You must be a member to access this exclusive content!
Become a member for just £30 and receive:
- Online access to the latest issue and over 400 articles from the European Railway Review back issue archive
- Our regular newsletter - European Railway Review Digital News
Or subscribe for just £90 and also get:
- The next 6 issues of European Railway Review magazine
Latest issue
Latest issue / 4 August 2010 / Doris Bures, Federal Minister of Transport, Innovation and Technology, Austria
The railways in Europe continue to face disadvantages in competition with roads. The only way to achieve fair competition in the transport sector is to reflect the true costs of each mode of transport, including factors such as climate protection, social issues, health aspects and safety. Unfortunately, some approaches at the EU level do not follow this line of thought. (more…)
Tagged with: Austria, Doris Bures
Latest issue / 4 August 2010 / Johannes Gfrerer, Spokesman for the Salzburg Region,
ÖBB-Holding AG and Thomas Wörndl, Project Manager for the reconstruction of the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof
€270 million will be invested in the creation of a unique transport station in the festival city of Salzburg that is to be completed by 2014. The new through station will do full justice to the requirements of a modern railway age as a regional and international transport hub. High customer convenience, short distances, barrier-free changing of trains, optimal passenger information, a central passage with shopping facilities, a unique architectural concept integrating listed historic building elements into state-of-the-art railway infrastructure will give Salzburg a distinctive new entrée. (more…)
Tagged with: Austria, Johannes Gfrerer, ÖBB-Holding AG, Stations, Thomas Wörndl
Latest issue / 4 August 2010 / Renzo Simoni, CEO, AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd
Construction of the new Gotthard line with the Gotthard and Ceneri Base Tunnels is on course. In October 2010, a further milestone will be the final breakthrough of the Gotthard: the miners will excavate the last stretch of rock between the portals at Erstfeld and Bodio/Pollegio. On the Ceneri, in March 2010, driving towards the north and south began from the intermediate heading at Sigirino. Both construction projects have therefore taken a major step forward towards their respective scheduled openings in 2017 (Gotthard) and 2019 (Ceneri). (more…)
Tagged with: AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd, Rail infrastructure, Renzo Simoni, Switzerland, Tunnel Boring, Tunnelling
Latest issue / 4 August 2010 / Marco Ceriani, Line Section Manager for the Weinberg Tunnel,
SBB Infrastructure
Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich main station, or Zurich HB) is the central hub for rail traffic in Switzerland. Trains pull in and out of the station virtually every minute, and over 300,000 passengers depart, arrive or change trains here daily. Commuter traffic is forecast to grow in the coming years, and over half a million passengers and passers-by are expected to be using the station every day – exceeding its current capacity limits.
Together with other infrastructure expansion projects, the new 9.6km cross-city link will soon ease the bottleneck, enabling new service patterns to be implemented for suburban (S-Bahn) rail traffic from the end of 2013 and for long-distance services as of 2015. The improved services and new connections will be of particular benefit to users of Zurich’s local S-Bahn network and to rail passengers travelling on the Geneva–Berne–Zurich Airport–St. Gallen route. (more…)
Tagged with: Marco Ceriani, Rail infrastructure, SBB Infrastructure, Switzerland, Tunnel Boring, Tunnelling, Weinberg Tunnel
Latest issue / 4 August 2010 / Philippe Gauderon, Head of SBB Infrastructure and Member of
the SBB Management Board
Most of the SBB rail network is in good condition. That was the conclusion of an external survey commissioned by SBB and published in February 2010. Future maintenance and renewal of the rail infrastructure will cost significantly more than was previously assumed. SBB Infrastructure has embarked on a comprehensive action plan designed to meet the increased requirements. Philippe Gauderon, Head of SBB Infrastructure and Member of the SBB Management Board, summarised the task ahead as follows: “In future, ‘action not reaction’ will be our motto.” (more…)
Tagged with: Philippe Gauderon, Rail infrastructure, SBB Infrastructure, Switzerland, Track maintenance & engineering
Latest issue / 4 August 2010 / Angus W. Stocking, Industry Author
Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) is an overwhelmingly popular rail initiative in Northern California and is to begin service in 2014. Planners estimate that the new commuter rail system can be built for approximately $7.1 million dollars per mile, which compares very favourably to the cost of extending other local systems.
The Northwestern Pacific railway corridor has been out of service since 1994. The right of way is overgrown in many areas, two existing tunnels will need to be refurbished and the entire track will be redesigned and replaced. One of the first steps in the redesign of the track, is an accurate survey of the existing 70 miles of track. This means good coordinates at regular intervals on both rails. Planners and designers needed to know the location, super-elevation, gauge (distance between the rails), location of switches, etc. This is a major undertaking. (more…)
Tagged with: Angus W. Stocking, Rail infrastructure, Rail Surveying, Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART)
Latest issue / 4 August 2010 / Prof Andrew McNaughton FREng, Chief Engineer, High Speed Two Ltd and European Railway Review Editorial Board Member
In Britain, about once a century for the last few hundred years a new long-distance surface transport system has been planned and built to meet the developing needs of a continually advancing society. The 18th century brought the canals and the 19th the railways, both initially more focussed on transporting freight to support the industrial revolution and the development of our cities. Of course, the 20th century brought the trunk motorway network which transformed personal travel. As we get well into the 21st century, we have been considering what is needed to promote the economic and environmental health of this country for the next 100 years. (more…)
Tagged with: Great Britain, High Speed Two Ltd, High-speed rail, Prof. Andrew McNaughton
Latest issue / 4 August 2010 / Vladimir Yakunin, President, Russian Railways
The changing economic situation in Russia, and the increase in business and transport activity among the country’s population in recent years, served as an incentive to draw up the Programme for the Development of High-Speed and Very High-Speed Transport, as part of the Strategy for Developing Rail Transport in the Russian Federation up to 2030, adopted by the Russian government in June 2008.
The company is confident that the implementation of this programme will allow it to position rail, in the passenger transport sector, as a competitive service able to provide a high-quality transport product for the Russian population, while yielding profits for the company. (more…)
Tagged with: high-speed line projects, High-speed rail, Russia, Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin
Latest issue / 4 August 2010 / Paloma Cucala García and Antonio Fernández Cardador IIT, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, España
Reduction of energy consumption has become a global concern, and the EU is committed to reducing its overall emissions to at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. In the transport sector, measures are focused on planning, infrastructure, modal change, the renewal of vehicles and also programmes for efficient driving.
Factors such as the low friction wheel-rail that allows coasting for long distances, electric traction which may allow the use of renewable energy, a capacity to transport large numbers of people and the possibility of adapting the number of coaches to demand, make the railways an efficient mode of transport. Additionally, railway transport is a guided path transport mode which allows the existence of electrification and facilitates traffic control and the automation of driving. (more…)
Tagged with: Antonio Fernandez Cardador, Energy Efficiency, High-speed rail, Paloma Cucala Garcia, Rail infrastructure, Spain, Tuomo Viitala, Universidad Pontificia Comillas
Latest issue / 3 August 2010 / Andrew Lezala, CEO, Metro Trains Melbourne (Metro)
Six months in to its contract as operator of Melbourne’s metropolitan train network, Metro’s focus is firmly on improving asset reliability, simplifying the timetable and making every minute count.
In 2009, the Victorian Government selected a new contractor to operate Melbourne’s metropolitan rail services. The network assets, which are Government-owned and funded, have been privately operated and maintained since 1999.
On 30 November 2009, Metro Trains Melbourne (Metro) began operations, taking over from former operator Connex (Connex was involved in the management of Melbourne’s rail network since it was privatised, and assumed full operational control of the network in 2000). (more…)
Tagged with: Andrew Lezala, Australia, ballast-type tracks, John Holland Group, Metro Trains Melbourne, MTR Corporation, Rolling stock, Timetables, UGL Rail
mailing list