Prasa awards $US 5.7bn commuter train contract to Alstom T
HE Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa)
has awarded a Rand 51bn ($US 5.7bn) contract to the Gibela Rail Transport consortium led by Alstom to supply 3600 commuter rail emu cars. Other bidders for the contract included Bombardier, CAF, and CNR China.
The contract will run for
OLLOWING speculation that Pilbara iron-ore miner Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) was considering selling its rail infrastructure as a way of reducing its debt liabilities, the company has confirmed to The West Australian newspaper that it has opened up a data room for a small
10 years and the first cars should be completed in 2015. The deal includes preferential procurement worth Rand 32.8bn to be spent on sub- contracting to black- empowered entities. Local content is expected to reach 69% by year two, and facilities owned by Transnet Rail Engineering will be used to produce the vehicles. Alstom
group of potential investors. The possible sale of a stake in FMG’s wholly-owned subsidiary The Pilbara Infrastructure (TPI), which controls the company’s rail and port interests, is being handled by Macquarie Capital. Aurizon, the newly re- badged QR National, has been
Prasa’s CEO Mr Lucky Montana says the deal will create 33,000 jobs and is the first part of plans to improve the passenger rail network. Prasa currently has a fleet of 4600 cars, many of which are nearly 40 years old.
Fortescue to sell stake in Pilbara rail assets? F
suggested as frontrunner, but has previously indicated that it would require a controlling stake, something that FMG is thought not to be keen on. “We are prepared to sell off a small percentage, [but] it won’t be a controlling interest,” FMG chief executive Mr Nev Power says.
Germany opens third-longest rail tunnel
In brief Australia
will also provide maintenance, spare parts, and technical support for 18 years starting in 2015.
Shareholders of Australia’s largest railfreight operator QR National have voted by an overwhelming majority of 99.24% to change the name of the company to Aurizon Holdings Limited.
Britain
Freightliner has received a fleet of 86 twin-platform 40ft “shortliner” wagons from VTG. The new wagons enable the operator to increase the number of 40ft containers used on its trains by over 42% compared with trains with 24 standard wagons.
Bulgaria
The Bulgarian government is inviting bids from strategic and financial investors for the privatisation of BDZ Cargo.
China
The province of Liaoning is investing Yuan 3.5bn ($US 561.5m) to electrify the 108.5km Senyang - Bohai line. Work will be carried out by the China Railway Group.
Croatia
A consortium of Italian State Railways (FS) subsidiary Italferr, Technital, and IRD Engineering has secured a ƒ5.5m design contract for the upgrade of a 60km section of the Zagreb - Rijeka line which forms part of European Corridor 5b. The three-year contract will be 85% financed through European Union funds, with the remainder from the Croatian government.
Hungary The government has T
HE twin-bore Katzenberg tunnel on the line between
Freiburg in Breisgau and Basle, Switzerland, was formally inaugurated on December 4 with an ICE-T emu and a freight train passing through the tunnel and arriving simultaneously at the southern portals.
Passengers on this symbolic
first run included German transport minister Dr Peter Ramsauer, German Rail (DB)
IRJ January 2013
CEO Dr Rüdiger Grube and Baden-Württemberg state transport minister Mr Winfried Hermann. The 9.4km tunnel, which is Germany’s third-longest, took nine years to construct and is part of a 17.6km stretch being upgraded at a cost of ƒ610m, financed by the German federal government, the European Union, and DB.
“The opening of the Katzenberg tunnel represents
an important milestone in the upgrading of the railway line between Karlsruhe and Basle,” says Grube. “It not only brings urgently-needed new capacity for passenger and freight transport on this main European line, but also reduces noise pollution for residents in this part of the Rhine valley.” The tunnel is part is a
ƒ5.7bn project to upgrade the 182km Karlsruhe - Basle line to four tracks.
designated the Forints 48.1bn ($US 214.9m) project to rebuild Békéscsaba station and the Forints 21.4bn scheme to install ETCS Level 2 on the Budapest - Ferencváros - Lokösháza line as priority projects and thus eligible to receive almost full funding
from the European Union. A branch line to Debrecen Airport will be reinstated and expanded after the government awarded Saigo Port a Forints 1.35bn grant to help develop freight transport at Debrecen Airport.
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Photo: Anitra Green
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