05 May 2012, 05:00:00
Railway supply industry news in brief
05 May 2012,
05:00:00
Vossloh MFL Rail Milling has been
established as a joint venture between Vossloh Rail Services and Maschinenfabrik
Liezen und Giesserei. The companies plan to launch proprietary mobile rail
milling technology, which VRS says will offer higher working speeds, an increase
in material removal per pass and a superior rail surface. Fletcher
Building’s Humes Pipeline Systems has opened a plant at Hamilton in New
Zealand which is to produce 1·5 million concrete sleepers to replace wood on
KiwiRail’s North Island network over the next decade under a NZ$100m contract.
Trans Data Management acquired Ascom’s rail and road security and
communications business with effect from March 30, and plans to expand its
activities to emerging markets. Watco Industries has acquired Cudahy
Car Shop, which operates a wagon repair works in Wisconsin. Scomi
Rail and Ricardo have agreed to co-operate in the development of rail
vehicle drivelines. On April 10 Alstom and Fonds Stratégique
d’Investissement announced they were considering the joint purchase of an
85% stake in tram and guided trolleybus manufacturer Translohr for €60m.
Lohr SA would retain 15%. Alstom said this would secure the future of the
Duppigheim plant, which would gain access to its commercial network.
Pesa to establish tram assembly plant in Kazakhstan
04 May 2012,
11:00:00
KAZAKHSTAN: Polish rolling stock
manufacturer Pesa Bydgoszcz signed a letter of intent to establish a tram
assembly facility in Pavlodar when a delegation from the city's development
agency visited its twin town of Bydgoszcz during April. An initial two low-floor
trams based on Pesa's Twist family adapted to 1 524 mm gauge and to cope with
the local climate are to be built in Poland, with 83 supplied in kit form for
local assembly from 2014. The city of Pavlodar plans to acquire up to 100 trams
in total. An agreement was also reached for Polish firm Tines to upgrade the
city's tram infrastructure. Polish bank BGK would provide finance for the two
deals. Pavlodar's 86 km tram network has a 60% share of the local public
transport market, but its infrastructure and fleet of 115 high-floor vehicles
are approaching obsolescence 'Opening an assembly line in Pavlodar is
economically justified', said Pesa Chairman Tomasz Zaboklicki. 'Shipping our
products to Kazakhstan has proven to be uneconomic. A new assembly line will
allow us to extend our offer to other regions'.
FEVE to disappear
04 May 2012,
10:30:00
SPAIN: Under the 2012 national reform
programme approved by the Spanish cabinet on April 27, metre gauge operator FEVE
is to be spilt into infrastructure and train operating functions that would then
be absorbed by their counterparts on the national network, ADIF and RENFE. This
is expected to improve efficiency and generate economies of scale, as the
government moves to tackle FEVE's poor financial health. In an interview
published in the May issue of the in-house magazine Raíles, recently-appointed
FEVE President Marcelino Oreja identified the railway's financial situation as
its 'Achilles' heel'. With losses now running at around €150m a year, FEVE's
annual turnover of €35m is insufficient to meet financing costs of €100m in
2012, incurred by servicing debt which had reached a total of €536m at the end
of 2011, up from €185m in 2004. 'We must revise our investment plans on the
basis of real demand', said Oreja. Other urgent priorities included the adoption
of separate accounting for infrastructure and operations as required by EU
legislation.
Halfway there
04 May 2012,
05:00:00
BRAZIL: Last month Odebrecht Infraestructura
was due to begin tracklaying at Serra Talhada in the state of Pernambuco, where
it is upgrading the Recife – Salgueiro route as part of the Transnordestina
project. With work finished between Salgueiro and Verdejantes, and nearing
completion around São José do Belmonte, some 50% of the upgrade has now been
carried out. Transnordestina involves upgrading 560 km of metre gauge routes as
well as 1728 km of new construction to improve links with the ports of Pecém and
Suape, connecting with the Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica at Porto Real do Colégio in
Alagoas state. The Transnordestina Logística subsidiary of steelmaker CSN is
providing R$13bn towards the R$542bn project, with the federal government
contributing R$1646m.
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