TrainBlog by Marcel Marchon

According to a report in the Belgian newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen (not available online, scanned copy here), Siemens Transportation has won the tender for new electric passenger locomotives in Belgium, against strong competition from Alstom (who were hoping to be able to sell their PRIMA 6000 series locomotive) and Bombardier. The new locomotives will be based on the Eurosprinter series and will be similar to the E191s for Mitsui and LE4700 for Portugal (for more details on these, see railcolor.net). They will have a top speed of 200km/h and will be able to run under three voltage systems: 25kV AC, 3kV DC and 1.5kV DC. Delivery should be from Januar 2009 through October 2009.

(via Zug & Eisenbahn Blog)

Today, I ran across a reference to the “Railteam” alliance and thought “what the heck is that? Never heard that before”. So I did some research and was able to find the following information in a Eurostar press release:

The Railteam alliance will offer travellers high-speed, high-quality travel across European borders. As well as Eurostar, other members include:

• Deutsche Bahn - Germany
• NS and HSA - Netherlands
• ÖBB - Austria
• SBB - Switzerland
• SNCB - Belgium
• SNCF - France

The rapid development of high-speed lines across northern Europe, linking major cities, has created the opportunity for an alliance under the working title ‘Railteam’, which has a vision to provide travelers with:

• Seamless connections at stations
• Through ticketing and fares - one ticket/fare for a through journey
• Easy access to timetables, information, booking and train services
• Real time journey information
• Universal, high-quality standards of customer service and facilities, such as on-board internet access

[Quoted from Pan-European ‘Railteam’ alliance expands @ eurostar.com ]

(I wish we would see some of these “features” in the U.S. …)

Looks like the whole thing is modeled after the alliances that already exists between various airlines (e.g. Star Alliance, SkyTeam, OneWorld, etc.). It will be interesting to follow the developments in the future - after all, a couple of years down the road, international rail travel is supposed to be deregulated in Europe.

It appears that the “Railteam” alliance does not currently have a website - there is something at railteam.com, but it does not appear to be related.

I meant to write an article about upcoming new rail lines that are scheduled to open in Europe this year, but I just ran across this piece by columnist Ed Perkins (written as part of a more generic travel article, so you might not have noticed the rail content …), where he sums up the most important parts quite nicely.

Rail: Focus on Europe. The Europeans remain serious about high-speed rail, and you’ll see some major improvements this year: The last remaining high-speed segment between London and the “Chunnel” will open late this year, cutting 15-20 minutes off the already spectacular rail times between London and Brussels (less than two hours) or Paris (a bit over two hours). From the new station at St. Pancras to the Continental terminals, travel will be entirely on high-speed tracks, with speeds up to 186 mph.

France will open most of the LGV Est line from Paris to near Strasbourg, with a branch connecting to Frankfurt, Germany. Belgium and the Netherlands will open high-speed links, cutting train time from Amsterdam to Paris to just three hours. Spain expects to complete most of the high-speed line between Barcelona and Madrid this year. Late in the year, Switzerland will open the new 20-mile low-level Lotschberg tunnel between Brig and Bern, cutting an hour off travel times between Italy and Germany.

Meanwhile, the United States continues to talk a lot and do little about high-speed rail. At best, we’ll see a few improved (but conventional) speeds on a few Midwestern Amtrak routes. The main improvements will be in local public transit and commuter systems — welcome, to be sure, but not a substitute.

[Quoted from Expect higher hotel rates and more hidden fees (sfgate.com)]

I also like his comment about, well, the non-existent U.S. rail program. Although there might be some good news: Apparently, Senators Lautenburg, Lott, Inouye and Stevens are planning to re-introduce the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act next week - if you support this, call your senator to encourage him/her to support this bill!

Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Trent Lott (R-MS), Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
and Ted Stevens (R-AK) plan to re-introduce the Passenger Rail Investment
and Improvement Act next Tuesday.

[Quoted from an email newsletter from NARP]