Quintus Vosman

ALL traction power for the Dutch railway network will come from wind turbines under a new energy contract signed on May 15 between power company Eneco and Vivens, an energy procurement joint venture which includes Netherlands Railways (NS), Veolia, Arriva, Connexxion and railfreight operators.

CAPTRAIN, the international railfreight subsidiary of French National Railways' logistics unit SNCF-Geodis, has restructured the management of its Dutch and port services businesses, placing them under the control of Captrain Germany.

CZECH Railways (ČD) launched trial passenger operation of its new fleet of Siemens Railjet long-distance trains on May 6, when the first set entered service on the international Prague – Vienna – Graz route.

AUTHORITIES in northwest Germany and the Netherlands have reached an agreement to finance a new cross-border regional service between Bielefeld, Osnabrück, and Hengelo as part of the new Teutoburger Wald regional concession, which is due to start in December 2017.

BELGIAN National Railways (SNCB) has agreed a €2.5m settlement with AnsaldoBreda over its cancelled contract for three V250 high-speed trains, ending legal proceedings against the Italian manufacturer over the much-maligned rolling stock for the now abandoned Fyra service.

THE transport authority of the German state of Saxony Anhalt has revised its plans, first announced in July 2013, for a 14-year concession for diesel regional services.

DURING a Parliamentary meeting on railways, Dutch secretary of state for infrastructure, Mrs. Wilma Mansveld announced that the government is willing to provide funds for the electrification of the Maas Line from Nijmegen to Roermond via Venlo.

INTERNATIONAL high-speed operator Thalys launched a new twice-daily direct service between Amsterdam Central and Lille Europe on April 12.

THE DUTCH province of South Holland has selected Netherlands Railways (NS) and its German subsidiary Abellio Regio NRW to operate regional passenger services on the electrified line between Gouda – Alphen-aan-den-Rijn.

AT the request of manufacturer Bombardier, Netherlands Railways (NS) withdrew its entire fleet of Traxx F140 MS (class 186) multi-system locomotives from service on April 8 due to excessive pantograph wear.