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Rail Articles

Upgrading the Ringsted–Fehmarn Line: a huge construction job

23 May 2013 | By Jens Ole Kaslund, Ringsted–Fehmarn Project Director, Banedanmark

The upgrading of the Ringsted–Fehmarn Line is one of Banedanmark’s largest ever projects. Together with the fixed link across the Fehmarn Belt and other major Danish infrastructure projects such as the Copenhagen–Ringsted Line, this is a massive scheme for both rail freight and passenger traffic.

CROSSING BORDERS: The Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link

23 May 2013 | By Johnny Restrup-Sørensen, Contract Director – Railway, Femern A/S

The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel will connect Denmark and Germany with a two-track railway and a four-lane motorway underneath the Fehmarnbelt. With a total length of approximately 18km, it will be the world’s longest immersed tunnel for combined rail and road traffic and will help bring people, businesses and culture in the…

Estonian Railways invests to meet modern requirements

23 May 2013 | By Ahti Asmann, Chairman of the Management Board – General Director, AS Eesti Raudtee

The railway in Estonia has been expected to keep up with many requirements over its 142-year history, during which time there have been many key events and rapid developments – through wars, shifts of governments and regimes, development of technology, privatisation and re-nationalisation – the railway has worked at its…

Russian Railways’ rolling stock investments

23 May 2013 | By Vladimir Yakunin, President, Russian Railways

Today, passengers expect speed, comfort, and safety. Russian Railways intends to exceed all of these expectations and we believe it is impossible to achieve these goals without investing in modern rolling stock.

Dynamic services to satisfy passengers

23 May 2013 | By Alexey Krivoruchko, Chief Executive Officer, Aeroexpress

Aeroexpress is a dynamic Russian company providing intermodal and local rail transport services between the capital and all of the major Moscow airports (Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo), as well as the town of Lobnya. New intermodal transportation services were launched between the central rail terminal of Sochi and Adler Airport…

Plans to improve Czech Republic rail infrastructure

23 May 2013 | By Jiří Kolář, Director General, Czech Railway Infrastructure Administration (SŽDC)

Due to its geographical location, the Czech Republic is well positioned to offer transport in all directions of importance. For future success, the Czech railway network must be made available on all important European routes. Such an objective cannot be achieved without modern, reliable and interoperable lines of excellent quality.

Optimal Networks for Train Integration Management across Europe

23 May 2013 | By Clive Roberts, Director for Railway Research, Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education and Professor of Railway Systems at the University of Birmingham & Lei Chen, Research Fellow, Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education, University of Birmingham

Throughout Europe, many of the existing mainline railways are heavily congested, resulting in services being very susceptible to minor delays and disturbances. There is therefore a need to find new methods to make better use of the existing capability of the system through improved management of train delays and other…

RailNetEurope – gateway to European rail infrastructure

23 May 2013 | By Joachim Kroll, Secretary General, RailNetEurope and Bettina Wunsch-Semmler, Member of the Managing Board in charge of Communications, RailNetEurope

Revitalising the railways of Europe has been on the agenda of both the railway industry and the European institutions for a number of years. Since 1991, the European Commission has issued a number of directives and regulations as part of the four ‘railway packages’ and the TEN-T initiative (Trans-European Transport…

Fourth Railway Package aims to foster growth

2 April 2013 | By James Abbott, Technical Editor, Global Railway Review

Ticketing technology supplier Amadeus has released a new study with an optimistic outlook for long-distance rail travel in Europe. The study estimates that long-distance passenger traffic will increase by 2.2% annually over the next seven years to reach over 1.36 billion by 2020 – 238 million up on 2011 figures.…

Efficient Infrastructure is the foundation for growth

2 April 2013 | By Dr Peter Ramsauer, Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Development, Germany

Efficient transport infrastructure is the foundation for the growth and competitiveness of our economy. More and more countries in Europe have come to the realisation that the forecast increase in commodity flows cannot be managed anymore with the already available infrastructure. This also means that focusing on one single mode…

Building Germany’s largest and most innovative infrastructure project

2 April 2013 | By Olaf Drescher, Head Project Manager for VDE 8, DB ProjektBau GmbH

The Nuremberg-Berlin Project (VDE 8) is Germany’s largest and most innovative infrastructure project with 56km of tunnel and 27km of viaduct. With the breakthrough in the 824m-long Höhnberg Tunnel in Upper Franconia on 3 August 2012, the last of the 56km of tunnels in this project was completed – a…

Open-access success

2 April 2013 | By Eva Kreienkamp,CEO, Hamburg-Köln-Express GmbH

In July 2012, Hamburg-Köln-Express – the first private long-distance rail service in Germany – began operations. Since then, this young company has successfully found its market, with a growing number of passengers regularly using the new service.

European railways at a junction

2 April 2013 | By Frank Jost, Policy Officer at the Single European Rail Area Unit, European Commission

The European Commission recently announced a comprehensive package of measures to deliver better quality and more choice in railway services in Europe. Rail is a vital part of EU transport, with a key role in addressing rising traffic demand, congestion, fuel security and decarbonisation. But many European rail markets are…

RESTRAIL – contributing to more efficient rail services

2 April 2013 | By Jacques Colliard, Head of Security Division at UIC and RESTRAIL Coordinator

REduction of Suicides and Trespasses on RAILway property (RESTRAIL1) is a threeyear project that began on 1 October 2011 and is co-funded by the European Commission’s FP7 Programme. The aim of RESTRAIL is to reduce the occurrence of suicides and trespasses on railway property and to reduce the service disruption…

Turkish rail network prepares for the future

2 April 2013 | By James Abbott, Technical Editor, Global Railway Review

Turkey is a country on the move. It has a younger and faster growing population than anywhere in Europe. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicts Turkey will be the second fastest-growing country in the world by 2018, and by 2025 the Turkish economy is expected to outstrip…