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Found 2344 bulletins. The archive was last updated on 18 October 2005 and there are 2345 bulletins.
Bombardier is developing a next-generation bogie where axles are actively pivoted radially by an electric motor. Current radial bogies also have pivoting axles, but they pivot passively. Controlling the pivot would mean the bogies retain stiffness on straight track, allowing higher speed on straights while retaining the curve benefits of today's radial bogies. The active bogie is part of the "Green Train" project, where Bombardier is working with the Royal Swedish Insitute of Technology (KTH) and Swedish Rail Administration Banverket on a next-generation X 2000 train for 250 km/h. A modified Regina train is being tested with private operator Tågkompaniet next summer. See also
official page with information in English, stories at
Swedish Radio and
DalaDirekt, and
Banverket press release. And more on Regina trains, from
Bombardier,
EriksRailNews.com, and
Jarnvag.net.
(October 15th 2005)
Skyways is cutting two destinations from its timetable, Mora and Örebro, at the end of October. Mora now has no scheduled flights at all, while Örebro retains one-stop flights to København. Örebro is 1.46 from Stockholm by train, while Mora is four hours by train from Stockholm. See also
Swedish timetables and schematic of rail lines.
(October 11th 2005)
Several years of inadequate funding of the railway infrastructure in Denmark came to a head this summer when the track authority, Banedanmark, imposed numerous severe speed restrictions on the network causing major delays to trains and forcing Danish State Railways (DSB) to cut train frequency on the København S-Train network.
(October 10th 2005)
Bombardier's rail division is again profitable after a cost-cutting program, says director André Navarri in an interview with Die Welt. Four of seven unprofitable factories have been closed, and the other three are being closed by April 2006. This sums up to cutting 7600 jobs. Bombardier is taking advantage of globalisation by moving some manufacturing to low-wage countries while retaining engineering jobs in western Europe. Navarri believes the consolidation wave is over, both for the big companies like Alstom and Siemens as well as for smaller train manufacturers. See also Die Welt's
Bombardier fact box.
(September 21st 2005)
Transit Tenders Eat Swedish Monopoly?
Transit authorities in the Bergslagen and Skåne regions of Sweden are lobbying for the right to put out to tender traffic which would infringe on SJ's monopoly. This monopoly covers a national network of profitable long-distance passenger traffic. In collaboration with Danish authorities, Skåne transit is preparing a large tender of traffic stretching from København across the border to Malmö and 300km northward and eastward to Göteborg and Kalmar. In Bergslagen, the transit authorities say they can take over the trains to Stockholm by making better use of their Regina trains. They have better acceleration than SJ's X 2000 trains and could thus make more stops while maintaining the 2 hours trip time to Stockholm. The government has commissioned a report which concludes that SJ would go bankrupt if it loses the monopoly on the two lines to Skåne, but has not said anything about changing legislation to allow any of these plans. It has See also
Tåg i Bergslagen press release in PDF and
Skånetrafiken press release on the large tender.
(September 21st 2005) The transit authorities in Stockholm and Uppsala have been authorised to run commuter trains Uppsala-Arlanda airport-Upplands Väsby (a suburb north of Stockholm). Once this is done, stage two will be to extend SL's commuter trains to Knivsta where they would meet up with UL's commuter train. This means that SL and UL would be offering services in competition with SJ's direct Uppsalapendel train, and Arlanda Express' monopoly on rail traffic between Stockholm Central and the airport. The new commuter trains will start operation in 2006. See also press releases from Upplands Lokaltrafik
1 and
2, and
UL newsletter.
(September 21st)
Amtrak Chief Executive David Gunn told a St. Louis audience in late August that the passenger railroad is not in a crisis, then blasted the U.S. Transportation Department for a mind-set he says could destroy Amtrak.
(September 16th 2005)
Though Russian President Vladimir Putin was present at a signing ceremony for Russia\'s purchase of high-speed trains from Siemens, the deal is now in doubt following the appointment by Putin of a new railway boss.
(September 16th 2005)
Free Internet on Swedish Trains
While installing wireless internet on its X 2000 fleet, SJ is offering the service for free during the fall. Modern computers configure themselves, while older ones may need to be set up with SSID to "SJ" and then go to the website www.ombord.info. This bulletin was written on the train. The internet connection is done with a combination of mobile phone and satellite networks.
(September 16th 2005)
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp begins speed tests of the 345 km high-speed railway this week, hoping it can start operating in October as scheduled, the company said yesterday. Speed will be raised gradually from 120 km/h to 315 km/h. THSRC has ordered 30 sets of the 700T rail cars from Japan and has taken delivery of 20 sets. Each set consists of 12 carriages seating a total of 986 passengers.
(August 24th 2005)
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