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HESSEN State Railway (HLB), Germany, has placed a Euros 65 million order with Alstom for 23 new Coradia Lint regional trains. The two-car dmus will be manufactured at Alstom's Salzgitter site in Germany and will complement 60 Coradia Lint trains already in HLB's fleet.

BRITISH secretary of state for transport Lord Adonis announced today that the Department for Transport's (DfT) planned Inter-city express procurement programme will be postponed until after the upcoming National Election, which is expected to be called in May.

Shrinking trade volumes due to the global economic crises led to an estimated 15% drop in railfreight traffic worldwide last year, taking traffic back to the level of 2005. But, says Maria Leenen, CEO of SCI Verkehr, Germany, the downturn has winners and losers.

Not one of the thousands of Eurostar passengers stuck in the Channel Tunnel on December 18 will forget that tumultuous experience any time soon. Now a highly-critical report into the events is demanding that Eurostar act quickly to prevent similar failures from happening again. Kevin Smith looks at the implications for the Channel Tunnel passenger operator.

 

ALL modes of transport are vulnerable to disruption caused by bad weather, human error, or circumstances beyond the control of the operator concerned. But what marks out a good operator from a bad one, is the ability to deal with problems swiftly and efficiently to mitigate the effects of the disruption, to communicate effectively with both staff and customers, and to get the passengers or goods to their final destination safely and with as little delay as possible. According to the independent report into the failure of five Eurostar trains in the Channel Tunnel on December 18-19, Eurostar failed on all counts.

INDIA'S railways minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee, has announced railway investment totalling Rs 414.26 billion ($US 8.87 billion) for 2010-11 in an address to the Indian parliament.

FRENCH National Railways (SNCF) has selected Bombardier to design, manufacture and supply 860 double-deck emus for the French Regions. The Euros 8 billion framework contract includes the immediate supply of 80 trains valued at Euros 800 million, which will all be financed by the regions.

TRACK tests with ETCS Level 1 Limited Supervision (L1 LS) have been carried out for the first time at Burgdorf, Switzerland by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). Developed by SBB, German Rail (DB), and industry partners, this is a simplified version of ETCS Level 1 to ease migration of railways to what could become a pan-European system.

MINING giant Rio Tinto has inaugurated the latest extension to Western Australia's Pilbara heavy-haul network with the opening of the 49km Robe Valley line from Pannawonica to the Mesa A/Warramboo iron-ore mine.

THE municipality of Amsterdam has selected Alstom for a Euros 200 million contract to supply 23 six-car metro trains. The Metropolis trains will be manufactured at Alstom's Valenciennes site in France and Katowice in Poland.