5/2007

In R 4/07, p. 7, we reported briefly on the promotional visit of TILO FLIRT 524 001 to Slovenia in late June and early July 2007. The train then continued south down the east coast of Italy to Puglia, the province situated right in the „heel“ of the latter country. With summer holidays now just fond memories, we offer you a detailed account of this ground-breaking tour round the shores of the Adriatico.

Fahrzeugtechnik Dessau (FTD), as its name suggests, is based in Dessau in Germany, but since May 2006 it has formed part of the Transmashholding group of Moskva. Early in March 2006, just prior to this merger, the company was awarded a contract by Netherlands operator Connexxion for five 2-car 1,5 kV DC EMUs for local services, the prototype PROTOS unit making its debut at InnoTrans 2006. The first two of these trains, whose design is highly modular, entered service in September 2007.

On 25 September 2007 Voith Turbo Lokomotivtechnik entered into partnership with Hä-fen und Güterverkehr Köln (HGK), under which the latter will realise all servicing and maintenance of the company’s evolving range of locomotives.

VNIIZhT stands for Vserossiysky nauchno-issledovatelny institut Zheleznodorozhnogo transporta, which translates as the All-Russia Academic Rail Research Institute. The establishment is situated to the southeast of Moskva, right on the edge of the urban area, near the village of Shcherbinka.

The town of Kolomna lies about 120 km southeast of Moskva and is the long-established home of Kolomensky zavod, a leading manufacturer of main line diesel locomotives, diesel engines and diesel-generators. We make no apologies for printing the title of the article in Cyrillic script - you may already have guessed that it translates as "A Visit To The Kolomna Works". But before we embark upon our tour, let us first take a brief trip through the history of this great establishment...

Until the eighteenth century, people lived in balance with nature. They only used energy which was sustainable - that which, derived from the sun’s rays, is transformed by photosynthesis into wood for burning, fodder for draught animals, and food for human consumption. But such fuels were of low calorific value, and hence not suitable for powering machinery.

The "new" suite of Arriva-operated ALEX services in Bayern is scheduled for launch with the introduction of the 2008 timetable in December 2007, and the rolling stock is now being delivered and tested.

The Czech Republic is still managing to retain its reputation as a virtually no-go area for foreign multisystem locomotives and train operators. In these two brief reports we look at a couple of open access passenger schemes which were poised to take off, but which now appear to have been stifled through bureaucratic blocking procedures and interests that remain vested in maintaining the status quo - in other words, ensuring there is no real competition for the State operator to measure up to.