News in Brief – 21-27 July 2010

New $500 million rail line unsafe
Sections of the recently upgraded Melbourne-Albury rail line have reportedly been declared unsafe because hundreds of large, mud-filled potholes have formed under the newly installed sleepers and rails.

The train drivers union told The Age that speed restrictions have had to be enforced along 58km of the line. The union said the holes under the tracks have caused carriages to separate and train drivers to almost bounce out of their seats.

ARTC spokesman Brian Dale reportedly agreed that poor drainage was a problem on the line and said that work had begun to rectify the problem.

PN awards Siemens loco contract
Pacific National has awarded Siemens a contract to supply nine additional narrow gauge 25kV heavy haul electric class 7100 locomotives to support PN’s recently secured coal haulage contracts in central Queensland. The locos, to be delivered by January 1 2012, will assist PN to deliver in excess of 10m tonnes of coal per year.

Siemens has already manufactured 23 Class 7100 locos for PN to be delivered this month.

The locos are built and tested in the Siemens locomotive plant in Munich and are the highest powered narrow gauge electric loco in the world. The trains are all fitted with Electronically Control Pneumatic Brake system allowing more efficient braking resulting in operational advantages for PN.

“The increase in haulage requirements has seen PN expand our fleet of locomotives and we have a reputation as the largest private rail freight business to deliver innovative rail technologies that have the right mix of competitiveness, reliability and efficiency required by our customers,” PN general manager business development coal Paul Griffin said.

Davies appointed to QR National Coal
By Sineva Toevai
QR National has appointed former Qantas senior manager Curtis Davies to the posts of chief executive and executive vice president of its coal haulage customer division. Davies held a number of senior executive positions in areas including marketing and strategy during his 13-year term at Qantas.

Before working for Qantas, he held roles with KPMG in Sydney and London.
The newly created role comes in the wake of the division of QR, which took effect from July 1, ahead of its privatisation later this year.

Davies will work closely with QR National coal operations chief executive Marcus McAuliffe when he starts his new position in mid August.
Source: Lloyd’s List Daily Commercial News – www.lloydslistdcn.com.au

“Greenway” for Sydney
New South Wales premier Kristina Keneally announced last week the government’s proposed new light rail corridor between Sydney’s Lilyfield and Dulwich Hill will include the city’s first “GreenWay”– an environmentally sustainable, integrated transport corridor.

Keneally said the GreenWay will ensure the corridor has a “mixed use” for commuters, cyclists, walkers and joggers.

The government’s proposed $500m light rail expansion would see 10km of additional light rail track though Leichardt to Dulwich Hill.

Design and construction work on the GreenWay will be undertaken at the same time as work on the light rail line, which Keneally said is expected to be complete within two years.

The government’s Transport NSW lodged an application for the light rail extension last week.

Scott Wilson Acquisition of Systemwide
International design and engineering consultancy Scott Wilson has acquired the entire share capital of Systemwide, a consultancy specialising in operational planning and network capacity assessments for metros and railways.

Systemwide will continue to be based in Melbourne, however Scott Wilson’s strengths in services and sectors outside Australia offer significant business development opportunities for the Systemwide team to grow into international markets and other service areas.

Significant recent Systemwide projects include the operational and capacity planning advice for the Cross River Rail project in Brisbane, advisers for the successful Metropolitan rail franchise bid for Metro Trains Melbourne, a range of planning services for heavy-haul coal railways and mining companies, assisting in the development of a long-term rail strategy for SE Queensland, capacity planning for the Adelaide rail network and advising on new signalling technologies for RailCorp in NSW.

France to invest EUR$55bn in public transport
The International Association of Public Transport (UITP) has welcomed the French Government’s EUR$55bn investment in urban public transport.

The French national transport infrastructure scheme , due to be adopted at the end of the year, sets out a total of EUR$170bn worth of investment in alternatives to road transport over 20 to 30 years, including EUR$55bn for urban public transport.

The investment proposed by the French government is in line with the sustainable development goals set out in its environment action plan that UITP said “clearly reflect” those of UITP’s own international strategy that aim to double the public transport market share worldwide by 2025.

The French Government estimates that CO2 emissions will fall by 100 million tonnes over 50 years.

According to UITP estimates, in cities where the share of public transport + walking + cycling is over 55%, on average passenger transport produces 2.4 fewer tonnes of CO2 emissions annually compared to cities where private transport has a share of over 75%.