REPRESENTATIVES from the United States' leading freight railways told the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) during a conference in Washington, DC, this week that a full implementation of Positive Train Control on around 96,500km of track will not be possible by the federally-mandated deadline of 2015.
KAZAKHSTAN Railways (KTZ) has selected KazElectroPrivod (KEP), a joint venture of Alstom and Kamkor, Kazakhstan, in a €90m contract to supply 10,000 point machines over a period of 10 years.
THE European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the First Railway Package does not require member states to have an institutional separation between an infrastructure manager and the incumbent railway operator.
THE British public will fund 100%, or around £1bn, of the procurement costs of the rolling stock for Crossrail, London's new 118km east-west cross-city line which is currently under construction.
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Harsco Rail, a division of US-based Harsco, has received new orders from four Chinese rail companies, as well as an order in North America.
Transport for London (TfL) in the UK has completed the installation of signalling systems between West Finchley and High Barnet under the Northern line upgrade of the London Underground.
AECOM Technical Services, a subsidiary of AECOM Technology, has won a $43.9m contract from the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) to provide design services for a portion of the Honolulu elevated-rail project in Hawaii.
EU legal framework does not require institutional separation between rail infrastructure manager and incumbent operator
Today, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered its judgments on infringement actions brought against four member states concerning rail transport by the European Commission. The Court declared that Spain and Hungary have failed to fulfill their obligations under EU law in that field. However, for the cases concerning Austria and Germany, the ECJ does not support the European Commission´s applications and considers that the First Railway Package (former Directive 91/440; now Directive 2012/34) does not require member states to have in place an institutional separation between the infrastructure manager and the incumbent operator. The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) welcomes these important judgments which will shed a new light on the debate in the framework of the current adoption of the Fourth Railway Package.
According to the ECJ, the Recast Directive allows Austria and Germany to integrate both infrastructure manager and incumbent operator in a single holding company. The ECJ also rejects the Commission’s arguments that Germany failed to fulfill its obligations regarding the fixing of charges and the implementation of a system limiting infrastructure costs and reducing the level of access charges. In those circumstances, the Commission’s actions have been dismissed.
CER Executive Director Libor Lochman said: “We will closely analyse the complete Court ruling. In any case, we can already say that the Court decision confirms what CER has been saying about separation requirements for a long time, also in the context of the Recast of the First Railway Package. This is also an important signal in relation to the Fourth Railway Package. We are firm in our view that member states should retain the responsibility for reforming their rail systems on the basis of factual economic evidence.”
UK Office of Rail Regulation (ORR)
Director of Rail Policy to retire after four decades in railways
1 March 2013
ORR/7/13
Michael Beswick has announced that he will retire and step down from his role as Director of Railway Policy at the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) in June 2013.
Looking back at his career Michael Beswick said:
ORR/7/13
Michael Beswick has announced that he will retire and step down from his role as Director of Railway Policy at the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) in June 2013.
Looking back at his career Michael Beswick said:
“I have worked in the railways for 37 years, 19 years at ORR, and greatly enjoyed my time, particularly working with so many people who are dedicated to delivering a better railway. It has been great to see Britain’s railways revitalise, modernise, improve and grow in that time, and I am pleased to have helped contribute to these successes.
“I look forward to playing an important role during my final months at ORR, as we prepare to publish our draft determination in June setting out the plan for Britain’s railways for the period 2014-2019.”On behalf of the ORR Board, Chair, Anna Walker said:
“The Board and I would like to thank Michael for his outstanding contribution to ORR. His deep knowledge of the railways and commitment throughout his career at the regulator, spanning nearly 20 years, have helped to deliver the improvements in safety, performance, and efficiency on Britain’s railways that we see around us today.”
Companies fined £300,000 after London Underground train ran out of control
28 February 2013
ORR/6/13
Three companies today were fined a total of £300,000 and ordered to pay costs of £44,074 following a prosecution brought by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) for breaches of health and safety law which led to an engineering train running out of control for over four miles on the London Underground Northern Line in August 2010.
Today’s sentencing at the Old Bailey marks the end of the rail regulator’s criminal prosecution against London Underground Limited, Tube Lines Limited and Schweerbau GMBH. At approximately 6:45am on Friday 13 August 2010, a broken down engineering train was being towed uphill towards Highgate tube station when a connection failed and the train broke free. The train ran downhill out of control, southbound on the London Underground Northern Line for 16 minutes. The train eventually came to an unaided stop caused by an uphill incline on the approach to Warren Street station, by which time it had covered over four miles, passed through seven populated stations and reached speeds of up to 30mph.
London Underground Limited, Tube lines Limited and Schweerbau GMBH all pleaded guilty to charges under section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Schweerbau GMBH also pleaded guilty to an additional charge under section 2 of the Act. These charges result from the companies' failure to effectively co-ordinate, plan and work together in transporting the damaged train, as procedures were not followed. Significantly, lessons had also not been learned from previous failings made during a rescue of the same train less than one month earlier on 17 July 2010.
Ian Prosser, ORR’s Director of Safety, said:
ORR/6/13
Three companies today were fined a total of £300,000 and ordered to pay costs of £44,074 following a prosecution brought by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) for breaches of health and safety law which led to an engineering train running out of control for over four miles on the London Underground Northern Line in August 2010.
Today’s sentencing at the Old Bailey marks the end of the rail regulator’s criminal prosecution against London Underground Limited, Tube Lines Limited and Schweerbau GMBH. At approximately 6:45am on Friday 13 August 2010, a broken down engineering train was being towed uphill towards Highgate tube station when a connection failed and the train broke free. The train ran downhill out of control, southbound on the London Underground Northern Line for 16 minutes. The train eventually came to an unaided stop caused by an uphill incline on the approach to Warren Street station, by which time it had covered over four miles, passed through seven populated stations and reached speeds of up to 30mph.
London Underground Limited, Tube lines Limited and Schweerbau GMBH all pleaded guilty to charges under section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Schweerbau GMBH also pleaded guilty to an additional charge under section 2 of the Act. These charges result from the companies' failure to effectively co-ordinate, plan and work together in transporting the damaged train, as procedures were not followed. Significantly, lessons had also not been learned from previous failings made during a rescue of the same train less than one month earlier on 17 July 2010.
Ian Prosser, ORR’s Director of Safety, said:
"London Underground is one of the safest railways in the world and normally has a very good safety record. The companies responsible for running and maintaining services have an important duty to ensure that their workers and members of the public are not exposed to unnecessary safety risks.
"However, in this case, London Underground, Tube Lines and Schweerbau, through inadequate management and planning, failed to ensure the safe recovery of an engineering train. This is clearly unacceptable, and led to a potentially catastrophic incident on the Northern Line where the train careered out of control for over four miles. It was only the professionalism of control room staff taking decisive action which prevented a collision between trains, and averted a much more serious outcome.
"We welcome the steps taken by the companies to improve safety management on London Underground since this incident. The regulator will continue to closely monitor the actions of all parties involved, and will not hesitate to step in should further safety failings be found."
Crossrail
New Crossrail images show 'London tunnelling marathon' underway beneath the capital.
The new Crossrail route from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east includes a marathon-equivalent 26 mile (42km) section of tunnels. Following the aerial images of Crossrail construction sites released last month, new tunnelling images released today show how Europe’s biggest construction project is also making its mark beneath the capital. The new images show tunnelling work underway at Crossrail sites including:
- Five tunnelling machines now in operation – Phyllis and Ada in west London, Elizabeth and Victoria in east London, and Sophia in Plumstead, southeast London
- Together the five machines have created more than 5km / 3 miles of tunnels so far with nearly 500 metres built in the single biggest week of tunnelling to-date
- In the western tunnels alone tunnelling machine Phyllis has put over 1,500 tunnel rings in place between Royal Oak and Park Lane at the edge of Hyde Park
- The western tunnelling machines will pass through the new Crossrail station at Bond Street this spring followed by Tottenham Court Road and Farringdon later this year, while the eastern tunnelling machines will break through into Canary Wharf station box this spring
- Tunnelling underway beneath four central London station sites using Sprayed Concrete Lining ‘mining’ techniques– Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel
- Sprayed Concrete Lining will be used to build a total of 12km of platform tunnels and cross passages at stations along the Crossrail route
- Sprayed Concrete Lining underway at the huge 34.5 metres deep Stepney Green shaft in east London - one of Europe’s largest underground caverns which is large enough to fit 100 double decker buses. The works are to allow the two eastern tunnelling machines to pass through the shaftlater this year on their way to Farringdon via Whitechapel and Liverpool Street
- Crossrail’s sixth and seventh tunnel boring machines will begin further tunnelling work in Plumstead and Pudding Mill Lane later this year
- Refurbishment works well underway at the 135 year old Connaught Tunnel in southeast London which will be brought back into use for Crossrail. A section of the Royal Docks will shortly be drained to allow major works later this year to open the tunnel from above for the first time since its construction in 1878
When Crossrail opens in 2018, it will increase London's rail-based transport network capacity by 10 per cent and dramatically cut journey times across the city.
Through the new transport links and significant over-station developments being delivered, Crossrail will support regeneration across the capital with economic forecasts suggesting the project will add up to £42 billion to the UK economy.
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railwaygazette.com reports from FRANCE: President of the Ile-de-France regional council and Paris transport authority STIF Jean-Paul Huchon joined SNCF Transilien Director General Bénédicte Tilloy and RFF Ile-de-France Regional Director François Régus Orizet on February 27 to mark the entry into service of the first of 35 Francilien EMUs for the suburban network serving Paris Est.
Christian Wolmar- Britain's Leading Transport Commentator
The 150th anniversary of the Tube, celebrated with steam engines being operated on the system for the first time in decades, demonstrated yet again the power of innovation, a theme about which I have become somewhat obsessed. The Underground system was testimony to the remarkable innovative spirit of the Victorians as the idea of digging up streets, installing a railway system and then covering them over again was truly mould breaking.
The very basis of the Victorians’ inventiveness was that they were not afraid to try and fail.. Atmospheric railways, powered by vacuums created by static steam engines never took off despite Brunel’s support because of technical difficulties of maintaining the vacuum, not least in the face of rats who took a liking to the grease used to keep the leather flaps moist. Elevated railways were at one time considered an alternative to the subterranean lines that changed the face of London. There was, too, the idea of circular escalators, about which I have a particular interest since the only attempt to create them was at my local Tube station at Holloway Road and they are now just a pile of miscellaneous bits at the London Transport Museum.
So the Victorian era was characterised by both successes and failures, but I worry that if someone came along with the equivalent of an Underground railway system today, they would not be able to see their project through. Take, for example, the aerial cableway which Boris Johnson has had installed across the river and which goes by the awful sponsored name of Emirates Air Line. Since the Olympics, this particular system has attracted few passengers since there is little demand for travel between the two sites it links in deepest East London, but that does not mean the concept is a bad idea.
Indeed, quite the opposite. It is surprising that these aerial cableways have been largely confined to ski resorts when one can imagine that for certain levels of flow – up to possibly 5,000 passengers per hour – they could provide extremely useful links in urban areas. Moreover, they are attractive and offer amazing views, ensuring there would be a tourist component, too.
This applies, too, to one of the other innovations I came across in 2012, the pods at Heathrow Terminal 5 which I wrote about last May. These, too, would seem to have much wider potential application for use in the urban realm.
As I write, this, too, The Guardian has an article which shows that battery operated trains are quite feasible, with a range of up to 600 miles. Inevitably, there are problems with the weight and life of the batteries, but this is certainly an area worth exploring, notably for trams in historic town centres.
The barriers to innovation, however, are legion. Developing new technologies is expensive and therefore. Moreover, governments are slow to become aware of which technologies to back and what they can do to support them. They are hamstrung, too, by the need for consultation and planning that often slows down the introduction of new ideas. Or indeed old ones. The remarkable amount of time which it is taking to build HS2 – 20 years plus – is a case in point and railways are pretty old technology.
One of the reasons for my scepticism about HS2 is on the basis that it does not take into account future development of technology. Just look at how technology has changed since 1993 when mobile phones had barely taken root, Google, Facebook and Twitter were but twinkles in their founders’ eye and digital TV was just starting. Will there really be enough people wanting to pile into what are likely to be expensive trains in 20 years time to justify the huge expenditure on this project?
And here’s where I stick my neck out. The next big technology, one with such huge implications that it is impossible to being to predict them, is driverless cars. Google, which is investing billions in the project, announced back in August that its fleet of more than a dozen driverless cars had completed 300,000 miles – ten times round the world – without an accident. The cars have driven through San Francisco and through various parts of California and Nevada – where a law has been passed allowing them – and while there are no plans to produce them commercially yet, their time will inevitably come.
Perhaps they will start by being driven only on motorways but even that would have enormous consequences. It would combine many of the advantages of train travel with the flexibility of car use. Think trucks, too. The economics of transport would change as radically as they did when the railways were first developed. The time frame may be a decade or two, but the consequences will be much more far reaching than, say, the much talked about electric cars. The driverless car – or rather motor vehicle – is the innovation that we ought all to be taking into account in our future thinking.
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