equivalent of six Solid-State Interlockings' will be controlled by Westlock interlockings and Westcad computer-based control systems, to be installed at the West Hampstead and Victoria signalling centres.

The project will be rolled out in four stages, with commissioning of the first phase at Kentish Town due in April 2011 and the final stage scheduled for completion in April 2012. Resignalling forms part of Network Rails £5·5bn Thameslink Programme, which also includes longer trains to increase capacity.