Canadian pension fund Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ) has a track record of successfully investing in rail projects, and it is now looking to bring this to Montreal. Jean-Marc Arbaud, deputy managing director of CDPQ Infra, reveals the company’s ambitions for the 67km Metropolitan Electric Network (REM) to Kevin Smith.
Montreal is set to profit from the Canadian federal government’s plans to invest heavily in public infrastructure projects, including rail, over the next five years. Kevin Smith assesses what this could mean for metro operator Montreal Transport’s (STM) long-held ambitions for expansion.
CHINA’s first metro train fitted with permanent magnet direct-drive traction motors has entered trial passenger service on Line 1 of the Changsha Metro, which opened on June 28, following two years of research and development by Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric.
THE first of 42 driverless metro trains being supplied by Hitachi Rail Italy (HRI) for Lima metro Line 2 was loaded onto the MV Cerinthus at the port of Salerno on August 16 in readiness for its 29-day sea voyage to Peru.
MEXICO City’s Collective Transport System (STC) has awarded a €164m contract to CAF Mexico for 10 nine-car rubber-tyred metro trains for Line 1.
THE government of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh released the first tranche of funding on August 11 for land acquisition for the initial phase of the metro network in Vijayawada.
TRIAL runs began on August 10 on the 5.2km ITO – Kashmere Gate section of the Delhi Metro’s Violet Line.
A full-size mock-up of the forthcoming Alstom Metropolis train for Guadalajara metro Line 3 was unveiled in the city’s northern district of Zapopan on August 9 by Mr Rodolfo Guadalajara Gutiérrez, managing director of metro operator Siteur, and the governor of the Mexican state of Jalisco Mr Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz.
METROPOLITAN Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (Marta) has issued requests for information by August 30 for a fleet of new trains and for the life-extension of two-thirds of its existing fleet.
QATAR Rail has awarded an 80:20 joint venture of Hill International, United States, and Astad Engineering Consultancy, Qatar, a 30-month extension to its contract to provide project management services on the Doha metro Green Line.
