Italy : ETR 1000 began her maiden trip
The ETR 1000, a new high-speed train, began her maiden trip this Saturday on the Italian network. The order dated from August 2, 2010, when Trenitalia has designated AnsaldoBreda as winner of the tender. For this contract, AnsaldoBreda was associated with Bombardier which had an high speed train already in service: the V300 Zefiro, of which 210 copies were sold in China from 2007 to 2012. The September 5, 2013, the first train fully composed with eight cars began his dynamic tests by some travels between the Bombardier plant in Vado Ligure and the city of Savona, and then was transferred to the Velim test ring, Czech Republic.
This April 25, 2015, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Italy, took place the launch of the first Milan-Rome service carried out in 2 hours and 40 minutes with onboard the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. The 50 trains ordered, for a total of € 1.54 billion, will be in regular service since June 15, 2015 on the major axis Milan-Rome, in competition with NTV-Italo. Either at the opening of the exhibition in Milan. The journey without stop should take around 2h20 in the first time, with, as the final goal to reach only two hours.
Another vidéo of the ETR1000
22/04/2015
This April 25, 2015, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Italy, took place the launch of the first Milan-Rome service carried out in 2 hours and 40 minutes with onboard the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. The 50 trains ordered, for a total of € 1.54 billion, will be in regular service since June 15, 2015 on the major axis Milan-Rome, in competition with NTV-Italo. Either at the opening of the exhibition in Milan. The journey without stop should take around 2h20 in the first time, with, as the final goal to reach only two hours.
Another vidéo of the ETR1000
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| Italian Président Mattarella embarks at Milan |
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Netherland : EETC car-carrying service closes
22/04/2015
A "souvenir" video at this link, more pictures on the website
It is a very sad news: the Dutch EETC stop his motorails. One of the only representative company of the motorails, with DB Autozug and some Austrian ÖBB services, is closing down, ending fifty jobs. According to International Railway Gazette, the cause would be a dramatic increase in infrastructure tolls (+ 50%), Traction costs (+ 30%) and the revaluation of the Swiss franc (+ 28%). In the summer, two of the three motorail passe through Switzerland to reach Tuscany, a popular destination of our Dutch friends. Pre-bookings had also increased by 30% compared to 2014. EETC also manages winter sports trains only to Austria. Recall that the concept of motorail is on borrowed time. The concept have disappeared out of the SNCF, in France, which offers today a differentiated routing: depositing his car the evening before and take the TGV the next day. DB dreams to adopt the same idea but with a transfert of cars ... by truck! ÖBB still holds to the classic concept as we have always known. For how much time ?
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14/04/2015
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| A motorail to Koper, in july 2013. An archive... (photo by Mediarail.be) |
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Belgium : a new partner for SNCB Logistics
14/04/2015
Who would have thought that ? It had been
years that the SNCB freight sector seemed to die slowly. The same syndrome that
SNCF in France ? Restructuring of SNCB's loss-making freight activities began
in 2008. The European Commission allowed the Belgian government to provide
financial support on the condition that freight operations were transferred to
an independent company, and SNCB Logistics was created. But the major step in
the restructuring came significantly into effect on february 2011 when SNCB
Logistics began operating as an autonomous subsidiary. We was at the peak of
the economic crisis and the freight railway sector in Europe saw its market
share and his revenues decrease dramatically. Not many were betting on railway
freight growth recovery, certainly not in Belgium. For several years now, the
parent company SNCB was looking for a technological and financial partner able
to provide potent logistics operations, which are essential to overcoming the
numerous challenges now posed by the modern logistic. It had been thought that
DB Schenker would be the ideal candidate but finally this option had to be
discarded.
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| Class 1325 (Alstom) with a empty train at Jurbise (photo Mediarail.be) |
TGV Nord-Europe : Thalys becomes since 31 march a full railway company
01/04/2015
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See also our fac-sheet about Thalys
This time it's done. Nearly 20 years after the birth of the Cooperative Limited Liability Company under the Belgian law (originally under the name Westrail International), established in 1995, Thalys became since 31 march a full railway company. The company jointly owned by SNCF (60%) and SNCB (40%), going from 200 to 550 people and will be the full control of his means. Thalys gets its accounting and budgetary autonomy to develop its products and conduct new developments. Specifically, Thalys will be able to direct contracts with each of its partners and service providers but also directly manage its staff. It will now communicate with its live conductors: it is so much gained to identify the cause of a delay and to inform immediately travelers. Previously indeed, Thalys first had to talk to the network management or with the incumbent company, that gave a serious loss of time. The company will request itself his paths, namely railway each network, Infrabel, Pro-Rail and DB Netz, which is the current extended Thalys network.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------See also our fac-sheet about Thalys
This time it's done. Nearly 20 years after the birth of the Cooperative Limited Liability Company under the Belgian law (originally under the name Westrail International), established in 1995, Thalys became since 31 march a full railway company. The company jointly owned by SNCF (60%) and SNCB (40%), going from 200 to 550 people and will be the full control of his means. Thalys gets its accounting and budgetary autonomy to develop its products and conduct new developments. Specifically, Thalys will be able to direct contracts with each of its partners and service providers but also directly manage its staff. It will now communicate with its live conductors: it is so much gained to identify the cause of a delay and to inform immediately travelers. Previously indeed, Thalys first had to talk to the network management or with the incumbent company, that gave a serious loss of time. The company will request itself his paths, namely railway each network, Infrabel, Pro-Rail and DB Netz, which is the current extended Thalys network.
The term 'railway undertaking' means that Thalys is "a public
or private, company licensed in accordance with Directive 2012/34, whose main
activity is the production of transport services for freight and / or
passengers rail, the traction must be provided by the company itself
"(source: European directive 2012/34, s 3-1.). Thalys currently employs
550 people, including 250 Train Managers, drivers, stops and supervisory staff
and 100 people for security functions, maintenance, operations management,
management of resources and management of services. For Germany and the
Netherlands, nothing will change for Thalys, the transport mission will
continue to be operated respectively by Deutsche Bahn and the NS in the context
of agreements between shareholders and partners.
It seems that the traffic is today mature on the major axis
Brussels-Paris. To look for more growth, as example Eurostar, Thalys has opened
the new route Lille-Brussels-Amsterdam and Lille-Geneva, making the big
northern french city a new hub. According Bussiness Travel, at the press
conference on 30 March 2015, the new CEO Agnès Ogier said she was considering
creating a connection with the West of France, when the new high-speed section
to Bordeaux will be open (2017) and would also inaugurate a connection to
Dortmund in Germany in 2016.
The operation seems in any case profitable for the SNCF, Thalys
becomes its armed wing internationally for high-speed railways services, along
with Keolis which deals the regional and urban market. From Belgian's side, the
SNCB is assured good dividends, as reported by newspaper La Libre, and
according to Agnes Ogier, for €30 to 35 millions per year for five years, and
will no longer to earmark cash in advance for Thalys. Michel Jadot adds that it
is no longer SNCB which will ensure the replacement of the seven TGV trainsets
it makes available Thalys.
Sweden : a new operator in open access
22/03/2015
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Since last Saturday, a new operator expands the short list of European competitors in open Access. MTR indeed has launched three return trips on the Stockholm-Gothenburg route, 20 march 2015. MTR Express is part of the Nordic business unit of Hong Kong-based MTR Corp. The company has invested upwards of SEK 1 billion (€107 Million) for the purchase of six five-car 200 km/h 15 kV AC Stadler FLIRT trainsets and a center for maintenance.
The arrival of this competition would apparently already have an impact on prices. Since last fall, the Swedish national company SJ would have anticipated and lowered its prices, especially in first class. Results: an increase of 7% in passengers if one believes the words of its President, Crister Fritzson, which explained that ‘we have mostly taken market share from aviation’. MTR runs smoothly but is expected to reach his full capacity next fall, with 90 weekly departures face to the 250 departures of the national, SJ. Johan Söör, CEO of MTR Express said ‘I am absolutely convinced that prices will fall by 10 to 15 percent. For example, we have seen in the airline industry that increased competition has led to lower prices and more customers. This too will happen with the train’.
Gunnar Alexandersson, a university researcher who is studying the future of Swedish railways, agrees with this assessment. ‘Rail traffic has increased significantly in recent years and it is difficult to know how far can still grow the rail in the future. But the arrival of more choice usually leads to increased travel’.
In fact, the discourse of two competitors focuses on the hope of a modal shift from air and road, rather than on a price war between them. On the major axis Stockholm-Gothenburg, the railway modal share is around 20% and expected to increase.
Key figures about open access
Since last Saturday, a new operator expands the short list of European competitors in open Access. MTR indeed has launched three return trips on the Stockholm-Gothenburg route, 20 march 2015. MTR Express is part of the Nordic business unit of Hong Kong-based MTR Corp. The company has invested upwards of SEK 1 billion (€107 Million) for the purchase of six five-car 200 km/h 15 kV AC Stadler FLIRT trainsets and a center for maintenance.
The arrival of this competition would apparently already have an impact on prices. Since last fall, the Swedish national company SJ would have anticipated and lowered its prices, especially in first class. Results: an increase of 7% in passengers if one believes the words of its President, Crister Fritzson, which explained that ‘we have mostly taken market share from aviation’. MTR runs smoothly but is expected to reach his full capacity next fall, with 90 weekly departures face to the 250 departures of the national, SJ. Johan Söör, CEO of MTR Express said ‘I am absolutely convinced that prices will fall by 10 to 15 percent. For example, we have seen in the airline industry that increased competition has led to lower prices and more customers. This too will happen with the train’.
Gunnar Alexandersson, a university researcher who is studying the future of Swedish railways, agrees with this assessment. ‘Rail traffic has increased significantly in recent years and it is difficult to know how far can still grow the rail in the future. But the arrival of more choice usually leads to increased travel’.
In fact, the discourse of two competitors focuses on the hope of a modal shift from air and road, rather than on a price war between them. On the major axis Stockholm-Gothenburg, the railway modal share is around 20% and expected to increase.
Key figures about open access
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| The first MTR service at Gothenburg (photo by arskortguldsj.wordpress.com) |
Italy : new structure for NTV-Italo
11/03/2015
Despite its 6.2 million passengers a year, about the same that
the Thalys annual traffic, despite increased levels of recognition for its
travelers, the private Italian high-speed train company NTV Italo - founded by
Luca di Montezemolo, Diego Della Valle, Gianni Punzo and Giuseppe Sciarrone -
has so far accumulated a total debt of € 781 million. From there has emerged
last autumn the idea to separate with 30% of staff (already in solidarity
contract), which will inevitably affect the potential of the company and its
current thousand workers. What is the situation today ?
At a recent meeting between union representatives and the new
CEO of NTV, Flavio Cattaneo (who replaces Guiseppe Scarone), rumors have
reported the possibility to launch a €
100 million capital increase. The recovery plan presented by the group expects
a first tranche of the recapitalization to be concluded in early April and the
renegotiation of the debt of € 781 million accumulated from banks.
One of the major battles is the toll applied by RFI, the Italian
network manager: it reached € 120 million per year! Recently, the Minister for
Competitiveness and Economic Development Federica Guidi increased the toll by
15%. The company is not still beneficiary after three years of existence. The
year 2013 was closed with a loss of € 76 million and 2014 still produces a loss
of € 55 million. A reduction of losses of € 18 million of the deficit would
have been obtained, according Italian press, by the intervention of the
Competition Authority - which has been slow to support competition in Italy -
by production of “white certificates” (securities that certify the savings
energy obtained by a company).
On the industrial side, the Cattaneo plan offers new
connections, including Milan-Venice, and Milan-Verona-Rimini for summer, and an
expansion of the fleet of 6 to 10 new AGV trains. According the unions,
there is emerging a change of pace comparing with the "old regime",
which spoke only of restructuring. The general secretary of the Fit-CISL,
Giovanni Luciano, said: " We have to shift to a development perspective.
It is expected a meeting to find out what arrangements apply on the plan to
reduce procurement and labor costs.
A part of the new plan has already begun. Since 15 January 2015,
a new configuration of AGV trains was adopted: a car club, two cars Prima, two
cars Smart XL and by summer 2015, a car club, one car “Premiere” and three cars
Smart XL.
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| Club car from an AGV of NTV-Italo (by Peter Broster via flickr - CC BY 2.0) |
NTV was concerned about the poor efficiency of the "sale on
board", due to the poor performance of the commission system. The new
service makes a distinction between Premium and Standard. The first, specific
for First and Club, with a la carte menu, and Bar / Bistro. The second for the
Smart and Smart XL, with increasing of drink ATMs (in cars 3 and 7).
The offer in First and Club would decrease from 124 seats to 57 seats.
The board staff is therefore adjusted to this level of service and thus significantly
reduced. The new structure of board staff includes: one driver, 2 Train
Managers (a junior and an experimented) and one hostess. A significant change
will also occur at the level of the station services, for more attention to be
given to the sale activities. There is now a distinction between "complete
station" and "light station". The first category is still
organized on the model of the Casa Italo, with four people; the second category
loses the Casa Italo label (in Mestre, Padua, Reggio Emilia and Salerno) and
work only with just one person and rolling furniture. The exploitation of
Salerno will be moved to Naples. The new organizational structure proposed by
NTV determines, according to a press release from the company, a total of 248
layoffs, and will run until December 2015. If the market does not respond
properly, Plan B would be implemented in 2016, with a total abandonment of the
Venetian dorsal and a concentration of services only on the Salerno-Turin route
and this event would result a reduction of 22 additional other workers, for a
total of 270 layoffs. But we are not there yet…
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Austria : good punctuality for austrian railways ÖBB
Austria : good punctuality for austrian railways ÖBB
04/01/2015
(from http://www.newstix.de/)
The trains of the austrian railways ÖBB were in the last year especially on
time: exactly 96.7 percent of the 6,000 daily running trains were on time on
the network. In the province of Salzburg, there is a very high value on time despite
some construction sites, the local services have achieved 96.3 percent trains
on time. Five years ago, the Austrian railways punctuality figure was 91 per
cent, but by numerous efforts, these values were continuously improved. Last
year, the ÖBB vehicles and equipments reliability was increased by a wide
variety of measures: the use of advanced and unified rolling stock, such as the
Railjet long-distance transport or Emu Talent train sets for mass transit, have
paid as well as as train operation by electronic interlockings and modern
diagnostic systems. Overall, the ÖBB have more than 6,000 trains per day, and
is now one of the most punctual European railways.
A major challenge however concerns international train
services : for the railway lines outside of Austria, the influence of the ÖBB
on the punctuality to the border stations is extremely low. During the summer
months 2014, around 35 percent of the causes of delay came from neighboring
railways. As the average value of punctuality in all railway Austria was 97.1%,
there are some disparity between provinces : leader is the Vorarlberg with
98.6% percent, followed by Tyrol, Vienna and Lower Austria (Linz). The
punctuality statistics for the whole of Austria and for each individual
province can be accessed around the clock here. Punctuality values are updated
monthly - clear and transparent and can be seen on this link : www.oebb.at/puenktlichkeit
Punctual trains are so important in Austria because they
are the basis for a clock-face schedule which is an essential prerequisite for
a stable schedule. For passengers, the reliability and punctuality of the
trains are the most important quality criterion. The ÖBB have pinned in recent years great many hopes and
expectations on a complex program with, for example, a group-wide punctuality
management, elimination of speed restrictions on infrastructure, the
optimization of maintenance, cooperation with neighboring Infrastructure
Managers to reduce delayed border trains and implementation of a modern
management strategy.
The ÖBB measures for the punctuality of all scheduled
trains are being implemented after analysis of the causes of any delays. In
international comparison, the arrival punctuality of the European Railways works
with a "five-minute delay". This is interpreted differently by
country, ranging from 4:59 minutes to 5:59 minutes. The ÖBB work with a value
of 5:29 minutes, which means that if a train less than 5:29 minutes late, it is
counted on time. Graz University of Technology confirm correct measurement
method of ÖBB. His study shows that the ranking of the ÖBB despite the
different limits remains in international comparison the same: the ÖBB are, whatever interpretations of the 5-minute punctuality,
a European leader.
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| EC 531 left Leoben Hbf (photo by unci_narynin via flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) |
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Economics : What is
the competition in the rail sector?
24/12/2014
It
serves to shift position lines, not necessarily to privatize, privatization
stays an option. This also serves to demonstrate that to avoid disappearing, it
is to reinvent itself every decade. This was illustrated yet again when french
regions have bucked against high cost of regional train services (TER) provided
by the national incumbent SNCF. The simple act to shake things up have had an
effect when SNCF established a "Mister TER" with mission to extinguish
"the fire". However, concerning night service Paris-Venice, SNCF
seems to say "good riddance" and leaves the private company Thello
alone on this micro-market. Eurostar is today under British law, we must to
learn to live with it. One point where SNCF is shaken, it is on the adoption of
the "reciprocity clause" at European level. A clause that angers :
the european development of Keolis and Veolia will be put in the balance.
Finally, concerning the air sector, new transport modes of the people (car
sharing), renewal of intercity busses, it is useless to oppose it : everyone is
to reinvent itself and shift position lines, it's the right of everyone and
that's our democracy which allows.
But
something more serious crawls in the upper echelons of the State: politicians
are tired of this negative ambiance in railway sector and turn away more and
more to other 'positive' sectors. Such as long distance buses, the digital
sector or like electric cars that demonstrate that they have a future. Some
politicians still evoke other more urgent sectors to subsidize (education ...).
All this is very bad for the rail sector and fill the trains only at peak
times. Everyone takes the train out of spite, because we cannot do otherwise. The
train then remains a mere palliative and becomes indispensable for the morning
and evening crowd. What a fall ! We are far behind the positive time
from the 90's, when we dreamed of trains with his virtues against the
congestion and the trucks. But even
worse is the fact that this mentality percolates in Brussels Commission. The
countries that have been able to develop a bold railway policy will do better
than others. For those who did nothing, is it already too late? The tide is
turning...
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| Venlo (Netherland) : Veolia and dutch incumbant NS, july 2014 (photo Mediarail.be) |
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Switzerland : refurbishment for locomotives Class Re 460
17/12/2014
SBB will
completely modernize Re 460 locomotives (Lok 2000). Since 1992, these 119
machines with futuristic design operate with general the satisfaction 8% of
rail services and reach 300,000 km per year. So here it is a mid-life operation
that involves replacing the GTO components which have the disadvantage of being
obsolete and very power hungry. Today, modern traction drive motor consists of
IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) that simplifies the electronic
control, allows an easy paralleling of components under strong currents and has
low conduction losses and switching. Other works involve replacing the main air
compressor and allow the extinction of certain components when the engine is
stationary for more than 30 minutes. This package will save nearly 27 GWh per
year, that's, according to the CFF, the annual consumption of 6,750 families. More
information about this locomotive (in french) : http://mediarail.be/UE_TRAXX/Traxx_02_Lok2000.htm
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| SBB/CFF class Re460_(picture by Gerard-Nicolas Mannes_via flickr CC BY-ND 2.0) |
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Belgium : total renewal of the railway schedules services
14/12/2014
SNCB updated since Sunday its entire schedule concept. There had been no major changes since 1998. A complete revision of the train service was made after studying customer flow. The result is an adaptation of the traffic on the main axes and a loss of services early morning or late evening, few used according the national transporter. The axes are reinforced to Brussels because it was found that this was the main reason for the use of trains. 80% of 850,000 daily commuters use the train during rush hours in the morning through about 80 of the 550 stations that have the network! Similarly, a more intensive use of the "Diabolo" to the national airport was undertaken to boost the incomes of the tunnel under the tracks that are held in concession until 2047 by Northern Diabolo NV. Many works on the network have for consequences a growth of the travel time. The new schedule also changes the allocation of rolling stock as well as rotations of operating personnel, causing many usual cranky reactions. This new schedule service runs until 2017 and is started in a difficult socio-political context since the first day of the week is already a day of general strike, a tradition in Belgium ...
Germany : the reasons of railways social conflict
02/12/2014
Germany : it is a new era of social
conflicts ? This year, the management of Deutsche Bahn refuses to grant
drivers' union the right to negotiate for other staff, which the corporatist
union seeks for example to the train’s crew. It should be pointed out that
in Germany there are different unions by employee’s category. The driver’s union GDL has only 15.500 members against 240.000 for
the union EVG. « We can speak of a
key social movement in the history of unions in the Federal Republic ».
That’s what summarizes Bernhard Wessels, professor at Political Sciences at WZB
Berlin, according french newspaper Les Echos.
It’s therefore an internal conflict
between unions that is misrepresenting reality by some claims for a reduction
of working hours and higher wages. The conflict raises the indignation of the
German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) who fears competition from smaller
organizations such as GDL. At the meantime, however, companies count losses and
the strike affects millions of commuters and costing around €100 millions a
day.
Great-Britain : an award for the project Birmingham-Curzon (HS2)
01/12/2014
The masterplan to transform the city centre around Birmingham Curzon HS2 Station has won the strategic planning award at the inaugural Planning Awards 2014. The Curzon masterplan, launched in February 2014, covers 141 hectares of the city centre and included plans for more than 2,000 homes and 14,000 jobs. The masterplan set out a vision for the creation of a world class integrated city centre terminus station for High Speed 2 (HS2) alongside major development and regeneration opportunities.
Great-Britain : finally, it's Stagecoach/Virgin that wins the East Coast Main Line Franchise
27/11/2014 - brandrepublic.com
This is finally a 100% British company that won the franchise. Virgin and Stagecoach have won their bid to run the service on the East coast, claiming more and more the brand "Virgin" on the railway landscape in Great Britain. Both companies have promised to invest 140 million pounds in the itinerary and will pay £ 3.3 billion to the government for an eight-year contract.
The group promised to improve journey times to introduce 65 new trains "Super Express" to increase capacity by 50% by 2020 and provide Wi-Fi on trains and in stations. The service would begin on March 1, 2015, ending a lot of speculation that asked a final return to public hands, while it is the State that managed the current franchise since 2009. The british concept remains intact.
