International & UK Railway News. Wednesday 27th February 2013

International Railway Journal

HARSCO, United States, announced on February 26 that it has won orders with new customers in China.The company will supply 20-stone rail grinders to metro operators in four Chinese cities..

SUDANESE Railway Corporation (SRC) is reportedly in negotiations with Ukraine, Korea, and China as it prepares to issue a tender in the next few months for 10 locomotives as well as track materials ....

NORWEGIAN State Railways (NSB) has placed an order with Stadler for an additional 16 Flirt emus which will be delivered between spring 2014 and early 2015.


www.progressiverailroading.com US News

• AAR: 'It's simply impossible' for roads to safely, fully install PTC by the mandated deadline
  
• CTA posts drop in serious crime rate
  
• Union Pacific wins logistics award in China, tabs Coalson to head ShipCarsNow
  
• SEPTA, HNTB receive engineering award for Norristown line's emergency repairs
  
• Crossing upgrades on tap in Illinois, Washington
  
• Montreal port lands new labor agreement
  
• Amtrak ad campaign will highlight Acela for business travelers
  
• Rail supplier updates from Harsco, AECOM, Thales and Tranco (Feb. 27)

www.railway-technology.com Updates


Indian Railways and BHEL sign MoU to establish MEMU coach factory in Rajasthan Indian Railways has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) to set up a Rs10bn ($184.7m) mainline electric multiple unit (MEMU) coach factory at Bhilwara in Rajasthan, India.

Bombardier-led consortium wins Polish re-signalling contract
A consortium comprising Bombardier, Thales and Nokia Siemens Networks has secured a €112m contract from Polish rail operator PKP to modernise the signalling of the 350km E65 railway line connecting Warsaw and Gdynia.
                   
MTR introduces new ultrasonic testing vehicle
Hong Kong's MTR has introduced a new ultrasonic testing vehicle (UTV), the Rail Detective, which can reduce track inspection time by half and identify small changes to rail conditions or the budding of a crack.
                   
Long-distance passenger rail traffic in Europe to increase 21% by 2020
Long-distance rail passenger traffic in Europe is expected to increase by 21% to 1.36 billion passengers by 2020, according to a new report by Amadeus.


Network Rail

Refurbished subway to open at Reading station

 

To help deliver improvement works at Reading station the section of the passenger bridge which links the station to the multi-storey car park will close for good on Friday March 1st as the newly refurbished subway opens on the same day.

This section of the current passenger bridge will close permanently, to allow new platforms underneath it to be completed. For four weeks people will be able to use a temporary walking route via the new subway. Those using the temporary route should allow up to an additional 15 minutes to get to their trains. The subway, which will be maintained by Reading Borough Council, has a new lighting and digital CCTV system linked to the station and police.

 

When the new northern entrance and passenger bridge is opened in April 2013, the subway will be the only means for those without train tickets to get from one side of the railway to the other.

Tony Page, lead councillor for regeneration, transport and planning, said: "The opening of the newly re-furnished subway underneath the station will provide a route right into the centre for people approaching the station from the northern side."

 

Graham Denny, project manager at Network Rail, said: “From 1st March, the bridge linking the multi-storey carpark to the station will close for good. For four weeks, people will be able to use a temporary walking route via the new subway. We have to do this because the current bridge sits in the way of new platforms which have to be finished by April, so it has to be removed. We realise this will be an inconvenience to passengers and are sorry for this; if there was another way of completing the new platforms we would do it.”

 

There will be 10 days of alterations to train services over the Easter period (from 29^th March to 7^th April) to allow essential work to be done to open the spectacular new passenger bridge, new platforms and entrances. The first phase of the station will open in early April 2013 – with the whole project remaining on course to be finished in 2015, one year ahead of schedule.

 

The station upgrades are just one part of the Reading improvement scheme, which also includes the construction of a new train care depot, a viaduct to provide more room for trains, new signalling to improve reliability and the introduction of overhead line equipment to allow new state-of-the-art electric trains to run.

 

 

 

ATOC

Young women look to new ways to travel to avoid increasing car insurance prices

25/02/2013
Young women are expecting to change how they visit friends and families or get to work this year after a new EU equality law banning car insurers from taking gender into account could see female drivers hit hardest in the pocket.

Figures published today by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) show that almost a third of 17-25 women say they expect to get around more by walking (31%), a fifth more by train (22%) and a fifth more by bus or coach (20%), compared to last year.
Two months on from when the ruling came into force, young female drivers face a rise of around £230 on their car insurance premiums, while their male counterparts have seen their premiums drop by around £180.

The survey of more than 1,000 men and women of all ages looked at how people predict the new ruling would affect their travel preferences, taking into account costs like petrol, rail fares, bus fares and parking all rising over time.

Young women say that they are twice as likely (22%) than young men (11%) to hop on a train more often this year. With around 1.6 million 17-25 year old female drivers with full driving licences in the UK, this could mean over 350,000 young women catching the train more frequently.

These latest findings follow figures released by ATOC in February last year which showed that record numbers of young people are now using a 16-25 Railcard, while fewer are opting to take their driving test - some having been deterred by high fuel and insurance costs as well as having to shell out for driving lessons.

Across both men and women, the figures from ATOC show that there were almost 250,000 fewer 17 to 25-year olds taking their driving test last year than in 2005 - an 18 per cent drop. In comparison, Young Railcard holders made over 56 million rail journeys in 2011/12, 67 per cent up on five years ago.

On average, young people with a Railcard make an annual saving of £159 a year off the cost of their rail travel and make around 40 journeys annually by rail.
Edward Welsh, Director of Corporate Affairs for ATOC, said: “Rising car insurance costs have led to many young women re-assessing their travel plans because cars won’t always be the best option. Many women drivers say they are likely to be walking or catching the train or bus more often this year and leaving the car at home.”



House of Commons: Public Accounts Committee

MPs publish report on the West Coast franchise competition
26 February 2013

The Public Accounts Committee publishes its 31st Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department for Transport, examined the cancellation of the InterCity West Coast franchise competition.

• Report: Department for Transport: Lessons from the West Coast Work franchise competition (HTML)
• Report: Department for Transport: Lessons from the West Coast Work franchise competition (PDF)
• Public Accounts Committee

The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“The Department for Transport’s complete lack of common sense in the way it ran the West Coast franchise competition has landed the taxpayer with a bill of £50 million at the very least. If you factor in the cost of delays to investment on the line, and the potential knock-on effect on other franchise competitions, then the final cost to the taxpayer will be very much larger.

“The Department made fundamental errors in calculating the level of risk capital it would require bidders to put on the table and it did not demand appropriate levels of capital from both bidders. Faced with the possibility of legal challenge, it cancelled the competition.

“The franchising process was littered with basic errors. The department yet again failed to learn from previous disasters, like the Metronet contract. It failed to heed advice from its lawyers. It failed to respond appropriately to early warning signs that things were going wrong.

“Senior management did not have proper oversight of the project. Cuts in staffing and in consultancy budgets contributed to a lack of key skills.

“The project suffered from a lack of leadership. There was no single person responsible from beginning to end and, therefore, no one who had to live with the consequences of bad policy decisions. For three months, there was no single person in charge at all. Not only that, there was no senior civil servant in the team responsible for the work, despite the critical importance of this multi-billion pound franchise.

“We are astonished that the Permanent Secretary did not oversee the project because he was told he could not see all the information which might have enabled him to challenge the processes, although it was one of the most important tasks for which the department is responsible.

"Given that the Department got it so wrong over this competition, we must feel concern over how properly it will handle future projects, including HS2 and Thameslink. The Department needs to get its house in order and put basic principles and practices at the heart of what it does, with an appropriately qualified and senior person in charge of the project throughout and an accessible leadership team ready and willing to hear and act on warning signs.”

Margaret Hodge was speaking as the Committee published its 31st Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department for Transport, examined the cancellation of the InterCity West Coast franchise competition.

Cancelled decision

On 3 October 2012, the Department for Transport (the Department), cancelled its decision to award the InterCity West Coast franchise to First Group due to errors in the procurement process. The Department’s failure to properly manage the competition will directly cost taxpayers at least £50 million, the majority of which will be spent on compensating bidders. There is also a significant opportunity cost resulting from delays in investment in the franchise.
The Department spent £1.9 million on staff costs and external advisers to run the franchise competition—significantly less than the estimated £10 million each bidder spent on their bids. The Department’s attempt to make cost savings in running the competition, for example by not employing external financial advisers, ended up costing the taxpayer tens of millions of pounds. These figures relate only to the West Coast Franchise. It is not yet clear whether other franchise competitions will be affected.

Failures in the process

The Intercity West Coast competition failed because the Department did not get basic processes right and had failed to learn from mistakes made in previous projects. Recommendations made in our 2010 report 'The failure of Metronet' to prevent a lack of oversight and information were clearly not applied in this competition. We are concerned the Department could yet again fail to apply basic processes, which could affect its future projects, including HS2 and Thameslink.

The Department made a number of mistakes when identifying the amount of risk capital (called the subordinated loan facility) it required from bidders to balance the riskiness of their bid. It failed to include inflation in its calculation and also applied discretion in deciding the amount it asked from bidders which was not allowed in the stated process.

These errors led to the Department asking First Group for a lower subordinated loan facility than was needed to protect itself from the recognised additional risk in the bid. A higher subordinated loan facility was requested from Virgin Trains. This opened the Department to the risk of legal challenge and ultimately led to the cancellation of the franchise competition.

Responsibility for the project

There was a lack of line management and leadership on the project. This project had no single SRO (Senior Responsible Owner) who was responsible for the project from beginning to end. The Department divided responsibility between developing the policy and implementing the competition.

Confusion in the handover between the SROs at the policy and implementation stages, which was meant to happen when the invitation to tender was issued, led to a situation where no SRO was in place for three months. Lack of leadership was made worse by the Department’s unique application by General Counsel and others of anonymity for bidders in the franchise competition. As a consequence, the Permanent Secretary was deliberately not allowed to see the details of the competition and commercially confidential information.

Despite warning signs, including from industry, the Department’s senior management did not sufficiently probe the information provided by the project team. They failed to apply common sense and challenge the outcome of the competition.

 
Other News Sources....

Shedmaster Railway News
From railwaygazette..com - AUSTRALIA: Qube Logistics has ordered six diesel locomotives from Chinese supplier CSR Ziyang..

World Heritage & Railway News

eastlancsrailway.org.uk announces its Diesel Weekend Gala for 2nd,3rd March 2013.
Featuring an all diesel timetable with locos from the ELR home fleet running passenger services. Make a day of it and get something to eat at The Trackside before taking a trip over to the Bury Transport Museum (free entry with a rover ticket) for even more vehicular goodness.

Railway Engineering News

railwaygazette.com reports from SPAIN that ticket sales for RENFE high speed services have increased by 38% year-on-year following the introduction of a new market-based fares structure, according to Development Minister Ana Pastor. ...