škoda 2024

4/2007

ICE3 Modifications For Operation In France
Although DB's ICE3 high speed trains operate into Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the procedures involved in their authorisation for use on the new LGV Est on services from Frankfurt am Main to Paris were particularly long-winded and horrendously costly. Why? We investigate here...
Train ICE 9556, from Saarbrücken to Paris, seen on 12 July 2007 just before it leaves the LGV Est at Vaires-Torcy in the suburbs of Paris. Although the ICE3s are approved in France for 330 km/h running, they are only permitted to run at a top speed of 320 km/h, and unlike the TGVs they are not allowed to run in multiple anywhere on the RFF network, either.
Photo: Gérard Lecleire
Elektropoezd ED4MKM-AERO
Demikhovsky mashinostroitelny zavod (DMZ), which is part of the Transmashholding group, recently outshopped an ED4MKM-AERO EMU, which is a modified version of the suburban ED4MKM type. This new train is designed specifically for fast, comfortable shuttle services between peripheral airports and city centres, with the requirements of Moskva and St. Petersburg especially in mind.
After being completed, ED4MKM-AERO 001 stands in the DMZ sidings on 24 July 2007.
Photo: Transmashholding
Pusztaszabolcs - Home Of MÁV's FLIRTs
The town of Pusztaszabolcs is situated about 50 km south of Budapest. Adjacent to the station there is now a new 9.6 million EUR maintenance base for MÁV’s 30 new Class 5341 FLIRT EMUs (which we described in R 6/06, pp. 42 - 46). Construction of the complex started in October 2006, and the first trains arrived there in March 2007. At present they are being looked after by a workforce of 20, but once all 30 FLIRTs are in service, by the end of 2008, this number of staff will treble.
At the time of writing, Pusztasza-bolcs is capable of servicing and overhauling all 30 FLIRTs that will soon be in service. This does not in any way stretch the capacity of the facility. On the contrary, by introducing round the clock three-shift working patterns, the new depot will be able to look after a fleet of up to 60 FLIRTs in the future.
Photo: Tomáš Kuchta
Slow Progress With Electrification in Greece
Greece was the last country in Europe (apart from Albania) to embark upon the electrification of its arterial rail routes. Over the past twenty years there has been a great deal of investment, with finance coming both from national coffers and from the EU, though the original budgets and schedules for project completion have become fiction. Here we take a look at the way the programme is evolving, the new trains now running on the system, and plans for the future.
DMU 520 111/211 forming test train 8591 at the south portal of Tempi tunnel through the Olympos mountain, on one of the cut-offs between Evangelismos and Leptokariá, on 12 January 2004. This is the first railway tunnel in Greece with slab track.
Photo: Emmanuel Tzevelekakis
Czech Raildays 2007
Ostrava's public transport trade fair, the most important event of its kind in central and eastern Europe nowadays, scaled new heights in 2007 with 135 exhibiting companies and 6,346 visitors. As usual, there were plenty of exhibits making debut appearances. In TransUrban 4/07 we looked at some of the new tramway and trolleybus products; here we focus on the world of heavy rail.
Our title photograph offers a panorama of the area of outside exhibits, with one of the latest three-car RegioNova rebuilds 814 207/208, currently operating in southern Moravia, which are now known by CD as RegioNova Trios (see R 3/07, p. 11), occupying centre stage. On the right is a rake of CD's latest Siemens-built express passenger stock, headed by ER20-015 and hiding the record-breaking Taurus which on 2 September 2006 created with 357 km/h a new world speed record for electric locomotives.
Photo: Tomáš Kuchta
Around The World With Cummins
The railway projects in which diesel engine manufacturer Cummins is engaged take the company's engineers to the four corners of the globe, as they install, evaluate and maintain the products originating from the factory in Daventry, UK. This article takes a brief look at some of these projects, and also reveals how a diesel locomotive powered by two engines can be more economical and environmentally friendly than one with just a single power pack.
The DEMUs which will start operating on the new railway to Kashmir in summer 2007 are a fine example of how rapidly the Indian rail network is being modernised, and also of what the Indian train-building industry can produce.
Photo: Cummins
RENFE's 200 km/h Class 334 Diesels
In December 2007 the first 200km/h diesel locomotives to run on RENFE's 1,668 mm gauge network entered service on Altaria express linking Madrid, Murcia and Cartagena. Vossloh Espana is currently building 28 of these machines at the company's Albuixech works, in Valencia.
334 002 at Albuixech on 14 September 2006.
Photo: Javier Peña
And much more!
Cover of 4/2007
Poster

Features: ED74 ordered by PKP for express services between Warszawa and Łódź