2/2011

Turkey is following in the footsteps of China and Spain in endeavouring to develop an integrated high speed rail network in order to prompt a step-change in passenger train patronage. The first section of the HSL linking Ankara with Istanbul was inaugurated on 13 March 2009, and on 17 December 2010 test running on the Polatli to Konya line began, with a view to inauguration in spring 2011. Encouraged by the prospect of a massive loan from China, the Ministry for Transport’s current goal is to have 1,500 km of HSLs operational by 2013 and possibly even 6,800 km by 2023, together with some 4,000 km of new conventional railways, to boost freight traffic as well.

In 1997 the Swedish iron ore mining company LKAB decided to acquire a fleet of powerful new electric locomotives to replace the ageing Classes Dm3 and EI 15 which hauled its heavy trains originating from the mines near Kiruna and Gällivare to the ports of Luleå on the Gulf of Bothnia and Narvik in Norway. With the railway being upgraded to raise the maximum permitted axle-load from 25 to 30 tonnes, plans were also drawn up for a new wagon fleet, to increase train capacity.

Bydgoszcz-based train builder PESA continues to expand its range of DMU and EMU types, for both domestic and foreign operators. The company’s latest EMU offering is the type 22WE (Class EN76) ELF (Electric Low Floor) train, the first example of which, destined for service in the Śląsk conurbation in southern Poland, made its debut in September 2010 at InnoTrans in Berlin.

Under the Railway Structural Reform Programme, sanctioned by Governmental Decree of 18 May 2001, Russian state rail operator RZD has been creating subsidiaries responsible for different activity areas. The three to emerge covered freight traffic, Transkontainer and Pervaya Gruzovaya Kompaniya (PGK, Freight One), with Vtoraya Gruzovaya Kompaniya (VGK, Freight Two) being established more recently, in 2010. Passenger services were then addressed, with the creation of the Federalnaya Passazhirskaya Kompaniya (FPK, Federal Passenger Company), responsible for long distance services, and the Prigorodnaya Passazhirskaya Kompaniya (PPK, Suburban Passenger Company).

Spring 2011 saw a number of new trains, tram-trains and trams delivered to networks of both metre and 1,435 mm gauges in Spain. This round-up of news takes us from Euskadi via Mallorca and Valencia to the deep south - Sevilla and Granada, with a brief visit en route to the city of Nuestra Señora de El Pilar - Zaragoza.