Railworks

29 Mart 2014 Cumartesi

Fyra dispute settled as AnsaldoBreda buys back V250 trainsets

NETHERLANDS: National passenger operator NS has reached agreement with AnsaldoBreda and its parent company Finmeccanica to settle the ongoing dispute over the V250 trainsets supplied for the aborted Fyra high speed services linking Amsterdam with Brussels and Breda.
Under an agreement announced on March 17, AnsaldoBreda will take back all 16 V250s ordered by NS and return €125m to the operator, which says its loss on the debacle is now capped at €88m. Having taken legal advice, both parties agreed that a compromise would be more beneficial than continuing the protracted legal action, and allow them to ‘fully concentrate’ on their normal business. AnsaldoBreda is currently building 50 V300 high speed trains for Trenitalia in partnership with Bombardier.
Ordered as long ago as 2004, the V250s were withdrawn in January 2013 after little more than a month of international service, following a series of technical failures. Belgian operator SNCB subsequently cancelled its contract for three trains which had not been delivered, and NS decided in June 2013 to abandon the Fyra project despite having already accepted several trains and put them into operation.
Both parties accept that the trains could have been repaired and returned to commercial service. According to a joint statement, ‘the disagreement between the parties concerned a different assessment of the conditions under which this recovery would be possible. Basically it was not about the robustness of the design, but about acceptable deadlines for repair and employability that failed to meet the needs of NS, and about the financial consequences.’
AnsaldoBreda will take responsibility for recovering the V250s that have been stored near Amsterdam. The supplier will then be free to refurbish or modify the trainsets to meet the needs of another operator. In the event of a successful sale, the agreement provides for additional payments to NS up to a maximum of €21m.
Finmeccanica expressed its satisfaction with the agreement, which it said represented ‘a significant step forward’ in defining the level of risk at AnsaldoBreda. The effects of the deal have already been reflected in the company’s 2013 results.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/high-speed/single-view/view/fyra-dispute-settled-as-ansaldobreda-buys-back-v250-trainsets.html

28 Mart 2014 Cuma

TransPennine EMU fleet delivered

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Alstom Régiolis Regional Trains, France

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23 Şubat 2014 Pazar

Alstom sets a new high-speed record with its Pendolino in Poland

Alstom sets a high-speed record in Poland reaching 293 km/h while conducting tests on its Pendolino train on the Gora Wlodowska - Psary line north-west of Krakow.

The record was reached as Alstom was conducting tests in the presence and in partnership with its customer, Polish operator PKP Intercity, to obtain circulation permission for the 20 Pendolino trains ordered by PKP Intercity in 2011. All the tests have been successful so far, which will enable PKP Intercity to start operation by the end of 2014.

The contract signed with PKP Intercity also includes 17 years of maintenance and the construction of a new maintenance depot, to be inaugurated in the first quarter of 2014. The trains will circulate between Warsaw, Gdansk, Gdynia, Krakow, Katowice and Wroclaw.

The previous Polish high-speed record of 250 km/h was set in 1994, also by a Pendolino train. The highest speed recorded to date for a Pendolino train was 283 km/h in Italy in 2007. This technological milestone is another demonstration of Alstom’s excellence in the high-speed and very high-speed market, in which the company is world leader with over 30 years of commercial service experience and has built one out of every three trains in operation in the world.Pendolino is the world's best-selling high speed train (500 trainsets sold).

Certified to operate in 13 countries1, it can smoothly cross seven borders when in operation. With a 25-year return of experience in commercial service and an R&D programme designed to further optimise its performance, this Alstom high-speed train is able to address the needs of all regions worldwide - including North America, Russia, CIS and Asia - willing to develop high-speed transport.

Pendolino is designed to run at up to 250 km/h on both high-speed and conventional lines. Its success rests on its modularity and flexibility. It can be fully customised from interior layout to the number of cars (4 to 11), voltage power supply, gauge and suspension. Pendolino can be operated under extreme climate conditions (up to 45° and -45°C).

It is also available with Tiltronix, Alstom's tilting technology, which enables the train to tilt by up to 8 degrees and still run at 250 km/h, allowing it to travel 30-35% faster than conventional trains with even greater comfort.

Pendolino is mainly produced at Alstom's Savigliano factory in Italy. The Savigliano factory is currently executing contracts for PKP (Poland) and SBB (Switzerland).

1 - Austria, China, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

http://www.alstom.com/press-centre/2013/12/alstom-sets-new-high-speed-record-with-pendolino-in-poland/

Alstom to supply power system for a new high-speed line in Spain

Alstom, in consortium with Isolux Corsán¹, was awarded by Adif (Spanish railway infrastructure authority) the design, construction and maintenance of the traction substation² and catenary system for the new 44.3 km high-speed line linking La Robla (Leon) with Pola de Tena (Asturias). This line includes Pajares Tunnel (25 km-long), the second longest tunnel in Spain. The contract is worth about 28 million Euros; the share for Alstom is 50% of the value³. The project will be completed in 2015.
Thanks to this project, the distance between Asturias and Castile-León will be shortened by 33 km and the entire new route will enable high-speed trains to reach speeds above 300 km/h, while the current average speed is 60 km/h.
Alstom’s scope includes the engineering and project management, as well as the supply of catenary system, 2x25kV traction substation and autotransformer stations including associated traction power control system. Alstom is responsible for the testing and the commissioning of the entire system. These activities will be managed by Alstom Spain.
Alstom supplied 80% of high speed traction substations in Spain. The company is also in charge of all the high speed traction substations’ maintenance.

http://www.alstom.com/press-centre/2014/2/alstom-to-supply-power-system-for-a-new-high-speed-line-in-spain/

DAWLISH SEA WALL

Ferocious storms punched an 80-metre hole in the Sea Wall at Dawlish on February 4, cutting off much of Devon and Cornwall from the national rail network.

A section of Brunel’s famous railway, just north of Dawlish station, collapsed after hours of being pounded by winter storms. The road adjacent to the railway and several houses were also significantly damaged, as was Dawlish station.

Full assessment of the repairs required was taking place as RAIL went to press, once calmer weather arrived. Initial assessments are that repairs will take at least six weeks to complete.

Network Rail Managing Director of Network Operations Robin Gisby told RAIL that NR buoys located in the English Channel had predicted the storms, and issued a ‘black’ warning. This is the first time such a severe storm has been predicted since the system was introduced in 2007.

Gisby was unable to give a detailed explanation as to why that particular part of the wall collapsed. He suggested it was because the houses there are built on part of the former railway yard, meaning that part of the structure is perhaps not as strong as the rest of the wall. He added that NR had prepared for further collapses over the weekend of February 8/9, when more severe storms were forecast, but that those did not happen.

Patrick Hallgate, NR Western route director, said on February 6: “We absolutely understand the importance of the railway to the South West, and will do everything we can to rebuild the railway at Dawlish as quickly and as safely as we can.”

http://www.railmagazine.com/news/default.asp?storyID=2

MANCHESTER METROLINK

Any award for ‘best new UK tram system’ would be hotly contested.

For example, there have been plenty of plaudits for the Nottingham Express Transit system since it opened in 2004, reflecting its expansion and the city’s vision for its trams (RAIL734).

But the template remains Manchester, owned by Transport for Greater Manchester, and operated and maintained by French-owned RATP Group. Its routes now cover almost 50 miles across the conurbation, and there are plans for further expansion.

Manchester Metrolink began blazing a trail in April 1992, and in its first year it carried some 8.1 million passengers. As the network steadily expanded into new areas, so passenger numbers increased - it now carries triple that number of passengers, according to latest figures.

Estimated patronage (based on ticket machine sales) dipped once, from 13.8 million in 1997/1998 to 13.2 million in 1998/1999, before increasing rapidly to 14.2 million in 1999/2000.

The figure dropped again in around 2009, when parts of the system were closed for upgrades. But the 20 million mark was passed in 2011, and following Metrolink’s recent expansion the current figure now stands at 25 million.

And work to expand the system’s infrastructure is ongoing. Driver training over the line to Rochdale Town Centre line began in December, ahead of Rochdale services beginning to use the new route on January 27, ten days after the closure of the old railway alignment between Werneth and Oldham Mumps.

As with tram networks in other parts of the country, Metrolink faces its own unique challenges.

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29 Mart 2014 Cumartesi

28 Mart 2014 Cuma

23 Şubat 2014 Pazar