Scotland’s main passenger train operator, Scotrail, has been urged to improve quality standards after being fined £785,630 for poor punctuality in the year to June. The fines were 16% lower than the £938,959 the previous year, but were still more than twice the £363,216 total in 2007-08.
Ironically, Scotrail was named UK “rail operator of the [...]
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UK OPERATOR FINED
AUSTRALIA’S DARWIN LINE SOLD TO G&W
Australia’s Competition & Consumer Commission (ACC) has approved the sale of Freightlink’s Darwin to Adelaide railway business. It said the takeover by Genesee & Wyoming of the USA is unlikely to lead to a lessening of competition in the industry. The American firm will pay $334 million for Freightlink, whose main asset is the 2,250km [...]
CHINA SOUTH TO SUPPLY MALAYSIA
CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock – the country’s largest manufacturer of rail vehicles – has signed a contract worth RMB 3.98 billion with Malaysia’s ministry of transport for the supply of railway vehicles. cars. China South Locomotive said the contract value accounts for
8.6% of the [...]
HUGE CHINESE INVESTMENT IN HS RAIL
China is to spend about $US120 billion dollars on some 6,000km of high-speed rail, effectively almost doubling the country’s existing network. China currently has 6,920km of high-speed lines. By 2020 the network will have expanded to 16,000km, serving more than 90% of the population, at a total budgeted cost of US326 billion, according to ministry [...]
NEW CHINESE LOCOS FOR KIWIRAIL
The first of an order for 1,067mm gauge DK class diesel locomotives made in China have arrived in New Zealand. See more on the website of the Forum of the Campaign for Better Transport:
www.bettertransport.org.nz
Original article [Railways Africa]
SAUDI NORTH-SOUTH RAILWAY
Locomotives for Saudi Arabia’s North-South railway are being built in Canada by EMD at a cost of SR337 million. Six of the 25 are currently ready and expected arrive in the kingdom by the end of August. The remaining wagons and 19 locomotives will arrive in October.
The Ministry of Finance awarded a $765 million contract [...]
SAUDI WAGONS FROM CHINA
The first consignment of 125 wagons for the mineral railway line project was received by the Saudi Railway Company (SAR) at a formal function held at the King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam on 31 July.
SAR President Mansour Al-Mayman said that the rest of the consignment of 688 wagons ordered from China are to follow in [...]
ALL ABOARD THE METROSNAIL (1)
From the Cape Argus, 21 July 2010:
by Janis Kinnear.
“It’s 06:30 on Monday morning and the platform at Vasco station is filling up fast. There are already more than 100 people waiting for the train. I’m listening to the radio on my cellphone. The presenter announces that trains on Metrorail’s northern line have been cancelled [...]
FUNDING FOR RIFT VALLEY RAILWAYS
Rift Valley Railways (RVR), holders of a 25-year concession to operate some 2,200km of track linking the port of Mombasa in
Kenya with the interior of both Kenya and Uganda, is to receive about $US250 million to fund its capital expenditure programme. The financing structure for the funding is still under negotiation with various institutions, but [...]
HIGH-SPEED JBG-DURBAN “NO PRIORITY”
Alstom says it is interested in a proposed new rail link from Durban to the King Shaka International Airport, for which pre-feasibility studies are in progress, but doubts any early justification for high-speed trains between Johannesburg and Durban. Alstom director for business development in SA Philippe Roch suggests focusing on metropolitan commuter needs first. “It [...]
