In brief Prasa awards Gauteng resignalling contract P
ASSENGER Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has
awarded Siemens a contract worth around É180m to resignal main lines around Johannesburg and Pretoria as part of the agency’s National New Signalling Programme. Siemens says it was awarded
a É90m contract in 2011 to replace around a quarter of life- expired signalling systems in the province, and this latest contract covers the replacement of the remaining trackside signalling equipment.
S
Over the next five years Siemens will install 83 Trackguard Sicas S7 electronic interlockings as well as Clearguard ACM 200 axle counters. The project is due to be completed in 2018, when the network will migrate to a new operational control centre. Earlier this year Prasa
awarded contracts for the resignalling of lines around Cape Town and Durban as part of its National New Signalling Programme.
State Railway of Thailand reports profit
TATE Railway of Thailand (SRT) has declared a profit for the first time. The chairman of SRT, Mr Rachanee
Tripipatkul, says SRT recorded a profit of Baht 2.8bn ($US 87.2m) in fiscal 2013. Mr Thanasarn Surawuthikul, SRT’s chief financial officer, says the profit was achieved through improved accounting and risk management together with good financial planning which enabled SRT to swap its leverage in debt through the Japanese currency, the yen. Surawuthikul says he expects SRT to remain profitable in fiscal 2014.
Maintenance JV formed in Portugal N
OMAD Digital has established a joint
venture with EMEF, the maintenance subsidiary of Portuguese Trains (CP). The joint-venture, named Nomad Tech, will provide operators with a real-time fleet-wide view of how onboard systems and components are
performing in the field, allowing maintenance to become proactive.
Nomad says that combining condition-based monitoring tools with a reliability-centred maintenance strategy can reduce faults by more than 50% and increase availability by up to 20%.
Azerbaijan
The French Development Agency (FIA) and Coface have agreed to provide export credits to fund the installation of modern signalling and telecommunications on the main east-west corridor. As a result Alstom and Thales are expected to be awarded contracts to carry out the work.
Britain
Eversholt Rail has awarded Bombardier a two-year contract worth more than £30m to overhaul 40 class 365 dual-voltage emus operated
by First Capital Connect. First Great Western has placed a contract with Nomad Digital to install WiFi on its fleet of 53 HST diesel trains as well as Mk 3 coaches used on its London - Penzance overnight service. The work should be completed by the
end of the year. Hitachi Rail Europe has selected Dellner to supply 1500 inter-car gangways for installation on 886 Intercity Express Programme (IEP) coaches which it will build for operation on the East Coast and Great Western main lines.
Germany
Abellio Rail NRW and Westphalia Rail (WFB) have awarded a contract to German Rail’s (DB) vehicle
maintenance subsidiary to overhaul 36 Stadler Flirt emus in the next two years.
Hungary
State holding company NISZ has placed a É46m contract with Kapsch CarrierCom and MVM Ovit, Hungary, to install GSM-R on a 900km section of the rail network. Kapsch will supply GSM-R equipment based on 3GPP Release 4 Core technology and will maintain it for three years.
DB to equip ICE1 trains with ETCS: German Rail’s (DB) long- distance passenger division, DB Fernverkehr, has issued a call for tenders to fit European Train Control System (ETCS) to its ICE1 fleet of high-speed trains. DB invites bids by January 8 for a contract to equip 80 class 401 power cars initially with an option to equip a further 38 power cars. The work needs to be completed and the trains must be fully approved for operation in time for the December 2017 timetable change. ICE1 trains operate extensively in Germany and run into both Austria and Switzerland, where a national roll-out of ETCS is underway.
IRJ January 2014 Italy
Sardinian Regional Transport has awarded a É33m contract to Alstom and Italian civil works contractor Gemmo to resignal two lines totalling 90km in Sardinia. Capacity will almost double on the Monserrato - Sernobi line and increase by 70% on the
Macomer - Nuoro line when work is completed in 2015.
Latvia
Pasazieru Vilciens (PV) has issued a tender for the lease of a fleet of four-car emus for 15 years. PV expects to pay É321,000 a year for each train.
Poland
Infrastructure manager PKP PLK has placed a É41.5m contract with Kapsch CarrierCom and Torpol, Poland, to install GSM-R on the east-west main line running from Terespol on the Belarus border via Warsaw and Poznan to Kunowice on the German border.
Russia
Transcontainer has ordered 495 freight wagons at a cost of Roubles 1bn ($US 30m) from three Russian manufacturers. Transmashholding will supply 312 wagons, Roslavl 100 flat wagons, and Spezkompani 83 wagons.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Railway Organisation (SRO) has ordered 500 freight wagons from FreightCar America in a contract worth $US 67m which includes
training Saudi engineers. Vossloh Fastening Systems has won a É30m contract from SRO to supply rail fastenings for the 450km Haramain high- speed line linking Mecca, Jeddah and Medina. The line is expected to open by the end of this year or in early 2015.
Sweden
Veolia Transport Sweden has had its concession to operate the Swedish section of the Øresund network, which was due to expire at the end of this year, renewed for another five years by Öresundståg. The contract includes an option for a two-year extension.
United States
VTG Rail, the US subsidiary of VTG, Germany, has acquired a fleet of 350 six-year-old jumbo hopper wagons to enable it to enter the dried distillers grain market. VTG Rail has steadily increased its wagon fleet to exceed 4000 wagons since it was formed in 2008. IRJ
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