Spanish government ratifies Renfe break-up T
HE Spanish cabinet has ratified legislation that will see national train operator Renfe broken up into independent passenger, freight, maintenance, and rolling stock companies. Initially, all four companies
will remain 100% owned by Renfe, although they will eventually be privatised. The law will also facilitate
the breakup of metre-gauge operator Feve, which will be split between Renfe and Adif,
HKX launches open-access service
AMBURG-Köln-Express (HKX) launched its first services on July 23 between Hamburg and Cologne in competition with German Rail’s (DB) hourly Intercity service. One daily round trip is being offered initially, with up to two additional trains a day at weekends.
H HKX’s lowest advance-
purchase fare is ƒ20 for a single journey from Hamburg to Cologne, compared with DB’s lowest fare of ƒ29. The price rises to ƒ60 for tickets purchased on board - HKX does not have any ticket offices at stations - compared with ƒ83 for a walk-on ticket for travel on a DB train. The service is being
operated by ES64 U2 electric locomotives, four of which have been leased from MRCE with coaches leased from Netinera. The extra weekend trains are being operated using stock hired from Veolia. These coaches will be
replaced by HKX’s own refurbished vehicles once they have been approved for operation in Germany by the Federal Railway Agency (EBA).
PEAKING at the weekly cabinet meeting on July 15, Israel’s prime minister Mr Benjamin Netanyahu announced the introduction of an improved train service between Tel Aviv and Be’er Sheva. The journey time for the 107km trip has been cut
IRJ September 2012 Mauro Moretti explains the features of the new train.
ETR 1000 Frecciarossa emu was unveiled at the Rimini Meeting festival on August 19 by Italian prime minister Mr Mario Monti. The event offered the first glimpse of the high-speed trains, 50 of which were ordered in August 2010 from a consortium of Bombardier and AnsaldoBreda in a deal worth ƒ1.2bn. Among the dignitaries joining Monti for the unveiling were: Mr Giuseppe Orsi, president of Finmeccanica; Mr Alberto Rosania president of AnsaldoBreda; the managing
from 1h 16min to 55 minutes, and the train frequency increased. Netanyahu says a further reduction in the journey time is planned which will save another 10 minutes. This follows the completion of upgrades and track- doubling on the 87km
Trenitalia unveils ETR 1000 mock-up A
FULL-SIZE mock-up of Trenitalia’s forthcoming
director of AnsaldoBreda Mr Maurizio Manfellotto; Mr Roberto Tazzioli, managing director of Bombardier Italy; FS CEO Mr Mauro Moretti; Mr Vincenzo Soprano, CEO of Trenitalia; and Mr Michele Mario Elia CEO of Italian Railway Network (RFI). The ETR 1000 is based on Bombardier’s Zefiro platform, and represents the first order for the V300 variant. The eight-car trains will be capable of reaching 400km/h on 25kV ac lines, and will raise the commercial speed of Trenitalia’s high-speed services to 360km/h.
Israeli premier launches improved train service S
southern section of the line. The work also included realigning the Lod - Kiryat Gat section, constructing 19 grade separations, expanding Ramla, Kiryat Gat and Be’er Sheva stations, and building new stations at Lehavim-Rahat and Kefar Menahem.
and will also give open-access passenger operators use of the network from July 2013. Meanwhile Mrs Ana Pastor, Spain’s development minister, has justified the privatisation of Renfe and Adif on the basis of their ƒ2.5bn annual cost to the exchequer. Pastor revealed that in 2011, Renfe made a loss of ƒ100m and has an accumulated debt of ƒ5.2bn. For its part, Adif lost more than ƒ200m and carries debts of more than ƒ15bn.
In brief Argentina
“The case of Feve is the most striking,” says Pastor. “Its revenues barely cover 25% of its expenses, because of the inefficient management of its services.” The company which currently has 1857 employees, lost ƒ147.8m last year and has a debt of ƒ530m.
Pastor says the legislation
will provide a framework for reforming the track access charging regime, and new operators will be able to hire rolling stock from Renfe.
The Argentine province of Salta has reintroduced regional services on the Belgrano Cargas metre-gauge line between Salta and General Güemes, 45km to the east. Two dmus have been refurbished for the service which is operated by State Railway Operating Company (Sofse).
Canada
Genesee & Wyoming and a new subsidiary, KeRail, have signed a contract with Tata Steel Minerals Canada to transport 3.8 million tonnes of iron-ore per year from a new mine near Schefferville, Quebec. KeRail will build and operate a 21km line that will connect the mine to the Tshiuetin Rail Transportation yard in Schefferville, where it connects with an existing line
to the port of Sept-Iles. A group of mining companies has agreed to help fund a feasibility study by CN into a $C 5bn ($US 4.95bn) 800km line to connect mines north of Schefferville with Sept-Iles. The line could generate annual revenues of more than $C 2bn for CN.
Estonia
CNR, China, has started delivery of 16 DF7G-E centre- cab freight locomotives to EVR Cargo. The locomotives are the first to be delivered to a European Union customer by a Chinese supplier.
France
The Port of Bordeaux has awarded Eurotunnel subsidiary Europorte Socorail an eight-year contract to operate and maintain railway infrastructure in the port.
Germany
The European Commission is to contribute ƒ22m to a ƒ120m project to electrify the 74km Reichenbach - Hof line by 2013. DB Networks plans to extend the electrification
beyond Hof to Nuremberg. Germany’s Federal Railway Agency (EBA) has approved the operation of 835m-long freight trains between Hamburg’s Maschen yard and Padborg, Denmark.
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