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EC adopts €1bn Shift2Rail research project Rail research knowledge to be shared online T
David Briginshaw Editor-in-Chief
T HE European
Commission (EC) has adopted the seven-year ƒ1bn Shift2Rail public-private partnership (PPP) research project designed to increase passenger and freight traffic within the European Union. Under Shift2Rail, the EC will more than triple its funding of railway research to ƒ450m between 2014 and 2020 compared with ƒ155m for the previous period. This will be matched by ƒ470m from the railway industry. Manufacturers Alstom, Ansaldo STS, Bombardier, CAF, Siemens, and Thales together with infrastructure managers Network Rail in Britain and Trafikverket in Sweden have already pledged a total of ƒ270m.
Shift2Rail has ambitious
targets as it aims to cut railway life-cycle costs by 50%,
HE International Union of Railways (UIC) and Britain’s Railway Safety & Standards Board (RSSB) signed a memorandum of cooperation at the World Congress on Railway Research (WCRR) in Sydney on November 28 to share railway research knowledge through RSSB’s Spark website (IRJ November 2013 p41). Under the agreement,
double capacity, and increase reliability by up to 50%. By doing this, the EC believes rail can increase its share of passenger transport, which has remained fairly constant at 6%, and reverse rail’s decline in freight market share which has dropped from 11.5% in 2000 to 10.2% today. The research will focus on
five areas: the development of a new
which was signed by Mr Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, UIC director general, and Mr Anson Jack, RSSB’s deputy chief executive, Spark will be expanded to provide free access to railway research for both members of the two organisations as well as members of the global railway community. Spark contains a library, including papers from WCRR
generation of high-capacity
rolling stock developing intelligent traffic management and control
systems providing reliable, high- quality infrastructure while at the same time reducing track noise, cutting costs, and developing intelligent
maintenance providing integrated ticketing and journey planners
conferences, where registered users are able to view and upload documents related to railway research and innovation. Spark is a virtual space for rail professionals and researchers to network and cooperate, and showcase their work to the wider community. The UIC and RSSB hope this will reduce duplication and stimulate innovation.
using innovative IT, and improving logistics and
intermodal freight. Shift2Rail will pool the
resources of virtually all European railway suppliers to accelerate the development of new technologies and bring them to market, while operators and infrastructure managers will try to ensure that research is aimed at providing what they need.
the groundbreaking of a 500km standard-gauge railway linking the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa to the capital, Nairobi on November 28. The $US 5.2bn line will be
constructed by China Road & Bridge Corporation and is estimated to take five years to complete. Passenger trains will be able to run at a maximum speed of 120km/h while freight trains will operate at 100km/h. This will cut the journey time for passenger services from 13 hours on the existing metre-gauge line to around 4 hours.
The line is part of a three- phase $US 13.4bn project being funded 85% by China’s Exim Bank with the remaining 15% coming from the Kenyan government. The next phase comprises an extension from Nairobi to Malaba on the border with Uganda while the final phase will run from Malaba to Uganda’s capital Kampala.
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Kenya starts work on first standard-gauge railway K
ENYA’s president Uhuru Kenyatta presided over
President Uhuru Kenyatta (second from left) formally launches construction of the standard-gauge line. IRJ January 2014
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