SAUDI ARABIA: Riyadh metro promoter ArRiyadh Development Authority has awarded the contract to design a landmark station for King Abdullah Finance District to a consortium of Zaha Hadid Architects; structural, fire and services engineer Buro Happold; cost consultant Davis Langdon; and façade consultant NewTecnic.
A key hub on the planned six-line metro network, KAFD station will be the terminus of Line 4 to the airport and an interchange between lines 1 and 6. Completion is planned within four years.
The 20 434 m² station will have four public levels and two levels of underground car parking. There will be a total of six platforms, and a bridge to the monorail which will provide local transport within the financial district.
The station is intended to integrate into the wider vision for the financial district, with the architectural practice saying the design 'extends beyond the simple station typology to emphasise the building's importance as a dynamic, multi-functional public space; not only an intermediate place perceived through quick transitions, but also a dramatic public space for the city.'
The station would be at the centre of a network of pathways, bridges and metro lines, with clearly delineated pedestrian routes to optimise circulation. This has resulted in a design based on a 'three-dimensional lattice defined by a sequence of opposing sine waves (generated from the repetition and frequency variation of station's daily traffic flows) which act as the spine for the building's circulation'.
CHINA: A ceremony on May 15 marked the opening of the latest extension to the Chongqing metro. The northern branch Line 6 runs from Lijia to Yuelai, adding 12 km to the line.
The extension is one of two planned branches running north from Lijia. A longer branch to Wulukou is due to open next year. A southern extension to Chayuan is also planned.
Read more about the Chongqing metro in the June 2013 issue of Metro Report International.
CHINA: The first section of Line 1 of the Kunming metro opened for trial passenger services on May 20. The 22·1 km route has 12 stations. Ridership is forecast at 168 000 passengers/day. CSR Zhuzhou has supplied Type B trains, and an Alstom/Casco joint venture supplied Urbalis CBTC.
A northern extension is planned from Xiaodong Village to Kunming Railway Station and Erhuan Beilu.
Line 1 is the second line of the Kunming metro to open, after the 18·2 km Line 6 opened between East Bus Station and Airport Centre in June 2012. Four more lines are planned.
FRANCE: The government and Ile-de-France transport authority STIF have announced a 10-point strategy to improve the reliability of the rail network serving Paris and its suburbs. A total of €7bn is to be invested by 2017, with €2bn allocated to the RER network alongside the metro projects confirmed on March 6.
With the aim of relieving RER Line A, €1·1bn is to be spent on extending Line E westwards from Haussmann-Saint-Lazare to La Défense and Mantes-la-Jolie. It is hoped to begin work in 2015 for opening around 2020.
The existing RER network has been allocated €900m to implement action plans for each route developed by STIF in conjunction with RATP, RFF and SNCF. These include resignalling, upgrading power supplies, grade-separating junctions and providing additional turnback facilities, as well as rolling stock improvements, all aimed at improving operational resilience.
RFF and SNCF are to investment between €400m and €500m to improve service quality, with short-term measures to include station refurbishment, improving information systems and reinforced security. More lineside fencing is to be installed. Rolling stock reliability is to be improved by installing remote diagnostic systems on the lines C and D fleets, with extra stabling and maintenance facilities provided so that trains are closest to where they are needed.
Initiatives to improve network performance include preventive replacement of electronic signalling components and additional platforms to improve traffic flow.
RFF and SNCF have been directed to develop better joint arrangements for the planning and delivery of infrastructure projects, reflecting the ‘exceptional complexity’ of the Ile-de-France network. They are also instructed to start work on creating a single infrastructure management organisation for the region, as a pilot for the national network, responsible for operations, infrastructure maintenance and modernisation.
Unified management is to be introduced in October on RER Line B, currently operated jointly by RATP and SNCF. A working group is to report before mid-2013 on how this is to be achieved for Line A.
Other measures to reduce disruption include new procedures allowing drivers to proceed at caution rather than keep trains at a stand. Following the training of 15000 drivers these are expected to come into force during early 2014, the new operating rules complemented by alerts sent by GSM-R which is due to be rolled out on the Ile-de-France network in 2015.
Procedures are also to be improved for dealing with disruption following suicides, of which there are over 450 a year on the Ile-de-France network. As part of its €30m 2013-14 action plan, RFF is to invest €9m in measures to tackle cable theft, including alarm systems to protect the most vulnerable locations, burying cables and developing alternatives to copper.
ISRAEL: Israel Railways opened a US$2·7m training centre at Lod station last month.
The new facility is intended to fill a skills gap which has developed in recent years, and offers specially developed training programmes for railway employees including signallers, shunters and refuelling staff. It is equipped with advanced technological aids, and driver training simulators are to be installed.
The centre replaces a facility in an inadequate building at the unused Tel-Aviv South station.
IXYS Corp is supplying hermetic power semiconductor thyristors and fast recovery diode capsules for N700A high speed trainsets. ‘The qualification of more of our products into the Japanese rail system builds on our growing business platform in the Japanese market against strong domestic competition, and continues our penetration of the global traction industry’, said Bradley Green, President of International Sales & Business Development.
Tractel’s Topal PR semi-automatic lifting clamps for rails ranging from 36 kg/m to 60 kg/m offer ergonomic handles for ease of use, with a security screw system designed to avoid the complete closure of the parallelogram and thus prevent fingers getting trapped. A high level of adjustment is possible, and a semi-automatic function means the clamp can be removed without manual intervention once the load is set down.
Transport Canada has approved Connected Controls Corp’s Brake-Boss digital air brake tester, which is designed for use with trains of one to more than 200 wagons. A French language user interface has been developed for use in Canada.
Hitachi Cable has launched a range of halogen-free heat resistant LAN cables for rolling stock applications.
PANAMA: Alstom has delivered the first three of 19 three-car Metropolis trainsets for the Panamá City metro. The trains are being built at Alstom’s Santa Perpètua de Mogoda factory in Spain and have recently been undergoing tests on the FGC network in Barcelona.
The trains will be used on Line 1, which is due to open by the end of the year. The 13·7 km line will have 13 stations and will be equipped with Alstom’s Urbalis CBTC signalling.
GERMANY: Assembly of the first TW3000 high-floor light rail vehicles ordered by Hannover transport operator Üstra has begun at the HeiterBlick factory in Leipzig. The first vehicles will be delivered to Hannover later this year for testing, with revenue services likely to commence in early 2014.
In April 2011 Üstra ordered 50 TW3000 vehicles from a consortium of Vossloh Kiepe and Alstom Transport for €126m, with an option for 96 more. The initial order is due to be delivered by the end of 2015.
The bi-directional articulated vehicles will have six axles, of which four are powered by 125 kW drive motors, giving a maximum speed of 80 km/h. The vehicles are 25 m long, 2 650 mm wide and 3 750 mm high with 54 seats, including eight folding seats. The steel bodyshells are being built in Salzgitter by Bozankaya and painted in Grimma before being fitted with glass reinforced plastic fronts. Alstom is supplying the bogies and Vossloh Kiepe is providing electrical equipment.
The vehicles will initially run on routes 3 and 7, with the possibility of running on routes 4, 5, 8 and 18 in the future.
EUROPE: Transdev completed the sale of its Veolia Transport Central Europe subsidiary to DB Mobility on May 16. Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, said the sale of VTCE GmbH for an undisclosed price was the first step in a financial restructuring which aims to re-focus its international activities on 'promising markets in which the group can ensure development'.
Although mainly a bus operator, VTCE has operated Desná Railway services from Šumperk to Kouty nad Desnou and Sobotín in the Czech Republic since 2002, and thus the acquisition takes DB's non-German passenger transport subsidiary Arriva into the Czech local rail market.
It also expands Arriva's bus activities in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, and takes the company into Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. Arriva said this positions the company as 'the largest international passenger transport operator in Central and Eastern Europe'.
VTCE has annual revenues of nearly €253m, and around 6 300 staff.
ROMANIA: The Ministry of Transport announced on May 15 that it was to start afresh with its attempt to sell a 51% stake in national rail freight operator CFR Marfa.
This follows its rejection of all three of the applications to prequalify which had been submitted by the May 8 deadline.
Applications had been received from:
OmniTRAX Inc, a US-based short line management group; SC Grup Feroviar Român, Romanian's largest private freight operator; A consortium of private freight operator Transferoviar Grup and investor Donau-Finanz GmbH.
Following initial analysis, pre-qualified bidders were to have been invited to submit preliminary non-binding offers as a basis for negotiations. Sealed bids with a reserve price of €180m would then have been invited, with the aim of announcing the winning bidder during June.
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