Posted on 30 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Israeli transport minister Yisrael Katz has revealed plans for an east-west railway from Rosh Ha’ayin in Israel via Ariel to Nablus in the West Bank, and between Ramallah in the West Bank and Latroun in Israel. There, passengers would link up to main lines serving the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv areas. A line will also [...] [...more]
Posted on 30 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Union Railway is delaying the start of the prequalification process for construction contracts on Phase I of Abu Dhabi’s $US11 billion railway network. Prequalification documents were originally expected to be issued in July. According to a Union Railway spokeswoman: “Dates will change from time to time and that is very normal in a very dynamic [...] [...more]
Posted on 30 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Companies bidding for the contract to operate California’s proposed high-speed rail line will have to declare their role in transporting victims of the Nazis during World War II. A Democratic politician is pushing to make it a requirement that any involvement in taking people to work, concentration, prisoner-of-war, or extermination camps between January 1942 and [...] [...more]
Posted on 30 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
A recently completed cost-benefit study on the $4.7 billion proposed Melbourne-Brisbane line found the project would have a negative net worth, even if construction were delayed until 2040 to allow for freight traffic demand to grow. “Inland Rail will not generate sufficient access revenue relative to costs to make it financially viable. The total nominal [...] [...more]
Posted on 30 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
The 377km Yichang-Yiwan Railway runs from the Yiwan District in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality to Yichang City in Hubei Province. It was designed to shorten the journey between the mountainous regions in the south-west and the eastern parts of China. The railway was first laid out in 1903 but construction did not begin until 2003 [...] [...more]
Posted on 30 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Pakistan Railways (PR) has recently come under severe criticism for closing down services on many popular routes, which railway minister Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour has blamed on shortage of funds. According to recent estimates made by PR, there is a shortage of 50 to 60 locomotives mainly for freight operations. The estimated shortage of coaches [...] [...more]
Posted on 30 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
The UK East Midlands Trains company has introduced an energy-saving mode on 27 of its Meridian locomotives to help save fuel and cut down pollution. If a train stands in a station for more than seven minutes, most of the engines will shut down automatically, resulting in reduced noise and emissions. Under present circumstances, trains [...] [...more]
Posted on 30 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
On 20 August, up to 30,000 people took to the streets in Stuttgart to show their opposition to the planned overhaul of the main station – one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Europe. The objective is to reduce travel times, create around 4,000 new jobs and encourage investment. The aim is to make Stuttgart [...] [...more]
Posted on 20 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Israel Railways has awarded the NIS 558 million tender for the second segment of the Tel Aviv to Jerusalem high-speed line to Minrav Engineering and Construction and the Russian tunnel excavator Moscow Metrostroy. This segment is the last of four. The first, from Modi’in to Latrun, was completed in 2009 at a cost of NIS [...] [...more]
Posted on 20 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
The Kuwaiti ministry of communications (MoC) has asked for an extension till November to the time limit for preparing a dossier on the proposed railway project. The ministry has asked a legal technical committee to review and study the project, the prices quoted and the companies that are capable of executing it according to international [...] [...more]
Posted on 20 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
Though the Vietnamese parliament resolved not to approve further study on the proposed north-south high-speed railway connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Railways Corporation chairman and chief executive officer Nguyen Huu Bang is calling for continued support from Japan. He expects the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JCA) to start feasibility studies on two [...] [...more]
Posted on 20 August 2010 by Railways Africa Editor
A consortium of 13 coal companies has increased its bid for Queensland state railway assets by A$500 million to A$5.35 billion ($US4.8 billion), forcing the state government to rethink its planned floatation of Queensland Rail’s (QR) coal line network. The revised offer was delivered with a caveat – the government has two weeks to accept. [...] [...more]
