Rail Announcement February 2015

ii9h_Rail AnnouncementAnnouncing all the news from the rail industry

Goodbye Pacers

February 2015

24 hour running for LO

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Spring and summer are already shaping up to be an exciting time for the UK rail industry with the launch of the new East Coast franchise, the arrival of the first Hitachi built IEP train from Japan, the entry into service of a DDA compliant Pac-er demonstrator, the opening of Rugby ROC and the commencement of the new sleeper franchise to name but a few things already known about.

Rest assured, Rail Announcement will bring you all the news from these developments, reporting in an objective manner and telling you how it really is.

Objectivity is not always a word that can be used to describe some of our ‘rivals’ with a recent , albeit unscientific, poll which asked if another rail trade publication was a good source of news delivering a staggering 96% of people saying it wasn’t! Opinions varied from “it’s only good for helping light my stove” to “copies have fes-tered at all the depots I’ve worked at.”

Rail Announcement’s loyalty is always to its readers and , unlike some, we will not refuse to report on an event if the lead company doesn’t want to advertise with us.

Well done to Liu Qi, who works at China’sHebi East Railway Station, for helping deliver a baby in the station’s waiting room when a passenger went into labour. His quick thinking in comforting the mother and helping in the early stages of delivery will never be forgotten by colleagues or the child’s family.

Jonathan Webb [email protected]

Rail Announcement 2 News

Network Rail lists investment priorities

A draft report into investment priorities for the East Midlands has been published by Net-work Rail.

The report covers Control Period 6 (2019-2024) and has been developed by Network Rail in partnership with industry partners. A value for money case has been identified in the report for the lengthening of services between Birmingham-Leicester-Stansted Air-port/Cambridge; Norwich-Nottingham-Shef-field-Liverpool; Southampton/Reading to Newcastle via Derby; and Plymouth to Edin-burgh/Glasgow via Derby by 2023.

It also highlights a number of infrastructure projects that should be given priority in order to cope with the forecasted demand for rail travel. The report proposes an upgrade to four tracks between Wigston Junction and Syston Junction and separation of the Mid-land Main Line and the line to Nuneaton at Wigston Junction through either a flyover or flyunder. Two extra platforms are proposed for Leicester station.

News Rail Announcement 3

Serco lays out sleeper plans

Serco has set out the arrangements for its sleeper franchise, which commences on April 1.

Currently powered by traction supplied by DBS, from April this will switch to four refur-bished GBRf class 92s working on the electri-fied routes south of Edinburgh and Glasgow. From October this year six class 73/9s, which are currently being refurbished by Wabtec in Loughborough, will be used north of Edin-burgh. In the interim class 47s will be hired from the Harry Needle Railroad Company. In order to shunt release the stock a preserved class 86 and 87 will hired in.

The deal for providing traction and drivers for the six northbound and southbound ser-vices from Sunday to Friday is worth around £100 million to GBRf.

This latest development follows the signing a £148 million contract between Serco and CAF for the supply of new sleeper carriages which are due to enter service in 2018.

Alstom has been awarded a 15 year service contract , worth £92 million, by Serco to maintain a fleet of 75 sleeper carriages. The first three years will see the current fleet maintained ,prior to the new rolling stock entering service, with maintenance work car-ried out at Polmadie and Wembley.

Alstom has been awarded a 15 year service contract , worth £92 million, by Serco to maintain a fleet of 75 sleeper carriages. The first three years will see the current fleet maintained ,prior to the new rolling stock entering service, with maintenance work car-ried out at Polmadie and Wembley.


Labour election win could end rail franchises

Labour has announced that , should it win the election in May, that its transport plans include trains being run by a public sector operator as soon as possible.

Shadow transport spokesman Michael Dugh-er has called the present model of rail fran-chising “a disaster” and says the Rail Delivery Group “basically stitch up the running of the railways and they do it with our money” and that he would like to see the current franchis-ing structure “in the bin” .

Mr Dugher continued by saying: “ It’s not going back to a 70s, 80s model of British Rail but I think you can do far more to make some really big changes and that’s why I’m talking about a public sector operator.“I’m going to be honest and proud about this: I want there to be more public control of the railways and we should just say it because, actually, that’s what the public think as well.

“We’ve talked about how the only people who have no voice at the moment in the running of the railways are the travelling public, the passengers themselves. What you have at the moment is something that’s rather ironical-ly named the Rail Delivery Group, which is basically Network Rail and the private com-panies, the TOCs and the freight and they get together and they stitch up the running of the railways and they do it with our money.

“Network Rail’s on our books, there’s huge taxpayer subsidies and investment

going into the railways, but the industry want to stitch it up themselves and we’re not hav-ing that any more.”

Under Labour’s plans a new strategic body would be created to oversee the railways.

The Rail Delivery Group’s director general Michael Roberts hit back by saying: “Britain’s railway has been transformed into Europe’s fastest-growing and safest network through a combination of private sector innovation, competitive tendering and government poli-cy.“Passengers rate Britain’s railway more highly than do their counterparts on any other ma-jor network in the European Union and we are committed to do even better.

“Government plays a major role in rail through investment and setting out what it expects Network Rail and train companies to deliver. We will continue to work with government, passenger bodies, suppliers and other key stakeholders in delivering a better deal for passengers and taxpayers.”


Plans unveiled to rebuild Snow Hill station

Plans have been announced that could see Birmingham Snow Hill station rebuilt as part of a wider redevelopment scheme in Bir-mingham.

If given the go ahead the area around the station would according to the project’s spon-sors, be transformed into a West Midlands version of London Docklands.

Published by Birmingham City Council and Colmore Business District the Snow Hill Masterplan would take two decades to com-plete . The area is already set to be the loca-tion of the HS2 ltd construction headquarters and it is hoped that the scheme to redevelop the area will attract blue-chip firms to the city.

Comprising of more than 200,000 sq metres of new office space, it is envisaged that the project could create 10,000 new jobs and boost the local economy by over £600 million a year.

The Midland Metro tram route, which cur-rently terminates at Snow Hill , is in the process of being extended into the city centre and the station’s multi-story car park, which sits above the platforms, would be replaced by new commercial buildings.

The consultation runs until March 23.


Public consultation into penalty fares

Introduced by British Rail over 20 years ago, in a bid to reduce fraudulent travel, the pen-alty fares system is being scrutinised by the government as the system regularly causes conflict between staff and passengers that have made a genuine mistake.

The DfT, which is putting train operators under immense pressure to collect as much revenue as possible, has launched a consulta-tion on how to make the penalty fare appeals process ‘ fairer and more open’

Possible changes include:

- requiring train operators to remove the ref-erence to criminal sanctions in letters chasing penalty fare payment. Government will pro-vide new guidance to train operators to make clear that the threat of criminal sanctions for non-payment of a penalty fare, which is a civil offence, is not appropriate. Criminal sanctions will still apply in suspected cases of deliberate fare evasion.

- requiring all appeal bodies to adopt the “Stop the Clock” measure. This means that those appealing do not have to pay the pen-alty fare until a final ruling has been reached. The 21-day deadline for payment will be suspended when an appeal is received by the appeals body, and will only resume once a letter notifying the outcome has been issued. Only one of the two existing appeals bodies already uses “Stop the Clock”.

- requiring all appeals bodies to be inde-pendent of transport operators and owning groups. Currently, the Independent Penalty Fares Appeals Service (IPFAS) is owned by the Go-Ahead group, which runs Southeast-ern. IPFAS will need to be separated from its current owner to continue to hear appeals.

- creating an Independent Appeals Process to make final decisions. This will look at cases which have been considered twice by the appeals bodies and remain unresolved. This would give passengers further assurance their case has been fully and independently reviewed.

- regular ‘health checks’ of the system by government. We will ask train operators and appeals bodies to supply penalty fare and appeals information regularly to ensure that they are complying with the code of practice.

Rail minister Claire Perry said: “More people are using our railways than ever, and passen-gers rightly expect that we take strong action against fare dodgers. But passengers penal-ised through no fault of their own must be treated fairly.

London Midland has signalled a shift in the methods in which ticketless passengers are treated by recognising that fare cheats have to be separated from passengers who make hon-est mistakes, with both groups being treated appropriately.

The public consultation runs until 27 April.


Start of East Anglian franchise competition

The competition to find the next operator of the East Anglian franchise has commenced.

Although the procurement notices have been published slightly earlier than envisaged by the DfT Rail Executive’s franchise schedule.

The Department for Transport has stated that it expects not only better connections at busy stations such as Liverpool Street and Stratford, but an increase in reliability along with further integration with other modes of transport.

Currently run by Abellio Greater Anglia and carrying 345,000 passengers a day, the pres-ent contract commenced in February 2012 and expires in October next year. It is expect-ed that Abellio will rebid.

A prospectus for the next franchise has been published and this includes plans to reduce journey times on the London to Norwich route, with current timings only a slight im-provement on the route’s pre-electrification timings. It is hoped that the longed for ‘Nor-wich in Ninety’ project can at last be imple-mented.

This will be one of the objectives, recom-mended by the Great Eastern main Line Taskforce, that bidders will be expected to achieve, although the government’s more specific requirements will not be made clear until the invitation to tender stage.

Shortlisted bidders will be invited to submit detailed proposals later this year.


Wednesbury depot extension opens

West Midlands’ public transport co-ordina-tor Centro has officially opened the Midland Metro tram depot at Wednesbury following the completion of a 42 metre extension, cost-ing £13.8 million, to the existing shed which was constructed in 2013 as the first phase of the project.

This first phase included constructing a test-ing and commissioning shed for the new fleet of Urbos 3 trams, along with additional trackwork and the associated electrification work to enable stabling facilities for up to 24 vehicles.

The second phase saw the extension con-structed along with new offices and new storage facilities.

As part of the modernisation work a new substation at West Bromwich has been built.

The Midland Metro extension to Birming-ham New Street station is scheduled to open later this year and all the remaining old T69 trams should be taken out of service by the end of March.


Big leap for World Class Capacity scheme

This August will see London Underground run a truncated Victoria line service so as to enable major upgrade works to take place as part of its World Class Capacity upgrade programme.

Between August 8 and August 30 the points at Walthamstow Central will be replaced which will allow the current 24 trains an hour to be increased to 36 trains an hour along the whole route. At the present time only 24 tph can run beyond Seven Sisters because of the restrictions imposed by the current track layout at Walthamstow.

The new timetable will come into operation from April 2016, giving the Victoria line the UK’s highest frequency train service.

The August blockade will see services bet-ween Severn Sisters and Brixton running as normal, although there will be a slightly lower frequency. There will be rail replace-ment buses in operation between Waltham-stow Central and Seven Sisters as well as from Walthamstow Central to Stratford and Stratford International stations and between Chingford Mount and Seven Sisters, calling at Blackhorse Road and Tottenham Hale.

___________________________________________Labour promise to change franchise law within 100 days

Labour has said that it would commence changing the law to enable a public sector operator to compete for rail franchises within 100 days of gaining power in May’s general election.

Shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher said that labour would create a “level play-ing field.” These latest comments follow Mr Dugher’s pledge to put the present franchis-ing system “in the bin’ .

He continued by saying : “ It is clear that

when it comes to transport, people have a straight choice – the status quo or Labour’s better plan. Labour will start the process of legislating in the first 100 days of a new Par-liament to allow a public sector operator to be able to take on lines and challenge the private sector on a genuinely level playing field.“Labour will also hold a speedy review of rail franchising to replace it with a system fit for purpose and create a strong passenger voice within a new strategic body for running the railways.”


London Overground to run 24 hour service

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Os-borne has pledged, during a visit to Victoria underground station with Mayor of London Boris Johnson, to introduce a 24 hour service on the London Overground linking Dalston Junction or Highbury and Islington to New Cross Gate from 2017.

This follows an earlier announcement that from this September there will be a weekend all night service introduced on the London Underground Northern, Victoria, Piccadilly, Jubilee and Central lines.

Following the completion of the Sub Surface Railway upgrade, which could be completed by 2018 but is dependent on an agreement between London Underground and Thales regarding a new signalling contract and pro-gramme of enhancements, trains will run all night on he Metropolitan, Circle, District and Hammersmith and City lines.

Osborne and Johnson also said that the Docklands Light Railway will offer an all night service from 2021.

These developments are part of a six point plan which the Treasury envisages will add £6.4 billion to the London economy by 2030 and create over half a million extra jobs over the next five years.

Not everyone shares the same enthusiasm for all night services, with the RMT saying that

there introduction will require higher staff-ing levels and the union’s general secretary Mick Cash calling it : “a blatant pre election stunt without a shred of consultation with the union.” He continued by saying: “This announcement has been made against the backdrop of a near doubling in assaults on staff, cuts to over a thousand jobs and the ax-ing of guards on London Overground. Night running would mean increased drunkenness and risks to both passengers and staff alike and could only work with substantial increas-es in staffing right across the board and that means an immediate reversal of the current cuts programme.”


Record breaking year for Eurostar

Latest figures released by Eurostar show that the number of people using its cross-Channel services to continental Europe rose by 3 per cent in 2014, reaching and all-time record of 10.4 million. The company attributed “ the strong recovery in the UK economy” to a rise of 4% in business travel.

Operating profit rose by 2% to £55 million, compared to £54 million in 2013, with sales revenue increasing by 1% to £867 million compared to £857 in 2013.

The release of these upbeat figures comes at a time when the British government continues its assessment regarding whether to sell its 40% stake in Eurostar. If it is decided to go ahead with the sale, it is envisaged that ap-proximately £300 million could be raised. The majority holding of 55% is controlled by the French state-owned operator SNCF, with the remaining 5% held by Belgium Railways.

The entry into passenger service of the ten new Siemens built e320 trains from Decem-ber will enable Eurostar to expand its services into many more countries, including Germa-ny and the Netherlands. It has been specu-lated that Geneva could become part of the Eurostar network in due course, but initially the first new cities to be served by Eurostar from the end of next year will be Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

The introduction of the e320s will see the current fleet of trains, which have been in service for over two decades, progressively withdrawn for a mid-life refurbishment.

An additional seven e320s have now been ordered, with Eurostar stating that it is in-vesting more than £1 billion in its fleet and services.


Free wifi for rail passengers from 2017

From 2017 rail users will be offered free wire-less internet access on services in England and Wales.

The Department for Transport has said that any operators bidding for new franchises and direct award agreements will be compelled to include this in their bid. The DfT has an-nounced that £47.8 million, with the money coming from that Network Rail has had to re-turn to the government for missing punctual-ity targets set by the Office of Rail Regulation, will be released where there are no new fran-chise agreements due between now and 2017. Arriva Trains Wales, Chiltern Railways, Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern, and Southeastern will receive funding under this scheme.

The money returned to government by Net-work Rail amounts to £53.1 million and of this £5.3 million has been allocated to the Scottish government for the penalty paid by Network Rail for late rail services in Scotland.

A number of train operators have already installed the necessary equipment to improve mobile coverage on their trains or are in the process of doing so.


ORR tells rail industry to put passengers first

In a report issued by the Office of Rail Reg-ulation it calls on the rail industry to ‘ place passengers at the heart of enhanced contin-gency planning’ where engineering works overrun.

The ORR inquiry into the overruns at Lon-don King’s Cross and Paddington on Decem-ber 27 estimates that over 115,000 passengers had their journeys severely disrupted by the engineering blockades.

Although the ORR can fine Network Rail if it concludes that Network Rail has breached its license , the ORR said that the main objec-tive of the report was ‘learning lessons with a view to preventing similar disruption hap-pening again’.

The report praised Network Rail for manag-ing more than 98% of its Christmas engineer-ing schemes successfully but stated that there had been ‘significant weaknesses in the plan-ning and oversight of the King’s Cross and Paddington works, and how communication was managed when overruns occurred’.

In the report led by the ORR’s director of railway markets and economics Joanna Whit-tington she said : “Network Rail has rightly acknowledged it didn’t do enough for pas-sengers affected by overrunning engineering works at King’s Cross and Paddington this Christmas. While the company generally has a good record for delivering engineering work on time, in this instance passengers

were really let down.”“Our investigation found that contingency planning did not fully consider the impact of potential overruns on passengers and that this needs to change. In future, plans will ad-dress the impact on passengers as well as en-gineering and train operation issues. Network Rail cannot achieve this alone, train operators will also need to play their part.

“Network Rail has committed to ensuring all work undertaken this Easter has a contin-gency plan which is fit for purpose, and to implement all recommendations in time for engineering works planned over Christmas 2015. ORR will audit its progress, to ensure that passengers’ needs and safety are central to Network Rail’s and train operator contin-gency arrangements.”

Chair of the Commons Transport Committee Louise Ellman said “The scenes at Christmas were unacceptable. Bad planning, the failure of contingency arrangements and breakdown in communication resulted in thousands of people waiting for hours in the cold outside Finsbury Park station, or stuck on delayed trains. “


More German gains for National Express

Following their recent success of winning a 15 year contract to run the c2c franchise, Na-tional Express looks set to win two more rail franchises in Germany.

The group has been named as preferred bid-der for the five Nuremberg S-Bahn routes by BEG -- the passenger transport authority in Bavaria. This would involve two 12 year con-tracts with a total worth of over £ 1 billion.

With almost 1.5 million inhabitants, the S-Bahn routes serve the second most pop-ular state in Germany. Currently operated by the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Regio, the routes carry over 20 million passengers a year.

Apart from a minor service in Breman, up until now all S-Bahn services in German metropolitan areas have been operated by Deutsche Bahn. National Express will be-come the first overseas operator of a major German S-Bahn.

Commencing in December 2018, Nation-al Express will, on behalf of the Bavarian passenger transport authority, lease 38 new electric five-car trains.

In December this year National Express Group will commence operating two regional rail franchises in North Rhine-Westphalia.


G and W to buy Freighliner

US short line holding group Genesee and Wyoming Inc has agreed to buy approximate-ly 95% of the shares of Freightliner Group from Arcapita and other shareholders on February 25.

Arcaoita, which has its headquarters in Bah-rain, acquired Freighliner’s entire share capi-tal in 2008 from a management and staff buy out team backed by 3i and Electra Private Equity.

The agreement will see G and W pay £490 million in cash and assume £8·5 million in net debt and capitalised leases. The remaining 5% of shares will be retained by members of the existing Freighliner management team, with G and W hoping to own 100% by the middle of 2020.

The move had been described by both parties as being “mutually beneficial” and it is not envisaged that the change in ownership will have any impact on day to day operations of the group.

President and Chief Executive Officer of G and W Inc Jack Hellmann said : “the acqui-sition of Freightliner is an excellent strategic fit. We are excited to be adding a world class intermodal and heavy haul franchise in the United Kingdom that will be the foundation of G&W’s European Region. Further, the overlap of our respective rail businesses in

Australia and the Netherlands will unlock operating synergies and expand our presence in each of those markets.”

Established as British Rail’s intermodal busi-ness in 1965 and privatised in 1996, as well as now having intermodal, bulk freight and maintenance activities in the UK, Freighliner Group also operates open access services in Germany, Poland and Australia.In addition to its Canadian and US interests , Genesee and Wyoming also operate the Tarcoola – Alice Springs – Darwin line in Australia and owns Rotterdam Rail Feeding in the Netherlands.

Currently 65% of the annual revenue base of US$785 million is derived from the UK, with Continental Europe accounting for 25% and Australia 10%.


Hitachi expands further into Europe with purchase of AnsaldoBreda

Hitachi and Italian conglomerate Finmec-canica have signed binding contracts for the sale and purchase of the current business of AnsaldoBreda, with the exclusion of certain residual contracts, and Finmeccanica’s entire stake in Ansaldo STS.

The deal, which remains subject to regulatory and anti-trust approvals, will enable Hita-chi Rail to expand its presence in Europe by allowing it access to contracts in Italy and neighboring countries. Once financial close has been completed Hitachi, in line with Ital-ian law, will launch a mandatory tender offer on all remaining shares of Ansaldo STS.

Integrating the two Ansaldo companies with Hitachi will turn Finmeccanica into an aero-space, defence and security company.

Alistair Dormer, Global Chief Executive of Hitachi Rail, said: “With the addition of these companies we are in an excellent position to transform Hitachi Rail into one of the strongest global players in the sector. Today’s announcement is a further testament to the long term vision we have for growth of Hi-tachi. By combining forces, we significantly strengthen our market position, aspiring to become a leading global total solution pro-vider to the rail sector.”

Alistair Dormer, Global Chief Executive of Hitachi Rail, said: “With the addition of these companies we are in an excellent position to transform Hitachi Rail into one of the strongest global players in the sector. Today’s announcement is a further testament to the long term vision we have for growth of Hi-tachi. By combining forces, we significantly strengthen our market position, aspiring to become a leading global total solution pro-vider to the rail sector.”

Hiachi announced last year that it was re-locating the headquarters of its global rail business from Japan to the UK.


Some TOCs still lose money despite rise in passenger numbers

Figures have been released by the Office of Rail Regulation showing the rail industry’s income and expenditure over the past year.

Between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014 it cost £12.7 billion to run Britain’s railways, an increase of £0.15 billion (0.7%) compared to 2012-13. The overall cost of running the railway, according to the ORR, has however remained stable with a rise of just 0.03% over the past four years despite significant growth in rail travel.

In 2013-14 total government funding amounted to £3.8 billion (28.5% of the in-dustry’s total income) with the fare box being increasingly used to fund the industry as government funding is reduced. Government funding fell 8.1% from 2012-13, 12% com-pared to 2011-12, and 16.4% when compared to 2010-11.

There was a significant variation in govern-ment funding across Britain, with funding varying from £1.88 per passenger journey in England to £7.77 per journey in Scotland and £9.18 per journey in Wales.

Income from passenger fares has risen by 10.8% to £8.2 billion since 2010-11, with pas-sengers contributing an increasing propor-tion of the rail industry’s income relative to taxpayers over the past four years. In 2010-11 this figure was 55.6% rising to 61.5% in 2013-14, with revenue rising 10.8% to £8.2 billion.

Although most operators were profitable London Midland lost £8 million in 2013-14, with Abellio Greater Anglia losing £3 million and Chiltern, East Coast and and southeast-ern all recording losses of £1 million.


The Invitations to Tender for the Northern and TransPennine franchise have been published by the Department for Transport. The ITT confirms that the Pacer diesel multiple units, long disliked by passengers due to their cheap construction and rough riding characteristics, will be withdrawn during the next franchises. The fleet is also not compliant with the disability discrimination act and would have required a huge investment to make them so. The last Pac-er will have to be withdrawn from Northern services by December 31, 2019.

Bids for Northern must include:

Withdrawal of the ex-British Rail Pacer diesel multiple-units. In response to DfT concerns that the cost:benefit ratio of replacing these DMUs is low and additional costs of £250m over the life of the franchise are anticipated, a ministerial direction has been issued instructing that the replacement of ‘these unpopular and low-quality vehicles’ be included in the ITT;Ordering a minimum of 120 new-build DMU or battery-electric multiple-unit cars capable of operating ‘under their own power for significant distances’. Options for ‘vehicles other than conventional DMUs’ would be considered.

Modernising all rolling stock

Doubling the number of services on ‘many routes’.

Providing more commuter, off-peak and Sunday services.

Investing at least £30m to improve stations.

Creating a Customer & Communities Improvement Fund to invest around £13·8m to deliver benefits for passengers.

Free wi-fi on all trains by 2020.

ITT published for Northern and TransPenninefranchises


Up to 86 four-car former Thameslink class 319 electric multiple units will be available for Northern to operate services over newly electrified routes in the next three years. The first class 319 has already been unveiled and, as we went to press, was due to enter passenger ser-vice between Manchester and Liverpool.

Bids for the TransPennine franchise must include :

Introducing extra capacity through more vehicles, increased frequencies or more services.

Earlier and later services and more services on Sundays.

Creating a Customer & Communities Improvement Fund to invest around £2·8m in passen-ger benefits.

Options for new services ‘such as links between Liverpool and Scotland, Crewe to Manchester Airport and extending Newcastle services to Edinburgh’.

Working with Network Rail to ensure the electrification of the cross-Pennine Manchester – Leeds route is delivered effectively.

Free wi-fi on all trains by 2020.

It’s not certain where this latest announcement leaves projects such as Porterbrook’s to create a Pacer demonstrator to show how the fleet could be made DDA compliant or Vivarail’s plans to convert District line D78 trains into diesel multiple units as a possible replacement for Pac-ers.

Last year Abellio Northern Ltd, Arriva Rail North Ltd and Govia Northern Ltd were short-listed for the Northern franchise with Keolis Go-Ahead Ltd and Stagecoach Trans Pennine Express Trains Ltd being shortlisted for the TPE franchise. Both franchises commence in April next year.

Bids for the TransPennine Express franchise have to be submitted by May 28 and Northern bidders have until June 26.


Taiwan and Japan exchange railway cultures

Taiwan’s Hsinchu station and Japan’s Tokyo station are to become sister stations in a move aimed at encouraging the exchange of railway culture between the two countries.

Hsinchu station dates from 1913 and is al-ready a sister station of New York’s Central station.

The agreement will be signed tomorrow at Hsinchu station by the Taiwan Railway ad-ministration director general Chou Yung-hui and East Japan Railway Co vice president Yuji Fukasawa.

Combining baroque and Gothic architectural styles, Hsinchu station was designed by Japa-nese architect Tsumunaga Matsugasaki.

East Japan Railway chairman Seino Satoshi proposed the idea of sister stations following his visit to Taiwan last year when he attended a railway forum.

___________________________________________

Chinese signalling joint venture created by Bombardier and NUG

Bombardier and China’s New United Group are to create a new joint venture for signalling and rail control in China.

Known as Bombardier NUG Signalling Solu-tions, and located in Changzhou, a city of 4.6 million inhabitants near Shanghai in Jiangsu province, where a number of major cities are planning tram and metro upgrades. Each company will have a 50% share in the new venture.

Bombardier says that the focus of the new company is signalling and integrated moni-toring systems for the country’s mass transit and light rail markets. Moving-block signal-

ing technology will also be introduced for metro routes.

Mr Jianwei Zhang, Bombardier China pres-ident, says: “Bombardier has been actively participating in the development of China’s rail transportation providing a broad range of products, systems and services, including rail signalling equipment. This new joint venture is one of our strategies to ensure our sustain-able success in this huge but fiercely competi-tive market.”

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