International & Uk Railway News Monday 22nd April 2013

National Garden Railway Show.

The 16mm Association National Garden Railway Show – 27 April 2013
Come along to the Peterborough Arena, East of England Showground, Peterborough PE2 6XE. The show will open at 10.00 am on Saturday 27 April 2013 – and close at 5.00 pm





International Railway Journal


HS2 Ltd, the company responsible for developing a high-speed network linking London with Birmingham and northern England, has revealed revised proposals for London Euston...

CONSTRUCTION began on April 15 on section T3 of Rome Metro Line 3, which will extend the line 3km from San Giovanni to Fori Imperiali/Colosseo..

CSR Nanjing Puzhen has secured an order from the city of Nanjing for 15 low-floor LRVs, which are based on Bombardier's Flexity 2 technology and will serve two new light rail lines in the city..

GREATER Toronto and Hamilton area commuter rail operator Go Transit has announced plans to effectively double off-peak services on its Lakeshore East and Lakeshore West lines from June.

RAIL Cargo Group (RCG), the recently-renamed railfreight subsidiary of Austrian Federal Railways' (ÖBB), achieved a higher than forecast Ebit last year of €56m compared with a budgeted profit of €13m.


www.progressiverailroading.com US News

U.S. Class I workforce grew wider in March

Union Pacific wins GM supplier award, upgrades Kansas line

MTA's Prendergast names Bianco acting president of NYCT

Capitol Corridor ridership dips in March, joint rail authority advances California's high-speed blended service plan

TTCI marks workplace safety milestone

UTU-represented conductors reach tentative pact with SEPTA

Metrolinx increases train frequency on GO Transit line

Kansas City Southern inspects new rack, flat cars

www.railway-technology.com Updates

Mott MacDonald to provide engineering services for Crossrail tunnels fit-out project The Alstom, TSO and Costain (ATC) joint venture has selected UK-based Mott MacDonald as its engineering consultant for the fit-out of the new Crossrail tunnels in London, UK. 
      
Škoda 109E locomotive secures TSI certification
Czech rolling stock manufacturer Škoda Transportation has received certification for its 109E multi-system electric locomotive, confirming that the design complies with the European technical specification for interoperability (TSI) for high-speed rolling stock (TSI-HS RST). 
      
Construction starts on Scotland's Borders Railway
Network Rail and principal contractor BAM Nuttall have started main construction works on the £294m Borders Railway project in Scotland, following six months of preparations. 
      
Thales secures Manaus monorail telecommunications system contract in Brazil
Thales has won a contract from Monotrilho Manaus Consortium to provide telecommunications systems for the Manaus monorail in Amazonas, Brazil.






EPF/EDF/CE​R press release

Mediation and ADRs: key tools for both customers and railways

The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), the European Passenger Federation (EPF), and the European Disability Forum (EDF) welcome today’s adoption of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Directive by the Council of the EU. This is a positive step to further promote mediation and other means of ADR. The rail sector and the passenger associations agree that out-of-court dispute resolution should be encouraged to avoid long and costly judiciary procedures. They also underline that existing successful ADR systems in the rail sector should be further promoted. The ADR proposal entails that all EU Member States will have to make sure that all disputes concerning the sale of goods or provision of services by a trader established in the EU to a consumer resident in the EU can be submitted to an ADR entity. This entity will have to comply with the requirements set in the Directive such as independence, impartiality, expertise, transparency, fairness and effectiveness. CER, EPF and EDF welcome the final adoption of the ADR proposal as a step in the right direction to further promote the use of mediation and ADR schemes, which are useful tools for both the consumer and the industry. Some out-of-court complaint handling systems are already in place in a number of Member States, where direct negotiations between the trader and the consumer, or resolution systems operated by the trader, or ADR accomplished by employees of the trader, have proven to tackle conflicts in an effective way. Examples of successful ADR already exist in the rail sector (e.g. SNCF Médiateur in France, the Conciliation Body for Public Transport in Germany (Schlichtungsstelle für den öffentlichen Personenverkehr) and Trenitalia’s Ufficio Conciliazioni in Italy) and have proved to be a good way to solve conflicts between passengers and carriers. This kind of alternative dispute resolution, as well as any other form of legal or private mediation, is favoured by rail associations and passengers’ representatives for solving passengers’ claims, provided: it is independent and impartial; it requires decisions made by the ADR body to be in principle treated as binding unless the parties seek redress through court proceedings; it is cheap for consumers; it is transparent about the outcomes and regularly publishes information about the different categories of complaint and their outcome; it is quicker than court proceedings and has a better expertise of the domain of trade at stake. CER, EPF and EDF now call upon EU Member States to take into account the existing ADR systems already in place when implementing the Directive, when these systems have proved efficient and beneficial to all parties. EPF-Secretary Josef Schneider referred to the good experience in those countries, where ADR started working short after passenger’s rights where adopted: “For almost allentries associated with ADR, consensus solutions could be found within a reasonable time”. EDF welcomes this proposal which provides a quicker and cheaper means for passengers to address gaps in the provision of services, encouraging persons with disabilities to bring their cases forward. Carlotta Besozzi, Director of the EDF, said: “the facilitation of dispute resolution has a potential to improve transport services for persons with disabilities in general”. CER Executive Director Libor Lochman said: “The European rail sector welcomes the adoption of the Commission’s proposal on ADR. Existing successful systems favouring such out-of-court conflict resolution will be further promoted by the rail sector as best practice to share among railway companies under the new ADR Directive provisions”.

Further News at...........

Shedmaster Railway News

From railwaygazette.com - HUNGARY: A Rába Mk 48 diesel-hydraulic locomotive dating from 1960 has been rebuilt as a low-emission battery-diesel hybrid for the 760 mm gauge Szilvásvárad Forest Railway, ..and ...
railwaygazette.com - AUSTRALIA: The first of 14 Bombardier Flexity 2 trams for the Gold Coast light rail line has left the factory in Bautzen.

World Heritage & Railway News..

News from the NRM on Mallard 75.......



Railway Engineering News

 WRC CEO, John Rimmasch is at the Big South Fork Scenic Railway and instructs and demonstrates the basics of how to install rivets in boilers.