Just over a year ago,(6th July 2013) the town of Lac Megantic suffered a devastating fireball due to a derailed oil train...47 died as a result. Now a new operator (Central Maine & Quebec Railway) promises a new approach to safety.
A year ago, 24 July 2013, there was a serious rail accident near the city of Santiago de Compostela, in which 79 people died and at least 130 were injured when a train derailed on a bend as it approached Compostela station. Ceremonies were held to remember the dead and the bereaved. Answers are still awaited....
Talking of safety, a UK union official has said that rail safety has been compromised by cuts....
Two of the largest companies (Carillion and Balfour Beatty) are in "merger" talks.
Somerset is currently suffering from a fall off in tourists due to the unprecedented flooding earlier this year. This "legacy" is being felt on the West Somerset Railway which has seen a drop of 4,000 visitors in the year up until now, compared with previous years.
And in the USA, optimism continues to be in the air for high speed rail, especially now that the Californian high speed railway project has begun.....
Click on the links...!!
Headlines
UK
Response to HS2 growth taskforce report.(Birmingham City Council)
Response to the HS2 growth taskforce report
Leader of Birmingham City Council Sir Albert Bore said: “I welcome this report and am pleased that it recognises the on-going collaboration across central and local government as well as our partners.
“HS2 is an important step in rebalancing the country’s economy and bringing investment into Birmingham and the wider region. Through the local growth fund deal and in partnership with the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership we have secured funding to develop a range of regeneration proposals to take this forward and deliver the transport connectivity required to link in the region and further maximise benefits.
“The Core Cities are working together to develop proposals that will bring improved connectivity to all the great cities of England as well as Wales and Scotland and improved East/West connections in the North and the Midlands. As the hub of the future high speed network, Birmingham has already been confirmed as the new home for the HS2 Construction company and we have already announced the creation of a regeneration company for the area around the new Curzon station. We welcome the government’s decision to create a national regeneration company.”
Ends
Rail nationalisation:The legacy of Attlee (The Economist)
Experts reveal faces of medieval people who were discovered during trams work.(heraldscotland)
Warning rail safety compromised by cuts.(heraldscotland)
Minister promises Scotland £3bn boost from high-speed rail.(heraldscotland).
Carillion in £3bn merger talks with Balfour Beatty.(insidermedia)
Somerset flood legacy blamed for tourism fall.(BBC News).
Why Aren't Women Interested in Rail?(The Huffington Post).
Siemens' jobs boost is the start of a 'rail renaissance', manufacturers claim.(ChronicleLive)
GOV.UK
Baroness Kramer welcomes start of production on Thameslink trains
Up to 300 jobs created in component manufacturing in the north-east.
Baroness Kramer visited Tyne and Wear today (24 July 2014) to hear how hundreds of manufacturing jobs will be created in the north-east as part of the government’s £6.5 billion Thameslink programme.
Work is underway at the Siemens factory in Hebburn to manufacture high-tech electrical components for a fleet of state-of-the-art Thameslink trains, creating up to 300 local jobs. The spacious new trains will be introduced across London and the South East by 2018, transforming rail travel across the capital and providing faster, more reliable and more comfortable journeys for millions of passengers.
Baroness Kramer said:
The start of production at Hebburn is great news for the region, as well as being a major milestone in the Thameslink project, which is generating more than 8,000 jobs nationwide and will transform travel through central London when it completes in 2018.Over the next 4 years, Siemens will manufacture high-tech electrical parts and other components, including cable harnesses, drivers’ instruments and control desks, for more than 1,100 new train carriages. The new electric trains will be faster and more energy-efficient, and will feature more space for passengers and luggage, improved access for people with reduced mobility, and advanced technology providing real-time travel updates to passengers.
The north-east is a real hub of rail industry expertise and through our investment in the Thameslink programme, we are helping to boost that industry, creating hundreds of local jobs, building skills for the future and securing the UK’s long-term economic growth.
In addition to the new rolling stock, the Thameslink Programme will also see major track and station improvements – including the rebuilding of London Bridge – to provide passengers with better connections and a greater choice of destinations. When the project completes in 2018, 24 trains an hour will run in each direction at peak times through central London, providing a high-frequency, metro-style service to increasing numbers of passengers.
The service will be operated by the TSGN franchisee GoVia, who were recently awarded the contract by the Department for Transport. It will provide 1,400 new electric carriages, increasing capacity by 50% and providing 10,000 extra seats every weekday into central London during the morning peak.
Over the next five years, £38 billionn will be invested in maintaining and improving the UK’s rail network in the biggest programme of modernisation since the Victorian era.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rail Delivery Group
Transport Secretary hails Two Together Railcard sales success
24/07/2014
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin was at Waterloo Station this week to welcome the 100,000th Two Together Railcard to be sold since the card’s launch in March.
The Railcard is intended to provide a further boost to passenger numbers on what is already Europe’s fastest growing railway.
The card has proven popular with passengers with Two Together Railcard holders having already travelled a combined distance of over a million miles and saved almost £7m off the cost of train travel. The first new Railcard to be marketed by the rail industry in three decades, the Two Together Railcard roll-out was supported by a major marketing campaign that included TV, radio, print and digital advertising.
Joining the Transport Secretary at Waterloo Station to mark the occasion was David Mapp, Commercial Director for the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC).
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “Passengers are already seeing the benefits of the £38 billion that is being invested in the railways over the next five years to bring faster, more reliable journeys to hundreds of destinations across Britain.
“I’m very pleased to see so many people taking advantage of the Two Together Railcard. This scheme is helping tens of thousands of people to make the most of our railway system.”
David Mapp said: “We’re delighted that the Two Together Railcard has already proven to be such a hit with a wide range of passengers and that it’s helping to fulfil our ambition of allowing us to capture an even greater share of the domestic leisure travel market.
“The Railcard is proof that Europe’s fastest growing railway wants to keep on expanding by selling increasing numbers of discounted tickets to attract passengers. That’s helping to generate increasing amounts of money going back to the Government, which it’s choosing to reinvest in improving and enhancing the rail network for passengers.”
ENDS
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin was at Waterloo Station this week to welcome the 100,000th Two Together Railcard to be sold since the card’s launch in March.
The Railcard is intended to provide a further boost to passenger numbers on what is already Europe’s fastest growing railway.
The card has proven popular with passengers with Two Together Railcard holders having already travelled a combined distance of over a million miles and saved almost £7m off the cost of train travel. The first new Railcard to be marketed by the rail industry in three decades, the Two Together Railcard roll-out was supported by a major marketing campaign that included TV, radio, print and digital advertising.
Joining the Transport Secretary at Waterloo Station to mark the occasion was David Mapp, Commercial Director for the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC).
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “Passengers are already seeing the benefits of the £38 billion that is being invested in the railways over the next five years to bring faster, more reliable journeys to hundreds of destinations across Britain.
“I’m very pleased to see so many people taking advantage of the Two Together Railcard. This scheme is helping tens of thousands of people to make the most of our railway system.”
David Mapp said: “We’re delighted that the Two Together Railcard has already proven to be such a hit with a wide range of passengers and that it’s helping to fulfil our ambition of allowing us to capture an even greater share of the domestic leisure travel market.
“The Railcard is proof that Europe’s fastest growing railway wants to keep on expanding by selling increasing numbers of discounted tickets to attract passengers. That’s helping to generate increasing amounts of money going back to the Government, which it’s choosing to reinvest in improving and enhancing the rail network for passengers.”
ENDS
Support to help Sheffield reap HS2 benefits.(Sheffield Telegraph)
Plymouth's “poor” road links and “fragile” rail need addressing - Shadow Transport Secretary.(Plymouth Herald)
The Great Western - Improvements - Network Rail
Alstom Network charged with corruption by SFO.(BBC News)
British Transport Police Media Centre - CCTV images issued following vandalism at Kirkham & Wesham station - Lancashire
London Underground is hotter than maximum legal temperature for transporting cattle.(The Independent)
Commuters hit by 'brutal' temperatures on London's transport network that it would be illegal to transport livestock in.(London Evening Standard)
International
Indian Hill Railways:2. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway.(BBC iPlayer)
From the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiris in the south - for a hundred years these little trains have climbed through the clouds and into the wonderful world of Indian Hill Railways.
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is a romantic line, popular with honeymooners and driven by love and devotion as well as steam. It chugs through the south Indian jungle up to a hill station, once known as Snooty Ooty.
The current guard is Ivan. Married for twenty years, he is concerned about his friend Jenni, the ticket inspector, because he's still a bachelor - but Jenni has a secret.
In the engine shed, Shivani, the railway's first female diesel engineer, is working on a steam loco. She has to make it look its best, as in the year of filming, 1999, the railway celebrated its centenary. The high point is the Black Beauty competition to pick the best engine on the line, but rains and landslides threaten the proceedings and the tourist business. Will love win out in the end?
5 days left on the iPlayer
Get your copy of this Gerry Troyna classic HERE
Canada
Central Maine & Quebec takes new approach as new regional.(ProgressiveRailroading)
MPPs spar over high-speed rail link to Windsor (Metro News Canada)
Czech Republic
Czechs planning first high-speed rail line but will still lag behind (Radio Prague)
Spain
Ceremonies held on anniversary of Santiago de Compostela train crash.(euronews)
Turkey
Turkey: delay-hit high-speed railway to be opened on Friday.(ansamed)
USA
Bullet train goal: 68 trips a day from Dallas to Houston by 2021.(Dallas Business Journal).
High-speed rail Pacheco Pass route upheld by appeals court.(San Jose Mercury News)
US HSR
21st century transportation for America...
 |
 |
More conference videos...
|
 |
 |
 |
CALIFORNIA HIGH SPEED RAIL - VISIONARY MEGA PROJECT
California's $68 billion, statewide high speed rail system is just the beginning of America's $600 billion national high speed network. California's new transportation construction boom is well underway!
The $4.5 Billion mega project - Transbay Transit Center, known as the "Grand Central Station of the West" is currently under construction in the heart of downtown San Francisco. This has sparked a huge construction boom in the entire neighborhood surrounding the station, including the highest price ever paid for a small piece of property next to the new station.
The first billion dollar construction contract to build the first leg of the new high speed rail line has recently been signed. Construction is underway on the main trunk line between San Francisco and Los Angeles. A second multi-billion dollar contract is out to bid now for additional construction segments. Many more contracts are currently in the works to continue building the statewide high speed rail system segment-by-segment.
The state of California recently passed into law a major cap-and-trade program that sets up the first permanent funding source for the state's new high speed rail project. This pioneering legislation starts a new trend in reliable, consistent funding for visionary transportation projects, and will unlock billions of dollars in funding to move the new rail project along at a faster pace, with several hundred miles of HSR track and infrastructure under construction in the next few years. |
 |
 Demolition & land clearing now underway
Demolition crews with Fresno-based J. Kroeker Inc. are pushing ahead this week with their work to knock down and clear buildings that sit in the path of California's high-speed rail line.
First to fall was an old bar, Annie's Hollywood Inn, on Golden State Boulevard between McKinley and Olive avenues. A large excavator made short work of the demolition on Monday, reducing the former honky-tonk to rubble and splinters within 15 minutes. The long-closed bar became the first building demolished to make way for construction of the bullet-train system. Local businesses working on the demolition of buildings are subcontractors hired by Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons, the prime contractor, for work on the rail system's first 29-mile construction segment between Madera and Fresno. More |
| WORLD BANK STUDY ON HSR COSTS |
 Standardization + Economy of Scale = 1/3 less
A new World Bank study indicates that China's high speed rail construction standardization and economies of scale deliver projects at 1/3 less cost.
The World Bank's paper is titled High Speed Railways in China: A Look at Construction Costs. A number of factors influence the cost of projects, including 'topography, weather conditions, land acquisition costs, use of viaducts instead of embankments, the construction of major bridges across wide rivers, and the construction of mega stations'. The study focuses particularly on the use of highly-modular track laying and viaduct construction techniques in China, which are often used as an alternative to embankments. The mechanized casting and laying of bridge beams is seen as a particular advantage in reducing construction costs. "In any large construction program, this makes sense," said Joseph Shelhorse, USHSR Vice President. "But what this really shows America is that we can build our national high speed network a lot cheaper if we get moving faster, and at the larger scale, multi-project level to benefit from the savings that comes with standardization and economies of scale." "China has accomplished a remarkable feat in building over 10 000 route-km of high speed railway in a period of six to seven years at a unit cost that is lower than the cost of similar projects in other countries", said Gerald Ollivier, Senior Transport at the World Bank. "Besides the lower cost of labour in China, one possible reason for this is the large scale of the network planned. This has allowed the standardisation of the design of construction elements, competitive capacity for the manufacture of equipment and construction and the amortisation of the capital cost of equipment over a number of projects." More |
| USHSR OFFICIAL TOURS HSR IN CHINA |
Daniel Krause, USHSR's Director of Policy and Operations recently returned from China after an in-depth tour of the nation's new high speed rail network. Mr. Krause met with business leaders, toured construction sites and new rail stations, and rode a number of the new high speed trains. "Its quite incredible how the Chinese are completely transforming their nation and lifestyle with high speed rail," said Krause.
|
 |
 China is building the future today with HSR
More than 6,800 miles of new high speed rail lines are already in operation, and that much more under construction. "The scale of this project and system is enormous," said Krause. "In city after city they have huge new rail stations with rows of platforms and trains coming and going. The stations were built to grand proportions in cities all over China."
Most of the lines offer great service with frequent trains, some arriving every 10 minutes. "Train after train were full of passengers," added Krause. China is spending an estimated $500 billion building the world's most extensive high speed rail network. This has created an efficient and rapid national movement system making travel much easier and cheaper. "It was quite remarkable at the ease and speed at which you could move about the country over vast distances," said Krause. By making travel between large cities more economical, HSR also promotes efficient business and encourages more connections to goods and services. More on China HSR Watch for more details and photos from the trip. |
UIC - International Union of Railways
PREDICT
PREparing for the Domino effect in crisis siTuation
Framework
PREDICT is a research project in the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7-SEC-2013.4.1-2 “Better understanding of the cascading effect in crisis situations in order to improve future response and preparedness and contribute to lower damages and other unfortunate consequences”), 6th transport call published in July 2012Description
The aim of the PREDICT project is to provide a comprehensive solution for dealing with cascading effects in multi-sectoral crisis situations covering aspects of critical infrastructures. The PREDICT solution will be composed of the following three pillars: methodologies, models and software tools. Their integrated use will increase the awareness and understanding of cascading effects by crisis response organisations, enhances their preparedness and improves their response capability to respond in case of cascading failures.PREDICT project will start from a deep analysis of recent cases (over 8500 incidents worldwide), which will be accompanied with scenarios of potential crisis. Project partners will set up a generic approach (common framework) to prevent or mitigate cascading effects which will be applied in selected cases agreed with end-users. As modelling each phenomenon separately in a specific environment is not effective, PREDICT project will propose cohesive and comprehensive models of dependencies, cascading effects and common m ode failure which will include causal relations, multi-sectoral infrastructure elements and environment parameters, as well as the human factor aspects.
Objectives
Duration
01 April 2014 : Starting of the project for a duration of 36 monthsConsortium
Leadership : CEA( France) Partners : , Fraunhofer (Germany), TNO (The Netherlands), VTT (Finland), CEIS (Belgium), ITTI(Italy) ,Thales Netherlands, VRZHZ (the Netherlands), SYKE (Finland) and UIC (France)Benefits for rail
PREDICT will deliver software tools bundled in PREDICT Incident Evolution Tool, which will consist of two core components: a Foresight and Prediction Tool (for simulation of the evolution of cascading effect and impact on multi-sectoral dependencies) and a Decision-Support Tool (for determining the best course of action and to calculate the risk associated with them).The high-quality of the developed solutions will also be assured by the strong involvement of end-users in the project. End-users will intervene at three levels: as partners of the consortium, as members of the Advisory Board, and representatives from relevant organisations across Europe invited to regular workshops.
Website
http://www.predict-project.euSiemens
Third Quarter Results Fiscal Year 2014
Combined Press and Analyst Conference Call
We will release our third quarter results for fiscal 2014 on July 31, 2014. The combined press and analyst conference call will be broadcast live on the internet.
www.railway-technology.com
Alstom delivers signalling system for Spain's Málaga Metro
Alstom has delivered a new signalling system to be equipped on the Málaga Metro in Spain, under a €15.4m contract that was awarded in 2006.
Singapore's LTA receives first new trains for Circle Line and North East Line
Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) has taken delivery of the first new metro trains for the Circle Line (CCL) and the North East Line (NEL), which aim to reduce congestion and passenger waiting times.
US DoT proposed new measures for safe rail transportation of flammable materials
The US Department of Transportation (DoT) has announced its comprehensive proposed rulemaking to improve the safe transport of large quantities of flammable materials by rail.
RAD to equip Sao Paulo Monorail route with communication systems
Israel-based communications provider RAD is to offer a wireless communications solution for the São Paulo Monorail project in Brazil.
www.railway-technology.com
Alstom delivers signalling system for Spain's Málaga Metro
Alstom has delivered a new signalling system to be equipped on the Málaga Metro in Spain, under a €15.4m contract that was awarded in 2006.
Singapore's LTA receives first new trains for Circle Line and North East Line
Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) has taken delivery of the first new metro trains for the Circle Line (CCL) and the North East Line (NEL), which aim to reduce congestion and passenger waiting times.
US DoT proposed new measures for safe rail transportation of flammable materials
The US Department of Transportation (DoT) has announced its comprehensive proposed rulemaking to improve the safe transport of large quantities of flammable materials by rail.
RAD to equip Sao Paulo Monorail route with communication systems
Israel-based communications provider RAD is to offer a wireless communications solution for the São Paulo Monorail project in Brazil.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Tell us your Railway News!