3/2012

May 2012 will go down in the annals of Czech railway history as the date when entrepreneur Leoš Novotný’s new FLIRT Class 480 EMUs, built specifically for quality open access express services, took to the Czech tracks - just 20 months after he announced his proposals for the new trains at InnoTrans 2010.

With a 15 million GBP investment directed at the upgrading of the fleet, the rolling stock is the pride of the Heathrow Express re-launch. The first refurbished EMU re-entered service on Monday 28 May 2012, after which more modernised trains will be introduced regularly up to April 2013, when the project is expected to be completed.

Investment to the tune of several billion Euros is being poured into preparations for the 22nd Winter Olympics, scheduled for 7 to 23 February 2014 in the Sochi districts on the Black Sea coast and at resorts in the adjacent Caucasus mountains. The following report takes our readers on a tour of the various rail infrastructure projects that are being realised in the Sochi district, to relieve road congestion and to cope with the invasion of visitors. We also look at the new trains that will be used there.

On 3 June 2012, the first of Calea Ferată din Moldova’s (CFM’s) thoroughly refurbished Class D1 DMUs, was outshopped from the Remar works in Paşcani, and was presented at the Moldovan Railway Summit, which was held on the 7th and 8th of the month in the capital city of Chişinău.