May 2009 Archives

Danish rail operator DSB said on Wednesday Italian transport systems company AnsaldoBreda had offered to pay 2.25 billion crowns ($412 million) compensation for delayed train deliveries.

AnsaldoBreda had agreed to deliver 106 trains to state-owned DSB from 2003-06 but has so far delivered only 15, DSB spokesman Niels-Martin Methmann said.

In May 2008, DSB delivered an ultimatum demanding AnsaldoBreda deliver 14 trains approved for national Danish traffic by May 2009, along with one train that could be coupled into national traffic.

DSB said while AnsaldoBreda met the deadline, the trains had many flaws that needed to be corrected.

DSB said it has given AnsaldoBreda another ultimatum which includes a possible cancellation of the contract if the trains are not delivered according to the delivery plan.

From: Reuters. More news on Railwaygazette.

Transport minister Lord Adonis has pledged to unveil plans for a new high-speed rail link between Birmingham and London before the next election. It should reduce the journey time from teh Midlands (Birmingham) to London to about 45 minutes.

The minister claims that the only high speed rail project "does actually not connect any of the major cities in the country". For the endeavour, a new company called High Speed 2 lead by Sir David Rowlands is leading the effort, aiming to come up with proposals before the 2010 elections.

The minister believes it is a case of "if not when" a high-speed line is built and that the project would be a success only with cross-party support. He added: "I am more than ever convinced that a north-south high-speed rail line in Britain is just a matter of dates. This will not happen without a political consensus, this should not be an issue of political points-scoring. It is an immensely consequential and extremely costly project which needs to be got right."

Source: Birmingham Post and Railnews

Back in 2007, Punjab gave very positive signs for a new 500 kilometer High Speed passenger transport corridor from Delhi to Amritsar. Two months after the announcement, in June 2007, reports stated that eight submissions to the RFP had come in for this new PPP.

Yet in 2008, the Indian minister Lalu Prasad still claimed that the first corridor Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, was about to go in prefeasability study, saying that "the process for inviting global tenders for engaging a consultant for conducting pre-feasibility studies". One year later, regional authorities and the ministry are still struggling.

"The official clarified that the implementation of the project would not be feasible without the full participation and contribution of the states. He also said that the railways could not run it as a Public Private Participation (PPP) project."

China plans to create the world's largest high-speed rail network. The Chinese Ministry of Railways is planning to buy 1,000 high-speed trains within the next few years. The current order from Siemens (SI) includes the first trains to serve the new high-speed line between Bejing and Shanghai.

German train producer Siemens has inked a $1 billion contract to build 100 new high-speed trains for China. The company's Velaro train has a top speed of 218mph (350.84km/h). A typical train will have 16 cars and carry more than 1,000 passengers. With a total length of more than 1,300 feet (396.24m), the new trains will be the world's longest single high-speed units in use, according to Siemens.

By the end of the first quarter 2009, the approved Chinese railway investment exceeds $292 billion including more than $175 billion investment in the process projects. The data shown in the recent "Research Report on the Investment in Chinese Railway Transport Industry, 2009" indicates that China plans to construct 40-thousand-kilometer railways with the total investments of over $730 billion by 2012.

Source: Seeking Alpha

Minister of Finance Dr Ibrahim Al-Assaf, who is also Chairman of the board of directors of the General Investments Fund and Dr Jubarah Al-Sireisiri, the Minister of Transport and Chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi Railways Organization (SRO) have signed a contract with Foster Company for preparation of engineering designs for passengers' stations of the project of Al-Haramain High Speed Train (HHST), which is estimated to cost SR 142 million.

Dr al-Sireisiri said this contract represents the second part of the first phase of the project of Al-Haramain High Speed Train.

He noted that the designs will be in line with the international standards and specifications.

Dr al-Sireisiri said these Railway stations will be located in Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah and Rabigh.

Dr al-Sireisiri pointed out that Foster company is one of the greatest specialized companies in the field of engineering designing.

On his part, SRO President Abdulaziz Al-Hukeil said the SRO in cooperation with the representatives of the World Bank and the General Investments Fund is finalizing the documents of the second phase of the project.

Source: Daily 

The greatest constructed railway tunnel in Spain for the passage of a High Speed train, inaugurated just over a year ago, is going to have to be reinforced. The tunnels of Guadarrama, opened in a hurry by the previous minister of Promotion, Magdalena Alvarez, for the passage of the AVE Madrid-Valladolid, the 22 of December of 2007, suffers water filtrations since last March, according to confirmed sources near Adif, the public society that manages railway infrastructures.

In particular one kilometer of the North entrance of one of the tunnels, i.e. the entrance located on the Segovia side, filtrations appeared as a result of the defrosting of the snow from last winter.

Although these leaks take place while the railway tunnels that are in operation, the situation forced Adif to contact with companies specialized in this type of deficiencies to realise "studies of preventive character", according to a statement.

The infrastructure manager wants to reinforce the measures of drainage and evacuation of waters coming from filtrations that exist at the moment in the Guadarrama tunnels.

The singularity of the orography of the tunnels, described by the public company like as "special characteristics", was one of the main causes of these filtrations. In the North side, that is the affected one by the leaks, an unevenness exists that, although with 0.002 likelihood, "tolerates a greater difficulty for the evacuation of waters coming from the filtrate", according to sources at Adif.

On June 2nd 2008 the launch of the international call for tenders took place for the Poceirão-Caia Public-Private Partnership rail infrastructure concession, which will be part of the high-speed line from Lisbon to Madrid. All the technical studies and other documents relating to Poceirão/Caia section were supplied to all the interested parties (potential bidders) almost 3 months before the Tender was launched. Until the end of the year, the Jury nominated by the Portuguese Government has the mission to evaluate the 4 proposals. In the beginning of 2009, there will take place the negotiation process with the 2 best classified proposals that will culminate with the "Best and Final Offer - BAFO".

Railway Gazette published in their recent article that tendering started on March 30th, 2009 and that  "from a field of four consortia, Elos and Altavia Alentejo have been shortlisted to present their best and final offers for the concession covering the 169 km between Poceirão and the Spanish border at Caia, including a new 1668 mm gauge freight route from Évora to Caia. It is hoped to sign the concession contract in September for work to start in 2010, with some €641m of European Union funding being available for the project."

In an own presentation, Brisa indicated the differences in the BAFOs, indicated below.

From: Portuguese government

The Ministry of Transport approved yesterday the tendering for the construction of the substructure of the line Toril- Río Tiétar, which is part of the High Speed Line between Madrid - Extremadura - Portuguese border. The section has a length of 10.7 kilometers and is budgetted 1.1 million euros with a 12 month term, according to the Ministry. Other sections of the line are currently under construction, and with 76.7 km of works is currently valued 188 million euros, for Cáceres-Aldea del Cano, Aldea del Cano-Mérida, Mérida-Montijo y Montijo-Badajoz.

The entire corridor is scheduled to be in service in 2016 and has ASFA-200 and ERTMS as protection systems.

Source: Hoy

[..]

Mr. Ignatieff also underscored the potential economic benefits of building a high-speed rail corridor between Quebec City and Windsor, a long-discussed project for which provincial and federal governments recently announced a $3-million feasibility study.

Transport Minister John Baird has indicated such a plan would not meet the "shovel-ready" criteria for stimulus dollars to flow, but Mr. Ignatieff contends that as the country heads toward deficit, the focus should shift to "big projects that tie us together."

"Of course, it's expensive, and we can't fund it all at once, but no project would do more to stimulate regional economic development along the line," he said during the magazine interview at Stornoway, the official residence of the Opposition leader. "No project would allow us to demonstrate a commitment to environment goals, no project that I can think of would be a bigger boost to some of our big competitive companies."

The high-speed line, estimated to cost about $30-billion, would be manageable if rolled out in stages, Mr. Ignatieff said. As Canada approaches its 150th anniversary in 2017, he added, government should work on promoting a country that is "more united" than it was in 1967, the year of Canada's centenary.

Mr. Ignatieff also underscored the potential economic benefits of building a high-speed rail corridor between Quebec City and Windsor, a long-discussed project for which provincial and federal governments recently announced a $3-million feasibility study.

Transport Minister John Baird has indicated such a plan would not meet the "shovel-ready" criteria for stimulus dollars to flow, but Mr. Ignatieff contends that as the country heads toward deficit, the focus should shift to "big projects that tie us together."

"Of course, it's expensive, and we can't fund it all at once, but no project would do more to stimulate regional economic development along the line," he said during the magazine interview at Stornoway, the official residence of the Opposition leader. "No project would allow us to demonstrate a commitment to environment goals, no project that I can think of would be a bigger boost to some of our big competitive companies."

The high-speed line, estimated to cost about $30-billion, would be manageable if rolled out in stages, Mr. Ignatieff said. As Canada approaches its 150th anniversary in 2017, he added, government should work on promoting a country that is "more united" than it was in 1967, the year of Canada's centenary.

Source: National Post

Local officials and residents aren't alone in their concern about a "lack of transparency" and oversight in the state's quest to build a $40 billion high-speed rail system.

A state Senate subcommittee Thursday expressed concerns about the structure and business plan of the California High Speed Rail Authority -- the agency charged with building the $40 billion rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The Senate's budget subcommittee, which includes senators Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), John J. Benoit (R-Bermuda Dunes) and Alan S. Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), heard a request from the rail agency for about $130 million in bond funding.

Simitian said the community's message was "loud and clear." The subcommittee agreed to hold off on authorizing the funds and urged rail-authority officials to expand their outreach efforts.

The senators heard from about 30 concerned Peninsula residents who made a morning trek to Sacramento to lobby for more oversight and transparency.