List view / Grid view
4 August 2010 | By Angus W. Stocking, Industry Author
Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) is an overwhelmingly popular rail initiative in Northern California and is to begin service in 2014. Planners estimate that the new commuter rail system can be built for approximately $7.1 million dollars per mile, which compares very favourably to the cost of extending other local…
4 August 2010 | By Prof Andrew McNaughton FREng, Chief Engineer, High Speed Two Ltd and Global Railway Review Editorial Board Member
In Britain, about once a century for the last few hundred years a new long-distance surface transport system has been planned and built to meet the developing needs of a continually advancing society. The 18th century brought the canals and the 19th the railways, both initially more focussed on transporting…
4 August 2010 | By Vladimir Yakunin, President, Russian Railways
The changing economic situation in Russia, and the increase in business and transport activity among the country’s population in recent years, served as an incentive to draw up the Programme for the Development of High-Speed and Very High-Speed Transport, as part of the Strategy for Developing Rail Transport in the…
4 August 2010 | By Paloma Cucala García and Antonio Fernández Cardador IIT, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, España
Reduction of energy consumption has become a global concern, and the EU is committed to reducing its overall emissions to at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. In the transport sector, measures are focused on planning, infrastructure, modal change, the renewal of vehicles and also programmes for efficient driving.…
3 August 2010 | By Andrew Lezala, CEO, Metro Trains Melbourne (Metro)
Six months in to its contract as operator of Melbourne’s metropolitan train network, Metro’s focus is firmly on improving asset reliability, simplifying the timetable and making every minute count. In 2009, the Victorian Government selected a new contractor to operate Melbourne’s metropolitan rail services. The network assets, which are Government-owned…
3 August 2010 | By Jean-Marc Dupas, Chairman of NB-Rail and Managing Director of Belgorail
Former Railway Interoperability Directives (96/48/EC and 2001/16/EC and their amendments) have been repealed on 19 July 2010 by the Directive 2008/57/EC on the interoperability of the rail system within the Community. These directives have changed the way that fixed railway infrastructure, the rolling stock that runs on it and certain…
3 August 2010 | By Nelson Ogunshakin, Chief Executive, ACE (Association for Consultancy and Engineering)
Rail transport is essential to the UK’s economy. The Eddington Transport Study of 2006 found a clear link between transport capacity and economic performance, and noted that transport was an enabler of economic growth rather than a creator of growth in itself. Crossrail, for example, is expected to generate around…
3 August 2010 | By Mauro Moretti, CEO, Ferrovie dello Stato Group
The FS Group (Italian State Railways) is the largest company in Italy, which has helped boost the Country’s growth, thanks also to the recent launch of the high-speed service. The Group has successfully completed a process of internal reorganisation that has turned it into a modern and efficient reality, up-to-date…
3 August 2010 | By Giuseppe Sciarrone, Managing Director, Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori S.p.a. (NTV)
NTV, the first Italian private high-speed operator, will start commercial service in September 2011. We officially announced the kick-off date in a press conference we held in Rome at the end of May 2010. We therefore have 15 months of tough work ahead to complete the necessary steps to ultimate…
31 May 2010 | By Juhan Parts, Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications, Estonia
Steering the global recession to an upswing assumes new ideas and solutions from all economic sectors, and a well-functioning transportation system is one of the most important success factors in this process – we can accelerate growth of the economy only with efficient logistics.
31 May 2010 | By Elisabeth Enger, Director General, Jernbaneverket
The past winter was unusually tough and challenging for Norwegian railways. Almost three months of continuous cold weather took their toll on ageing and well-worn infrastructure, resulting in record low punctuality and a large number of train cancellations. Never before have we experienced such poor punctuality over such a prolonged…
31 May 2010 | By Mikko Asikainen, Project Manager, Finnish Transport Agency & Antti Haapalahti, Project Manager, Partner, CC Infra Oy
In a large-scale project of the Finnish Transport Agency, a 76.5km second track will be built between Kokkola and Ylivieska. To fund the project, a Public Private Partnership will be used for the first time in the Finnish railway network. It is also desirable to have foreign competitors for the…
31 May 2010 | By Kaido Simmermann, Managing Director, Estonian Railways
With its 140-year history, Estonian Railways has been a bright example in illustrating how to adapt to circumstances and successfully cope with them in the rapidly changing economic environment of recent years. 2009 represented an important year for Estonian Railways, when it carried out several significant changes concerning its tariff…
31 May 2010 | By Uģis Magonis, Chairman of the Board, Latvian Railways (LDz – Latvijas dzelzceļš)
It might be a daring statement in the light of current events, but the last two years have been a great success for Latvian Railways (LDz) – in 2008 it transported a record amount of cargo and in 2009 was spared a significant reduction of volumes and continued with extensive…
31 May 2010 | By Thomas Eybye Oester, Commercial Director, Arriva Skandinavien
Arriva, one of Europe’s leading transport operators, is radically changing the travel experience for its customers in Denmark. Passenger information tailor-made to the needs and demands of the individual passenger. That is what Arriva Skandinavien is set to introduce through MyArriva – an innovative new concept which was part of…
