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YOU don’t get to be the world’s second richest man and one of the world’s most successful investors by making bad investments. So Warren Buffett’s audacious decision to sink a cool $US 34 billion into one of North America’s largest railways, BNSF, is a huge vote of confidence in the future of rail transport. It is not that long ago that investors of the calibre of Buffett would not have touched railway stock with a barge pole, and for sure, they would have lost their shirts.

The International Union of Railways (UIC) is organising a series of events to demonstrate the role railways can play in reducing carbon emissions, ahead of this month’s crucial international climate conference in Copenhagen. Keith Barrow reports on how the Train to Copenhagen is fuelling debate on how to reduce transport emissions.

 

Last month one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs made his biggest ever acquisition by purchasing all remaining shares in North America’s second-largest railway. Keith Barrow looks at how Warren Buffett’s high-stakes wager on BNSF has sent ripples through Wall Street.

 

GERMAN RAIL (DB) is celebrating its first contract to operate a regional rail network outside Germany after subsidiary DB Regio Sweden clinched a 10-year concession in the Östergötland province.

THE first two contracts for India's two new dedicated freight corridors have been awarded, Mr K H Muniyappa, minister of state at the Ministry of Railways confirmed in a written address to the Indian parliament. The contracts are for the 105km Sonnagar - Mughalsarai section of the eastern corridor and 54 bridges on the Surat - Virar section of the western corridor.

GERMAN Rail (DB) has secured an exclusive deal with the recently-formed state-owned Qatar Railways Company that will push forward plans for a Euros 17 billion project to build a metro and railway in Qatar.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has published the timetable and started selling tickets for the new high-speed service to be launched on December 18 between Moscow and St Petersburg, using the first of its Sapsan trains supplied by Siemens. There will be three trains a day departing at 06.45, 13.00 and 19.00 in each direction. The morning and evening trains will take 3h 45min, but the 13.00 departure will take 4h 15min for the 650km trip with trains running at a maximum of 250km/h.

NETWORK Rail (NR), Britain's infrastructure manager, has submitted plans to Birmingham City Council to rebuild New Street, the city's main station. This follows a public exhibition of the plans which were seen by more than 2000 people. More than 600 questionnaires were returned with 91% saying the design was an improvement over the existing station.

COMMUTERS in the Finnish capital have started to ride in the first of 32 Flirt emus supplied by Stadler, Switzerland. The trains have thicker insulation, extra heating near the doors, triple glazing and a heat recovery system to cope with the Finnish winter where temperatures can plummet to -40°C.

GE Transportation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China's Ministry of Railways (MOR) to develop high-speed rail technology for the US market. GE has also signed two locomotive-related deals with CSR Qishuyan Locomotive.
The MOU will allow GE to compete more effectively against global competitors for high-speed rail projects and accelerate GE's passenger rail technologies. Up to 150 high-tech jobs will be created shortly in the United States.