In brief
December. This will be the first time that such machines will be used in India.
Latvia
Latvian Railways railfreight subsidiary LDz Cargo is planning to acquire 20-30 new locomotives and 1500 wagons. CEO Mr Guntis Macs said in an interview with
Nozare.lv last month that 55% of its current wagon fleet is more than 30 years old.
Macedonia
FTER a lengthy and complex decision process, Czech Railways (CD) has finally placed a reduced order for seven 230km/h Railjet trains from Siemens, worth around ƒ100m.
At the end of September
2011 CD concluded an agreement with Siemens for the delivery of 16 Railjet sets, taking over an option for additional trains from Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB). The contract award procedure was reviewed and approved by the Czech Office for the Protection of Economic Competition, which concluded that the procedure was valid because the purchase represented an extraordinary business opportunity for CD. In January CD decided to partially amend the original
HE African Development Bank (AfDB) has provided $US 500m to the East African Community (EAC), which covers Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, to roll out projects under its Railway Master Plan starting this year.
The money will be used to establish a technical unit to coordinate the upgrading of existing railways and the construction of new lines. The unit will spearhead
IRJ October 2012
CD finally approves revised Railjet order A
agreement to accommodate the requirements of foreign operating partners CD was negotiating with over future deployment of the trains. The agreement was amended so that 15 Railjet units with increased seating capacity would be delivered to CD in a modified configuration. Siemens would provide seven seven-car and eight eight-car sets (a total of 113 vehicles) with increased seating capacity instead of 112 coaches proposed in the original agreement.
CD says partial modification of the contract agreement was undertaken transparently (having been published, inter alia, in the Official Journal of the European Union), and in accordance with the applicable public procurement laws, for
planned projects including the upgrading of Tanzania’s 970km Dar es Salaam - Isaka line and construction of two new lines: a 494km extension from Isaka to Kigali in Rwanda, of which 355km will be in Tanzania and 139km in Rwanda, and a 197km line from Keza to Musongati, which will include 139km in Burundi and 58km in Tanzania. These will be the first railways to be built in Rwanda and Burundi.
the price of ƒ15.8 million. The changes have not been contested by the Czech Office for the Protection of Economic Competition or anyone else. The 206m-long trains will be used in a common pool with three ÖBB Railjet sets to operate a two-hourly Prague - Brno - Vienna - Graz service from December 2014. Traction will be provided by ÖBB class 1216 multi-system electric locomotives.
CD has an option to buy the
remaining eight trains, and it says the decision whether or not to order these trains will depend on future business needs. A decision on whether to order the remaining trains will be taken by mid-2013. ÖBB said at the end of July it had taken delivery of the last of its 51 Railjets.
East African master plan secures backing T
A feasibility study will also be carried out into the proposed establishment of the East Africa Railway Authority to coordinate rail transport in the five countries. The AfDB funding will also enable the EAC to harmonise the regulatory and legal framework for railway operations in the five member countries and carry out prefeasibility and feasibility studies of rail links within the region.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to provide the Public Enterprise for Railway Infrastructure with a ƒ46.4m 15-year loan to fund the rebuilding of the 31km Kumanovo - Beljakovce line, the first phase of a project to establish a direct rail link between Skopje and Sofia. The loan includes ƒ2.5m to help advance the second phase of the project, which will extend the line east from Beljakovce to Kriva Palanka.
Norway
The government has unveiled a NKr 12.6bn ($US 2.2bn) plan to upgrade and electrify the 125km Trondheim - Steinkjer line. The project includes track doubling on the Trondheim - Stjørdal section, extension of passing loops, and a new tunnel near Devla.
Poland
Infrastructure manager PKP PLK has invited project planning tenders for the upgrading of the 150km Otwock - Deblin - Lublin section of the Warsaw - Lublin line. The project will be implemented between 2015 and 2020 at a cost of around Zlotys 4bn ($US 1.29bn).
Tanzania
A team of 140 Chinese experts has arrived in Dar es Salaam to investigate the problems afflicting the ailing Tanzania- Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara), which is on the verge of collapse. The minister for transport, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, says that the team will submit its report next June. IRJ
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