railwaygazette.com Updates......
Semmering base tunnel ground-breaking
03 May 2012,
14:40:00
AUSTRIA: A ground-breaking ceremony was held
at Gloggnitz on April 25 to officially launch preliminary construction works for
the 27·3 km Semmering base tunnel. Opening is planned for 2024. The €3·1bn base
tunnel between Gloggnitz and Mürzzuschlag is a key part of the 'new Südbahn'
project. It will eliminate the current bottleneck on the 41 km Semmeringbahn
route where steep gradients and numerous curves require freight trains to use
two or three locomotives. The tunnel will comprise two 10 m bores between 40
and 70 m apart, linked by cross passages every 500m. Boring is planned to start
in 2014, with excavation completed ready for fitting out from 2021. The tunnel
will be designed for passenger trains to run at up to 230 km/h, shortening Wien
- Graz journey times by 40 min to 1 h 50 min, which is expected to attract more
customers to rail. The Semmeringbahn was built in 1848-54, and is on the World
Heritage list as 'one of the greatest feats of civil engineering from this
pioneering phase of railway building'.
VTG launches EcoFret wagon at Multimodal 2012
03 May 2012,
13:43:00
UK: A prototype three-section flat wagon
designed specifically to carry 40 ft deep-sea containers was unveiled by
European wagon leasing group VTG Rail at the Multimodal 2012 show in Birmingham
on May 2. The close-coupled three-platform vehicle can carry a single 40 ft
container on each of the outer platforms and a pair of 20 ft boxes on the inner
unit, with a tare load of 21 tonnes and payload of 36 tonnes per platform. The
vehicle is carried on six Barber 20.5 track-friendly bogies purpose-designed by
SCT. These are expected to offer significantly better ride quality and wheel
life than the older Y33 bogie. With a standard platform height of 980 mm above
rail, the EcoFret can carry 9 ft 6 in high containers within the UK's W10
loading gauge. Following testing in Germany last year against various TSI
requirements including noise, the prototype is expected to be approved for
operation within the next few weeks. VTG has already ordered a series build of
43 twin-section vehicles, which are being assembled at Greenbrier Europe's
Swidnica plant in Poland for delivery between August and November. These are
being leased to Freightliner Ltd, which is branding them as Shortliner.
Freightliner believes that the shorter wagons will offer a more efficient use of
train length than its current fleet of 60 ft vehicles, where today's ratio of 40
ft to 20 ft boxes means that many 60 ft platforms are only carrying one 40 ft
box. As well as increasing the payload, eliminating the empty spaces should also
improve the aerodynamics for intermodal trains running at up to 120 km/h,
according to VTG.
Suzhou metro Line 1 opens
03 May 2012,
12:05:00
CHINA: The first metro line in Suzhou opened
on April 28, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and simultaneous departures from the
Zhongnan Jie and Mudu termini at 11.18. Suzhou Rail Transit Co's Line 1 runs
25·7 km from east to west with 24 stations. Systra undertook planning work,
Siemens and Nanjing Research Institute of Electronic Technology supplied CBTC
signalling, the rolling stock was manufactured by CSR and rail grinding
machinery by Harsco. Work is underway on the 26·6 km north-south Line 2, which
is scheduled to open in 2014. This will link the city's North station with
Yingchunnanlu in Wuzhong Economic Development Zone. There will be 17 underground
and five surface stations, with an interchange with Line 1 at Guanjinan Road.
The Nanjing SR Puzhen Rail Transport joint venture is to deliver 23 five-car
Type B2 trainsets from May 2013. Two further metro lines are included in the
the city's transport master plan.
GCS expands intermodal wagon fleet
03 May 2012,
11:09:00
RUSSIA: Global Container Service Group has
begun taking delivery of 224 flat wagons ordered from Transmashholding's Engels
plant. The wagons are to be used on block trains operated by GCS intermodal
subsidiary Ruscon, which moves almost 150 000 TEU a year on routes from the
Black Sea port of Novorossiysk to destinations in European Russia. Traffic
includes automotive components for factories in the Elabuga special economic
zone operated by Ford, Isuzu, Voith Turbo, Saint-Gobain, Rockwool, Air Liquide
and PD FibreGlass. GCS says it also plans to increase its fleet of long-term
leased flat wagons to more than 450 units
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