The French national railways SNCF will order an additional 80 + 40 TGV Duplex bi-level high speed trainsets, according to recent reports.
The order will reportedly consist of three lots:
Lot #1 is for 25 so-called “DASYE” type trainsets, as a continuation of the current order for 24 of this most recent variation of the basic TGV Duplex design. The “DASYE” subtype is basically a trainset composed of TGV-POS power cars (minus the 15 kV AC equipment) with 8 Duplex trailers (”DASYE” is for Duplex Asynchrone ERMTS-2). These trainsets will be equipped with the ERMTS-2 train control system.
Lot #2 is for 30 second generation Duplex trainsets capable of running in Germany and Switzerland (i.e. essentially a second generation Duplex trailer set with POS power cars)
Lot #3 is for another 25 second generation Duplex trainsets for French domestic service (i.e. minus the Germany/Switzerland specific train control systems, but retaining the 15 kV AC capability).
The 40 options that are to be part of this contract are not specified yet - these could be of any type.
Update: Here is now the Alstom press release announcing this order.
Posted in: Uncategorized | June 23, 2007 11:01 pm | Comments: (1)
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The RENFE Series 103 (Siemens Velaro E - the equivalent of the DB ICE 3) trainsets are scheduled to finally start running in commercial service starting June 22, on the Madrid-Zaragoza-Camp de Tarragona (-Barcelona) line.
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On 1 April 2007, the European Railways launched the new InterRail product offer. This offer consists of the classic Global Pass, valid in all participating European countries, and the One-Country Pass, which allows you to explore one country in-depth.
Posted in: Uncategorized | 2:18 am | Comments: (2)
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Britain’s first digital magazine dedicated to the railway enthusiast.
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The home of Railway Centre News - Where important UK and Worldwide railway news is brought to you daily
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Index of all railway and model railway related websites in the UK and Ireland…
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I have developed this site in an attempt to show the up to date position of all Locomotives, Multiple Units and Loco Hauled Coaching Stock currently authorised by Network Rail to run on Britain’s railways (or railroads for my US friends).
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Network Rail is pleased to launch the May - Dec 2007 National Rail Timetable on the web which contains rail services operated over the National Rail network together with rail and shipping connections with Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight.
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On this website you can download route tables from the official timetable of Switzerland. You can also order the official timetable on CD-ROM.
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Click on a train name link in the Timetables list to open or download a printable PDF version of that timetable. Timetables are only as current as the date of the last printing.
Posted in: Uncategorized | June 22, 2007 2:21 am | Comments: (0)
During the past months, I ran across two British Railway Magazines, that are published online only as a PDF. And the great thing about them - they’re completely free! Now you might expect, oh well, then this is just some bad pictures cobbled together by some amateur. Nothing could be further from the truth - they’re actually excellent reads, contain lots of good or even great photographs. One of them is actually published weekly!
So, in short, if you’re interested in British railroading at all*, you should take a look:
Do you guys know of any similar publications in other parts of the world? Please let me know …
* if you’re not familiar with the British scene (like me), I’ll admit things might look a bit boring at first sight - all those diesels and EMUs/DMUs - don’t they all kind of look the same? But if you look closer, there is actually quite a big variety there. I think it’s the same in every country - US railroads might also look very boring to foreign eyes - after all, an SD40 doesn’t really look that different from an SD70 or Dash 9, does it?
Posted in: Uncategorized | June 21, 2007 10:13 pm | Comments: (1)
Once more, it’s budget crunch time in Sacramento and the powers that be seem to be following the Governor’s “lead” and intend to reduce funding for both High Speed Rail and Transit in general.
…the news is not good. If you don’t want to see HSR dead in a week please mobilize people to make calls now!
It is looking like some $900 million out of $1.3 B that had originally been coming due to public transit is may be diverted, leaving transit with only $400 M. HSR was hoping to get funded out of that pot. If public transit only gets $400 M then it will be difficult for HSR to get $50 M out of that.
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In any case if you want HSR, tell them now and also tell them to support higher levels of funding for public transit.
For who to call, see http://www.bayrailalliance.org/hsra_2007_budget
[ CAHSR: Make calls for HSR now! ]
Posted in: Uncategorized | 10:04 pm | Comments: (0)
This is interesting news. I suspect there is some connection with this survey that Amtrak did earlier this year. Note that space on these luxury cars will be sold by GrandLuxe as the “GrandLuxe Limited“. Service starts this November and continues through the winter offseason.
Beginning this fall, passengers traveling on select Amtrak routes will have the option of lingering over five-course dinners, sleeping in luxurious suites and enjoying personal butler service. The premium service is being made possible by a new partnership between GrandLuxe Rail Journeys, the country’s premier, private rail tour operator, and Amtrak, the national passenger rail service.
[ Amtrak Partners with GrandLuxe to Offer Luxury Rail Service ]
Posted in: Uncategorized | June 19, 2007 7:13 am | Comments: (1)
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Posted in: Uncategorized | June 16, 2007 2:18 am | Comments: (0)
It’s an exiting time for railroading in Central Europe - after the TGV Est and the Lötschberg Base Tunnel, the Dutch Betuweroute (official site) freight rail line between Rotterdam and Germany will be the third infrastructure project to open for service this month. This 160 km long, double track freight corridor is set to improve capacity between the Dutch harbor cities and mainland Europe.
However, startup of freight services over the new route might be slower than expected, due to the fact that locomotives that will operate on the new route will need to be equipped with both Dutch and ETCS 2 train control systems, plus also be able to run under 1.5 kV DC and 25 kV AC catenary (plus, if they want to continue onwards in Germany, they also need 15 kV AC capability and German train control systems).
Still to come later this year: Highspeed 1 (2nd phase of Channel Tunnel Rail Link to St Pancras), HSL-Zuid (High speed line between Amsterdam and Antwerp) and completion of the Madrid-Barcelona high speed rail line …
Posted in: Uncategorized | June 15, 2007 10:11 pm | Comments: (0)
In case you’ve missed it - the new TGV Est high speed line from Paris (Vaires-sur-Marne) to the East of France (Baudrecourt) opened for commercial service last Sunday, June 10. Since this week, TGV POS/Reseau and ICE 3 trainsets share the rails and provide new high speed service between Paris and Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Basel, Zurich, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and other cities. Travel times have been shortened considerably - e.g. 2 hours 20 minutes instead of 4 hours from Paris to Strasbourg.
Trains reach a top speed of 320 km/h on the high speed line and run at speeds of up to 220 km/h on the conventional lines. Service frequencies are set to increase with future timetable changes - more direct services to Zurich and also to Munich should be available starting December 2007.
Links:
Posted in: Uncategorized | 9:50 pm | Comments: (3)
