April 2020 | Volume 60 Issue 4

IRJ
www.railjournal.com | @railjournal

The future of diesel

International Railway Journal

New fuels clean up rail vehicle traction

Coronavirus pandemic hurts rail = ATO in action

 T-ATS RUSSIA ORGO-THE
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Contents
April 2020 Volume 60 issue 4
Editorial offices News
Post 46 Killigrew Street
4 This month
Falmouth
Cornwall, TR11 3PP, UK
6 News extra - coronavirus pandemic
Tel +44 1326 313945 8 News headlines

6
Web www.railjournal.com 12 Transit
14 Financial
Editor-in-Chief
Kevin Smith 16 Analysis - Alstom-Bombardier
ks@railjournal.co.uk
Consulting Editor/

IRJ Insights 
Associate Publisher
David Briginshaw
db@railjournal.co.uk The ‘future’ of diesel
News & Features Writer
18 Alternative traction grows in popularity
David Burroughs

18
dburroughs@railjournal.co.uk Are hydrogen and battery trains the beginning of the end
Production Manager for diesel traction?
Sue Morant

India
sm@railjournal.co.uk
IRJ Pro Account Manager
Chloe Pickering 22 Delhi commuter rail network takes shape
cp@railjournal.co.uk
Improving connections with surrounding cities
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Infrastructure improvements still required on key freight link
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New fuels clean up rail vehicle traction
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IRJ April 2020 3

Rail must get fair share
This month | Kevin Smith

of coronavirus stimulus
president, Ms Ursula von der
Leyen, said on March 17 that
“the EC will use all the tools at
its disposal to make sure the
Yet MTA alone carries 5.4
million daily passengers, twice
as many as the US airlines.
Transit is an essential service

T
HIS month I was hoping to
comment on insights from
the IT-Trans conference and
exhibition. The event was set
to take place in Karlsruhe from
March 3-5. However, just four
days before it was due to
open, I received an e-mail
confirming that the event had
been postponed because of
concerns over the continuing
spread of coronavirus.
With other meetings in the
schedule, I did proceed with
my trip. It was though
noticeable how the regular
conventions of business travel
had changed; gone was the
For the passenger rail industry,
the short-term impact is close
to catastrophic. As we report
on pages 6-7, operators are
suffering substantial falls in
demand. Many mainline and
transit operators have responded
by cutting back services with
huge losses now anticipated.
Transport for London (TfL)
says the pandemic could cut
passenger revenue by up to
£500m. TfL says it has
sufficient resilience in its
finances to manage the impact
of Covid-19. However, others
do not have the same stability.
European economy weathers
the storm.” The EC has adopted
a Temporary Framework
providing member states with
full flexibility under state aid
rules with five types of aid
available. National governments
have also committed to similar
plans to keep business running.
The European Railway
Industry Association (Unife)
says it supports the measures
and that it is essential they are
directed to manufacturing
bodies that form the backbone
of the modern European
economy. “Ensuring that they
can operate immediately after
this crisis and continue to have
that must not be overlooked.
In addition, if governments are
serious about combating
climate change, sustaining
mainline rail rather than their
fossil-fuel guzzling counterparts
on equivalent routes should be
prioritised.
Making such a statement
now could prompt the social
changes necessary to tackle this
potentially far greater global
crisis once the coronavirus
pandemic subsides. AllRail is
therefore right to make this the
core of its argument.
This also could be the moment
that rail freight finally shows
its worth. With rail able to
carry high volumes of goods

traditional handshake using minimal manpower and

Without the backing of the state,

greeting, and during my visit lines clear of passenger trains,
to MTU and ZF’s respective rail freight is set to play a key

Europe’s private operators are in a

plants in Friedrichshafen role in maintaining the supply
(p18), I was required to sign a of critical goods over the next

waiver confirming that I was
well and had not travelled to
affected areas including China
and northern Italy.
What appeared novel at the
time, soon became a lot more
serious. With Covid-19
infections and deaths on the
rise, governments scrambled
to contain the outbreak, which
was declared a pandemic by
the World Health Organisation
(WHO) on March 11.
Blanket restrictions on public
gatherings and unnecessary
travel are now in place
throughout the world with
some predicting that the
current measures could be in
place for months.
Most industry events set to
take place over the next few
months have since been
postponed or cancelled.
Production at manufacturing
plants has ceased or been
severely scaled back, with
many people working as best
they can from the sanctuary of
their own home.
Despite government efforts
to stimulate economies through
interest rate cuts and injections
of cash, stock markets around
the world have plummeted as
investors baulk at the fall in
demand. The global economy
is staring down the barrel of a
deep recession unheard of
during many of our lifetimes.
perilous position.
Britain’s Northern franchise
was taken into government
ownership on March 1 (p10)
and the impact of coronavirus
could now push other franchises
in financial difficulty such as
Southwestern and Transpennine
over the edge. Indeed, all
franchisees could now default
on payments to government,
plunging the system into an
ever-deeper crisis.
Without the backing of the
state, Europe’s private operators
are in a perilous position.
Italy’s high-speed open-access
operator NTV has cut back the
frequency of its services from
49 daily to just 14. Austria’s
Westbahn has similarly halved
operation between Vienna and
Salzburg, which was already
running at reduced frequency
compared with a year ago.
The Alliance of Passenger
Rail New Entrants (AllRail)
predicts that its members
could suffer a É540m hit by
the end of the year as passenger
numbers fall by 70-90%. Years
of building up viable businesses
in the face of strong and often
hostile competition might be
extinguished almost overnight.
European Commission (EC)
few months. Advocates must
harness this momentum.
While we are not sure when
or how this current crisis will
end, demand to move people
access to needed materials will return. Policymakers must
should be core to the EU’s not lose sight of the importance
crisis management approach,” of rail when making the decisions
Unife says. that will define all of our
In the United States, transit futures in the next few weeks.
advocates are making similar
arguments to make up the
shortfall in farebox revenue
which funds everyday
operation. Amtrak has ks@railjournal.co.uk
requested $US 1bn in state aid
following a dramatic decline
in ridership. New York’s MTA
is requesting $US 4bn, while
the American Public
Transportation Association
(Apta) is requesting $US 16bn
to support public transit
agencies and passenger
railways. Apta estimates that
its members will lose $US
14bn in farebox and sales tax
revenues while $US 2bn will
fund emergency measures.
Of course, rail is joining a
long queue with many other
sectors facing similar
financial ruin. And with
president Donald
Trump stating that
airlines will be at the
front of the line for a
$US 1 trillion stimulus,
the challenges are
significant.

4
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 News | coronavirus pandemic
Apta seeks $US 16bn emergency funding from Congress AllRail forecasts
T €540m hit for
private operators
HE American Public costs including more stringent services altogether. The time to

Transportation Association
(Apta) has requested the US
Congress to provide $US 16bn
emergency funding to transit
operators affected by the
coronavirus pandemic.
Apta says public transport
operators are recording
“dramatic reductions in
ridership” due to work-place
restrictions.
Apta estimates that its
members face $US 14bn in
losses in both fare and sales tax
revenue, while $US 2bn is
needed for additional direct
cleaning.
“Public transit agencies are
being massively impacted, and
immediate measures need to
be taken to ensure these
agencies can continue to
provide essential services to
their communities now and in
the future,” says Mr Paul
Skoutelas, Apta’s president and
CEO. “It cannot be overstated -
without these funds, the
overwhelming majority of
public transit agencies will be
required to either drastically
curtail services or suspend
E
act is now.”
“It is vital that this legislative
action includes funding to
UROPE’s Alliance of
support essential public
Passenger Rail New Entrants
transport services across the
(AllRail) says its members are
country, such as providing
facing huge drops in passenger
paratransit services for
numbers and revenue due to
individuals with disabilities;
the coronavirus pandemic.
“I am forecasting a É540m
public transport for health care
workers, law enforcement, first
negative impact from the
responder, and other safety
middle of March until the end of
personnel; and Medicaid
2020, based on lost revenue due
recipients who receive medical
to demand being suppressed,”
transport for kidney dialysis,
AllRail’s secretary general, Mr
cancer treatments, and other
Nick Brooks, told IRJ.
critical care,” Apta says.

TfL says coronavirus could cost £500m in lost revenue

Brooks says passenger traffic

T
has fallen dramatically. “I
would now say best case -70%,
RANSPORT for London worst case -95% - or even
(TfL) says the coronavirus worse than that in the case of
pandemic could cut passenger those who have stopped
revenue by up to £500m operating, such as charter train
following a 19% reduction in operators.”
Underground trips and a 10% AllRail is calling for train
drop in bus traffic between operators to be given priority
March 7 and 15. over short-haul airlines for
TfL says tight cost control state support during the
and efficiency improvements coronavirus pandemic.
have enabled it to cut its deficit Brooks welcomed the
from £1.5bn to £200m and statement on March 17 by
made it more resilient to European Commission
financial shocks. executive vice-president, Ms
TfL is required to maintain a Margrethe Vestager, for
cash balance of £1.2bn for temporary state aid to support
liquidity and to cope with the economy. “However, we

The Waterloo & City Line was closed on March 20.

financial shocks, plus an
additional £600m to cover
other risks.
“TfL’s current forecast for its
end of year cash balance is
expected to be more than
£2bn,” TfL says. “This means
TfL is able to manage the
“Our best forecast, based on
government scenarios, is that
the financial impact of the
coronavirus could be up to
£500m,” says TfL’s CFO, Mr
Simon Kilonback.
prudently and have reduced
our deficit hugely in recent
years. But, given the nature of
the situation, we will be
looking to the government to
provide appropriate financial
call on it to prioritise
applications according to levels
of pollution,” Brooks said. He
wants the emphasis to be on
modes of transport which help
to lower the carbon footprint.
“Is it sensible to bailout short
haul flights where passenger
rail is also a viable option?”

Intermodal operators urge action in face of downturn

initial impact of Covid-19.” “We manage our finances support.”
Brooks asks.

I
NTERMODAL freight operators in Europe
have called for measures to allow freight to
continue to move during the coronavirus
pandemic, especially during the lock-downs in
France, Italy and Spain.
The open letter to European institutions
outlines why intermodal rail freight is well
placed to move goods while limiting the risk of
spreading Covid-19.
“Intermodal rail transport uses the rail mode
for long distances and road for final
distribution,” the letter says. “It is a closed,
easily controllable, traceable and adjustable
system, based on a reduced number of
terminals. Since the beginning of the
coronavirus emergency, the various actors in the
logistics chain have adopted a series of
measures to protect the health and safety of the
people involved in the production processes,
“We must not lose sight of
the fact that, while the
implementing and often anticipating the pandemic will pass, it will
indications of the authorities. have a lasting economic
“Today, leading companies in the logistics impact on a sector that is
sector are shifting a significant amount of goods absolutely crucial if Europe is
to rail in order to reduce the mobility of people to meet its climate change
such as drivers across Europe, especially in the goals in line with the EU
north-south corridor for traffic to and from Italy.” Green Deal.
A train crewed by two people can move 40 “It has been new entrant,
semi-trailers, while freight terminals managed privately owned passenger rail
by 60 staff are able to move goods by train that companies that have really
would otherwise require 800 truck drivers. driven modal shift to rail in
Measures to support the industry include: recent years. Ensuring the
clear and transparent communication, special survival of all passenger rail
attention for transshipment terminals, companies is essential not only
safeguarding of intermodal transport, not for the preservation of millions
blocking rail transport, reducing contacts of jobs, but also towards the
between people, financial support for attainment of a climate neutral
companies, and deferral of payments to protect future and integrity of the
liquidity and administrative formalities. single transport market.”

6 IRJ April 2020

 In brief

German industry warns of significant supply chain impact Britain

G ERMANY’s Rail Industry
Association (VDB) is
warning that the railway
manufacturing supply chain
faces significant impact due to
the coronavirus pandemic.
industry. The strictest
precautionary measures apply
where operation must be
maintained.”
The VDB says “massive
efforts and drastic measures”
liquidity, immediate help, clear Transport for London has
help for short-time work and temporarily closed 40 of its
the deferral of corporate taxes 260 Underground stations and
are now necessary. The aim cut train frequency on
must be to limit economic and Underground, Overground,
social consequences through DLR, TfL Rail and London
Trams services.

“The supply chains of the
rail industry in our country are
fundamentally strong, highly
diversified and very resilient,”
the VDB says. “It is important,
however, that clear priorities
are now quickly set in order to
continue to ensure the essential
are being taken to limit social
contact for employees in
offices, workshops and
construction sites.
“The federal government’s
emergency fund for the
economy is of paramount
importance as an umbrella in
Hong Kong
quick, effective and
unbureaucratic support.” The
VDB says such measures will
make it possible to make the MTR is deploying 20
financial consequences for Vaporised Hydrogen Peroxide
companies manageable. robots in depots to deep clean
The VDB wants companies trains as well as stations to
to prepare “for a powerful improve protection against
coronavirus. The robots were

MTA seeks federal support following revenue drop

performance of the rail this crisis,” the VDB says. “Fast restart” after the crisis.
developed jointly by MTR and
Avalon Biomedical, a local
biotechnology company.

International
International passenger rail
services in Europe have almost
disappeared after countries
including Denmark, Czech
Republic, Germany, and
Slovenia closed their borders
to halt the spread of the
coronavirus. International

Photo: MTA/Patrick Cashin

services from Russia to
neighbouring countries and
across the US-Canada border
have also been halted.
= The International Union of

N
EW York’s Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (MTA) is requesting substantial
federal aid due to the dramatic effects of the
coronavirus on revenue.
MTA chairman and CEO, Mr Patrick Foye, wrote
to the New York Congressional Delegation on
March 17 requesting more than $US 4bn in
federal aid. “The MTA is now facing financial
calamity,” Foye said. “Ridership has fallen
approximately 60% on the subways, 90% on
Metro-North, 67% on Long Island Rail Road and
49% on buses.
“As a result, MTA revenue has plummeted as
Railways (UIC) has launched a
Covid-19 task force to
state and local taxes dedicated to the MTA. disseminate best practice on
“MTA has already committed to finding $US limiting and managing the
2.8bn in savings over the next several years. No spread of coronavirus.
agency of our size can find additional billions in The task force will monitor
savings equivalent to the damages we have and developments related to
will sustain as a result of this pandemic. This is a coronavirus, work with other
national disaster that requires a national response.” international organisations
California’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) and health authorities,
metro network is in a similar situation and is exchange current best practice
requesting financial support. Ridership dropped and solutions, and issue
by 70% on March 16 and 85% the following day. potential measures for
“That level of decline will cost Bart a revenue railways to adopt according to
loss of approximately $US 37m per month,” Bart the relevant risk level.

Saudi Arabia
we provide these essential services. We project said. “A sustained ridership loss of 85% and a
the full impact will be more than $US 4bn by the 50% reduction in economic activity impacting
end of 2020 - even without accounting for the other revenue sources could reduce Bart’s All public transport services

Coronavirus forces postponement of rail events

expected collapse of the more than $US 6bn in monthly revenues by $US 55m.” were shut down on March 21

M
OST rail exhibitions and
conferences during the
next few months have been
postponed until later this year or
13-15 until October 5-7
= Rail Live Conference &
Exhibition in Madrid postponed
from March 31-April 1 to
for 14 days in a bid to halt the
spread of the coronavirus. All
passenger trains services were
= Infrarail Exhibition in halted between Riyadh and
London on May 12-14 Damman, on the North-South
= UIC Asia-Pacific Conference Railway, and on the Haramain
on Digital in Perth, Australia high-speed line.

2021 due to travel restrictions
imposed to combat the
coronavirus pandemic.
The following events have
been postponed and new dates
confirmed:
= UITP/MENA Transport
Congress and Exhibition in
Dubai postponed from April
November 30-December 2
= IT-Trans exhibition and
conference organised by the
UITP in Karlsruhe, Germany,
postponed from March 3-5
until December 1-3
The following events have
been postponed, with new
dates yet to be confirmed:
Ukraine
on May 14-15
= UIC Global Rail Freight
Conference, in Riga, Latvia, on All domestic passenger rail
June 2-4, and services, together with the
= UIC World Congress on
metro networks in Kiev,
high-speed rail in Beijing on Dnipro and Kharkiv, were
June 30-July 3. suspended on March 18 until
For more information see p36 or further notice. IRJ
the IRJ website.

IRJ April 2020 7

 News | headlines
European Commission proposes 2021 as the year of rail
T Dresden - Prague
HE European Commission
(EC) has proposed
designating 2021 as the
‘European Year of Rail,’ to
support the delivery of the
European Green Deal’s objectives
for transport.
If approved by the European
Parliament, a series of events,
campaigns and initiatives will
take place throughout the year
to promote rail as a sustainable,
innovative and safe mode of
transport. The year will also
highlight rail’s benefits for people,
the economy and the climate
CN recalls staff to restart rail services in eastern Canada
C
N began to recall most of
its employees in eastern
Canada at the start of March
who were laid off temporarily
as a result of blockades of its
rail network by indigenous
people protesting against the
construction of a pipeline in
British Columbia.
CN says there were no
significant illegal blockades on
its network for four days
Major landslide derails Strasbourg - Paris TGV service
A
significant landslide in a
cutting on the Strasbourg -
Paris high-speed line derailed
a TGV service carrying 300
passengers on March 5,
injuring three people.
The train remained upright
during the incident, with the
power car coming to rest on
the opposite track. French
National Railways (SNCF) says
8 IRJ April 2020
and focus on the remaining
challenges to create a true
borderless Single European
Rail Area.
“There’s no doubt that
railway transport means huge
benefits in most areas: safety,
sustainability, even speed, once
it’s organised and engineered
according to 21st century
principles,” says the EC’s
transport commissioner, Ms
Adina Valean. “Setting up a
coherent and functional
network across all Europe is an
exercise in political cohesion.
before it began recalling staff
and believed the situation was
stabilising. “While we are
keeping a close watch on our
network for any further
disruptions, we are mobilising
our employees to be ready to
implement a focused and
methodical recovery plan for
our eastern network,” CN’s
president and CEO, Mr J J
Ruest said at the time. “The
the driver, who was seriously
injured in the accident, was
airlifted to hospital by helicopter.
The power car suffered damage
from the impact of the landslide.
The accident occurred at
Ingenheim, about 30km
northwest of Strasbourg.
SNCF says the on board
safety devices designed to
ensure passenger safety
The European Year of Rail is
not a random event. It comes
at an appropriate time, when
the EU needs this kind of
collective undertaking.”
The European Year of Rail in
2021 will help to step up the
pace of rail modernisation, the
EC says, which is needed to
make railway transport a more
popular alternative to less
sustainable transport modes.
The proposal coincided with
the unveiling of The European
Climate Law, which targets
becoming climate neutral by 2050.
complete network recovery
process will take several
weeks.”
The blockades, which
started in mid-February,
caused CN to shutdown parts
of its network. More than 1400
trains, including most of Via
Rail’s passenger trains were
delayed or cancelled as freight
trains were forced to park
along the network.
Photo: David Gubler
worked perfectly. SNCF said it
“salutes the professionalism of
its personnel on board,” and
was prioritising getting the
remaining passengers to their
destinations as soon as possible.
SNCF has launched an
internal investigation, and the
Public Railway Safety
Establishment has been
notified.
Agreement for
HS line signed
G
ERMANY and the Czech
Republic have reached an
agreement to construct a high-
speed line, including a 25km
tunnel, between the German
city of Dresden and the Czech
capital of Prague.
The new line, which will
form part of the European
Union’s Ten-T network, will
offer a faster, more direct
connection between Prague,
Dresden and Berlin. Current
Prague - Dresden journey times
will be reduced from 2h 15min
to 1 hour, while the Prague -
Berlin travel time will be cut
from 4h 30min to 2h 3min.
A new line between
Heidenau, south of Dresden,
and Ústí nad Labem in the
Czech Republic will form the
core of the project, requiring a
cross-border tunnel under the
Erzgebirge Mountains that
will be at least 25km long.
The new line will also enhance
freight capacity on the most
important rail border crossing
Port of Hamburg
between the two countries.
rail freight flows
jump 10% in 2019
R AIL freight passing through
the Port of Hamburg jumped
10.4% to 2.7 million twenty-
foot equivalent units (TEU) in
2019, a new record for the port.
The port’s internal railway
moved 62,000 freight trains
with around 1.7 million box
wagons, carrying a total of
48.2 million tonnes of freight,
up 3%. Rail carried 49.4% of
the 97.5 million tonnes of
freight that travelled to and
from inland destinations, with
road carrying 41.4% and
inland waterways 9.2%.
Seaborne cargo throughput
increased 1.1% to 136.6 million
tonnes. The port handled 2.6
million TEU originating in or
heading to China in 2019, a
1.7% increase, making the
country the port’s most
important partner.
For 2020, HHM anticipates a
stable result for container
traffic and a slight increase in
bulk freight handling.

SBB ICN fleet set for SFr 400m upgrade
S
WISS Federal Railways (SBB)
has announced a SFr 400m
($US 408m) plan to modernise
44 inter-city tilting trains (ICN)
at its Yverdon-les-Bains facility
between 2021 and 2029.
The project, which SBB says
is the largest vehicle
modernisation in the history of
JR East to introduce wireless train control
its long-distance service, will
E
AST Japan Railway (JR
East) plans to introduce a
wireless train control system
using advanced technologies
such as ICT on the Koumi Line
on April 20.
With the current block
signalling system on the 79km
Kobuchizawa – Komoro line,
the driver controls the lineside
signals using switches installed
in the train while the train
control system is based on
trackside cables.
The current system transmits
information such as emergency
Controversy builds over Indian standard-gauge project
brake information according to
D
OUBTS have emerged over
plans to build a 577km
standard-gauge 200km/h
mainline in the southern
Indian state of Kerala
following discrepancies in two
back-to-back preliminary
survey reports submitted by
Systra, France in 2019.
The new line will connect
the state capital of
Thiruvananthapuram with
Kasaragod. The first report
submitted on March 20 2019
estimates the project’s cost at
IRJ April 2020
include a completely new
interior design to improve
mobile phone reception and a
new passenger information
system.
The trains were purchased
between 1999 and 2005 and
have travelled an average of 6
million km. The renewal will
prepare them for another 20
the signal conditions from the
ground mounted equipment.
With the new system, the train
creates a speed check pattern
by transmitting the signal
conditions wirelessly. The train
constantly checks its own
speed, and if it exceeds the
speed limit on a particular
section of track, the train
brakes automatically.
The new system employs
devices that automatically
control signals based on train
schedules. This makes it
possible to manage train
operation using commands
Rs 710bn ($US 9.8bn), while a
second report, submitted on
May 15 2019, revised this to Rs
564bn. The first report also
offered an estimated ridership
of 37,750 in 2024. However,
this increased to 67,740 in the
second report.
“Figures have been
arbitrarily changed in order to
justify the project,” Mr Alok
Kumar Verma, lead engineer
for the first study, told IRJ.
According to Verma, the
project in its current format “is
years of operation.
The project includes
installing revised lighting, new
upholstery and seat covers,
new carpets and side wall
tables with integrated power
sockets, an upgraded
restaurant and redesigned
family zone and new tables in
business class.
and improve operating
flexibility.
The new wireless train
control system will allow the
train and the ground equipment
to perform two-way wireless
communication, making it
possible to reduce the amount
of trackside equipment needed
and consolidate the
interlockings installed at each
station into one location. JR
East expects this to improve
the functioning of the block
signalling and train control
systems, and thereby improve
safety and reliability.
economically unviable,” as it is
being proposed as a 1435mm
gauge line isolated from the
1668mm gauge used in India.
While the head of Systra
South India, Mr Praveen Goel,
refused to comment, Mr Ajith
Kumar, managing director of
the Kerala Rail Development
Corporation Limited (KRDCL),
said the issues would be
resolved following the
submission of a detailed
project report, which was due
in March.
In brief
Austria
Alstom has won a contract
from Austrian Federal
Railways (ÖBB), which called
for the hire of two hydrogen-
powered multiple units. This
follows the use of an iLint by
ÖBB for a short test run in
December 2019.
Britain
East West Railway has
published a prior information
notice to find specialist partners
to help deliver the East-West
Rail project to connect Oxford
and Cambridge. The notice
follows the approval of the
preferred route option for the
Bedford - Cambridge section,
and a transport works order
for the section linking Oxford
and Aylesbury to Milton
Keynes and Bedford.
= Prince Charles officially
opened CAF’s new digital
train manufacturing plant in
Newport, Wales, on February
21. CAF says the É40m plant
is designed as a pilot project to
test its concept of a digital
factory focussed on a
connected workforce.
Finland
Hitachi has been awarded a
contract to install ERTMS on
60 diesel locomotives which
Stadler Rail Valencia is
supplying to VR Group. The
contract includes installation
of both ERTMS Baseline 3.6
and the Finnish Specific
Transmission Modules system.
Germany
Despite significant disruption
to logistics caused by the
coronavirus epidemic in
China, the third of four 750kW
diesel-battery hybrid
locomotives built by CRRC
Zhuzhou Locomotive for
German Rail (DB) arrived in
Germany in early March. The
unit arrived by ship at
Hamburg docks and was then
moved by rail to the DB site at
Minden on March 3.
Hungary
MÁV-Start introduced the first
of 40 new six-car double-deck
Kiss EMUs on the Budapest
Nyugati - Cegléd - Szolnok
line on March 15. The new
fleet is also expected to be
introduced on the Budapest
9
 News | headlines
Northern franchise enters public ownership
T
HE British government’s
operator of last resort
(OLR) took over operation of
the Northern franchise on
March 1, after secretary of state
for transport, Mr Grant
Shapps, transferred control
from Arriva Rail North.
Mr Nick Donovan has been
appointed as the new
managing director of the OLR
which is trading as Northern
Trains Limited, and a panel has
been set up to provide ongoing
advise on how services will be
run. Donovan is the
independent chair of the
Proof of concept for FRMCS radio frequency completed
N
OKIA and Swiss Federal
Railways (SBB) have
completed a proof of concept
trial to help define the radio
frequency for the new Future
Railway Mobile Communication
System (FRMCS) under
development by the International
Union of Railways (UIC) as a
replacement for GSM-R.
Nokia says it conducted LTE
1900MHz Time Division
Duplex (TDD) radio frequency
testing with SBB in the Swiss
cantons of Fribourg and
Neuchâtel. Nokia deployed
remote radio heads with tests
10
Network Performance Board
and led TransPennine Express
(TPE) from 2011 to 2015.
The new advisory panel will
be led by OLR chairman, Mr
Richard George, and will
include political leaders such
as the mayor of Greater
Manchester, Mr Andy Burnham,
and the leader of Leeds City
Council, Ms Judith Blake,
along with regional leaders,
passenger representatives and
industry leaders.
Northern Trains will initially
focus on reducing
overcrowding, with new
using rolling stock specially
equipped with measurement
instruments.
The UIC wants to launch
FRMCS in 2025. FRMCS is
designed to be much more
than a communications system
as it will be based on 5G
technology, which will provide
a huge increase in capacity to
offer new services in addition
to enhanced safety and
security, and improved rail
network performance and
reliability. FRMCS is seen as a
game-changer for ERTMS and
railway digitalisation.
technology being trialled to
identify crowding pinch
points. Work is underway to
extend platforms at 30 stations
to allow the operation of
longer trains.
Northern is the second
franchise to be placed under an
OLR in as many years,
following LNER in June 2018.
Arriva Rail North was
awarded a nine-year contract
to operate the franchise in
2015, with services getting
underway on April 1 2016.
However, it suffered from poor
performance throughout 2019.
“This proof of concept
project is a major contribution
to delivering FRMCS as an
essential enabler for Smartrail
4.0, which is an industry-wide
initiative to prepare Swiss
railways to modernise the rail
system,” says Mr Robert
Badertscher, SBB’s head of
connectivity for Smartrail 4.0.
“The result sets an important
direction in terms of FRMCS
frequencies for the industry
programme’s goal to exploit
the potential of new, emerging
technologies for the railways of
the future.”
Ankara - Sivas
high-speed line
testing begins
T URKISH State Railways
(TCDD) completed the first
tests on the Ankara - Sivas
high-speed line on March 5,
with the 393km line expected
to be completed in the second
quarter of 2020.
Minister of transport and
infrastructure, Mr Mehmet
Cahit Turhan, was present for
the test between Km 90 and
104 in Kirikkale region, along
with deputy minister of
transport and infrastructure,
Mr Adil Karaismailoglu,
Kirikkale governor, Mr Yunus
Sezer, TCDD general manager,
Mr Ali Ihsan Uygun, TCDD
Tasimacilik general manager,
Mr Kamuran Yazici, and other
officials.
Testing has begun on the
central Büseyh - Yerköy -
Akdagmadeni section of the
Lira 9.749bn ($US 1.59bn) line,
which will reduce travel time
between Ankara and Sivas
from 12 hours to two hours.
JR East opens
Takanawa
Gateway station
E
AST Japan Railway (JR
East) opened Takanawa
Gateway station on its busy
Yamanote Line in Tokyo on
March 14.
The multi-level station has
two island platforms, one for
Yamanote Line trains and the
other for Keihin Tohoku Line
services. Takanawa Gateway is
expected to handle 23,000
passengers per day, rising to
123,000 by 2024.
The station has a large glass
roof reminiscent of a shoji with
origami motifs. The new station
is located on the site of a former
depot and is where the first
railway opened in Japan in 1905.
Takanawa Gateway has
several environmentally
friendly features including
solar panels, small wind
power generators and LED
lighting. The new station will
have several technical
innovations including robots
to provide passenger information
and guidance, and enhanced
security.
IRJ April 2020

Testing of Switzerland’s Ceneri Base Tunnel set to begin
S
WISS Federal Railways
(SBB) commissioned ETCS
Level 2 in the Ceneri Base
Tunnel on the night of
February 29 ahead of the start
of line testing by Alp Transit
Gotthard, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of SBB and the
developer of the 15.4km
tunnel, the following day.
SBB activated the Ceneri
Base Tunnel’s ETCS control
centres at Vigana in the north
and Vezia in the south and
began the migration from
Norfolk Southern debuts locomotive-mounted
lineside signalling to the ETCS
autonomous track inspection system
U
NITED States class 1
railway Norfolk Southern
(NS) has developed and
deployed a locomotive-
mounted autonomous track
geometry measurement
system, which the railway says
will enhance safety and
operating efficiency.
Commercially available
autonomous track-inspection
systems are typically installed
on converted freight wagons or
passenger coaches, requiring
an external power source and
occupying space that could be
used for revenue-producing
freight.
NS worked with companies
within the defence industry to
identify commercially available
components to build the
system, which consists of
lasers, gyros, accelerometers,
and GPS sensors. The system
can detect defects or anomalies
Attorney general to investigate Banedanmark bribery claims
in track geometry, including
D
ANISH infrastructure
manager Banedanmark
has asked the country’s
attorney general to launch an
investigation into potential
bribery following an internal
review of thousands of emails.
One member of staff and a
contractor have also been
referred to police for alleged
bribery.
The alleged malpractice took
place during “critical situations,”
including helping a contractor
to prepare a tender for a
contract, invitations to parties
and events, and DKr 4000 ($US
IRJ April 2020
Level 2 in-cab system for the
Taverne - Vezia - Lugano
section of the Bellinzona -
Lugano line.
Thales installed ETCS Level
2 under a É57m contract
awarded in 2016 with the
supplier also responsible for
project management and
integration of train command
and control systems.
SBB secured authorisation to
activate ETCS Level 2 in the
tunnel from Switzerland’s
Federal Office of Transport
(BAV). The commissioning
track gauge, and track
elevation and curvature.
Inspection data is transmitted
wirelessly to office locations,
where track geometry
engineers confirm potential
defects and notify track
maintenance staff.
The system, developed by
NS’ track inspection group,
provides a robust and cost-
611.39) in sponsorship for a
private football club. Both the
employee who accepted the
sponsorship and the contractor
who offered it have been
reported to the police.
The internal investigation
was launched in 2018
following an inquiry from the
Cfsmjohtlf newspaper, which
alleged bribery, misuse and
theft by 23 current and former
employees. Banedanmark
recovered more than 600,000
emails sent between 2011 and
2018, including some that had
been deleted, but says it was
process will involve 140
employees and take place in
several stages.
Alp Transit Gotthard has also
secured approval from BAV to
activate the traction system to
commence line testing, which
will continue until the end of
August at which point the tunnel
will be handed over to SBB.
SBB says ETCS Level 2 will
support the operation of four
freight trains and six passenger
trains through the tunnel per
hour when it opens for traffic
on December 12-13.
effective way to continuously
monitor track performance in
near real-time. The technology
is mounted in a ruggedised
box under a six-axle
locomotive between the
snowplough and the first set of
wheels. The computer
powering the system is housed
inside the electrical locker in
the locomotive cab.
not technically possible to
recover additional emails sent
before this period.
Banedanmark says that the
information uncovered during
the review was “of such a
serious nature” that it decided
to request an external
investigation.
“We really do not know the
extent of these problematic
matters, and so we have asked
the attorney general to help us
turn every stone so that we can
seriously get to the bottom of
the case,” says Banedanmark
CEO, Mr Peter Jonasson.
In brief
Nyugati - Vác - Szob line at
the end of April.
International
Croatia and Slovenia have
signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) worth
É2.8m to improve rail services
between the two countries as
part of the European Connect2CE
project. The agreement outlines
guidelines and measures to
improve the services.
Latvia
The Ministry of Transport has
appointed a team led by RB
Rail to conduct a four-month
study of how to integrate Rail
Baltica with the conventional
rail network in Riga. The study
will produce an operational
analysis of the Riga rail network
up to 2026, 2036 and 2046.
Norway
Infrastructure manager Bane
Nor has allocated NKr 7.2bn
($US 629.7m) to undertake
infrastructure upgrades and
maintenance on the national
network in 2020. This includes
major projects on the Nordlands,
Kongsvinger, Bergens, Sørlands
and Østfold lines, as well as
on the Oslo - Drammen line
and other parts of the network
surrounding Oslo.
Sweden
Infrastructure manager
Trafikverket has awarded
Jacobs a framework contract to
provide strategic consultancy
services for three new high-
speed lines along the
Stockholm - Malmö and
Stockholm - Gothenburg
routes. The initial stage of the
project will see the
construction of the 150km
Järna - Linköping, 60km
Gothenburg - Borås and 70km
Hässleholm - Lund lines.
United States
California High-Speed Rail
Authority (CHSRA) has
opened its draft environmental
document for the 129km
extension from Bakersfield to
Palmdale to public scrutiny.
CHSRA says the release of the
document means that it is on
track to complete
environmental clearance for
the full Phase 1 system by the
federally-mandated 2022
deadline. IRJ
11
April News online_Layout 1 23/03/2020 17:22 Page 10
News | headlines
SNCF wants London - Bordeaux by 2022
Photo: Keith Fender
L
ONDON St Pancras
International and Bordeaux
St Jean stations were formally
“twinned” in a ceremony held
at St Pancras on March 5 as
French National Railways
(SNCF) targets the introduction
Texas Central unveils interior layout for high-speed fleet
of a service between the two
T
EXAS Central has released
details of the interior layout
specifications of the fleet that
will operate on the planned
390km, 320km/h Dallas -
Houston high-speed line.
The trains will feature 2+2
seating in standard class and
2+1 seating in first class, along
with 81cm-wide aisles and
audio and visual passenger
information. The backs of each
seat will be 104cm apart, with
South Africa suspends long-distance
each 50cm-wide seat able to
passenger services after accident
S OUTH Africa’s Railway
Safety Regulator (RSR) has
issued passenger rail operator
Prasa with a prohibition
directive preventing it from
operating long-distance
Shozaloza Meyl trains with
immediate effect.
This follows the completion
of RSR’s preliminary
investigation into a collision
between a Prasa train and a
freight train at Horison to the
west of Johannesburg on
February 12, which resulted in
one death and several injuries.
According to South Africa’s
United National Transport
Union, the preliminary
investigation confirms that two
trains were manually
authorised onto the section
and that the Prasa train was
11a
cities by 2022.
The ceremony was attended
by Britain’s rail minister, Mr
Chris Heaton-Harris, president
of SNCF International Mr Diego
Diaz and HS1 CEO, Ms Dyan
Crowther. Diaz revealed
SNCF’s aspiration, which is
recline. The windows will be
50cm-wide and 52cm-high, and
will be equipped with
individual blinds and double-
glazed UV safety glass. Wi-Fi
will also be available.
The fleet will meet
Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) standards, with
areas for wheelchairs and
attendant seating and barrier
free access down the length of
the train. The toilets will be
ADA accessible, and station
travelling at 60km/h at the
time of impact.
“This exceeds the 30km/h
speed restriction imposed on a
line that is operated under
manual authorisation,” RSR
spokesperson Madelein
Williams was reported as
saying by Ofxt!35.
“Furthermore, the inquiry
indicates that both trains were
manually authorised by the
Maraisburg Central Traffic
Control Centre and the
authorities for both the goods
and passenger trains were not
countersigned by the section
manager. The latter is a serious
contravention of a special
condition that was issued to
Prasa by the RSR upon the
issuing of the current
temporary operating permit.”
significant because SNCF is the
majority owner of the sole
operator, Eurostar, to have the
trains and operating licenses
for such a service.
Diaz explained that the
twinning will facilitate teams
from both stations to exchange
ideas and best practice on
practical topics ranging from
technology to security and
protection of heritage as both
stations are listed buildings. In
addition, experience from St
Pancras will help Bordeaux St
Jean deal with necessary
security and immigration
controls.
Teams from St Pancras and
Bordeaux will collaborate on
topics ranging from security to
technology and protection of
heritage.
platforms will have no-step
entry to the train.
Renfe, which was selected
alongside Adif as a strategic
partner for the operation and
maintenance of the line in
October, has announced that
the contract will be worth $US
6bn in revenue for the Spanish
operator.
Renfe has signed a pre-
agreement, with the contract
that will run until 2042
CZ Loko unveils new diesel-electric
currently being drafted.
hybrid locomotive range
C ZECH locomotive
manufacturer CZ Loko is
planning to introduce three
new hybrid locomotives called
DualShunter 2000, EffiLiner
2000 and DualLiner 2000.
The new range of
locomotives is based on CZ
Loko’s HybridShunter 400,
which uses battery power but
has a CAT C4.4 backup diesel
engine with an output of
about 130kW. An eight-hour
battery charge produces
sufficient power for 16 hours
of operation. Trial operation
with a prototype locomotive
will begin this year.
The 80-tonne DualShunter
2000 electro-diesel locomotive
will have an output of around
2MW and will be based on the
EffiShunter 1000, the first CZ
Lineas CEO calls
for urgent shift of
freight to rail
T
HE CEO of Belgian rail
freight operator Lineas,
Mr Geert Pauwels, called on
decision-makers within and
outside the rail industry to
unite behind a modal shift of
freight to rail during a speech
at the 13th annual European
Railway Award in Brussels on
February 18, where he was
presented with the 2020
European Railway Award.
“The time is now,” Pauwels
said. “We have 10 years to
drastically shift to sustainable
transport and keep our climate
targets achievable. Let’s seize
the opportunity with the
Green Deal to create the right
context for modal shift. Let’s
reinvent rail and again
challenge the status quo of
how we do transport.
“We need everyone present
here to unite behind this single
purpose of modal shift... By
2030, I hope to see that rail has
become the backbone of the
European transport system.”
The jury lauded Pauwels
successfully transforming a
loss-making division of
Belgian National Railways
(SNCB) into the largest private
rail freight company in
Europe, and for the launch of
the Green Xpress Network.
Loko locomotive to meet
European Union TSI standards.
The locomotive will still have
a diesel engine, but there will
also be a pantograph and
traction equipment for
operation on electrified lines.
The EffiLiner 2000 will have
an output of nearly 2MW. The
Bo-Bo diesel-electric
locomotive will have a battery
with an equivalent output of
400kW.
The 80-tonne DualLiner
2000 hybrid locomotive will be
able to operate on lines
electrified at 3kV dc and 25kV
50Hz ac and will have a diesel
engine. The locomotive will
have the same output of 2MW
and 120km/h maximum speed
whether operating in electric
or diesel mode.
IRJ April 2020
April News online_Layout 1 23/03/2020 17:22 Page 11

In brief

NZ proposes improved Auckland - Hamilton services Britain

N The Te Huia commuter service will have a Bombardier’s Aventra class

EW Zealand’s Ministry of Transport has
journey time of 2h 20min, but Tuvgg reports the 710/1 EMU fleet supplied to
announced it is investigating ways to
government has approved an initial business Transport for London (TfL)
introduce “rapid rail” between Auckland and
case, due mid-year, for a rapid rail service to has been approved to operate
Hamilton, potentially reducing travel times to
reduce this to just 60 minutes. A detailed in multiple, after software
an hour.
business case will be required after that. issues restricted the full
The announcement came as minister of
The commuter service will have two trains introduction of the fleet. The
transport, Mr Phil Twyford, confirmed the new
traveling from Hamilton - Auckland in the approval allowed the first 710
Hamilton - Auckland commuter service will
morning, both returning in the evening. A single to operate on Overground West
launch on August 3, two months later than
return service will operate on Saturdays. Anglia (London Liverpool

Work on final section of German freight line upgrade begins

initially planned.
Street - Chingford/Cheshunt)

A
services on March 3.

ceremony was held on
February 28 to mark the
start of work to electrify and
track double the 9km Oldenburg
- Rastede section of the 70km
Oldenburg - Wilhelmshaven
line, the final phase of a project
to improve rail freight
connections to Germany’s
JadeWeserPort at Wilhelmshaven
pads along the section, which
is intended to improve
conditions for residents, as
well as track renewal and
upgrades to signalling and
control systems. A busy level
crossing at Alexanderstrasse
will also be replaced with a
bridge while 2000 houses along
the route will receive
with electric passenger services
running at 30-minute intervals
on the route. JadeWeserPort is
Germany’s only deep sea port
with a rail connection.
The complete project is
financed by the German
federal government, DB and
the European Union through
the Connecting Europe Facility.
Czech Republic
Czech Railways (CD) and the
Olomouc region have begun
operating two class 646 DMUs,
which were purchased from
DB Regio, on the non-electrified
Olomouc - Drahanovice line.
The trains were previously
used to operate RE 6 ‘Qsjhoju{
Fyqsftt’ services near Berlin.

on the North Sea coast.
The project includes the
installation of 16km of noise
barriers and under-sleeper
additional soundproofing.
Trains will operate at up to
120km/h once the project is
completed at the end of 2022
The federal government and
DB reached a É423m financing
agreement for the project in
October 2015.
International
Nomad Digital has been
awarded a multi-million-pound
contract to install Wi-Fi on the
fleet of 111 EMUs operating
across the Öresund linking
Denmark and Sweden. The
contract includes maintenance
and operation of the Wi-Fi
system.

Netherlands
Alstom has completed 10 days
of testing with its iLint
hydrogen-powered multiple
unit on the 65km Groningen -
Leeuwarden line. Performance
was comparable with the
regional DMUs currently used
on the line.

Poland
Railway authority UTK issued
an authorisation to place into
service for Newag’s E4DCU
Griffin electric locomotive on
February 24. The authorisation
came three days after Newag
delivered eight Griffin
locomotives ordered by PKP
Intercity in June 2018.

Centre-Val de Loire Region EMUs unveiled: Bombardier unveiled the first of 32 eight-car double- Sweden
deck Omneo Premium EMUs for the Centre-Val de Loire Region. The new 200km/h trains will Swedish regional public
replace a 50-year-old fleet and were ordered under a É375m option from a 2010 contract between transport operator Skånetrafiken
French National Railways (SNCF) and Bombardier. The Center-Loire Valley Region plans to has placed an order for six
deploy the new trains on Paris - Orléans - Tours, Paris - Bourges and Paris - Montargis - Nevers three-car SYS3 high-capacity
Balance of Territory (TET) inter-city services, with delivery due to conclude in 2022. The 110m- trains with Stadler on hold,
long articulated trains are unusual in that they have three standard length double-deck coaches, after Bombardier applied for a
three short coaches containing two sets of double doors per side as well as the end driving cars. review of the contract. The fleet
The driving cars also differ in that one is a double-deck vehicle with first-class seating, while the was ordered in response to
driving car at the other end of the train has limited second-class seating on one deck, with increasing demand on services
technical equipment located above. The trains will have capacity for up to 373 passengers. to and from Denmark. IRJ

IRJ April 2020 11b

 News | transit
Austin outlines $US 9.6bn transit plan, new lines
C
APITAL Metro, Austin, has
released plans for a high-
capacity transit network.
Project Connect includes a
two-line light rail network
through the city centre with a
connection to the airport, new
bus rapid transit (BRT) links and
a tunnel under the city centre.
The plan would greatly
expand the city’s existing
commuter rail line and BRT
network.
The LRT Orange Line would
Singapore outlines $US 43.5bn investment in rail to 2030
run from North Lamar Transit
S
INGAPORE is planning to
spend $S 60bn ($US 43.5bn)
to upgrade and expand its rail
network over the next decade
as part of a larger walk-cycle-
ride (WCR) transport strategy,
minister for transport, Mr
Khaw Boon Wan revealed on
March 5.
This would include
completing the Thomson-East
Coast Line (TEL). Stage 1 of
Plans for Tel Aviv network released
the project opened in January,
I SRAEL’s National Infrastructure
Committee has presented
plans for a 145km three-line
underground metro network in
Tel Aviv supplementing the
light rail network.
Planning is due to be
completed by the end of 2020
with a view to opening the
first line in 2030.
The east-west Line M2,
which will be built first, will
connect Holon and Petakh-
Tikva and the northern section
12
The plans include the new LRT Blue line, which will
connect the airport to the city centre.
Center via the University of
Texas to Lady Bird Lake and
along South Congress to
Stassney Lane. The LRT Blue
Line would run to and from
Austin-Bergstrom International
Airport along East Riverside
Drive, across Lady Bird Lake
to the Convention Center and
west along 4th Street to
Republic Square.
Both lines, totalling 48km
with 32 station, would run
along dedicated rights of way
and would be linked through a
with stage 2 following “within
the next few months.” Stage 4
of the TEL will be completed
by 2024.
Extensions to the North East
Line (NEL) and Downtown Line,
which will add four new stations
to the network, are due to be
completed by 2023 and 2024
respectively. This will be followed
by the completion of the Circle
Line between Harbour Front
and Marina Bay in 2025.
of the north-south Line M1.
Line M1 is expected to be
44km long, running from Holon
to Rehovot with 31 stations.
The semi-circular Line M3 is
expected to be 38km long,
running from Hertzliya to Bat-
Yam with 24 stations.
The project is officially
estimated to cost Shekels
155bn ($US 45.1bn), but this is
viewed as conservative, with
the cost possibly reaching
Shekels 200bn-250bn.
2.5km tunnel under the city
centre, with underground
stations including Republic
Square station. Extensions of
the Orange Line north to Tech
Ridge and south to Slaughter
Lane are envisaged.
The Project Connect plan is
estimated to cost $US 9.6bn.
Capital Metro hopes to receive
40% of this through federal
funding, with the remaining
funding raised through local
measures including additional
taxes.
The Jurong Region Line is
due to be completed by 2028,
while Phase 1 of the Cross
Island Line should be completed
the following year.
Singapore also plans to
complete the renewal of the
North-South and East-West
lines, as well as the Bukit
Panjang LRT, by around 2023.
The NEL and Sengkang
Punggol LRT will also require
Chemnitz tram-train eyes expansion
future upgrades.
M ID Saxony Transport
Authority (VMS) has
released a planning consultancy
tender to design the first 2.3km
section of the planned 17km
“Step 4” line of the Chemnitzer
Modell tram-train network.
The full line from Chemnitz
city centre to Limbach-
Oberfrohna in the northwest
will be designed and built in
five sections.
The Step 4 line will run from
the existing LRT network on
Jakarta launches
phase 2 of metro
project
M RT Jakarta has signed a
contract with the
Shimizu-Adhi Karya joint
venture (SAJV), a partnership
between Shimizu Corporation,
Japan, and Indonesian state-
owned construction company
Adhi Karya, to launch work on
phase 2 of Jakarta’s metro
network.
The Rupiah 4.5 trillion ($US
284m) contract will run from
March until December 2024.
The CP201 package 2A contract
includes the construction of
two tunnels totalling 2.8km
connecting Bundaran HI station
to Harmoni station, with two
intermediate underground
stations at Thamrin and Monas.
The first phase of the MRT
network, the 15.7km north-
south Line 1 between Hotel
Indonesia traffic island and
Lebak Bulus, was inaugurated
in March 2019.
Phase 2 of the MRT is
divided into two sections.
Phase 2A consists of a 6km
line with seven stations and is
expected to be completed in
December 2024.
Phase 2B, known as the
North-South line, will stretch
5.8km from Kota station to
Ancol with three stations.
Construction is due to begin in
2022 with completion targeted
for 2027.
“This is all part of building
integrated mass public
transport in Jakarta,” says the
governor of Jakarta Province,
Mr Anies Baswedan. “In this
phase 2, all stations will be
integrated with other modes of
public transport.”
around 12km of new double-
track.
This will connect with a
disused heavy rail line, which
will be reopened for the final
5km section between
Wittgensdorf and Limbach-
Oberfrohna.
The entire project is expected
to be completed by 2030 at a
cost of around É120m with
sections designed and built
concurrently from 2025
onwards.
IRJ April 2020

MTA reveals 2020-24 Capital Plan
projects set to launch this year
N
EW York’s Metropolitan
Transportation Authority
(MTA) outlined some of the
core projects set to commence
in 2020 as part of its $US
54.8bn 2020-2024 Capital
Programme on February 27.
The projects will address
critical areas such as
accessibility, resignalling and
system expansion. The new
MTA Construction &
Development department will
lead the implementation of
these projects and will adopt a
new approach, which will
include bundling work,
streamlining project management,
and simplifying designs.
Contracts were awarded in
January to install CBTC on the
Eighth Avenue A, C, E line.
The 2020-2024 Capital
Programme includes funding
The projects cover accessibility, resignalling and system expansion.
Tenders issued for technical advisors
to support Ontario metro projects
I
NFRASTRUCTURE Ontario
(IO) has launched a number
of tenders to further progress
on four metro expansion
projects across Toronto
announced in April 2019.
The four metro projects
comprise the:
= $C 10.9bn ($US 7.5bn)
Ontario Line (OL)
= $C 5.5bn Scarborough
Subway Extension (SSE)
= $C 5.6bn Yonge North
Subway Extension (YNSE), and
= $C 4.7bn Eglinton
Crosstown West Extension
(ECWE).
A request for proposals
(RFP) has been issued for a
Program Controls Services
IRJ April 2020
In brief
Bordeaux
A 5.5km extension to light rail
Line D from Mairie du Bouscat
northwest to Eysines Cantinolle
for additional infrastructure
opened on February 29. This
improvements along this has extended the four-line
corridor that will be network to 77km, 35km of
coordinated with the signalling
which is equipped with
upgrades to further improve
ground power supply.
Budapest
service reliability.
This year, MTA will award
contracts to improve accessibility Budapest Development Centre
at 25 stations across the network, (BKF) has launched three
in line with the Americans planning tenders for the first
with Disabilities Act (ADA).
phase of metro Line M5. The
Meanwhile, New York City project will link three suburban
Transit has issued a request for lines to enable trains to run
proposals (RFP) for up to 949 from Szentendre in the north
metro cars equipped with to Csepel and Ráckeve in the
CBTC to replace the ageing south.
R62 and R62A fleet, which = MAV says night services,
entered service in the 1980s. which began operating
The new fleet, which will between 00.00 and 04.00 in
operate on the 1-7 lines and October on two suburban
the 42nd street shuttle, will be lines, followed by a third line
designed to improve passenger in December, have proved
flow, decrease dwell times at popular. MAV plans to
stations and increase capacity. introduce night services on
more lines later this year.
Calgary
Photo: MTA/Marc A. Hermann
Siemens has won an order to
supply another 15 “Mask” S200
LRVs to replace the Siemens
U2 vehicles that have been in
service for almost 40 years.
The high-floor LRVs have a
maximum speed of 80km/h
and space for 247 passengers.
Dublin
Transport Infrastructure
Ireland has appointed SNC-
Lavalin Rail & Transit, Britain,
as operations advisor for
Metrolink, a planned north-
south automatic metro line.
The 19km line will run from
Swords via Dublin Airport to
Consultant (PCSC) for the Charlemont and will have 15
metro expansion programme, stations. The line is expected
to open in 2027.
Genoa
which will provide overall
project control services and
oversee the schedule, risk
management and cost Italferr, Italy, has won a design
contract for a new 2.3km
estimation for the programme.
monorail to connect Erzelli
The PCSC contract is expected
with Technological Park, the
to be awarded in spring 2020.
future site of a university
IO and Metrolinx last month
campus, hospital and residential
selected a consortium led by
development. An extension to
HDR as technical advisors for
Cristoforo Colombo Airport is
the 16km underground OL
proposed.
Konya
metro project. The line will run
from Ontario Place/Exhibition
Place through central Toronto
A 26km north-south suburban
to the Ontario Science Centre,
line, following the alignment
with 15 stations.
of an existing railway and
The YNSE will extend Line 1
built to metro standards, has
from Finch to Richmond Hill.
been approved. The project
will be implemented in two
phases, starting with the
17.4km central section linking
the airport with the city centre.
Lund
The opening date for the city’s
first LRT line has been postponed
until December 13 due to delays
with maintenance depot
construction. The 5.5km line
will run from Lund Central
station to the ESS research
facility in Brunnshög.
Paris
RATP has started test running
on the northern extension to
metro Line 14. The 6.4km
underground section runs from
St Lazare to Mairie de Saint-
Ouen with three intermediate
stations.
= Société du Grand Paris (SGP)
has appointed a consortium of
Nokia and Engie Solutions to
install an industrial grade LTE
private wireless network for
ATO on lines 15, 16 and 17 of
the future Grand Paris Express
metro network. The system
will provide critical, high-
speed 4G broadband wireless
connectivity.
Singapore
Land Transport Authority
(LTA) has awarded three civil
engineering contracts worth a
combined $S 596m ($US 411m)
for the design and
construction of four Jurong
Region Line stations and
associated viaducts.
= LTA has announced the
alignment and station
locations for the Punggol
branch of the 50km Cross
Island Line. The 7.3km
Punggol branch will have four
stations, three of which will be
interchanges.
Sydney
Six companies have been
shortlisted to bid for tenders to
upgrade nine stations to metro
standards along the T3
Bankstown suburban line
between Bankstown and
Sydenham as part of the
Western Sydney Metro line.
= Turner & Townsend has won
a contract to provide project
management services for the
Sydney Metro West project
connecting Greater Parramatta
with the city centre. IRJ
13
 News | financial
EC orders CFR
Marfa to repay
illegal state aid
A N investigation by the
European Commission
(EC) has found that Romanian
state-owned freight operator
CFR Marfa received É570m in
illegal state aid, comprising a
debt write-off and failure to
collect debts from the operator,
beginning in 2010. CFR Marfa

First French regional rail concession tenders launched

must now pay this amount
back to the government, with

P
ROVENCE-Alpes Côte
d’Azur is the first region in
France to launch a competition
for 10-year concessions to
operate TER regional rail
services.
Bids were invited by March
31 to operate the Marseille -
Toulon - Nice TER service and
area, together representing
33% of TER services in the
region. Both are operated by
French National Railways
(SNCF) which currently has a
monopoly of passenger rail
services in France apart from a
handful of cross-border long-
distance services.
concession has an estimated
value of É870m and the
regional government hopes to
award the contract in summer
2021 with the new operator
taking over the service in
summer 2025. The winner will
be required to procure its own
trains and build a maintenance
interest.
The EC launched an
investigation in 2017 into
whether measures taken in
favour of CFR Marfa, which
had been in financial
difficulties since 2009, were in
line with the EU state aid rules.
The investigation found a
debt-to-equity swap
amounting to about É363m in

Coronavirus and riots compound fall in MTR profits

the Azur network in the Nice The Marseille - Toulon - Nice depot in Nice. 2013, and a failure to collect

T
HE combined effects of the coronavirus
epidemic and the aftermath of the riots in
Hong Kong reduced MTR Corporation’s profit
by $HK 1.3bn ($US 167.3m) in the first two
months of this year, the company’s unaudited
results for the period show.
This follows a 25% decrease in profit last year
revealed in the company’s audited results for
2019 published on March 5, from $HK 16bn in
2018 to $HK 11.9bn in 2019.
Excluding the adverse impacts of public order
events in Hong Kong along with provisions for
the troubled Shatin - Central Link (SCL) project
in Hong Kong and the poor performance of the
South Western Railway franchise in Britain,
MTR says recurrent and underlying business
social security debts and
outstanding taxes from CFR
Marfa, as well as debts towards
profits would have increased by 7.7% and 35.8% state owned infrastructure
respectively. manager CFR Infrastructure,
MTR has recommended a final ordinary since at least 2010.
dividend of $HK 0.98 per share, with a total The EC found that the
ordinary dividend for the year of $HK 1.23 per government’s actions enforcing
share, representing a 2.5% increase. CFR Marfa’s social security
Total revenue increased by 1.1%, from $HK debts and outstanding taxes
53.93bn in 2018 to $HK 54.5bn in 2019. towards the state budget
Operating revenue increased by 2.3%, mainly conformed with market
due to the full year impact of the new high- regulations.
speed line between Hong Kong and mainland However, regarding the
China, which opened in September 2018. This other measures identified, the
offset the adverse impact from the civil unrest. EC found that the government
Total passenger traffic dropped 6.4%, with a acted in its capacity as a public
2.5% increase in the first half of 2019 and a authority rather than a
14.8% decrease in the second half.

Strikes cut RATP operating profit SBB passenger numbers up in 2019

shareholder of the company.

S TRIKES across Paris at the

end of December shaved
É150m off Paris Transport
Authority’s (RATP) operating
profit last year, the company’s
annual results show, causing
Ebit to drop 29.2% from
É451m in 2018 to É319m in
2019. Revenue increased 2.5%
from É5.56bn to É5.7bn over
the same period.
Excluding the effects of the
strikes, which began on
December 5, Ebit would have
increased 4% to É469m while
revenue would have increased
by 5.9% to É5.8bn.
Recurring Ebit was stable,
dropping from É476m to É469m.
Profit attributable to the group
was down 34.6%, from É200m
to É131m, while recurring
profit attributable to the group
was up 7.2% from É290m to
É310m. Debt dropped slightly
from É5.188bn to É5.182bn.
RATP’s turnover was
É4.4bn. Passenger ridership in
the Île-de-France region
increased by 2.6% excluding
the effects of the strikes.
Growth was primarily on the
light rail network (up 12.6%),
supported by the opening of
the T3b extension to Porte
d’Asnières in November 2018,
followed by rail (up 3.7%) and
RER (up 1.6%).
S WISS Federal Railways
(SBB) carried 1.3 million
passengers a day in 2019, up
6% compared with 2018, a new
record for the operator.
Overall, SBB sold 124 million
tickets during the year, up
15%, with more than half
purchased digitally for the first
time.
The railway recorded SFr
9.86bn ($US 10bn) of revenue
in 2019, up 2.3% from SFr
9.64bn in 2018. Operating
expenses increased 3.5% from
SFr 9bn to SFr 9.37bn, while
Ebit dropped 16.8% from SFr
586m to SFr 487m. SBB
recorded a group result of SFr
463m, down 18.5% from SFr
568m in 2018.
In total, 89.5% of passenger
trains (down 0.6%) arrived on
time in 2019, while passenger
satisfaction increased 0.6% to
75.5 points. SBB says there is a
need to improve the
information available in the
event of delays and faults.
The number of rail passes
increased by 2% to around half
a million, while the number of
half-fare travelcards also rose
by 5%. This means more than
3.2 million passengers hold a
half-fare card or a general
subscription - around 40% of
the Swiss population.

14 IRJ April 2020


December strikes result in SNCF loss
S
TRIKES in December 2019
by employees of French
National Railways (SNCF)
against proposed pension
reforms in France caused a
É690m drop in revenue and an
operating loss of É614m for
SNCF in 2019.
The strikes began on
December 5 and by the end of
the year SNCF had suffered 27
strike days which the national
railway says took a “heavy toll
on SNCF Group’s business and
results.”
BNSF revenues and volumes down
Despite the strikes, SNCF
B
NSF’s revenues fell by 1%
in 2019 to $US 23.52bn
compared with $US 23.86bn in
2018 with the railway
reporting a 4% decrease in unit
volumes during the year.
The United States Class 1
railway says severe winter
weather and flooding on parts
of its 52,300km network
contributed to the fall in
volumes. However, this
decline was partially offset by
a 4% increase in average
revenue per wagon/unit as a
result of increased rates and
Progress Rail to supply 38
locomotives for Etihad Rail
E
TIHAD Rail has awarded
Progress Rail a contract to
design, manufacture, test, and
deliver 38 EMD locomotives,
marking a major expansion
from the seven locomotives
currently in operation across
the United Arab Emirates
(UAE).
The new fleet will be
designed to withstand the high
temperatures and humidity of
the gulf region, and will be
equipped with a state-of-the-
IRJ April 2020
achieved a 5.1% increase in
revenue in 2019 to É35.12bn.
High-speed services, including
Eurostar and Thalys, recorded
a 4.2% increase in turnover on
a 4.1% increase in traffic, while
traffic on TER regional services
rose by more than 9%. SNCF’s
passenger subsidiary Keolis
achieved 10% revenue growth
in 2019 with an 18% jump in
international business,
particularly in Australia,
Britain and the United States
compared with just a 2% rise
in France.
the favourable outcome of an
arbitration hearing.
BNSF’s operating income for
2019 was $US 8.1bn, an increase
of $US 271m. Net income was
$US 5.48bn, a 5% increase
compared with the $US 5.22bn
reported in 2019. The railway’s
operating ratio was 64.5%,
down from 66.2% in 2018.
BNSF reported falls in
volumes in all major segments,
including consumer products
(-5%), industrial products
(-3%), agricultural products
(-5%) and coal (-5%).
art air filtration system that
filters sand from the air intake
and pulse cleaning systems,
ensuring effective and
efficient operation in desert
areas.
The 3.35MW locomotives
feature emission reduction
technology, which will reduce
carbon emissions by 70% to
80%. The locomotives are
designed to haul up to 100
wagons, replacing 5600 lorry
trips a day.
In brief
Britain
The government budget
included £20m to develop an
Outline Business Case for the
Midlands Rail Hub, a proposed
£2bn package of improvements
to increase rail capacity and
service frequency across
central England. The 78km
Tyne & Wear light metro
centred on Newcastle also
secured £103m for its Metro
Flow project.
= Jingye Group, China, has
completed the acquisition of
British Steel’s assets and pledged
to invest £1.2bn in the troubled
steel maker. The transaction
includes British Steel’s steel
works at Scunthorpe, Britain,
and British mills at Teeside
Beam Mill and Skinningrove
as well as subsidiaries FN
Steel, Netherlands, and TSP
Engineering.
Czech Republic
The European Commission
(EC) has approved a É134m
extension to the Czech
Republic’s state aid project to
support the installation of
ERTMS on rolling stock. The
scheme will see public support
provided in the form of direct
grants to fleet owners or
operators to upgrade existing
equipment.
France
Strasbourg Transport (CTS)
has ordered 17 additional
Citadis LRVs from Alstom for
É52m. The order is in addition
to the fleet of 63 LRVs delivered
by Alstom between 2003 and
International
2019.
Hamburg-based wagon
leasing and logistic company
VTG has taken a majority
share in Slovakian rail freight
operator Carbo Rail, which has
Netherlands
25 locomotives and 150 staff.
Netherlands Railways (NS)
achieved a É6.66bn turnover
in 2019, the operator’s annual
results show, up 12.4% from
É5.92 in 2018. Annual profit
was É287m, up 47% from
É195m in 2018, while net
profit was É215m, up 85%
from É116m in 2018.
Poland
Lower Silesian Railways (KD)
has announced plans to
purchase six bi-mode electro-
diesel trains - the first in
Poland - as part of a broader
fleet expansion. KD says it will
tender for 11 trains, including
six three-car bi-mode trains
and five five-car EMUs.
= Commuter rail operator
SKM has awarded Newag,
Poland, a Zlotys 667.9m ($US
173.2m) contract to supply 21
EMUs, along with seven years’
maintenance and training.
Romania
National operator CFR-AS
awarded the Asocierea
RailWorks consortium a
contract to install ERTMS and
upgrade electrification along a
section of the European Rhine-
Danube corridor in Romania.
The Leu 2.97bn ($US 691.1m)
contract is being funded by the
European Union’s Connecting
Europe Facility and the
Romanian government.
Spain
Talgo achieved a 52.8% jump
in net profit in 2019 to É40.1m
and a 23.8% increase in
turnover to É401.7m
compared with 2018. Adjusted
Ebita was É73m. New order
intake exceeded É1.1bn, the
highest since 2011.
= CAF recorded É2.56bn in
revenue in 2019, a 27%
increase from the É2bn in
revenue recorded in 2018.
Adjusted Ebitda increased
21% from É201m to É244m.
Switzerland
Matterhorn Gotthard Railway
(MGBahn) and Stadler have
signed a contract worth SFr
148.5m ($US 158.5m) for 12
three-car rack-and-pinion
EMUs. MGBahn is planning to
purchase up to 27 Orion EMUs
at a cost of more than SFr
300m by 2028, as part of the
railway’s 2030 fleet strategy.
Uruguay
Ferrocarril Central Construction
Company has awarded a joint
venture of Italian companies
Wegh Group and Diorama a
É35m contract to supply
sleepers to support the
rehabilitation of the 273km
Port of Montevideo - Paso do
los Toros line. Production is
scheduled to start at the end
of August. IRJ
15
Will Alstom’s second attempt to tie up
News | analysis
with a major competitor succeed?
Alstom’s plan to acquire Bombardier Transportation comes just a year after the failure of the merger
between Alstom and Siemens. David Briginshaw considers what is different this time around.
A LSTOM’s announcement
on February 18 that it had
signed a memorandum of
understanding with Bombardier
and pension fund Caisse de
Dépôt et Placement du Québec
(CDPQ) to acquire Bombardier
Transportation was not a
surprise as it ended weeks of
speculation. The two companies
hope to conclude the deal
around a year from now,
provided they can successfully
navigate the most challenging
aspect of the takeover, namely
obtaining regulatory and anti-
trust approval.
At the moment, Alstom,
Bombardier Transportation
and Siemens Mobility are
fairly equally balanced in
terms of turnover, market
share and product portfolio.
However, the three companies
are way behind China’s giant
railway equipment supplier
CRRC at least as far as turnover
is concerned, although the
Chinese domestic market
accounts for a huge proportion
of CRRC’s total revenue.
Indeed one of the rationales
for last year’s failed merger
between Alstom and Siemens
was to create a European rail
champion to compete better
against the perceived threat
from CRRC making major
inroads into Europe. This has
yet to happen, although CRRC
reached agreement in August
2019 to acquire Vossloh
Locomotives in Kiel, Germany.
Alstom and Bombardier are working in
consortium to develop and deliver the
X’Trapolis Cityduplex train for SNCF for
use in Ile-de-France. Photo: Alstom
16
However, the deal is subject to
approval by Germany’s federal
cartel office, which expects to
make a decision this month.
In the event, the European
Commission (EC) did not buy
into the Chinese threat argument
and rejected the Alstom-Siemens
merger on the grounds that it
would damage competition in
the high-speed train and
signalling markets. The EC
said the two companies had
failed to take adequate steps to
address its concerns. The deal
also faced stiff opposition from
the competition authorities in
Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands
and Spain, which were
concerned about the adverse
effect of the merger in their
domestic rail markets. Conversely,
France backed the deal probably
because it believed the merger
would assure Alstom’s future.
The French government has
had to bail Alstom out twice in
the past when it got into
financial difficulties.
Alstom is much more hopeful
of its chances of success this
time around. It says the planned
deal with Bombardier is not a
merger of equals leading to the
formation of a new company, as
was the case with the Alstom-
Siemens deal, but an outright
purchase of Bombardier
Transportation. While Alstom
says it is too early to say what
the EC’s reaction to the merger
will be, the company says it
will work with the EC if it
raises any objections.
Alstom also says it would
not be going ahead with the
deal if there was a high
expectation of failure. While
Alstom admits that it knew
there were potential issues
regarding the merger with
Siemens, it did not expect that
deal to be vetoed.
Sticking points
Alstom is stronger than
Bombardier in high-speed rail
and signalling. Bombardier’s
electric locomotive business is
far more successful than that
of Alstom’s and only Bombardier
supplies monorails. However,
the two companies are both
strong players in the important
commuter/regional train,
metro train and light rail
markets. These three areas are
potential sticking points for
the competition authorities,
especially as the two companies
each have large production
facilities in France, Germany
and Italy. However, Alstom
will probably counter this by
saying that the merger is not
about downsizing, but growth.
Bombardier, which is
headquartered in Montreal,
has gone through a period of
restructuring during the last
few years, mainly due to
problems with its aircraft
business. This resulted in the
company divesting a large
part of the aircraft business
and selling a 30% stake in its
Bombardier Transportation rail
division to Caisse de Depot et
Placement du Quebec (CDPQ)
for $C 1.5bn ($US 1.1bn). The
deal was approved by the EC
in February 2016.
In 2017, Bombardier started
talks with Siemens regarding a
possible merger with Siemens
Mobility. However, Siemens
broke off the talks in order to
launch merger discussions
with Alstom.
The Alstom takeover of
Bombardier Transportation is a
little more complicated than
the Alstom-Siemens merger as
both companies have significant
shareholders. Alstom will
acquire 100% of Bombardier
Transportation’s shares at
between É5.8bn and É6.2bn.
Under the deal, CDPQ, which
currently holds a 32.5% stake
in Bombardier Transportation,
will become Alstom’s largest
shareholder with around 18%
of capital. CDPQ will reinvest
about É2bn in Alstom plus an
additional É700m. Bouygues
will remain a shareholder in
Alstom with around 10% of
capital.
While Alstom is performing
well, achieving an average
annual growth rate of 5.5%
between 2015-16 and 2018-19,
Bombardier Transportation’s
performance has deteriorated.
Alstom has benefited from the
strong leadership of Mr Henri
Poupart-Lafarge who joined
IRJ April 2020
Alstom in 1998 as head of
investor relations and internal
control and, after several
senior roles including CFO,
was named chairman and
CEO in February 2016.
Bombardier has often become
disenchanted with the people
it appoints to run Bombardier
Transportation. Mr Lutz Bertling
was appointed president and
CEO in June 2013, and despite
increasing sales by 25% and
Ebit from É214m to É419m,
he was replaced by Mr Laurent
Troger in December 2015.
Troger has been in the railway
industry for 30 years. He spent
nearly 15 years with Alstom
Transport between 1990 and
2004 and joined Bombardier in
2008. However, Troger’s tenure
at Bombardier Transportation
came to an abrupt end on
February 7 2019 when he was
succeeded by Mr Danny Di
Perna with immediate effect.
Di Perna only joined Bombardier
in 2018 and previously led its
Aerostructures and Engineering
Services sector.
Production delays
Bombardier Transportation’s
problems stem from train
production delays, which have
bedevilled it for the last couple
of years, mainly due to the
difficulty in getting software
to work reliably.
Announcing the company’s
annual results in February
2019, Bombardier’s president
and CEO, Mr Alain Bellemare,
said: “we are focused on
flawless execution of our rail
projects.” The company also
said that Bombardier
Transportation was continuing
to advance a number of legacy
projects and was taking action
to finalise system integration,
obtain certification and align
delivery schedules with
customers. Bombardier said it
expected to substantially
complete deliveries on most of
these projects and significantly
recover working capital in 2019.
A year later, in February 2020,
Bombardier Transportation
said it had completed some of
its large legacy train orders,
namely metro trains for New
York, Crossrail in London, and
Toronto. Bombardier said in
February that the certification of
the software for Aventra trains
IRJ April 2020
for London Overground was
progressing, paving the way
for the delivery of Aventra
trains to other British operators.
Bombardier Transportation
also said it was making progress
in improving the reliability of
the tilting double-deck Twindexx
trains it has supplied to Swiss
Federal Railway (SBB). But this
was not the case in Germany, as
German Rail (DB) announced
in January that it had decided
not to accept any more of the
25 remaining IC2 double-deck
trains from Bombardier into
service - 21 are yet to be delivered
- until software reliability
issues have been resolved.
Alstom could face the prospect
of having to turn Bombardier
Transportation’s performance
around if Bombardier has
failed to resolve the situation
itself by the time the merger
takes effect. However, this will
be reflected in the final price
which Alstom will pay for
Bombardier Transportation.
Despite the problems, Alstom
regards Bombardier Transportation
as a benchmark player in the
market with a huge installed
base. The acquisition will also
give Alstom access to some
important markets where it is
currently only a minor player
such as China, Mexico and
Britain.
Once the transaction is
completed, Alstom will have
an order backlog of around
É75bn and annual revenues of
around É15.5bn, about double
the size of the company today.
Alstom will also have a combined
research and development
budget of around É3bn which
should help to accelerate
growth in the future.
Alstom believes the time is
right for the takeover, with rail
traffic growing (at least until
the coronavirus pandemic
struck), a steady increase in
investment, and the EU’s Green
Deal which favours rail. Even
without the takeover, Alstom
is forecasting annual sales
growth of around 5% a year
between 2019-20 and 2022-23
and an adjusted Ebit margin of
about 9% by 2022-23.
But the real question remains
whether the competition
authorities will buy into
Alstom’s dream this time
CONTACT
around. The next few months
OTSA Ltd
will tell. IRJ
9 Manchester Square
W1U 3PL London
T +44 (0)207 886 3107
otsa@otsa.net
April News Analysis_UIC_Layout 1 23/03/2020 17:21 Page 18
Rail sector urged to up efforts to reduce emissions
News | analysis
Speakers at the UIC’s low-carbon mobility conference in Brussels in February emphasised the urgent need
for railways to step-up their efforts to reduce rail carbon emissions even further and make rail more
attractive to achieve a shift from road and air. David Briginshaw reports from the Belgian capital.
T HE International Union of
Railways’ (UIC) director
general, Mr François Davenne,
is calling for railways to take
immediate action to address
the consequences of global
warming. Davenne’s message
was presented to delegates
attending the UIC’s low carbon
mobility - making modal shift
desirable conference in
Brussels on February 13.
“If we want to reduce the
consequences of global
warming, which are now quite
inevitable, we have to act fast
and act now,” Davenne said.
“Acting fast means that we
have to reduce emissions
using the technologies that are
at hand.” Davenne believes
the best way to achieve this is
by promoting a shift to the
least emitting modes, namely
rail, public transport, cycling
and walking. Davenne wants
to see a collaborative approach
Paul Hegge of Lineas called for joined-up thinking between European infrastructure managers to maximise capacity.
17a
to promote frugality and make
modal shift desirable to the
end user.
“If we continue to cherish a
transport model based on
individual vehicles that
consume both non-renewable
resources and contribute to
global warming, it will be
quite difficult to curb the rise
in temperatures on our
planet,” Davenne warned.
“Transport in its broadest
terms is responsible for 24% of
energy related greenhouse gas
emissions but rail today is
four-times less carbon emitting
than the other modes and has
a really important part to
play,” Davenne continued.
“Whilst accounting for 8% of
global passenger and freight
transport activity in
passenger-km and tonne-km,
rail represents only 2% of
transport emissions and is
therefore a particularly
efficient and sustainable mode
of transport. Rail benefits from
a decisive advantage of
frugality, which is a cardinal
virtue for tackling the effects
of climate change.”
Davenne listed four areas
where rail is frugal compared
with other modes:
= passenger rail transport
requires less than one-tenth of
the energy needed to move an
individual by car or plane
= rail’s use of public land is
minimal in both urban and
rural areas
= trains have a life of at least
30 years which minimises the
need to invest in non-
renewable resources, and
= rail is scalable, which means
the level of service can by
increased by only changing
parts of the system rather than
having to make far-reaching,
disruptive and expensive
system changes.
But, in order to make rail
more attractive and reliable for
the end user, investment needs
to be stepped up. Davenne
also wants to see a level
playing field so that all modes
pay not only for the
infrastructure they need but
also for the impact they make.
Davenne wants rail to
continue to innovate but with
greater agility. He wants
smooth interfaces between rail
and public transport with a
duty to be interconnected by
design. “Town planning and
mass transit must work hand-
in-hand to provide urban areas
which are people-friendly and
provide for maximum
accessibility,” Davenne says.
“This will then free up public
space for soft mobility:
walking, cycling, or simply
enjoying the open spaces.”
Systems approach
Ms Karen Vancluysen,
secretary general of Polis, a
network of European cities
and regions cooperating on
innovative transport solutions,
pointed out that nearly one-
third of transport-related CO2
emissions are from urban
passenger transport. “We need
a systems approach to achieve
a modal shift with public
transport as the backbone,”
she told delegates. “Just
replacing cars with electric
vehicles won’t solve congestion.
“The private car is the
biggest user of urban space
which is very scarce and
therefore very valuable and
gives cities the upper hand in
reallocating space. We need
more evidence of the trends to
inform policy and steer urban
mobility.”
With Mobility as a Service
(MaaS) initiatives gaining
ground, Vancluysen says that
there is a risk that a purely
commercial approach to MaaS
could act as a disincentive to
people making sustainable
choices for journeys, such as
IRJ April 2019
April News Analysis_UIC_Layout 1 23/03/2020 17:21 Page 19
“
walking or cycling, which
don’t generate revenue. “We
need to regulate to innovate,
and maximise the benefits of
new services and minimise the
drawbacks,” she said.
Mr Thomas Möhring and
Ms Eva Dijkema, from Dutch
infrastructure manager Prorail,
emphasised the need to get
people out of planes and on to
trains to reduce transport
carbon emissions. Möhring
said that we need to try to get
people to think differently
about journey times when
comparing modes. “Time on a
plane is lost, whereas you can
be very productive on a train,”
Möhring said. But that doesn’t
mean railways should stop
trying to reduce journey times
to make rail more competitive
with air.
Möhring highlighted two
major barriers to rail which
need to be addressed: the low
cost of air fares compared with
rail and often cumbersome
and inconsistent train booking
systems. He also says the
night train concept needs to be
rethought to make it a more
realistic alternative to air travel.
Dijkma had just returned
“
Time on a plane
is lost, whereas
you can be very
productive on a
train.
Thomas Möhring
IRJ April 2019
Maybe 25% of
trucks will be electric
by 2030, but a truck
will still use six times
more energy than a
train. Paul Hegge
from a long sea voyage to try
to reach the United Nation’s
COP25 climate change
conference in Chile without
flying. The event was
subsequently transferred to
Madrid due to riots in Santiago
and Möhring travelled there
from Amsterdam by train.
Dijkma called for
arrangements to be made to
enable delegates to travel by
train from Brussels to COP26
in Glasgow, although this will
require a change of trains in
London due to Britain’s
restrictive loading gauge and
strict rules on the type of
passenger trains allowed to
operate in the Channel Tunnel.
Only the original Eurostar
trains would be suitable to do
this.
Freight
Mr Paul Hegge, director of
public affairs with Belgian rail
freight operator Lineas, shifted
the debate to freight when he
pointed out that the 75%
market share which road
freight enjoys in Europe is not
sustainable. “We want to
double rail freight in the next
Eva Dijkema and Thomas Möhring from Prorail.
10 years, but we need water to
do the same, and we need to
integrate more with other
modes,” he said. “If we are
successful we will only
succeed in not making the
current situation worse.”
Hegge pointed out that the
road haulage industry plans to
electrify. “Maybe 25% of trucks
will be electric by 2030, but a
truck will still use six times
more energy than a train due
to physics.” Rubber tyres on
tarmac are less efficient than
steel wheels on steel rails.
“Rail operators are not
modern enough, nor
multimodal enough,” Hegge
continued. “Operators need to
innovate aggressively over the
next few years, but not singly.
Rail is a network, so we need a
network approach. Our
productivity is too low which
“
Just replacing
cars with electric
vehicles won’t
solve congestion.
Karen Vancluysen
makes rail uncompetitive.
“We need infrastructure
managers to rethink things.
Driving a train through
Europe should be as easy as
driving a truck. The objective
for infrastructure managers
should be to carry as many
passengers and as much
freight as possible - we need a
new mission for infrastructure
managers in each country. Our
problem is a lack of European
thinking.”
Mr Bertrand Minary, chief
innovation and digital officer
with Fret SNCF, added to the
rail freight discussion. “Only a
few players are earning money
and we face huge competition
from road freight with its
external costs paid for by the
state. To reinvent rail freight,
above all it is a question of
mind set. Most of the wagons
are owned by leasing
companies which don’t often
have the same objectives as
operators. We need a lot of
cooperation to succeed, for
example with customers, road
hauliers, shipping companies,
freight forwarders, customs
authorities, terminal operators,
ports and other rail operators
and infrastructure managers.
“There is a huge challenge
to prepare for the future,”
Minary said. “Everything is
still manual, and coupling and
shunting are still based in the
19th century. We need
automatic couplers, but we
also need automatic operation
to make them work. We need
to form trains which run very
long distances and with high
volumes.
“We are working with
German Rail (DB) on an
autonomous freight train, and
we are trying to create a
modular control system so that
we can update elements as
technology develops in the
future - we need to be very
agile. The two railways are
doing this because we want to
take advantage of the best
technology available,” Minary
concluded. IRJ
17b
Do hydrogen and battery trains
IRJ Insights | The ‘future’ of diesel
mean the end for diesel traction?
European passenger operators are steadily embracing alternative traction based on
batteries or hydrogen as a means of eliminating the use of diesel engines. But are the
days of diesel numbered? Or is the technology set to evolve? Kevin Smith investigates.
B
ADEN-Württemberg is the latest
German state to join a revolution
underway in railway traction,
which promises to bridge the gap
between diesel ubiquity and electric
sustainability.
State-owned leasing company Baden-
Württemberg State Rail Vehicle
Authority (SFBW) confirmed on March
17 that it is purchasing 20 Mireo Plus B
battery-electric multiple units (BEMU)
from Siemens for operation on Network
8 of the Ortenau regional system. The
state follows Rhine-Main, Schleswig-
Holstein, Mid Saxony and Lower
Saxony in procuring alternative traction
passenger vehicles to replace diesel
trains in recent years.
Siemens’ BEMU solution
complements a fuel cell-powered train,
which it is developing with the support
of fuel cell supplier Ballard Power
Systems, Canada, and its EMU
platform. Indeed, the manufacturer says
it is no longer in the business of
supplying diesel multiple units as the
market declines due to growing
Siemens secured a first major contract for
battery electric multiple units last month and
the supplier is confident of further orders as
operators explore alternatives to diesel traction.
environmental concerns over transport
emissions.
Competitor Alstom remains active in
this field, winning contracts in
Germany in 2019 to supply eight
Coradia Lint DMUs to East German
Railway Company (Odeg), 18 vehicles
to SFBW and 41 to Transdev to operate
services in Bavaria. The manufacturer
also proudly proclaims that it now
possesses a complete traction portfolio
after winning a contract to supply 11
BEMUs to Mid Saxony in February.
Alstom pioneered hydrogen fuel cell
trains with its Coradia iLint multiple
unit. Two prototype trains have been in
service on the Elbe-Weser network in
Lower Saxony since September 2018
while the supplier secured its first
major contract in November 2017 when
Lower Saxony Transport Authority
(LNVG) placed an order for 14 trains,
which will enter service from 2021. This
was followed in May 2019 by a deal
with Rhine-Main Transport Authority
(RMV) subsidiary Fahma for 27
vehicles, which will enter service from
2022. The supplier is also actively
testing the concept to drum up further
interest in the technology. This included
a tour of German states during 2019,
and the Netherlands, where trials
concluded last month. Tests are set to
begin in Austria later this year after
Alstom won a tender to operate a
hydrogen pilot last month.
Stadler, Hitachi and CAF are similarly
active in the alternative traction market
as demand for these types of solutions
gathers pace. As well as Germany,
France is set to begin introducing
hybrid trains later this year and begin a
trial with hydrogen in 2022 as it targets
the elimination of diesel traction by
2035. Britain is also testing hydrogen
and battery solutions, while Norway is
exploring replacing diesels with battery
trains, and Austria, as well as the
Coradia iLint trials, is currently testing
a Siemens Desiro ML BEMU in
passenger service.
The European Union’s targets for
decarbonisation of transport as part of
its Green Deal is reinforcing this desire
to explore alternative traction. The EU
Transport White Paper of 2011 targets a
30% reduction in CO2 emissions by
2030, 50% by 2035 and 90% by 2050.
Electrification and the use of
sustainably sourced electricity is the
preferred solution. However, the
continent is a long way from ubiquitous
electrification: approximately 54% of
railway infrastructure in the EU 27
countries plus Britain was electrified
at the end of 2017.
Many countries do have
significant electrification
programmes, notably Germany,
which is targeting 70%
electrification by 2030, up from
52% today. However, putting up
wires is expensive and
depending on the source of the
electricity is not always green. In
addition, the economics of
delivering complete coverage
often do not add up,
particularly for
low density lines. Execution has also
proven problematic in recent years,
especially in Britain where diesel
remains the primary form of traction on
many main lines. Plans for further
electrification projects are now
seemingly on the backburner despite
the government targeting a zero-diesel
railway by 2040.
Other European networks with
significant non-electrified sections and
potential for alternative traction include
the Scandinavian countries, Belgium,
the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, and
Italy.
In North America diesel is king.
Despite some alternative traction trials,
notably with LNG and CNG, Class 1
freight railways continue to operate
diesel trains over vast distances. The
North East Corridor is electrified as are
some commuter lines although the
majority serving cities in the US and
Canada use diesel traction. Likewise,
Australia is a diesel country as is Brazil,
while great swathes of Russia’s network
relies on diesel traction as do networks
in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Diversifying
Mr Jürgen Blassmann, director of rail
business at MTU Friedrichshafen, says
the cost - approximately É1m per km -
meant the prospect of complete
electrification threatening the
company’s diesel traction business was
never realistic. However, the supplier is
embracing alternative traction drive
systems through solutions including
MTU Hybrid PowerPacks as a means of
diversifying its offer due to changing
demand from customers.
Indeed, Ms Katrin Seeger, project
manager for business development of
alternative drive systems for regional
trains at Siemens, says the supplier has
witnessed a growing appetite for its
alternative traction solutions from all
over the world, including operators in
North America and Australia. In
Europe, she says tenders increasingly
request a particular type of traction
even when it is more expensive.
“Operators are looking at options to
no longer tender for diesels trains,”
Seeger says. “Most of them outside of
Europe are at the start of that - they
don’t know yet how big is the range of
a battery-electric train or what is the
range of a hydrogen train. There is still
learning to do on alternative traction
but the appetite and the willingness to
go away from diesel is very, very big.”
Seeger says the supplier is able to
IRJ April 2020
offer a variety of traction solutions to
meet demand, whether this is running a
hybrid solution of batteries and
traditional electric traction where
batteries have a range of 100-120km, or
hydrogen fuel cells, which could
operate for 600-1000km. Mr Brahim
Soua, vice-president for regional trains
at Alstom, offers similar estimates for its
applications. He says that
improvements in battery storage


Germany is the first country to award big contracts for
battery-electric trains, but I am sure that more will follow.
Katrin Seeger, Siemens
capability have helped to reduce the
weight of the unit while the range of
operation has gone up.
“The technologies are mature enough
for many applications, it just depends
on the model that the operator
chooses,” Seeger says. “Germany is the
first country to award big contracts for
battery-electric trains, but I am sure that
more will follow.”
Costs, though, remain a prohibitive
factor for many. RMV’s contract for 27
Coradia iLints is worth approximately
É500m with Alstom’s share É360m.
This compares with the É150m deal
with Transdev for 41 Lint DMUs. The
contract for 11 BEMUs with Mid Saxony
is worth É100m.
In addition, many of the German
alternative traction projects have
benefitted from government subsidies
to get off the ground. The federal
government’s National Innovation
Programme for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell
Technology, for example, provided a
É8.4m grant to support the construction
of the hydrogen refuelling station for
the Coradia iLint project at Elbe-Weser
Transport Company’s (EVB) depot in
Bremervörde. While significantly
cheaper than an equivalent
electrification project it is a lot more
expensive than using diesel.
Seeger says the current gap in the cost
of alternative traction is the result of a
lack of economy of scale in the supply
chain. As the technology becomes more
widespread, she says this should correct
itself. She adds that if these subsidies
do disappear, the government could
support the adoption of clean traction
by enacting legislation restricting the
operation of diesel trains in urban areas.
“At the very least they could make
them less attractive by introducing
access charges depending on future
emissions,” Seeger says. “Public
transport companies could change their
tender assessment scheme to reduce the
gap as well.”
With subsidies not yet taking hold in
other countries, demand for diesel rail
vehicles is set to remain steady,
particularly outside Europe.
The general consensus is for a stable
market for the next 10-15 years with
alternative traction currently accounting
for less than 2% of all orders. According
to data from IRJ Pro, seven such orders
were placed in the past three years, all
from Germany apart from a contract
awarded to Stadler in the United States
by San Bernardino County
Transportation Authority for a single
four-car Flirt H2 hydrogen train.
Blassmann says the market could
remain relatively stable for the next 30
years given the current uptake of
electrification projects.
In addition, diesel technology itself is
becoming much cleaner. New EU Stage
V emissions standards, which apply to
all new engines, are set to come into
force on January 1 2021 and offer
substantially improved performance
over previous standards. Stage V
engines limit particulate matters to
0.015g/kWh per rail car, a 40%
reduction compared with the previous
Stage IV emission limit of 0.025g/kWH.
In some heavily polluted areas, the air
that is emitted from a Stage V engine is
cleaner than the surrounding
atmosphere.
“There is a misunderstanding of how
clean diesel engines now are,” says Dr-
Ing Guenter Zitzler, senior manager
application engineering rail engines at
Rolls-Royce Power Systems. “We have
done a study of replacing the UIC2
engines in trains running on the shore
of Lake Constance with MTU hybrid
powerpacks fitted with Stage V engines,
and it was very impressive to see that
there is a reduction in particulates of
around 90% and also the NOx by 90%.
The hybrid powerpacks also help to cut
19
 IRJ Insights | The ‘future’ of diesel
Ineratec’s Power-to-Liquid concept produces clean fuel in plants situated in 40-foot containers.
fuel consumption and thus CO2
emissions by up to 25%.”
While these are European standards,
suppliers are finding that countries
where there are no regulations are
requesting engines that meet these
requirements.
Voith is now only offering its EU
Stage IIIB or Stage V engines, all of
which are fitted with Selective Catalytic
Reduction (SCR) technology. “There is
rising public awareness of emissions
levels so that is why we want to
promote the best possible diesel
solution available in the market,” says
Mr Gert Tekale, product manager for
rail drives at Voith. “For current
projects in Brazil we are bidding with
Stage V engines and they like this even
though there is no specific
requirement.”
Voith has developed its Stage V
engine in partnership with Liebherr.
The supplier has agreed a five-year
contract with Alstom to supply its
RailPack 400DM Stage V-compliant
powerpack for Coradia Lint DMUs.
Tekale says Voith expects to begin
endurance tests in the second half of
this year ahead of commercial
availability in 2021.
Other innovations are also improving
diesel engine efficiency. For example,
ZF’s EcoWorld transmission system,
which transfers the reversing unit
previously installed in the bogie
directly to the shifting transmission, can
offer a coasting mode, disconnecting the
engine from the traction system helping
to cut fuel consumption by up to 5%.
It also facilitates MTU hybrid system’s
shift from engine to battery power.
Mr Markus Gross, ZF’s director for
20
rail drive systems, says he sees
significant potential for the technology
along with stable demand for diesel
products over the next 10-15 years.
However, he says the supplier is not
favouring one area over another.
EcoWorld, the supplier’s latest six-
speed transmission platform, is suitable
for conventional diesel - ZF is a
supplier to the Coradia Lint DMUs -
and hybrid applications where it is
working with MTU. ZF also supplied
transmission to the Coradia iLint. Gross
adds that there are significant
opportunities in repowering existing
diesel engines to improve their
efficiency.
“We did a trial in Britain with
Porterbrook (Southwestern Railway)
where we replaced a hydro dynamic
gearbox with our hydro mechanic


I personally cannot imagine, on a business perspective,
that it makes sense to build up a third infrastructure.
Tim Böltken, Ineratec
gearbox and we saved more than 20%
of fuel,” Gross says. “If you see the
large numbers of diesel fleets in
operation across the world, there is
huge potential for repowering.”
Voith is also active in the hybrid field,
offering diesel-electric gensets and
sophisticated braking energy
recuperation systems. However, Tekale
says the desire of the major OEMs to
develop hydrogen and BEMUs is
potentially bad news for propulsion
sub-suppliers as the trend is to take the
development of batteries and hydrogen
in-house.
“The more electrified vehicles become,
the more it will become insourced by
the OEM,” Tekale says. “If they are
using a sophisticated diesel system,
they do not have the complete expertise
in-house. An electric propulsion system
with batteries is less complex than a
diesel system and they are insourcing
that expertise.”
With this in mind, Voith and MTU are
paying close attention to the
development of alternatives to diesel
fuel itself, which will potentially extend
the life of the combustion engine and
also use existing infrastructure.
Bio-fuels, where natural products
such as ethanol are blended with diesel
to help reduce diesel consumption and
air pollution, have been around for
decades. However, problems with the
build-up of plaque on the engines due
to the higher burning point of the fuel
as well as the sustainability of these
fuels, especially the use of palm oil in
some areas and the link with
deforestation, has restricted the extent
to which they have been adopted.
Yet Blassman believes these solutions
have been overlooked for too long and
is encouraged by work underway by
start-ups on alternative fuel solutions
which promise carbon neutrality.
Ineratec is one such company founded
in 2016 as a spinoff from Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology (KIT).
The Ineratec technology essentially
combines hydrogen and CO2 through a
process called Power-to-Liquid to
produce a substitute fuel for gasoline,
kerosene or liquid oil. The fuel is
produced under the Power-to-X (or
Power-to-liquid) principle whereby
surplus power from renewable
generation is used to power an
eletrolyser to generate hydrogen, which
is combined with CO2 sourced from
biomass, ambient air or industrial off-
gas to produce the fuel via a chemical
process called Fischer-Tropsch.
The end-product is a clear liquid,
which burns very clear and when burnt
releases the CO2 introduced at the start
IRJ April 2020
of the process, making the production
and use of the fuel entirely carbon
neutral in that no additional CO2 is
released into the atmosphere. The diesel
fuel fraction produced complies with
the synthetic or paraffinic diesel norm
EN15940, which was adopted in 2016,
and stipulates that the fuel is acceptable
by all existing diesel engines.
“It really looks like water because
you only produce it from hydrogen and
CO2,” says Mr Tim Böltken, technical
managing director of Ineratec. “There
are no poisons such as sulphur or
chlorine in there and equivalent fuels
already exist such as the synthetic
component of Shell Vpower, a high-
performance fuel which is a blend of
existing fossil fuel and synthetic fuel -
but yet not renewable. You don’t have
to substitute it 100% at the beginning.
You can start with 5 or 10% and you
will immediately achieve a 5 or 10%
reduction in emissions.”
Böltken says the advantage of the
Ineratec system is that it is modular. A
single processing system using, for
example, 1MW of electrical input into
the electrolyser can produce 350 tonnes
of fuel per year from just a single 40-
foot shipping container. Customers are
then able to easily scale up production
depending on their requirements at a
specific site by adding additional
The Future of DMUU Drive Systems
with ZF EcoWorld
The new 6-speed powershif t transmission is par-
ticularly economical: It achieves up to 20 percent
fuel savings in comparison to hydrodynamic transs-
containers. Larger modules are also in
development.
“In Germany we are building up a
new infrastructure for electro mobility
which costs billions, but we already
have an existing infrastructure based on
oil and gas,” Böltken says. “I personally
cannot imagine, on a business
perspective, that it makes sense to build
up a third infrastructure.”
Cost-competitive
With oil prices plummeting in early
2020, synthetic diesel fuels face a
challenge to become cost-competitive.
Rather than the cost of oil, the price of
electricity is the determining factor,
with use in low electricity cost markets
such as Norway, Chile, the Middle East
and southern Spain preferable than a
high energy market such as Germany.
However, the developers have made
significant progress at reducing the cost
of the process in recent years. From
around É10 per litre when Tekale was
first exposed to the concept at
Karlsruhe Technical University around
a decade ago, the cost is now equivalent
to around É2 per litre.
“If it comes down to É1.50 a litre,
then it is competitive,” Tekale says.
“Then operators might be willing to
spend a little more money on fuel but
get a better CO2 footprint as a result.”
After completing several
demonstrator projects to prove the
viability of the concept, Böltken says
Ineratec has reached the industrial scale
demonstration stage. “We want to show
that not only can these fuels be
produced at a certain level of cost, they
can also compete with fossil fuels,”
Böltken says. “We are looking for our
iPhone moment.”
Rail is by no means the only sector
that could benefit from such an
installation. Indeed, with scale still
limited it may have a fight with
aviation, road and chemical production
if it is to secure the level of adoption
required to make a difference.
Böltken says he is open to working
with any sector or partner willing to
embrace and develop the technology,
ultimately leaving it to the market to
decide. The excitement around
Ineratec’s solution at events he has
attended offers hope that such a partner
will soon be found. However, time is
ticking. “In the next five years this is
really crucial, not only for our business
model, but the whole climate issue,” he
says. “If we wait until 2030, then there
is no way you will achieve the climate
goals set for 2050.”
There might just be life in the diesel
traction market yet. IRJ







is equipped with a power ful torque converter as
well as an integrated reversing function. It enable
es
an unrestricted towing and sailing function which










-
ding on the route, engine t ype and load conditionn.

A new wheelset gearbox with drive shaf ts allows

EcoWorld to be combined with various axle ratioss,











per fectly suited for repowering in existing trains








 

 


reduces operating costs.
Visit www.zf.com/rail
Delhi commuter rail network takes shape
India | commuter rail
Vinay Kumar Singh, managing director of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation, talks to Srinand
M
Jha about the project to build a 349km network of 160km/h commuter rail lines connecting Delhi with cities in
the neighbouring states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
R Vinay Kumar Singh, managing
director of the National Capital
Region Transport Corporation
(NCRTC), is a satisfied man these days,
and not without reason. In just over
three years since taking charge, Singh
has been able to bring to life a project
that had remained on the drawing
board for more than two decades.
The NCRTC was set up by the
government of India and the state
governments of Delhi, Haryana,
Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to design,
implement, finance, operate and maintain
a network of Regional Rapid Transit
System (RRTS) commuter rail lines. The
eight-line network will connect Delhi
with so-called Tier-2 cities - typically
regional hubs with a population of 1
million - in adjoining states with trains
operating at 160km/h.
The idea was first mooted in 1998-99
in a study commissioned by Indian
Railways (IR). The proposal was re-
examined in 2006 in light
of plans for metro
projects in some of
the cities in the
National Capital
Region (NCR).
In 2009, a
22
functional transport plan for NCR,
identifying eight RRTS lines was
approved by the Indian Cabinet. Four
years later, the NCRTC was incorporated,
and Singh took over as the corporation’s
first managing director in July 2016.
“In the initial years, several
administrative and institutional issues
needed to be sorted out,” Singh told
IRJ. “But we have moved ahead rapidly,
after prime minister, Mr Narendra
Modi, sanctioned the first 82km line
linking Delhi, Ghaziabad and Meerut
last year, a project costing Rs 302bn
($US 4.2bn).”
Civil works contracts have been
awarded for two packages on the first
line, and construction of the 17km
Sahibabad - Ghaziabad - Duhai priority
section has begun. Duhai will be the
location for a depot for the line. The
priority section will form part of the
first 38km section from Sahibabad on
the eastern side of Delhi to Meerut
South, which is expected to open in
2023. This will be followed by the
16.6km section from Sahibabad to Serai
Kale Khan in Delhi, which will become
a transit hub offering connections to
IR’s Hazrat Nizamuddin main line
station, the metro and Serai Kale inter-
state bus station. This section is
expected to open a year later, followed
in 2024 by the final 37.4km northern
section from Meerut South through
Meerut Central to Modipuram which
will have three underground stations.
The line will be mainly elevated apart
from 14km underground and 1.45km at
grade sections.
A global tender for the acquisition/
manufacture of 210 cars at an estimated
cost of Rs 20bn has also been floated.
About 30% of the trains will be
imported, while the remainder will be
manufactured in India under a
technology transfer arrangement.
The project is going ahead following
the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision
to drop its earlier proposal to build a
separate metro line. “With this decision,
the state government has achieved a
cost saving of Rs 63bn,” Singh says.
The NCR has a population of 46
million (according to the 2011 census)
and accounts for 7% of India’s Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), but around
73% of commuters use their own
vehicles rather than public transport.
“Our estimates are that the line will
have a daily ridership of more than
800,000 passengers,” Singh says.
 The RRTS network will be built to
high standards, with a design speed of
180km/h and a maximum operating
speed of 160km/h to achieve an
average speed of 100km/h including
station stops. The objective is to be
three times faster than a metro.
The three phase 1 lines are: the
82km Delhi - Ghaziabad - Meerut line,
the 164km Delhi - Gurugram - SNB -
Alwar line and the 103km Delhi -
Panipat line. Phase 2 envisages the
construction of five additional lines by
2032, specifically:
= Delhi - Faridabad - Ballabhgarh - Palwal
= Ghaziabad - Khurja
= Delhi - Bahadurgarh - Rohtak
= Ghaziabad - Hapur, and
= Delhi - Baghpat - Baraut.
The first three RRTS lines will
require a fleet of 600 coaches and six
depots, and are expected to have an
estimated daily ridership of 2 million
passengers. The double-track
standard-gauge network will have
ballastless track and will be electrified
at 25kV ac. Trains will be formed of
aerodynamic stainless steel or
aluminium coaches, which are 3.2m
wide and 22m long and will have
predominately economy-class
accommodation, with one business
class and women-only coach per train.
The trains will have CCTV, mobile
phone and laptop computer charging
points, and luggage space. Trains and
stations will be
universally
accessible to
Shutterstock/Yogesh Attri
disabled passengers, and stations will
be integrated with other modes of
transport such as the Delhi Metro.
The RRTS network will offer much
shorter journey times to passengers
compared with travelling on congested
roads or by slow conventional trains.
For example the 75km journey from
Meerut to Delhi will take less than 55


The real benefit of the RRTS system is that it will provide
for seamless travel, as the system will have multi-modal
connectivity. Vinay Kumar Singh
minutes by RRTS compared with 1h
25min for mail and express trains
running on the existing line with an
average speed of 55km/h. RRTS is
expected to cut the travel time between
Panipat in Haryana state and Delhi
Airport from 3h 30min by road to 80-85
minutes, while the trip from Ghaziabad
in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi Airport will
fall from the present 3 hours by road to
40-45 minutes by RRTS.
“The real benefit of the RRTS system
is that it will provide for seamless
Delhi
travel, as the system will have multi-
RRTS network
Phase 1
Under construction
Planned lines
Phase 2
Proposed lines
Murthal
Rohtak
Bahadurgarh
DELHI
Serai Kale Khan
Gurugram
Dharuhera
SNB
Sotanala
Alwar
modal connectivity by integrating with
the Indian Railways network, inter-state
bus terminals, airports and the Delhi
Metro,” Singh explains.
The system will bring benefits to the
working class, labour force, industrial
workers and students, apart from
having spin off effects such as the
creation of new economic/industrial
zones and transit oriented
development, he added.
The project has been drawing an
encouraging response from suppliers.
Alstom, Bombardier, CAF, Hyundai-
Rotem, Mitsubishi, and Siemens were
among around 40 global companies
represented at a pre-bid conference
recently organised by the NCRTC.
“Since the project is the first of its
kind in India, NCRTC is keen to draw
upon the available global expertise from
countries that operate similar systems,”
Singh says. IRJ
Panipat IRJ
IRJ
Baraut
Modipuram
Baghpat
Meerut
Duhai South
Ghaziabad Hapur
Sahihabad
Faridabad
Ballabhgarh
Khurjup
Palwal
23
Remote driving
Signalling and telecoms | autonomy
clears first hurdle
Researchers working on SNCF’s Autonomous Trains Project are
developing a remote driver’s desk, which could support first and last
mile and emergency operation on France’s future autonomous mainline
network. Kevin Smith reports on progress following the successful
F
completion of phase one in 2019.
RENCH National Railways (SNCF)
has set an ambitious target to
deploy autonomous trains on the
mainline network by 2025. Automation
will unlock extra capacity and improve
the predictability of services. However,
getting there is a major undertaking.
Mainline networks are far more
complex than metro systems where
automation is now common. As a
result, multiple research projects are
underway as part of SNCF’s
Autonomous Train Project to develop
the individual building blocks which
together will deliver ATO.
One such initiative is TC-Rail. The
project aims to develop and prove a
remote driving solution for locomotives
that will enable a driver to control and
drive a train safely from a remote site.
The system will support operation in
the event of a failure of the ATO system
as well as provide last mile coverage for
trains travelling between stations,
maintenance centres and yards.
SNCF is developing and coordinating
the project in partnership with French
Railway Technological Research
Institute (Railenium), which is leading
the human factors study, safety
analysis, 5G telecommunications
development, and overseeing testing.
Thales, Actia Telecom and France’s
National Centre for Space Studies
(CNES) are all involved in the
telecommunications element.
TC-Rail is currently working on a
second demonstrator following the
success of the first in mid-2019.
Dr Émilie Masson, R&D project
coordinator for the Autonomous Train
Programme at Railenium, told IRJ that
the first demonstrator focused on
specifying the necessary architecture
and only on traction and braking tasks.
The second series of tests, which will
commence by the end of this year or in
early 2021, will seek to increase the
integration of tasks relating to driving,
24
including combining telecommunications
technologies into a hybrid system, as
well as improving the safety, security
and performance of the system.
One of the major challenges of the
project is to develop a robust high-
throughput communication link
between the train and the ground. The
link must be able to carry a large
amount of data and guarantee low
latency and a high quality of service in
order to achieve remote driving which
respects the required safety protocol.
The project partners identified satellite
communications and 4G LTE as the
preferred telecommunications platforms
for the tests. These platforms support
the relay of the state of the train, a live
video stream, localisation information
and in-cab sounds from the locomotive
while relaying the driver’s commands
and camera selection.
The satcom system used in TC-Rail
consists of a bidirectional Ka-band
satellite link. The main subsystems are
an on-the-move (OTM) antenna, a rain, which would reduce signal to noise
geostationary satellite, a ground segment ratio levels on both ends. In this case,
hub positioned at CNES and a terrestrial the link would have lower data rates
fibre optic link to interconnect the but is still within the ranges of the
CNES site with the remote driving site. video system. The terrestrial fibre optic
The OTM antenna, designed and link allows the data to be routed through
provided by Actia Telecom, is installed a private link, so the delay is stable at
on a road vehicle positioned on the around geostationary values (600ms of
freight wagon and is composed of an round-trip time (RTT)) and no jitter is
outdoor unit consisting of a Ka radiant added by internet routing. Furthermore,
panel, a Low Noise Block-converter this private link routing adds to the
(LNB), Antenna-Control-Units (ACU), security aspects of the demonstrator.
and an inertial reference system. The In addition, a private 4G Long-Term
indoor unit consists of a modem and Evolution (LTE) network solution was
local supervision. deployed on a 4km section of RER Line
This antenna is responsible for all D in southern Paris where the tests took
communications to and from the train. place.
The frequency plan comprises a DVB-S2 For the driver, and the development
carrier with Adaptive Coding Modulation of the human-machine interface (HMI)
(ACM) for the forward link and three for the remote site, the researchers
DVB-RCS2 TDMA carriers with different chose to focus on developing a human-
modulations for the return link. This centred design, looking at driving
kind of configuration adds resilience activity and the possibility for remote
against meteorological events such as operation.
IRJ April 2020
 Researchers emphasised the development of a
human-centred design for the human-machine
interface used by the drivers during the trials.

IRJ April 2020 25

 Signalling and telecoms | autonomy
The study identified several factors
impacting HMI performance:
= a delay which generates a time shift
between the actions of the operator and
the return of these actions by the system
= bandwidth limitations which can
degrade the information provided to
the operator, in particular the video
= limitations in the camera’s field of view,
which degrades the available field to
retrieve information from the environment
= restrictions in depth perception, which
can impact the estimation of distance, and
= the distance between the remote
operator and the remotely operated
system, which leads to a loss of
information.
Studies of these challenges resulted in
38 recommendations, 22 of which were
implemented in the first phase. This


The objective of the next experiment is to test the
hybridisation of the telecommunications technology.
Émilie Masson
includes incorporating a dynamic track
profile to address the problem of
anticipation. The driver is now equipped
with information about the environment
such as upcoming gradients, knowledge
of future elements such as signals and
an awareness of their position on the
track.
To provide the remote driver with the
necessary information, a camera-based
perception system was developed. This
is supplemented with a localised feed of
elements including dynamic track
profile and a system to transfer data
retrieved from locomotive components.
The specific vision system comprises
five systems with two subsystems of
two cameras and two subsystems to
emit infrared light both located at the
front and the rear of the train along
with one processing unit. Each
subsystem of cameras consists of a
colour camera and a Near InfraRed
(NIR) camera, which can both trace
colour information in signalling and
increase contrast at night by combining
images taken by each camera.
Of course, any telecommunications
and safety critical project must take
cybersecurity extremely seriously and
TC-Rail is no different. Masson says the
system adopts a methodology that is
secure by design. Several paper studies
of the robustness of the architecture
26
were conducted while the project has
adopted IP-Sec to protect global
communication between the train and
the remote site. However, Masson says
there is a limit to what the project will
cover with other elements of the
Autonomous Train Project set to focus
on cybersecurity issues in more depth.
“We did not develop everything to
make sure that we are secure because
this is simply not possible as it is very
difficult and very expensive within the
scope of this project,” Masson says.
“Our goal is on the technical feasibility.
We are considering cybersecurity but
we are not implementing everything.”
The tests of the system initially
focused on the vision system. Several
hours of video of the line was recorded
and presented to drivers. However,
these images were not deemed suitable
to extract all of the required information
for acceleration or braking so work
began on developing another vision
system. At the same time, classical sub-
system and integration tests were also
carried out to check that the system was
able to take control of the locomotive’s
actuators.
With this work proving successful,
the live demonstrator trials took place
in April 2019 with trains operating at
up to 50km/h on the 4km section of
RER Line D between Villeneuve-Saint-
Georges and Juvisy in southern Paris.
While the remote driver performed
the acceleration and braking remotely
during two live trials, Masson says they
were in touch with a driver onboard the
train via a telephone link. “The remote
driver really took command and remotely
drove the train, so it was a good
experiment,” she says.
However, it was not without challenges.
Masson reports that while the 4G
connection worked well, there were
some difficulties with the satellite
communications with the catenary
blocking the signal and the video
cutting out as a result, preventing
remote driving using this technology
due to safety concerns.
“With the 4G technology it was OK
except for the quality of the image and
the vision system,” Masson says. “This
is something that we would like to
enhance. However, it was possible to do
this safely and securely as it is.”
The focus is now on improvements
and new developments for the next
series of live tests, which will take place
either by the end of the year - which is
SNCF’s preference - or in early 2021.
“The objective of the next experiment
is to test the hybridisation of the
telecommunications technology,” Masson
says. “We want to retry satellite
communication and different types of
Satcom with a different bandwidth and
a different system. We also want to
retest the dedicated 4G network and
add public 4G. The goal is to combine
all of this in order to test operation
when we have 4G available but also
when it is not available, we want to
effectively handover to another
technology.
“This is a big change for this second
experiment period to retest satcom
because we are not so happy with what
happened with the first phase.”
Future development work includes
consideration of 5G telecom networks,
which are set to become the backbone
of railway communications under the
FRMCS programme (IRJ July 2019 p32).
Railenium is offering a post-doctoral
position to work on and optimise a
possible 5G telecommunications link.
Work will involve utilising some existing
standards which are not yet optimised
for this particular case to develop
various simulations and experiments
which consider how they might be
applied in the future. However, this
work will not be implemented within
the scope of the existing project.
Current work is also looking at the
possibility of introducing additional
driving functions. Masson says this
does not cover all elements necessary
for complete remote driving but reflects
the desire of the participants “to go as
far as we can” in the technical
development and the human factor
studies to develop the work functions
for the driver.
Masson adds that the different
participants are currently working in
parallel to give the project the best
possible chance of meeting the end of
2020 deadline. She says this will continue
until the point where it is necessary to
bring all of the work together - at
around the end of the summer - and
focus minds on completing the project
in 2021. All being well, the project will
provide the firm foundations of a key
building block for future mainline
automation. IRJ
IRJ April 2020
 ADDRESSING SAFETY TODAY.

THAT’S PROGRESS.
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200119

+1 800-476-8769 • progressrail.com • @progressrail • @Progress_Rail

Questions hang over CBTC testing
Signalling and telecoms | CBTC
following resignations from NYCT
New York City Transit (NYCT), Thales and Piper Networks have demonstrated Ultra-Wide Band, a wireless
O
technology, which is offering a quick and less expensive way of installing CBTC on metro lines. However, as
William Vantuono reports, the sudden departure of a key player at NYCT threatens to hamper development.
NE of the final duties that
former New York City Transit
(NYCT) vice-president, network
and resignalling, Mr Pete Tomlin,
discharged before he left the agency
was to demonstrate an innovative piece
of new technology: Ultra-Wide Band
(UWB), a wireless technology that offers
faster and less-expensive installation of
modern communications-based train
control (CBTC) by eliminating much of
the onboard and wayside equipment
traditionally required for advanced-
technology signalling.
On January 23, only hours after the
resignation of NYCT president, Mr Andy
Byford, Tomlin collaborated with suppliers
Thales and Piper Networks in an
impressive public demonstration of
UWB. Later that day, the man who has
worked closely with fellow Briton
Byford to modernise the Toronto Transit
Commission, London Underground and
NYCT metros, submitted his own
resignation. How quickly NYCT’s
parent organisation Metropolitan
28
Transportation Authority (MTA)
recovers from the double-loss of Tomlin
and Byford (affectionately dubbed the
“Train Daddy”) remains to be seen.
NYCT’s UWB proof-of-concept was
the culmination of a pilot programme
on the Flushing (7) Line that came
together in only nine months, thanks to
Tomlin’s expertise and that of Thales,
Piper Networks and Mr Mark Dowd,
MTA’s chief innovation officer. UWB
traces its roots to the MTA’s Genius
Transit Challenge project, launched in
2017, which challenged leading
companies from around the world to
improve metro signalling, capacity and
communications for the future.
In March 2019, NYCT awarded two
contracts: one to Thales and Piper for a
UWB-based train control system pilot
project on the Flushing Line; and the
other to Siemens and Humatics for a
UWB pilot on the Canarsie (L) Line. The
pilot’s scope involved preparing UWB
for safety certification. It consisted of
nine months of testing and collecting
Photo: MTA /Ernesto Ho
2500 hours of operational data. An
automated data upload facility at
NYCT’s Corona Yard enabled cloud-
based processing of all collected sensor
data from the line that can be compared
with data from the CBTC system and a
LiDAR-based “ground truth” digital map.
Four trains on the Flushing Line, one
of two lines on New York Subway
equipped with CBTC, were fitted with
Thales’ CBTC system that integrates
Piper’s UWB technology, while four
Canarsie Line trains were equipped
with Siemens CBTC integrating
Humatics UWB technology.
The Flushing Line demonstration
took place on the centre express track
between 61 Street-Woodside and 40th
Street stations. “It showed the potential
of an even more precise positioning
system, UWB, to improve system
performance and recovery,” NYCT noted.
“The pilot proved it could also help
accelerate the implementation of CBTC.”
UWB technology is installed on the
wayside rather than directly on the
track-bed, making it considerably easier
for NYCT personnel to maintain in the
long term and reduce delays stemming
from malfunctioning track-borne
equipment.
The key advantages and features of
UWB are:
= rapid implementation, achieved
through a reduction of onboard equipment
by eliminating installation under the
vehicle, allowing NYCT to modernise
ageing infrastructure more quickly
= improved train positioning accuracy,
called Next-Generation Positioning
(NGP), by using modern onboard
sensors including UWB radios - the
UWB test runs are used to evaluate the
accuracy and fault tolerance of the NGP
system and each end of the test train is
equipped with a Thales vehicle onboard
computer, part of the CBTC system,
integrated with the NGP sensors
= accelerated start-up position
initialisation - the NGP system is described
as highly tolerant of equipment or sensor
failures without impacting overall
function; on power up and
initialisation, the NGP system tells the
onboard controller precisely where it is
located, enabling a train to initialise and
engage ATO faster than current-
generation CBTC systems, and
= high accuracy and availability: NGP
provides greater position accuracy and
can support much greater separation
between wayside landmarks which
means that future CBTC systems based
on this technology will support more
precise station stopping accuracy and
will be able to travel a greater distance
between wayside landmarks. If inputs
from sensors or UWB controllers at one
end of the train fail, the system can
seamlessly switch over to inputs from
the other end of the train.
Components
Five high-tech components/sensors
are integrated in Thales’ NGP systems:
= UWB, a type of radio communication
that uses a very low amount of energy
with short-range, high-bandwidth
waves using a wide range of the radio
spectrum: NYCT’s Flushing Line
system uses Piper onboard UWB radios
and controllers and Piper UWB wayside
anchors, while the NGP system uses
UWB to receive location updates every
100 milliseconds
= Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs)
that detect changes in speed and
direction with an extraordinary level of
accuracy - the NGP system uses the
IMU for inertial navigation and
orientation verification
IRJ April 2020
= Radar (radio detection and ranging)
uses radio waves to measure the distance
and speed of objects and is used by the
NGP system for speed measurement
and zero speed/stationary status
= LiDAR, which uses pulsed laser light
to measure distance with high precision
to any targets within range to create a
dense 3D map of its surroundings;
LiDAR was used to scan the route and
create a “ground truth” digital map that
positioning system data can be
compared with, and
= a high-definition camera, which uses
advanced image processing techniques
to detect objects such as rails, wayside
equipment or trackside workers,
although these functions are still in the
preliminary testing phase.
“All of these features will contribute
to faster system deployment and more
reliable service with fewer delays for
passengers,” NYCT notes.
“Thanks to this partnership with
NYCT, we’re delivering cutting-edge
technology as we test the next
generation of train positioning,” says
Mr Dominique Gaiardo, Thales vice-
president and managing director for
urban rail signalling. “Thales has
integrated modern onboard sensors
with a UWB network to create an
enhanced next-generation positioning
system for our CBTC digital signalling
architecture. The new system has higher
accuracy, resilience and availability, and
is quicker to deploy than current-
generation products.”
“We took an exciting step in safety
Pete Tomlin led the testing of Ultra-Wide Band wireless technology as a faster method of
introducing CBTC, but resgined hours after Andy Byford.
certifying Piper’s Ultra-Wideband
technology for MTA, and we’re looking
forward to rolling out this technology
across other subway lines as part of the
Fast Forward programme,” says Mr
Robert Hanczor, CEO of Piper Networks.
NYCT says it will take the lessons
learned from CBTC implementation on
the Flushing Line and incorporate
industry best practices to improve and
expedite future implementation on
other subway line corridors, including
better costing estimates, formalised
personnel structure and responsibilities,
enhanced project and contractor
monitoring, more frequent surveys and
enhanced attention on subway car
interfacing. NYCT says it has created a
new database to capture cross-discipline
feedback and information from CBTC
projects to better-track such valuable
information to help improve future
CBTC processes.
All this may be a tall order for NYCT
following the loss of Tomlin and Byford.
High-tech projects such as UWB require
innovative suppliers like Thales, Piper,
Siemens and Humatics, skilled
engineering consultants like Parsons
Transportation Group and others, and
NYCT’s equally skilled and dedicated
workers. But they also require strong,
focused leadership at the agency level,
and one or more “champions” who can
get the job done and provide motivation
and guidance. That’s what NYCT had
in Tomlin and Byford. Whether the
agency can pick up the pieces and
regroup remains to be seen. IRJ
29
Swiss ingenuity brings ATO
Signalling and telecoms | ATO

to existing rolling stock

A group of Swiss railway specialists has developed and tested an ATO system which can be used on existing

T
rolling stock, infrastructure and conventional train control and protection systems. The GoA2 system has reached
the proof of concept stage and is designed to be inexpensive and simple to operate. David Briginshaw reports.
HE idea to develop an affordable involved in bringing ETCS into Vetsch told IRJ. “We know where the
driver assistant system to achieve operation on the Berlin - Nuremberg trains are, the routes and signal aspects
Automatic Train Operation (ATO) high-speed line. The following year, he - all the information is there - we just
at Grade of Automation Level 2 (GoA2) set up Vetsch Rail Consulting. need to give it to the trains.”
arose about three years ago, and despite The other team members are Mr The Auto-Ferrivia ATO solution
a one-year delay, achieved proof of André Schweizer, a signalling specialist, allows a simple, non-reactive expansion
concept in December 2019. who is head of Railtool, Mr Adrian of an existing, conventional railway
The Auto-Ferrivia team comprises Egloff, a rolling stock specialist and with conventional colour light lineside
four specialists. Mr Hans-Peter Vetsch is head of Rail Systems Engineering, and signalling and traditional train control.
a career railwayman having worked for Mr Markus Schindelholz, CEO of the The proposed ATO concept is largely
Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) for 21 Oensingen Balsthal Railway (OeBB) technologically independent of the
years. In 1991, Vetsch was appointed where the ATO tests took place. In vehicle and infrastructure and is
head of safety and operation with addition, four consultants assisted with particularly suitable for railways with
AlpTransit Gotthard for the Gotthard the Auto-Ferrivia ATO project. simple operating conditions. It should
Base Tunnel project. In 2014, Vetsch “The idea was to invest nothing, only also be possible to introduce it quickly.
joined DB Network where he was our knowhow to create a database,” “A railway is predestined for

30 IRJ April 2020

automated operation due to the fact
that trains are bound to the track,
unlike road, water and air transport,
and its two-dimensional movement
(distance and time) makes it
comparatively easy to monitor and
control,” Auto-Ferrivia says.
Nevertheless, automated driving has
hardly been used on conventional
railways to date.
Between 1976 and 1980, a RABDe
8/16 (Chiquita) train with ATO ran on
the Baden - Koblenz LZB test track,
while in Spain a train fitted with ATO
operated in scheduled service with
passengers between 1977 and 1979 on
the Madrid Atocha - Pinar del las Rozas
line. However, development of ATO
was discontinued due to cost and the
introduction of ETCS.
“Railway and industry experts
repeatedly postulate that ATO can only
be introduced in connection with the
most modern technologies on the
infrastructure and rolling stock,” Auto-
Ferrivia says. “However, most railways
cannot renew infrastructure and rolling
stock in one go due to the different life
cycles.”
Driver support
Auto-Ferrivia regards ATO as
supporting the train driver with the
GoA2 ATO acting as a driver assistance
system that allows the train driver to
hand over routine actions, such as
cruise control, acceleration and braking
according to speed thresholds and
approaching stops. ATO enables
operationally optimised driving, but the
train driver can take control of the train
at any time and disable the ATO.
The train is monitored by the existing


We should only use ATO for point-to-point and train-to-
train operation. Empty stock movements could be one of
the biggest markets for ATO. Hans-Peter Vetch
train control system, which works in the
background and intervenes when the
permissible speed is exceeded through
automatically-initiated braking. “As
existing train control systems are
extremely reliable, movements beyond
the permitted speed or the geographical
end of the movement authority are not
possible during the train’s journey,”
Auto-Ferrivia says.
“The proposed ATO system under
GoA2 (where the driver is responsible)
IRJ April 2020
A laptop was used as the ATO onboard computer during the tests. The computer was installed
with the ATO test software containing all the necessary functionalities, along with a GPS sensor
and a webcam for visualisation.
does not have to be set up in a fail-safe
design like a signalbox or a modern
train control system such as ETCS Level
2, but can be understood as an
automation or telematics application.
This simplifies approval, increases
flexibility and reduces costs.
“Another approach, for example,
would be to merge ATO with the train
control. This would have a significant
impact on complexity and flexibility
due to the time and cost of safety
validation and certification.
“If ATO is to support the train driver,
who must have all the information
needed to properly operate the train.”
The dynamic information about all
train journeys, namely the status of the
signals and position of the trains, is
recorded and updated in a database via
a non-reactive capturing device (sniffer)
of the signalbox or control system data.
Likewise, a route atlas is stored in this
database with the static route data, such
as fixed speeds in stations on the line and
speed curves as well as stopping points,
in a one-dimensional form as a distance
to target signal or reference point.
The conditions and information
relevant to the train are periodically
queried by the onboard ATO computer
via a 3G or 4G internet connection. The
ATO computer uses this information to
calculate the static speed profile (SSP)
and the dynamic speed profile (DSP)
using the train’s properties such as
length and braking ratio.
Train location is achieved by GPS. A
challenge when using GPS is the lack of
reception on sections of the route. As
the train is tied to the track, the distance
travelled after a GPS signal loss can be
determined relatively easily using
existing wheel rotation sensors.
The ATO onboard computer
continuously determines the distance
between its position and the reference
point and can thus derive the currently
permissible speed from the DSP.
The target speed is sent to the vehicle
control via a special interface which
depends on the vehicle type, but
becomes more complex when working
with older vehicle technology.
Testing
The 4km OeBB electrified branch line
from Oensingen to Balsthal was ideal
for the ATO tests as it has simple
operating conditions and there are no
conflicts with other trains. The
passenger service stops at 20.00,
allowing plenty of time for test
operation. However, the infrastructure
is quite old and the functionality of the
system is limited in terms of
automation.
The safety systems consist of two
block sections with corresponding
signals and seven level crossings
partially integrated into the signalling.
31
 Signalling and telecoms | ATO
route request demands by radio). The
system even took over control of the
doors. At each stop, the doors were
Mobile Network 3G GPS
released for an adjustable time. After
feedback from the door lock, the train
Train continued automatically when the
Interface Onboard ATO
computer signal was set.

Results
Rail vehicle
control

  

 
“We did 10 test runs and saw that the
system worked well,” Vetsch says. “The
train ran at GoA4 - the driver was only
onboard to meet test running safety
requirements.
“The test run showed that automated
Signalbox or driving on conventional railways is
Trackside ATO computer
process control sysstem possible with relatively simple means.
ATO doesn’t need to be interoperable as
The ATO architechture for the Auto-Ferrivia GoA2 system. it costs too much, and we shouldn’t try
to match ATO with ETCS.
“We should only use ATO for point-
The line only has manually-operated and Balsthal took place on December 17 to-point and train-to-train operation.
switches. Train protection is a standard 2019. “The transmission of the data from Empty stock movements could be one
ZUB/Signum system with Packet 44 the signalbox to the train worked of the biggest markets for ATO.”
ETCS Level 1 Limited Supervision. perfectly,” Auto-Ferrivia says. “Likewise, Auto-Ferrivia believes that as its ATO
Only the stations have individual track the GPS location proved to be very stable system can be superimposed on
vacancy sections. The route is set and reliable. The specifications for the existing infrastructure and train
manually by the train driver via radio vehicle control provided by the ATO systems, investment should be minimal
or local buttons. computer were correctly implemented by and migration rapid, even with
The OeBB signalbox is based on the interface and resulted overall in a interlockings and trains that are
Domino relay technology. The trackside satisfactory but still optimisable test run. relatively old.
ATO computer acting in a similar way The targeted stopping process in particular “We have proved the concept, and the
to a control system was superimposed was demanding and parameters had to be project has come to an end,” Vetsch
on this technology. This processes the set using numerous settings. says. “Extensive practical experience
retroactively captured states of the After a few fine adjustments, will show whether and where
signals (stop or proceed) in the route autonomous trips were completed in automated operation has its advantages
information and assigns them to train both directions without the driver’s and disadvantages and, if necessary, its
numbers using a timetable. intervention (with the exception of the justification.” IRJ
Using this principle, all relay
signalboxes could be connected to ATO.
In Switzerland, the majority of safety
systems are still based on this
technology. If available, the data
required by ATO can also be taken from
an electronic signalbox or a control
system, provided that the
corresponding interface is known.
The train used for the test runs was
provided by the Koblenz Depot and
Rail Vehicle Association (DSF) and Rail
Systems Engineering. The EMU dates
from 1991, which made retrofitting ATO
complex compared with a modern train.
A special interface had to be developed
which converts the ATO commands into
digital and analogue signals, which the
train can understand.
The test runs were carried out using a
laptop as the ATO onboard computer.
The ATO test software containing all the
necessary functionalities was installed
on the laptop to which a GPS sensor
and a webcam for visualisation were
also connected. A retrofitted EMU, built in 1991, was supplied for the tests by the Koblenz Depot and Rail
The first test runs between Oensingen Vehicle Association (DSF) and Rail Systems Engineering.

32 IRJ April 2020

New European multimodal freight
route swings into action
A freight wagon developed at the turn of the century looks set to finally come into its own, as a new service
launches to improve intermodal freight movements between Germany and Austria. David Burroughs looks at
A
how Helrom plans to use this to carve itself a place in the market.
German-based company is
looking to launch a service which
it says solves two of the major
issues faced by multi-modal operators:
carrying a wide range of semi-trailers
and reliable delivery.
As the European Union looks to
transfer more freight from road to rail
and waterways, Frankfurt-based
operator Helrom is due to launch a
freight service at the end of April
operating six days a week between the
port of Duisport in Duisburg, Germany,
and Vienna, Austria, using Megaswing
wagons capable of carrying all types of
lorry semi-trailers.
Transporting semi-trailers by rail is a
difficult task, which often requires
specially-designed lorries that can be
craned onto the train, or carrying the
tractor unit along with the trailer.
The Megaswing wagons were
developed by Kockums Industries in
Sweden in the early 2000s, but were not
readily adopted by operators, partially
due to the economic downturn in 2008
and 2009 which saw large numbers of
wagons sitting idle across the continent
as freight numbers dropped.


You have a fixed timetable which is always the same
over the years and you stick to that timetable under any
circumstances Roman Noack
The Megaswing product and patents
were acquired by Helrom in 2019, and
the operator now has a fleet of 18 wagons
on order that it will use on the route.
The company, headed by CEO, Mr
Roman Noack, and chairman, Mr Keith
Heller, was launched in 2017. Noack
first began working in the freight market
in Germany, including 10 years working
for German Rail (DB), while Heller was
the head of British rail freight operator
EWS - which was acquired by DB Cargo
in 2005 - between 2004 and 2011.
IRJ April 2020
Freight and logistics | multimodal
The Megaswing wagon was developed by Kockums Industries and was acquired by Helrom in 2016.
The Duisport - Vienna service,
consisting of 20 wagons carrying up to
40 semitrailers, will depart at 22.00 with
a transit time of 19 hours. Noack says
this has been calculated to allow enough
leeway for unforeseen events to ensure
the service always arrives on time. “You
have a fixed timetable which is always
the same over the years and you stick to
that timetable under any circumstances,”
he says.
Helrom will lease or rent the
locomotives needed for the service,
supplying the drivers itself. The company
will also maintain the wagons in-house.
Loading and unloading the Megaswing
wagons does not require any additional
infrastructure such as a loading ramp,
apart from a large paved surface and a
generator. To load the wagon, hydraulic
supports are lowered for stability, before
the base is swung to the left or right.
The semi-trailer is then backed onto the
platform, before swivelling back onto
the wagon and lowered slightly to lock
it into place. The supports are then
raised, with the operation taking
around three minutes to complete.
Around É10m has so far been invested
in the project, with the capital coming
from a number of countries including
the United States. Helrom says it has
also adopted “American-style” business
principles to ensure the freight train
runs strictly according to schedule.
While the Megaswing previously had
trouble with adoption into normal
traffic, Noack says he is convinced that
now is the right time to introduce a
service.
Rail’s share of freight in Germany is
currently around 17%, but the federal
government has set a goal to increase
this to 26%. The European Union is also
aiming to speed up the process of
shifting a “significant amount” of the
75% of freight carried by road to rail
and waterways.
The Duisburg - Vienna service will be
the start of a European-wide network,
with Helrom identifying 50 corridors to
introduce the service by 2026.
This network would extend from
Stockholm in the north to Rotterdam in
the west, Perpignan in the south and
the Bulgarian-Turkish border in the
east.
Around three quarters of freight in
Europe is currently transported by road,
with around 78% of this in non-
craneable trailers which cannot be
loaded onto rail wagons. Almost a
quarter of these lorries travel more than
500km across Europe, and Noack says
capturing even a small percentage of
this market would allow Helrom to
ensure “enormous growth.” IRJ
33
Further work needed to fully unlock
Freight and logistics | Switzerland
benefits of Ceneri Base Tunnel
T
Despite Switzerland’s efforts to help create an efficient rail freight corridor between the North Sea and Italy, a
number of challenges still exist, Anitra Green reports.
HE Rhine-Alpine rail freight
corridor linking Belgian and Dutch
ports with Genoa, Italy, via
Germany and Switzerland will reach
another milestone when the 15km
Ceneri Base Tunnel in Switzerland
opens in December this year. Everyone
in the Swiss rail freight industry is
anticipating a big leap forward in terms
of increased capacity and shorter transit
times, as it represents the final stage in
the Swiss New Railway Link through
the Alps project following the opening
of the 57km Gotthard Base Tunnel
further north in 2016 and improvements
along the corridor in other parts of the
country.
However, this is not likely to happen
as quickly as leading Swiss carriers
would like. This is due to a variety of
complications within Switzerland and
on other parts of the corridor, notably in
Germany, which could delay expansion
of freight services along this
international corridor for at least
another decade.
Although the Swiss Federal Council
34
released a report last November setting
out a package of measures to encourage
modal shift in the face of an inevitable
delay, the rail freight industry does not
believe that it goes far enough, and
expects that capacity increases will be
only half that envisaged.
First the good news: Switzerland’s
move to shift as much freight as
possible from road to rail is paying off -
a welcome sign of progress for this
small, mountainous country, located as
it is on important trans-European trade
routes. The success of the Swiss plan for
transporting unaccompanied combined
transport (UCT) units across the
country by rail instead of road is due on
the one hand to the imposition of a toll
on trucks in 2000 and on the other to
the introduction of government
subsidies for rail freight operators.
In 2010, 1.4 million trucks a year were
congesting alpine highways and the
numbers were still increasing. This has
since been cut by a third to 0.94 million
units and the objective is to reduce the
number of lorries passing through
Photo: David Gubler
Switzerland even further. By contrast,
other alpine passes are recording
increases of 20-40% in road freight
traffic.
“What we are doing here in
Switzerland represents a model for the
rest of Europe,” said Mr Hans-Jörg
Bertschi, chairman of Hupac, a leading
intermodal transport operator in
Switzerland and one of the market
leaders in Europe. “This move to a
modal shift doesn’t exist anywhere
else,” he added, speaking at a press
conference in Bern also attended by
representatives of SBB Cargo
International and BLS Cargo.
One of the problems facing
Switzerland’s international rail traffic is
the lack of coordination in planning of
train paths in neighbouring countries,
which leads to delays and inefficient
use of resources. Another factor is the
priority system: fast passenger trains
always have priority over freight trains
regardless of how late they are. This
again leads to additional delays for
freight trains, leading in turn to lower
IRJ April 2020
productivity, higher costs due to sub-
optimal use of resources and lower
chances of achieving growth, according
to Mr Dirk Stahl, CEO of BLS Cargo.
Deteriorating punctuality is also
having an effect. According to the Swiss
Federal Office of Transport, 10 years
ago, 75% of intermodal trains were less
than one hour late. Today, this is down
to only around 55%, with 12% of trains
delayed by 12 hours or more. “For our
customers this is simply no longer
acceptable,” Bertschi said. On top of
that, track access charges are much
higher in Switzerland. Bertschi says
they are 35% more expensive than in
Germany, and 75% more than in Italy.
In addition, there are two locations -
near Lugano and the Bözberg tunnel in
the Frick valley - where steep gradients
require the use of a second locomotive.
This means that the original idea of
having a single locomotive hauling a
2000-tonne, 740m-long train with a 4m
corner height all the way across
Switzerland thanks to the Gotthard and
Ceneri tunnels will still not be a reality.
Moreover, there are still several
construction sites and incompatibilities
in the train control systems, which also
lead to delays. “If we cannot operate
heavier, longer and faster trains, it is no
good,” says Mr Sven Flore, CEO of SBB
Cargo International.
Upgrades
One of the biggest issues facing
operators is the delay in carrying out
urgently needed upgrades on access
routes to Switzerland in Germany. One
of the aims of the corridor is to
guarantee passage for trains up to 740m
long, but this is still not the case. In
addition, there is a lack of international
coordination in the planning of
construction sites, which are frequent
and lead to diversions and temporary
bottlenecks which can cause substantial
delays. Because of this, the reduction in
transit times across Switzerland are
often lost elsewhere.
In addition, thousands of objections
have been raised to projects on various
parts of the corridor through the Rhine
valley, which could mean that
construction work will continue until
2040, or perhaps even longer. This is the
only part of the corridor that has no
clear alternative route, and the Rastatt
incident in August 2017 is a prime
example of what can happen in the case
of a mishap. Subsidence of the track
due to tunnelling work at Rastatt
resulted in closure of the mainline for
seven weeks, which had a catastrophic
IRJ April 2020
effect on rail freight and logistics services
Europe-wide, leading to financial losses
estimated at up to É2bn.
It is important for this reason to
establish an alternative route on the
west bank of the Rhine, through France
and Belgium, with the additional
possibility of switching from one side of
the Rhine to the other between Mannheim
and Strasbourg. The importance of this
scheme was emphasised by a call by all
three Swiss market players for a political
initiative by Switzerland, France and
Belgium to create an alternative route
by negotiating a tri-national treaty.


10 years ago, 75% of intermodal trains were less than
one hour late. This is now down to only around 55%,
with 12% of trains delayed by 12 hours or more.
Swiss Federal Office of Transport
The routes, linking Zeebrugge,
Antwerp and Strasbourg with Basle,
and Wörth with Strasbourg via
Lauterbourg, already exist, but do not
conform to the corridor parameters of
the Swiss transit axis, and therefore
only carry a small amount of freight
traffic. They should therefore be
upgraded to take 740m-long trains with
a 4m corner height and weighing up to
2000 tonnes hauled by one locomotive
fitted with ERTMS. This would be
particularly useful given the fact that
Belgium is the biggest market for rail
freight passing through Switzerland.
This would create a much-needed
second 4m-high access route from the
north to Basle, but will obviously take
time to complete, possibly 10 years.
Other parts of the Rhine-Alpine
corridor already have alternative routes,
with two lines through Switzerland via
the Gotthard and the Lötschberg base
tunnels and three connections to Italy
via Chiasso, Luino and Domodossola.
Germany already has two other north-
south corridors in operation via the
Brenner in Austria.
Profits
As a result of all these deficiencies,
the increase in productivity as a result
of the NRLA project is only half as
much as predicted, and it is likely to
stay that way for the next 10 years if the
basic conditions do not change,
according to Swiss rail freight
operators. Consequently, the original
aim of rail freight operators being able
to run at a profit without subsidies has
been delayed.
The original policy of the Swiss
Federal Council was to gradually
reduce subsidies as rail freight
productivity rises. Federal council
member, Ms Simonetta Sommaruga, has
already commissioned the council to
approve a three-year extension up to
2026. But in view of current
developments, Swiss rail freight
operators are pushing for more support
from the Swiss government in the shape
of continued subsidies of SFr 55m ($US
57m) a year up to 2030.
This will enable them to bridge the
inevitable gap and give them financial
security to invest in rolling stock and
terminal equipment. Only in this way
can they continue to cope with the
increase in traffic through the Alps and
avoid putting at risk the entire aim of
the Alpine Initiative, the independent
organisation set up for the protection of
the natural habitat of the Alps. Asked
about the likelihood of the Swiss rail
freight sector being successful in getting
their plea for further support approved
by the Swiss parliament, Bertschi says
he is optimistic.
There is also another factor to be
considered. A great deal of traffic flows
through Switzerland from the major
ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, but
this could change in the future as a
result of expansion projects in Italy’s
Ligurian ports. Chinese investors are
helping to finance facilities for handling
the world’s largest container ships.
Savona opened such a facility in
December. In addition, the Terzo Valico
rail project north of Genoa will be
completed in 2023, which will give
unrestricted access to markets to the
north.
How much effect these developments
will have on traffic volumes through
Switzerland’s transalpine freight
corridor is difficult to predict as it
depends on several factors on both
sides of the Alps. Fluctuations are
expected, but only time will tell how
great they will be. IRJ
35
 Rendezvous
April 2020 14-15—Perth Australia https://events.railtech.com/rail- 8 UIC, Paris, France.
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36 IRJ April 2020

 Contacts | editorial Fresh faces
46 Killigrew Street, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 3PP, UK Mr Hakon Iversen has been appointed CEO of Danish
Tel +44 1326 313945 infrastructure manager Banedenmark, effective April

Editor-in-Chief Kevin Smith MA ks@railjournal.co.uk

Consulting Editor/Associate Publisher
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Regional editors
Australia Mark Carter
Chile Ian Thomson Newman
Germany Keith Fender
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New Zealand Richard Worrall
Spain Ferran Torga
Switzerland Anitra Green
USA/Canada William C Vantuono
Correspondents
Argentina Jorge Waddell
Austria Erwin Reidinger
Brazil Renata Passos
Denmark Denis Bowers
Hungary Ferenc Joo
India Srinand Jha
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1. Iversen was a director of the Danish Evaluation
Board and has previously worked in the Ministry of
Transport and Housing.
Mr Peter Jonasson has been appointed property director
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effective August 17. She replaces Mr Crister Fritzson,
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IRJ April 2020 37

New Zealand brings rail in from the cold
The last word | policy
New Zealand’s government is preparing a new strategy that will be a step change in how the network is
funded and how investment is allocated. David Burroughs looks at what this means for the industry.
F OLLOWING decades of
policy presenting road as
the primary method of moving
people and freight around
New Zealand, the country is
beginning to develop a more
multi-modal approach.
Rail is currently funded on a
year-on-year basis, with
planning undertaken separately
from other land-transport
decisions outlined in the
Government Policy Statement
on Land Transport 2021/22 -
2030/31 (GPS 2021).
This resulted in short-term
decision making that led to a
managed decline of the
country’s rail system, with
core operational assets such as
rolling stock, maintenance
depots and Interislander road-
rail ferries reaching the end of
their economic lives and in
need of replacement.
Operational restrictions,
increased failure rates across
the network and unplanned
disruptions have also limited
rail’s contribution to the
transport network.
However, this is set to
change. The Draft New
Zealand Rail Plan, which was
released in November last
year, outlines a shift in the
structure through which the
strategy for rail is planned and
financed.
The plan, the first draft of a
regularly-updated strategy,
will guide investment for the
country’s 3700km 1067mm-
gauge network over the
longer-term by setting out the
government’s strategic vision
and priorities over a 10-year
investment programme. Rail
network funding will be
channelled through the
National Land Transport Fund
(NLTF), allowing rail to be
funded on the same basis as
other land transport modes.
Rail network activities will
be outlined in a three-year Rail
Network Investment
Programme (RNIP) developed
by KiwiRail and guided by the
rail plan, which will include a
10-year forecast.
KiwiRail will work jointly
38
with Auckland Transport,
Auckland Council and Greater
Wellington Regional Council
to agree a programme of
proposed rail network
investment in the metropolitan
passenger networks. These
activities will be included in
each region’s Regional Land
Transport Plan (RLTP), which
will then be incorporated into
the RNIP.


The truth is there is far greater demand
for our services than we are able to
supply. Greg Miller
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport
Agency (NZTA) will be
responsible for advising the
minister of transport on how
the proposed RNIP fits into
the broader land transport
investment programme under
the National Land Transport
Programme.
KiwiRail’s view
The proposals are currently
passing through the Transport
and Infrastructure Select
Committee, and KiwiRail
CEO, Mr Greg Miller, told the
committee in February that the
new framework would allow
rail to play the important role
it should in the country’s
transport system.
“Our rail lines and our
freight systems are so run
down that it has taken a huge
level of commitment from
both the government and from
our team to start moving the
company into a position where
it can return to profit,” Miller
says. “The truth is there is far
greater demand for our
services than we are able to
supply.”
Freight tonnage in New
Zealand is expected to increase
by 55% from 237 million
tonnes in 2012-13 to 366
million tonnes in 2042-43, but
rail currently accounts for only
8% of this.
Miller says that past
funding models have resulted
in short-term decision making
that has led to cost cutting
resulting in a lack of drivers,
locomotives and wagons as
well as a decline in fully
usable track.
“Those decisions have
resulted in higher track and
machinery maintenance costs,
higher repair costs and higher
costs from driver shortages
that lead to freight service
limitations and increased costs
from overtime, travel and
accommodation,” he says.
“Our strategy to return to
profitability and deliver a
good return to our shareholders
is threefold: we aim to run
more services; get the
equipment we need to be able
to grow capacity; and put in
Rail currently has an 8% market share of freight in New Zealand, but is
looking to grow this along the main trunk lines. Photo: David Gubler
place the technology that will
enable us to track freight, and
track profit and loss centres.”
Miller says the plan does
not pit road against rail in a
competition for funding, but
instead will enable the two to
better work together.
“Road freight is
complementary to rail,” he
says. “New Zealand’s shorter
haul aggregate users don’t use
rail because they don’t have
rail that goes to where their
customers are. Rail terminals,
however, act as a hub, a place
where freight can be taken off
roads and put onto rail that is
designed to take heavy loads,
and transport the freight to
ports or other cities for
domestic distribution.
“The draft rail plan is about
making sure that rail - whether
freight or passenger - is funded
fairly and sustainably over the
decades ahead. It’s about
making sure our network is up
to standard, which for our
customers means schedule
integrity and reliability, and
provides them the confidence
to make greater use of rail.”
The final plan, alongside the
final GPS 2021, is due to be
published in the second half of
the year and will be updated
in future to reflect changes in
investment priorities for rail. IRJ
IRJ April 2020
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