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Issue 1 2012 / 6 February 2012 /
Infrabel, the manager of the Belgian railway infrastructure, is currently putting the finishing touches to Diabolo – the new direct rail link to and from Brussels Airport. With four months before the rail link goes into service, Luc Lallemand, Infrabel’s CEO, exclusively tells European Railway Review the most important achievements and strategic priorities of the prestigious Diabolo project.
Strategic railway link in the centre of Europe
Thanks to Diabolo, Brussels Airport will be directly connected with the major axes of the Belgian network and also with several European cities, via the international axes Frankfurt–Liège–Brussels–Paris and Amster – dam–Brussels–Paris.
After the completion of the Belgian highspeed network in 2009, which is now in service and which covers the Belgian territory from border to border (in the direction of France, Germany and the Netherlands and in the direction of Great Britain through the Eurotunnel) Belgium once again has strategically positioned itself at the centre of Europe.
Diabolo is an underground railway connection between the Brussels-National- Airport station (in the airport itself) and the new double railway line Schaerbeek–Mechelen (L25N) along the central reservation of the E19 motorway, which will also contribute to improving congestion to and from the capital. (more…)
Issue 3 2011 / 31 May 2011 /
By any measure, a new main line railway station is a rare commodity. There has been only a handful over the past 20 years, some linked to regional airports. But the south-east region in the UK now has its own, all-new, congestion-easing rail-air interchange at Southend Airport – the work of infrastructure engineers Stobart Rail. Situated just a few minutes up the line from Southend Victoria, the new station will play a key part in the airport’s evolution from a sleepy general aviation base into a busy east-of-London terminal, ready to service the influx of visitors expected for the 2012 Olympics. In an interview for European Railway Review, Stobart Rail’s Managing Director Kirk Taylor and Project Manager Stephen Harker, explain the importance of this all-new interchange and the planning and construction involved. (more…)
Issue 3 2011 / 31 May 2011 /
Rail travel in Northern Ireland is a major success story with over 60% customer growth since 2002 exceeding government targets. Two years ago, Translink NI Railways celebrated delivering 10 million passenger journeys in a year – the highest on record in the company’s history and we are on schedule to carry even more passengers in 2011.
This significant growth in passenger numbers reflects an ongoing programme of change and enhancement to the local rail network, continued high performance levels, clever marketing campaigns and shows that government investment is paying off. (more…)
Issue 1 2011 / 15 February 2011 /
In the past, Poland (with its 23,000km railway network) badly needed a good operational radio communication system. The first simple analogue system started in 1972 connecting the harbours of Gdynia and Gdansk with Silesia. The radio-telephone network has provided good communication between dispatchers and running trains along the whole route of approximately 800km. The loco-drivers, beside the connection with the dispatchers, were able to communicate among themselves. On the frame of this system (which was called colloquially ‘train line radio’) various mutations were created, e.g. marshalling yards or emergency/rescue networks. As it was mentioned, the first PKP analogue system using simplex transmission worked properly and is still operating in a 150 MHz band. (more…)
Issue 6 2010 / 10 December 2010 /
In 2010, REFER EPE – the Portuguese rail infrastructure manager – opens three new connections of great importance for the rail network in Portugal. Three investments in the Main Network, considered as priorities in the Strategic Guidelines for the Railway Sector established by the Portuguese Government in 2006, include the rail link to the Port of Aveiro, the Trofa Bypass and the Alcácer Bypass. (more…)
Issue 6 2010 / 10 December 2010 /
This report describes Neopul’s work on the Luas b1-400 extension of the Green Line from the Sandyford depot to Cherrywood industrial estate, which was opened to the public on 16 October 2010.
The green line was the existing connection from Dublin city centre (St. Stephen’s Green Station) and the recent developed Sandyford area with an extension of 9km. The scope of the B1-400 extension developed by Neopul, included the expansion of the existing line with more 7.5km towards the south from the existing Sandyford Stop to Brides Glen. This contract also included the expansion of the Sandyford Depot (2km of single track) in order to cater for the new vehicles. (more…)
Issue 6 2010 / 10 December 2010 /
The unexpected heavy snow falls and low temperatures of the last winter have shown how vulnerable transport infrastructure is to extreme or unusual weather conditions. More severe winters are just one of the consequences of climate change that affect Europe and its transport system. Heat waves, megafires and floods appear more-and-more often in the headlines of the European newspapers as these natural disasters have often enormous impact on people’s lives. It is therefore clear that adapting to climate change will become a priority for the rail sector in the years to come. (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 20 September 2010 /
The hard winter of 2009/2010 led to major disruptions to train services in Sweden. In April 2010, the Swedish Transport Administration initiated an inquiry intended to show how great the delays were that affected passenger and goods services, how great a cost to society they entailed, what caused the delays, the factors that interacted to contribute to the situation that arose, and what the Swedish Transport Administration can do, principally from a macro-economic perspective. (more…)
Issue 5 2010 / 17 September 2010 /
The Madrid–Castilla La Mancha–Comunidad Valenciana-Región de Murcia high-speed line is one of the greatest works in Spanish and the world’s civil engineering history, both for its length – 955km – and for the new technologies applied in its construction.
This line, in which €12.4 million have been invested, is one of the most important high-speed corridors in the Iberian Peninsula. The eastern region of the Iberian Peninsula is also known as the Levante region. Its route begins in the Madrid Puerta de Atocha station. It shares 29km with the currently operative Madrid–Seville/Málaga line, which is being split to achieve independent accesses for both lines. (more…)
Issue 4 2010 / 4 August 2010 /
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…)
Issue 4 2010 / 4 August 2010 /
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…)
Issue 4 2010 / 4 August 2010 /
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…)
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