Industry Insider Week 29 – 11 Must-Read Rail Stories

All the important rail news of the week, summed up for you in one place: our Railway-News Industry Insider Week 29 for 15–19 July 2019:

Refurbished interior of the Class 175 Alstom Coradia DMU

Refurbished interior of the Class 175 with new carpets and upholstery © Transport for Wales

Policy

Network Rail Diversity and Inclusion Conference

Rail Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2019 © Network Rail

Report Shows Progress on Diversity in Transport

The Department for Transport (DfT) released a report on 11 July which indicated great progress in diversity within the transport sector. The number of apprenticeships in under-represented groups has massively increased. BAME representation within the sector has increased by 56 percent in the last two years and women now make up 15.4 percent of technical and engineering apprenticeships. Companies such as Network Rail and Southeastern are providing apprenticeships to assist in diversifying the transport sector.

Infrastructure

Wales: 60 New Jobs as Part of 5 Billion Investment

Transport for Wales (TfW) is making a 5 billion GBP (5.56 billion euros | 6.27 billion USD) investment into upgrading its entire Wales and Borders network. TfW Rail Services will be overseeing the everyday management of the railway infrastructure as of this autumn. Due to this TfW wishes to expand their team by 60 new members of staff. The new staff members would be based at the Treforest Estate site. The available roles would range from range from engineering, administrative and managerial as well as operative.

2 Talgo 350 high-speed trains for Renfe in Spain

Talgo 350 high-speed trains for Renfe in Spain © Mikel Ortega under licence

ERTMS Level 2 Becomes Operational on High-Speed Line in Spain

Alstom’s Atlas European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) Level 2 solution has undergone extensive testing for operation in Spain. The testing was carried out by Adif and the Spanish Railway Safety Agency. The train control system is now operational on the 163km between Valladolid and León on the Madrid-León high-speed line. The contract which the Alstom-Bombardier-Indra consortium won back in 2014 to upgrade the high-speed line to ERTMS Level 2 also included maintaining the system for a 20-year period.

European Commission Says Yes to Latvian Railway Electrification

The European Commission has approved the Latvian rail network electrification project. The project will cost an estimated 441 million euros (397 million GBP | 496 million USD). This is 69 million euros less than the original predicted cost. Independent technical assistance experts published a report for the European Commission which showed positive results about both the project and its economic feasibility. The project will take place in two stages. Stage 1 will run from 2019–2023 and stage 2 will run from 2023–2025.

London Bridge Station © Network Rail

Network Rail Investments: New Trains and New Services

Network Rail has published its annual report and accounts for the year ending 31 March 2019. Vital additional capacity and seats were generated as a result of a record investment in the country’s rail infrastructure. Due to this train operating companies have added almost 3,000 new services a week over the year. The 7 billion GBP investment into the railways is being used to upgrade the infrastructure so a further 6,000+ weekly services can enter the timetable over the coming years.

Rolling Stock

Stadler to Supply 80 TRAMLINK Trams to Milan

Stadler has won the bid to supply up to 80 TRAMLINK trams to Azienda Trasporti Milanesi (ATM). The two parties will sign a six-year framework agreement following which Stadler will initially supply 30 trams to the network of Milan. This will leave an option for a further 50 trams. TRAMLINK is a multiple-link low-floor tram that can support up to 7 cars. The first TRAMLINK order was placed in in 2011 by Rostocker Strassenbahnen (RSAG) and now has a presence in multiple countries around Europe.

Yellow train at Wien Hauptbahnhof station © RegioJet

Czech Republic: RegioJet Announces Increase in Passengers

During the first 6 months of this year RegioJet have seen a 12% increase in passengers travelling on their long-distance trains. This is around a quarter of a million new passengers compared to the same period last year. The trains which operate in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria now carry roughly 3.1 million passengers. RegioJet will use its 1 billion CZK (40 million euros | 44.85 million USD) bond to expand its fleet and support further growth.

Hungarian Railways Gets Its First Stadler KISS

Hungarian state railway company MÁV and Stadler celebrated the roll-out of the first new KISS train. The train will now undergo the necessary testing before it can enter commercial service. This train and the additional trainsets will enter service from February 2020 onwards. The trains will run on the suburban railway lines between Budapest and Vác (north of the capital) and Budapest and Cegléd (southeast of the capital). The order for 11 trains was placed in 2017 as part of a framework agreement for a total of 40 KISS double-decker EMUs.

Refurbished exterior of the Class 175 Alstom Coradia DMU

First Upgraded Class 175 DMU Back in Service for TfW

Transport for Wales (TfW) is investing 40 million GBP (44.5 million euros | 50 million USD) in upgrading its fleet. 6.7 million GBP (7.5 million euros | 8.4 million USD) of which will go towards its 27 Class 175 DMUs. The Alstom Coradia DMUs will undergo interior upgrade works. The upgrade works include, fitting the trains with USB and power sockets, re-upholstering the seats, and installing new carpets. The upgrade works will also include rebranding the trains in the TfW colours.

BART Trains Get Bike Straps Encouraging Active Travel

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) have upgraded their trains with straps for cyclists to secure their bikes to the rail. The design chosen is a flame retardant, nylon strap similar to the overhead straps used by standing passengers. The straps were originally tested in around 60 bike spaces across the BART system. The straps will also be featured on their Fleet of the Future carriages. BART hopes that the straps will encourage more cyclists to use the system by making the experience of traveling by train with a bike easier.

Alstom to Supply Train Control and Traction Systems to Nanjing Metro

Alstom has been chosen by Nanjing Metro (China) to supply traction systems designed especially for China as well as a train control and monitoring system for the 318 metro cars that will operate on the city’s metro line 7. This is Nanjing’s first driverless metro line. Alstom will also be providing Xian Metro with the same traction system. The contract for Nanjing also includes technical support following the system installations. It is worth a total of almost 50 million euros (56 million USD).