In brief
Agreement reached on Munich airport northern rail link
Belarus
Belarus Railways (BC) conducted the first test runs with an electric locomotive on the Osipovichi - Bobruysk section of the Minsk - Kiev line on March 20. Electric services commenced on the 42km stretch last month.
Botswana
International Airport is set to improve significantly after German Rail (DB) and the state of Bavaria reached an agreement to build a new connection between the airport and the Munich - Regensburg line.
R
The agreement to finance and build the ƒ83m Neufahrn Curve was signed on April 15 by DB CEO Dr Rüdiger Grube and Mr Martin Zeil, the Bavarian state minister of economic affairs and transport. The 2.3km double-track
Transnet Freight Rail, South Africa, is to sign an agreement with Botswana shortly to enable it carry the country’s first coal exports on the line from Morupule Colliery near Palapye to Durban. Transnet expects to operate two 35-wagon trains per week. It is also looking at raising the axeload in Botswana from 18.5 to 26 tonnes.
AIL access to Munich Franz-Jozef Strauss
electrified connection will branch off the Airport - Neufahrn line between Airport Visitor Park station and Neufahrn, crossing the A92 highway and curving northeast on an embankment to join the Munich - Regensburg line south of Pulling.
The curve is due to open in 2018 and will cut journey times by around 30 minutes for rail passengers travelling to the airport from towns to the north and northeast, such as Freising, Regensburg, Landshut, and Passau. The project will be jointly
financed by the state of Bavaria and the German federal government. DB will pay the state around ƒ10m over a 20-year period through track access charges for using the new link.
The state government is also studying options for improving rail journey times between the airport and towns in southeast Bavaria such as Mühldorf.
The airport is currently linked to Munich city centre by S-Bahn lines S1 (via Neufahrn) and S8 (via Johanneskirchen).
Ouigo low-cost TGV service off to a good start F
RENCH National Railways (SNCF) began operating its new Ouigo low- cost TGV service on April 2, having sold more than 200,000 tickets before the start of services. Ticket sales started on February 19 exclusively through a dedicated website. Around 30,000 tickets were sold during the first 30 hours after the Ouigo website went live, and to date the site has been visited by 2.1 million people with more than 7.2 million page views.
SNCF says 80% of Ouigo passengers have paid less than ƒ25 each for their tickets. Families are benefiting as 20% of seats on the trains are reserved for children under 12 years of age which only have to pay ƒ5 each.
IRJ May 2013 Ouigo has a simple
philosophy: one class, one seat, one bag, to match the low-cost airlines. Similarly, passengers must arrive at the platform 30 minutes before departure to have their tickets checked and
ensure they have not exceeded the baggage allowance. SNCF operates 62 Ouigo services a week from Marne la Vallée, to the east of Paris, to Lyon, Marseille and Montpellier.
Brazil
The National Association of Rail Transport (ANTF) says Brazil’s freight railways invested nearly Reais 4.9bn ($US 2.5bn) in new infrastructure and equipment last year, a 6.6% increase over 2011. ANTF forecasts investment in the existing network of around Reais 16bn
during the next three years. The Brazilian subsidiary of VAE is due to begin production this month at its new turnout plant at Bacabeira, in Maranhão state following a Reais 12 million ($US 5.9m) investment in the first phase of the project. The 40,000m2 facility will supply around 400 turnouts to Vale as part of a project to increase the capacity of the Carajas heavy-haul line.
Britain
Network Rail says it has managed to reduce cable thefts by 67% and delays to trains caused by cable theft by 54%. The cost to the national railway of cable thefts has been cut by £5m during the last three years to £12.8m in 2012-13.
Canada
Oil production is predicted to increase from about 3 million barrels a day to 5.7 million by 2025, but as the capacity of the country’s pipeline network is not expected to rise fast
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