International Railway Journal
SÃO PAULO suburban rail operator Paulista Metropolitan Trains Company (CPTM) is to launch an international tender for 65 eight-car emus, after a domestic contest intended to support local suppliers failed to attract sufficient interest.
RUSSIA's Finance Ministry has announced proposals to cut subsidies for long-distance train services and divert the funding to investment in aviation.
Russian Railways (RZD) estimates that, if implemented, the cutbacks would lead to the loss of around Roubles 5bn (US$ 170m) from its annual subsidy and could trigger a 40% decline in long-distance ridership over 3-4 years.
CAF is celebrating the first order for its Urbos 3 low-floor LRV from a German customer after signing a contract with Freiburg Transport (VAG) for 12 metre-gauge vehicles, which will support the expansion of the city's light rail network.
CAF is celebrating the first order for its Urbos 3 low-floor LRV from a German customer after signing a contract with Freiburg Transport (VAG) for 12 metre-gauge vehicles, which will support the expansion of the city's light rail network.
www.progressiverailroading.com US News
www.railway-technology.com Updates
Invensys Rail to support West Coast power supply upgrade project Invensys Rail has won a contract from ABB to support Network Rail's £115m power supply upgrade project on the West Coast Main Line (WCML).PKP Intercity introduces new rail ticketing solution
Polish rail operator PKP Intercity has launched Simply Ticket, a new system to replace its existing ticket and seat reservation process.
First half of Birmingham New Street station to open in April
Network Rail is set to open the first half of the new concourse at Birmingham New Street station on 28 April 2013.
High Court rejects legal challenge to UK's High Speed 2
The High Court in London has rejected nine of the ten legal challenges brought against phase one of the High Speed 2 (HS2) project from London to Birmingham.
ATOC
Big growth in rail travel for some of Britain’s biggest cities despite recession
18/03/2013Fourteen cities, six of them among the most populated in Britain, recorded double-digit growth in rail journeys over the last five years despite a double dip recession.
Figures released today by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) show that ten of the 14 cities that have seen the highest growth between 2008 and 2012 are outside the south-east.
Reasons for the changes in journey numbers over the five years varied between cities:
• Coventry has seen the biggest overall growth of any city with journeys up 30% in five years. Business journeys have jumped 48%.
• Commuter journeys into and out of Birmingham have more than doubled in five years (103%).
• Milton Keynes registered a 28% rise in the number of leisure trips along with a 37% increase in business journeys to and from the city.
• Plymouth saw commuter journeys increase 38% over the period.
• Ipswich saw a 29% rise in leisure trips.
Between 2008 and 2012, the Government required train companies to increase the average cost of a season ticket by above the rate of inflation every year. Yet as operators have attracted people to travel by train by offering Off-Peak tickets, good value Advance fares and Railcard savings, the average price paid per journey has actually fallen from £5.19 to £ 4.95 in real terms.
According to ATOC’s latest figures, over 1.44 billion journeys were made by train last year. After years of declining use, rail travel has grown almost every year since the 1990s, making it more popular now than at any time since the 1920s.
Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of ATOC said: “When Britain has recorded little or no economic growth, rail has been helping our great cities by connecting people with jobs, services and leisure opportunities.
“The last time train travel was this popular was almost 90 years ago when the rail network was around twice the size. Significant investment and an industry focused on attracting more passengers have turned around decades of decline to deliver better stations, more trains and faster services.”
ENDS
Notes:
- The table below shows the cities that have experienced double-digit growth in passenger rail journeys over the last five full calendar years. The six cities highlighted in bold below are among the ten most populated cities in Britain.
City 2008-2012 % rise in rail journeys
Coventry 30%
Milton Keynes 26%
Norwich 25%
Birmingham 22%
Sheffield 21%
Bristol 21%
Manchester 20%
Cambridge 19%
Edinburgh 17%
Plymouth 17%
Ipswich 15%
Newcastle upon Tyne 12%
Nottingham 10%
London 10%
Source: LENNON database
Some of the improvements introduced by train companies include:
- Virgin Trains now run over 600 services a week on the line between London and Manchester – up from 440 a week in 2008. They now run around the same number of trains on Sunday as they used to run on weekdays.
Since the introduction of a new timetable, Coventry and Birmingham are now served by 630 trains a week which equates to around one train every 20 minutes Monday to Saturday and on Sunday afternoons.
-In 2011, Chiltern upgraded the route between Birmingham and London, cutting their Mainline journey times by up to 20%. The company worked with members of the Birmingham business community to define their new service which includes free Wi-Fi and the ‘premium economy’ Business Zone that allows ‘on the spot’ upgrades. The launch of this new product was very successful with Chiltern seeing year on year growth of 46% from Birmingham to London.
- Greater Anglia offer Advance tickets between London and Ipswich that start at £8 and there are now more frequent services operating on some routes into Ipswich.
- First Great Western has reported a rise in the number of journeys being made into and out of Plymouth on branch lines both for business and leisure trips.
ELEVEN ORGANISATIONS from across industries and transport modes join forces today to drive forward the electrification of surface transport
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Alstom, AVERE, CER, ETRA, EURELECTRIC, EUROBAT, Going Electric, Nissan, Polis, UITP, and UNIFE join forces today by creating a Platform for the Electrification of Surface Transport.
Today, 19 March 2013, the Platform for the Electrification of Surface Transport is holding its maiden event at the Hotel Renaissance in Brussels, starting at 18.30.
MEP Gesine Meissner (ALDE, Germany) will give the opening remarks, followed by introductory presentations byHans ten Berge, Secretary General of EURELECTRIC and by Libor Lochman, Executive Director of CER. This will be followed by a panel discussion withDaniela Rosca, Head of Unit C1 (Clean Transport and Sustainable Urban Mobility), DG MOVE;Olivier Paturet, General Manager, Zero Emissions Strategy, Nissan Europe; Alain Berger, Vice-President for European Affairs and Head of Brussels office, Alstom;Alain Flausch, General Secretary, International Association of Public Transport (UITP), andJoost van Gils, Vice-Director Economic Development and Mobility, Province of North Brabant, the Netherlands, representing Polis. The discussion will be moderated byProfessor Joeri van Mierlo, Vice-President of AVERE.
The Platform for the Electrification of Surface Transport sees electrification as a key way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport and to reduce the dependence of the European Union on imported oil. In their common statement published today, the eleven organisations call upon public authorities to support the further electrification of surface transport on the basis of a multi-modal approach. The joint statement is attached and also available atwww.cer.be.
MEP Gesine Meissner states: “The vision of the Platform is to aim for fully electrified door-to-door multimodal transport solutions. This is an exciting prospect for European citizens and businesses, with significant growth and employment prospects.”
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Promoting security and the feeling of security vis-à-vis third-party violence in the European rail sector - A good practice guide
Security today is perceived as an issue that affects not only European governments but also social partners. This is one of the fundamental pillars of society and the basis of freedom and equality for the full development of each individual. In this sense, security is not only a legal, regulatory or political value, but also social, because it is the foundation of the common good of society, the basis which enables the fair and equal development to all those who belong to it.
This is why the European social partners of the rail sector developed a joint project on Insecurity and the feeling of insecurity in rail passenger transport in order to prevent, manage and reduce insecurity caused by third-party violence. Their aim was to improve the personal security of workers and with it, the one of passengers. Therefore at European level, besides promoting the exchange of information and experiences, the social partners tried to mobilize all social forces and public transport companies to prevent the major European cities from becoming a breeding ground for crime, through the adoption of instruments which allow a clear identification of the nature of the problem and seek solutions for improving the feeling of security of employees and passengers, the people most exposed to the risk of aggression and violence.
As conclusion of the joint CER-ETF project, a Good Practices Guide was published by the social partners. With the presentation of examples of various experiences of CER members, they promote the adoption of preventive measures that make response to acts of violence committed on railway staff and passengers in order to reduce the widespread feeling of insecurity in the public transport sector with a shared common approach.
CER - 53 Avenue des Arts - 1000 Brussels - Belgium
Shedmaster Railway News Key news including, via railwaygazette.com - GERMANY: The Land of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has awarded DB Regio a contract to operate Ost-West services for 15 years from 2015. ..and Is the Mallard the most important British innovation of the 20th Century? - See more: HERE... . and Steam Tube's Mallard75 Documentary Competition  World Heritage & Railway News gwsr.com It was back to 'business as usual' for the Cheltenham Festival race trains now that the landslip problems which have hampered this traffice have been resolved. Once again, trains can depart from Toddington for Cheltenham Racecourse. The trains were packed for the 'At the Races Express', bringing racegoers, customers of organisers Corporate Entertainment Company, to the racecourse in style and comfort. It was an all-Great Western appearance for locomotives from the railway's stable, with 2807, 7903 'Foremarke Hall' and 5542 all putting in appearances. We thought you might enjoy this small gallery of pictures from the week which brought valuable income for the railway as well as making a race day with a difference for racegoers. A popular view from travellers that this is by far the best way to get there - and it avoides the legendary traffic jams that the Festival week also generates, especially at the end of the day';s programme when everyone wants to leave at once. It relives the days when trains could travel direct to the racecourse from London and the Midlands, as well as from the Irish Sea ports. May be when the line is reconnected to the national network at Honeyboure race trains could again reach the racecourse from much further afield than Toddington.... Railway Engineering News From gov.uk - Plans to replace the sub-standard bridge carrying the A6 London Road over the Derby to Birmingham railway have been given the go-ahead, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin confirmed today. |
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