News Northeast Corridor facing “major investment crisis”
In brief
between Sakari and Yoshihama which was devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The 15km Yoshihama - Kamaishi section together with the 10.5km stretch of the Kita Riasu Line between Omoto and Tanohata will reopen in April 2014.
Kazakhstan Amtrak ridership maintains upward trend T
HE president and CEO of Amtrak Mr Joseph
Boardman has warned the US government that the country’s busiest inter-city passenger railway, the Northeast Corridor (NEC) from Boston to New York and Washington DC, is facing a “major coming investment crisis that, without a solution, will mean strangled growth and deteriorating service.” “We have pushed the
current NEC infrastructure about as far as it can go, but the end of demand and growth is nowhere in sight,” Boardman told the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on April 17. “A new model for investment is needed. If we do not obtain one, the outlook for the system’s capacity and condition is grim.”
Despite the Federal Railroad Administration, Congress and Amtrak investing about $US 4bn between 1976 and 1998, the operation of the NEC still depends on major components
AMSUNG C&T, Korea, has been awarded a $A 5.59bn ($US 5.82bn) contract to construct iron-ore processing facilities together with rail and port infrastructure to serve the Roy Hill mine project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The project will include a 344km single-track heavy-haul railway which will transport 55mtpa of processed iron-ore from the mine to a dedicated port facility located south of
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despite the disruption to the network in the northeast caused by Hurricane Sandy last October. Overall ridership increased by 0.9% compared with the corresponding period in the previous financial year, reaching 15.09 million. The Northeast Corridor, which was hit badly by Sandy, saw passenger numbers fall by 1.2% to 5.48 million, although Amtrak says traffic is recovering strongly and it expects figures for the full year to show growth.
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that date back as far as 1900, particularly electrical systems and bridges, that need to be replaced. With 260 million passengers using the line each year, Amtrak says many sections are operating at or near their maximum capacity. Amtrak has outlined plans for a high-capacity, high- performance railway with a major upgrade of the existing corridor to accommodate increased commuter, intercity, and freight traffic, augmented by sections of dedicated high- speed line that would allow higher frequencies and shorter journey times (IRJ September 2012 p107).
“The investment needed to realise these plans will have to
Port Hedland.
come from a variety of sources, principally federal, but states and cities in the region will also have to play a part,” Boardman says. “Private financing will need to play a role, but these contributions will only be truly possible once the public sector has committed to this project.” At the end of March Amtrak submitted its funding request for the 2014 financial year to Congress, which asks for operating support to be reduced by 17% to $US 373m. However, Amtrak is seeking an increase in federal capital support to $US 2.07bn to fund investments in infrastructure and new equipment, much of it for the Northeast Corridor.
Samsung to build Australian heavy-haul line S
The independently-owned and operated Roy Hill railway plans to run five trains per day, each formed of three locomotives and 232 wagons and with a payload of 31,450 tonnes of ore. The major shareholder in Roy Hill is Mrs Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting which also has a stake in the GVK Hancock coal mine and rail project in Queensland’s Galilee Basin. The decision to proceed
with the rail component of the project ends speculation that ore from Roy Hill might be transported to the port on the nearby Fortescue Metals Group line, which is already operational. Pre-construction work was
previously suspended on Roy Hill’s rail project in September 2012 due to problems raising finance and a slump in global iron-ore prices. Construction is due to be completed by the end of 2015.
MTRAK says ridership on its services continued to increase steadily between October 2012 and March 2013,
President Nursultan Nazarbayev says plans announced recently to build a 1000km high-speed line between Astana and Almaty (IRJ April p6) need careful evaluation because passenger demand will not be sufficient for it to be profitable. The president has instructed the government to come up with funding proposals by June 1.
New Zealand
KiwiRail has reprieved the daily Capital Connection commuter service linking Wellington and Armiston North until 2015 even though it fails to cover its operating costs. While trying to attract more passengers KiwiRail plans to increase fares by up to 40% to improve the service’s financial viability.
Poland
Budimex, a subsidiary of Ferrovial, Spain, has secured a ƒ141m contract to build a 20km section of a 50km line linking Gdansk, Gdynia and
the airport. PKP PLP has selected a consortium of Thales and Trakce, Czech Republic, for a ƒ76m contract to upgrade train management systems on the 100km Warsaw Okecie - Radom line. Work on the project will commence in November, and must be completed by July 2016.
Sweden
Infrastructure manager Trafikverket says 27 passenger operators and 13 freight companies have applied to run trains on the national network starting from the new timetable on December 15. Two new players - MTR Nordic and Citytrain, Sweden - have applied for paths on the lucrative Stockholm - Gothenburg corridor. IRJ
IRJ May 2013
Photo: Joe Calisi
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