In brief
FTER several years of poor or mixed results, Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) achieved a strong turnaround in 2012 with a return to profitability. Ebit reached ƒ692.9m compared with ƒ593.2m in 2011. Total revenue rose slightly from ƒ6.2bn to ƒ6.27bn while expenditure dropped from ƒ5.61bn to ƒ5.57bn. The final consolidated result reached ƒ64.79m, compared with a deficit of ƒ105m in 2011, and all three subsidiaries contributed to the improved results.
Rail Cargo Austria achieved an Ebit of ƒ56.3m, up from ƒ11.7m in 2011, although revenues fell from ƒ2.6bn to ƒ2.44bn, largely due to a scaling back of activities in uneconomic market sectors.
IWIRAIL has been allocated an extra $NZ 94m ($US 76m) as part of the New Zealand government’s 2013-14 budget, which was announced on May 16. The money will be used to
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purchase freight locomotives and wagons from China and fund infrastructure upgrading. Transport minister Mr Gerry Brownlee says the extra funding will help make KiwiRail’s railfreight business
requests for qualification (RFQ) to establish a new diesel locomotive factory at Marhowra and an electric locomotive factory at Madhepura, both situated in Bihar province.
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The winning bidder for the diesel contract will be expected to set up the factory and manufacture 1000 diesel locomotives with power ratings of 3.4MW and 4.5MW, while the winning electric plant bidder will be required to produce 800 8.95MW twin unit Bo-Bo+Bo-Bo locomotives. In both cases, the locomotives will be supplied over an 11- year period and the winners
IRJ June 2013
NDIA’s Ministry of Railways has invited
Strong turnaround returns ÖBB to profit A
Freight volume in Austria dropped from 64.7 to 61.7 million tonnes, while Hungarian subsidiary RCH carried 30.3 million tonnes, down slightly from the 30.6 million tonnes in 2011. Volumes outside Austria fell from 5.5 million tonnes to 4.4 million tonnes. Overall Rail Cargo Group carried 85 million tonnes of freight last year, compared with 89.4 million tonnes in 2011. ÖBB Passenger Transport
reported a 7% increase in ridership from 209 million passengers to 224 million and ÖBB admits that competition with open-access operator Westbahn has led to ƒ15-20m drop in revenues. Nevertheless total revenue rose from ƒ1.78bn to ƒ1.87bn while Ebit grew from ƒ60.3m to ƒ74.2m.
New Zealand increases KiwiRail funding
financially self-sustaining and increase the resilience of the national transport system. However, Brownlee also indicated that the struggling state-owned railway is still some way from achieving financial viability. “KiwiRail will need to achieve challenging volume and revenue targets in the future, but the company has put the foundations in place to achieve these targets,” he says.
Indian Railways issues RFQs for loco plants
will have to maintain a specified number of locomotives. The projects were first
proposed as public-private partnerships in 2006 but collapsed during the bidding process in 2009 after the ministry attempted to alter the terms of the bidding documents. The government anticipates significant international investment in the factories, which will be established as joint ventures between Indian Railways and the winning bidder. The ministry plans to pre-qualify and shortlist suitable applicants for the contracts. The deadline for submissions is June 20.
Australia
Rio Tinto has awarded Wabtec, United States, a $US 15m contract to provide electronically-controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes as well as associated equipment and software for its freight wagons and locomotives operated in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Belarus
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has granted a 10-year, ƒ14.5m loan to a consortium led by Stadler, and including the Minsk Region Executive Committee which will contribute assets from Belkommunmash, Belarus, to establish a railway vehicle manufacturing facility. The plant will assemble emu cars for the urban, commuter and inter-city markets.
Britain
National Express will continue to operate the Essex Thameside commuter franchise until September 2014 after it was awarded a short- term contract by the Department of Transport.
Canada
Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) says it will bring forward a number of capital investment projects planned for 2014 into the current financial year, increasing the $US 1.1bn budget announced in
December 2012 by $US 75-100m. Last month CP announced record first quarter results, with revenues climbing 53% year-on-year to $US 213m. Quarterly operating ratio also reached a record 75.8%, a 430 basis point improvement.
Germany
German regional railway AKN has signed a contract with Alstom worth around ƒ60m for 14 Coradia Lint 54 regional dmus, which will replace life- expired rolling stock on the company’s 131km network in the state of Schleswig- Holstein. The 120km/h trains will be delivered in the second half of 2015 and will be used on services between Neumünster and Eidelstedt.
International
Kuehne & Nagel and wagon leasing company VTG are to create a jointly-owned rail logistics business covering Europe, Russia and Turkey. The partners say the new joint venture will expand their present rail logistics activities, allowing VTG to grow its Rail Logistics unit and Kuehne & Nagel to extend services in the industrial, agricultural and petrochemical sectors.
Norway
Jernbaneverket has selected Skanska Norway in a NKr 1.34bn ($US 234m) contract to construct a 9km cut-off between Larvik and Porsgrunn on the Drammen - Skien line.
Poland
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is to extend its loan to PKP Intercity for 20 250km/h Alstom Pendolino emus from the ƒ224m originally agreed in July 2011 to ƒ342m. The loan now covers more than half of the ƒ665m cost of the new trains which were ordered in May 2011, with the rest coming from the EU’s Operational Programme Infrastructure and
Environment. Polish infrastructure manager PKP PLK has awarded Kapsch CarrierCom a ƒ9.2m contract to design and install GSM-R equipment on the 148km Legnica - Wroclaw - Opole section of Line E30.
Spain
CAF has reported a 19.1% drop in net profit to ƒ22.2m in the first quarter of 2013. Quarterly net revenue fell by 12.8% to ƒ403.9m while CAF’s order backlog decreased by 2.2% to ƒ4.8bn, with 85% of sales being generated outside Spain. However, its Ebitda margin improved from 11.1% in first quarter 2012 to 13.8% this quarter.
United States
California High-Speed Rail Authority has awarded Parsons Brinckerhoff a two- year extension worth $US 96m for programme management services on the state’s high- speed rail project. IRJ
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