In brief
SBB marks launch of national ERTMS programme: Two ETCS balises were ceremonially installed at Airolo on the Gotthard line on July 13, marking the start of a five-and-a-half year programme to install balises at 11,000 locations over the entire Swiss mainline network. The balises were installed by representatives of Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), the Swiss Federal Office of Transport (BAV), Siemens, and Thales. SBB and BAV are investing around SFr 300m ($US 307m) in the project with the aim of rolling out ETCS Level 2 across the whole network by 2025.
Ethiopia awards contract for Awash - Hara Gebeya line E
THIOPIAN Railway Corporation (ERC) has
awarded a $US 1.7bn contract to Yapi Merkezi, Turkey, for construction of the first phase of a 447km north-south line. The contract was signed in
Addis Ababa on June 27 by ERC general manager, Dr Getachew Betru, and Yapi Merkezi’s general manager, Mr Sami Ozge Ariogle. The new 375km single-track electrified line will run from
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Awash, on the Addis Ababa - Djibouti line currently under construction, via Kombolcha to Hara Gebeya. Construction will take 42 months and Yapi Merkezi will be responsible for constructing the line, a depot and yards, and an operations control centre. It will also manage procurement of equipment including signalling and telecommunications. In June, ERC awarded a
Furthermore, it aims to Austria
Dr Robert Streller has been appointed as the new chairman of rail regulator Schienen-Control, succeeding Dr Peter Baumann, who resigned on June 30.
Brazil
The government published a decree in June creating a state- owned company to manage the Rio de Janeiro - São Paulo - Campinas high-speed project. The High-Speed Rail Transport Company (Etav) will be chaired by former ANTT director general Mr Bernardo Figueiredo.
$US 1.5 billion contract to a Chinese civil engineering contractor for the construction of the northern section of the line from Woldiya/Hara Gebeya to Makelle. A final phase involves constructing a line from Woldiya east via Semera to the Djibouti port of Tadjourah to carry potash. These new lines form part of Ethiopia’s plan to create a national standard-gauge rail network totalling 4744km.
final approval to the recast of the First Railway Package, which will include provisions for strengthening national regulators, improving the framework for infrastructure investment, and ensuring fair access to the network. The Rail Recast Directive seeks to simplify existing legislation and merges all three existing directives and their successive amendments. The European Commission (EC) says the measures will tackle what it sees as low levels of competition, discriminatory practices, and the persistence of conflicts of interest, particularly in access to rail-related services such as terminals and depots. The legislation will require more detailed and frequent network statements, improved (and in certain cases guaranteed) access to rail-related services, and establishes explicit rules on conflicts of interest.
IRJ August 2012
European Parliament approves First Railway Package recast T
Parliament has given its
address the perceived lack of regulatory oversight by national authorities. The EC argues regulators in most member states are understaffed, have limited investigative powers, and cannot enforce their decisions with financial penalties. Under the recast, member states will be required to ensure the independence of regulators from other public authorities, enhancing their powers and requiring them to cooperate on cross-border issues. The recast will also require long-term strategies and multi-annual contractual agreements between states and infrastructure managers linking funding to performance and business plans. It will also require more precise and “smarter” rules on access charging, a contentious issue in many member states. While welcoming the recast, Community of European Railways and Infrastructure
Companies (CER) says it is concerned that the adequate financing of infrastructure managers lies under a “may” clause in the final text, and that ETCS-differentiated charging is likely to penalise operators running on lines not equipped with ERTMS. The recast still needs to be ratified by the member states, but the EC says the way is clear for a second reading final agreement. This will allow the legislation to come into force by the end of the year, and it is due to be transposed into the legal systems of the member states by early 2015. “These new rules will significantly change the way competition works in the rail market,” says transport commissioner Mr Siim Kallas. “This is a very substantial step forward. At last we can close loopholes in the current laws that can allow discrimination against newcomers and block operators from providing new and innovative services.”
Britain
Network Rail has given Leonhard Moll, Germany, approval to begin construction of a new sleeper factory on former railway land in Doncaster. The plant will have capacity to produce around 400,000 sleepers per year, and will come on-stream in the
second quarter of next year. DB Schenker Rail has announced it will operate at least four intermodal trains per day to and from the new London Gateway port when it opens in the fourth quarter of next year. The trains will serve a range of inland terminals. DB Schenker says it will also pursue the development of services from London Gateway to mainland Europe via the Channel Tunnel.
Canada
The Port of Vancouver board of commissioners has approved the initial phase of a $C 35m ($US 34.6m) project to build a new line into the port. The project, which involves building a trench under BNSF Railway’s Columbia River Bridge, will be completed in 2015 and will help to reduce conflicting movements between freight trains and Amtrak passenger services.
Denmark
Transport authority Trafikstyrelsen has granted permission for Danish State Railways (DSB) to return its AnsaldoBreda IC4 inter-city dmus to revenue service, although the future of the
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