List view / Grid view
Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has the densest rail network in the world in terms of the number of trains per kilometre per day – and the number is still rising. This is a challenge that must be met without compromising on safety. Trains must therefore be monitored and scheduled with…
4 August 2011 | By Renzo Simoni, CEO, AlpTransit Gotthard Ltd
On 23 March 2011, between Faido and Sedrun in Switzerland, miners excavated the last metres of rock of the Gotthard Base Tunnel. Both single-track tubes are therefore now continuously bored over their full length of 57 kilometres. In the Ceneri Base tunnel, the main drives from the Sigirino intermediate heading,…
4 August 2011 | By Stefan Rameder, System Integration Officer for the ÖBB ETCS Programme, ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG
After years of preparation and comprehensive calls for tenders from suppliers, Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) has placed all orders for the implementation of the European Train Control System (ETCS). In February 2010 the final purchase order was placed, concerning system integration. During the past two years, a company-wide programme group…
4 August 2011 | By Janusz Wellman, Vice President of the Board, Rail Polska
Rail Polska was established in November 1999 by Mr. Edward Burkhardt, the founder and the only owner of Rail World Inc., registered in Chicago. Mr. Burkhardt successfully privatised railways in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and Estonia. The original aim of the company was to take part…
4 August 2011 | By Michele Mario Elia, CEO, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI)
My last contribution to Global Railway Review was back in Issue 4 2008, when I was interviewed about the then current status and view of high-speed operations in Italy. Since then Italy has changed a great deal where infrastructure is concerned. The Italian High-Speed/High-Capacity (HS/HC) network Today, Italy is a…
8 June 2011 | By Michel Clement was interviewed by Craig Waters, Editor
With a market share of 52% of the GSM-R global market, measured in kilometers of railway tracks covered by GSM-R railway infrastructure, Kapsch CarrierCom is the number one supplier worldwide. In an interview for Global Railway Review, Kapsch CarrierCom’s Vice President of GSM-R, Michel Clement, tells us what railway operators…
31 May 2011 | By Uldis Augulis, Minister of Transport, Republic of Latvia
Latvia has historically been on the crossroads of European transport routes. Its geographical location allows the country to be a considerable player in cargo transportation and logistics, serving significant cargo volumes from our Western partner countries (in the EU) and other places to the east – countries such as Russia,…
31 May 2011 | By Antti Jaatinen, Senior Vice President of Passenger Services, VR-Group Ltd and Maarit Haavisto-Koskinen, Head of International Marketing, VR-Group Ltd and Mika Heijari, Head of External Communications, VR-Group Ltd and Tiina Nieminen, Managing Director, Avecra Oy
The high-speed Allegro rail service between Helsinki in Finland and St. Petersburg in Russia began operating on 12 December 2010. The service cuts the journey time between the two cities by more than two hours to three and a half hours. The Allegros have a top speed of 220km/h and…
31 May 2011 | By Elisabeth Enger, Director General, Jernbaneverket
2011 will be an exciting year for Norwegian railways. The past year was unfortunately marred by widespread service disruption and much criticism from passengers, the media and politicians. Our goal at Jernbaneverket, the Norwegian National Rail Administration, is that 2011 should be the turning point where we begin to see…
31 May 2011 | By Arvo Smiltinsh, Member of the Management Board – Infrastructure Director, AS EVR Infra
Whilst the other Baltic countries are still considering whether to start work on the Rail Baltica project and discussing how extensive it should be, Estonia will soon be completing the reconstruction of the southbound railway line. The group of undertakings under Eesti Raudtee was established on 14 January 2009, when…
31 May 2011 | By Claus Nymark, Manager, Engineering Team of the Signalling Programme, Banedanmark
The Danish parliament Manager, Engineering Team of the Signalling Programme, Banedanmark has decided to fund a €3.2 billion replacement programme of renewing all Danish railway signalling before 2021. The programme is unique in Europe both in size and in its approach of focusing on economies of scale and creating a…
31 May 2011 | By Kirk Taylor, Managing Director & Stephen Harker, Project Manager, Stobart Rail
By any measure, a new main line railway station is a rare commodity. There has been only a handful over the past 20 years, some linked to regional airports. But the south-east region in the UK now has its own, all-new, congestion-easing rail-air interchange at Southend Airport – the work…
31 May 2011 | By Mal McGreevy, General Manager – Rail Services, Translink NI Railways
Rail travel in Northern Ireland is a major success story with over 60% customer growth since 2002 exceeding government targets. Two years ago, Translink NI Railways celebrated delivering 10 million passenger journeys in a year – the highest on record in the company’s history and we are on schedule to…
31 May 2011 | By Libor Lochman, Deputy Executive Director, the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER)
The legal environment of the European rail system has dramatically changed during the last two decades. The three rail packages have caused a completely new structure of the railway business and induced an introduction of a number of new actors on the European railway market. Furthermore, in order to enable…
In this paper, we will try to provide a general overview about the state-of-the-art aspects of satellite positioning systems and their usage in the railway safety assessment field, in particular in the On-Board Technological Systems (OBTS) assessment processes. Obviously CENELEC norms are applied in Italy, but the national peculiarities request…
