Railways Africa

Federal investigators in India have arrested five people, including railways ministry official Mahesh Kumar, who allegedly paid $US166,000 to Vijay Singla for securing a “plum appointment” to the railway board. Simgla is the nephew of railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who has resigned in the wake of the bribery scandal. He has been replaced by [...]

The government of India is to call for bids relating to the creation of “two modern locomotive factories” in Bihar, to be developed as PPP joint ventures with international locomotive suppliers. They would be required to meet international standards of energy efficiency, with accompanying performance guarantees. ”Significant” foreign investment is foreseen. In the course of [...]

Passenger services have commenced on the YongIn EverLine LRT system in the city of YongIn, South Korea. Mostly elevated, the 18km fully-automated Bombardier Innovia ART 200 advanced rapid transit system links the Seoul metropolitan subway with Everland, via YongIn City, which is described as the region’s “recreational and entertainment capital”. Bombardier’s scope for the YongIn [...]

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has awarded Bombardier Transportation a contract to supply its CityFlo 350 mass transit solution for the planned extensions to Line 5 and Line 6. Comprising about 35km of double track with 23 stations, the extensions form part of Delhi’s metro expansion plan Phase 3. The two lines are already [...]

Nanjing, capital of China’s Jiangsu Province, is to have two tramlines operating in its downtown districts by 2014. The trams will operate without overhead catenary on 90% of both routes using Bombardier’s Primove Li-Ion battery system. CSR Puzhen is to build the low-floor rolling stock at its Nanjing plant, employing Bombardier Flexity 2 technology; Bombardier [...]

Liu Zhijun, appointed railways minister in China in 2003, was dismissed in February 2011 for unspecified discipline violations and stripped of his position as the ministry’s communist party chief. He has now been charged with corruption, specifically accepting bribes and “abusing his power”. According to the Xinhua News Agency, the indictment accuses Liu of using [...]

To supplement the 73 trainsets already bought for the 42km new Downtown Line (DTL) running from Bukit Panjang through Singapore’s central business district to Expo, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is purchasing 15 more trains from the consortium of Bombardier Transportation GmbH / Bombardier (Singapore) Pte Ltd / Changchun Bombardier Railway Vehicles Company Ltd. The [...]

According to Yanbian University’s Asia Research Centre director Jin Qiangyi, cooperation between China and North Korea has been in progress for many years, which means that planned upgrading of two rail lines connecting the countries does not breach international sanctions against Pyongyang. In terms of current plans, upgrading is to go ahead on the China [...]

The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami washed away station buildings and tracks on the Japanese Sanriku Railway’s Minami Riasu Line. Three of the line’s single-car trains were destroyed. It has taken two years to restore a 21.6km section between the Sakari and Yoshihama stations in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, where train service has now resumed. According [...]

In its 2013 Railway Budget, India promised free wi-fi on passenger trains. The first installation has been completed on the New Delhi- Howrah Rajdhani Express, to be followed by the provision of facilities on fifty more trains by December 2013. Users are able to access 4 Mbps download bandwidth and 512 Kbps upload bandwidth but [...]