In brief
track electrified line will be designed for 160km/h operation.
Norway
Norwegian State Railways (NSB) says passenger numbers rose by 2.6% last year to 53.8 million. The increase is attributed to growing commuter and short-distance regional traffic, particularly on services from Oslo to Skien, Lillehammer, and Halden.
Spain
JR East begins 320km/h operations
AST Japan Railway Company (JR East) began scheduled operations at 320km/h on the Tohoku Shinkansen with the timetable change on March 16. Series E5 Hayabusa trains now operate at up to 320km/h on the
E
Utsunomiya - Morioka section of the Tohoku Shinkansen, reducing the journey time for the 713km trip between Tokyo and Shin-Aomori to 2h 59m. On the same day JR East also introduced Series E6 Super Komachi high-speed
2015 PTC deadline will not be met, US railways warn
freight railways have warned the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that a full implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) on around 96,500km of track will not be possible by the federally- mandated deadline of 2015. The railways say a full, safe
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rollout of the system across this vast distance in such a short period of time is an “impossible task.” “Freight railroads are determined to safely implement PTC, and have been putting vast resources and energy behind efforts to do so,” says American Association of Railroads president and CEO Mr Edward R Hamberger. “But the fact is, it’s simply impossible to safely install a reliable, fully interoperable PTC system everywhere it is required by the 2015 deadline.”
Since the US Congress passed the Rail Safety Improvement Act, which
IRJ April 2013
EPRESENTATIVES from the United States’ leading
requires the comprehensive adoption of PTC by 2015, US freight railways have spent more than $US 2.7bn on implementation.
The railways have already partially equipped 6072 out of 18,100 locomotives with PTC onboard equipment, installed PTC wayside interface units at 8504 out of 37,512 locations, and acquired 2775 of the 56,035 20Mhz base, wayside and locomotive radios required. Many of the Class I railways have also committed substantial sums to PTC implementation in their 2013 capital investment plans; CSX will spend $US 325m, Norfolk Southern $US 229m, and BNSF $US 250m.
The scale and cost of the
project is inevitably the major hurdle to implementation of PTC. Major commuter railways and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) have told Congress technological challenges and a scarcity of funds make meeting the deadline extremely unlikely.
trains on Tokyo - Akita services. The E6s operate in multiple with E5s between Tokyo and Morioka and are currently limited to 300km/h, although they will operate at up to 320km/h from Spring 2014.
EU to fund Latvian electrification
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HE European Union (EU) will allocate Lats 400m ($US 752m) towards a programme to electrify Latvia’s railway network, according to a statement issued by the Latvian Ministry of Transport, which says that the work is scheduled to begin by the end of this year and is due to be completed by 2020. The project is expected to include electrification of Riga’s suburban network as well as lines towards Ventspils, Jelgava, Krustpils, Rezekne, and Daugavpils. The European Commission selected these lines because they are potentially the strongest routes for freight traffic. The electrification
programme will require operators to spend a total of Lats 800m on new rolling stock. LDz Cargo carries around 75% of Latvia’s railfreight traffic and says that it will require Lats 500m to replace its diesel fleet. However, due to competition laws, it will not be able to raise these funds from the state or through loans from European banks.
Mr Gonzalo Ferre has been appointed president of infrastructure manager Adif, succeeding Mr Enrique Verdeguer, who stood down recently citing personal reasons.
Sri Lanka
China’s Export-Import Bank has signed a $US 278.2m loan agreement with the Sri Lankan government to finance the 115km extension of the Colombo - Galle - Matara line to Kataragama. The funds will be used for the initial 26.8km section between Matara and Beliatta, which is already under construction.
Ukraine
Ukrainian Railways (UZ) has begun a programme of modernisation works in Crimea with the aim of reducing journey times on the Kharkov - Simferopol, Dnepropetrovsk - Simferopol and Donetsk - Simferopol lines from December. Electrification equipment is also being
renewed as part of the project. Figures released by UZ show freight volumes declined 2.5% last year to 457.5 million tonnes. The decline continued into January, with monthly volumes dropping 6.9% year- on-year to 32.25 million tonnes.
United States
The government of Monterey County, California, is considering a proposal to extend the state’s Capitol Corridor inter-city passenger service south from San Jose to Salinas. The $US 135.7m project would involve the construction of new stations at Watsonville, Pajaro, and Castroville. IRJ
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Photo: RSA
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