IRJInternational Railway Journal

June 2020 | Volume 60 Issue 6www.railjournal.com | @railjournal

Coronavirus lockdowns ease = Czech HS plans advance

Intermodal innovatorPKP Cargo eyes new strategy post Covid-19

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Poland and Czech Republic18 Embracing intermodal

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22 Reopening the Plum Railway Upgraded line a testbed for AZD Praha technology

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Also in this issue36 Rendezvous37 Full contact list37 Advertisers index37 Fresh faces38 The last word

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International Railway Journal (Print ISSN 2161-7376,Digital ISSN 2161-7368), is published monthly bySimmons-Boardman Publishing Corp, 88 Pine Street,23rd floor, New York, NY 10005, USA. Printed inGreat Britain by Buxton Press and distributed in theUSA by Mail Right International, 1637 Stelton RoadB4, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. Periodicals postagepaid at Piscataway, NJ and additional mailing offices.COPYRIGHT © Simmons-Boardman Publishing Cor-poration 2020. All rights reserved. Contents maynot be reproduced without permission. For reprintinformation please contact Editor-in-Chief. For sub-scriptions & address changes, please call +1 319 3646167, Fax +1 319 364 4278, Email: internationalrail-wayjournal@stamats.com or write to: InternationalRailway Journal, Simmons-Boardman PublishingCorp, PO Box 1407, CedarRapids, IA, 52406-1407.POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to International Rail-way Journal, PO Box 1407,Cedar Rapids, IA, 52406-1407.

News4 This month6 News - Covid-19 pandemic8 News analysis10 News headlines14 Transit news16 Financial news

High speed26 Momentum builds for Czech high-speed network

Improving domestic and international connections

30 Mumbai - Ahmedabad project takes stockIndia’s high-speed line faces complex challenges

Train maintenance32 Digital strategy improves SNCF’s systems

Condition-based maintenance proves its worth

IRJInternational Railway Journal

June 2020 | Volume 60 Issue 6www.railjournal.com | @railjournal

Coronavirus lockdowns ease = Czech HS plans advance

Intermodal innovatorPKP Cargo eyes new strategy post Covid-19

J 21/05/2020 18:05 Page 1

Front cover

June 2020 Volume 60 issue 6

18

8

22

32

IRJ June 2019 3

PKP Cargo has taken ahit from the coronavirus pandemic,but remains focusedon delivering a new strategy based onintermodal rail freightand logistics services.

June contents_Layout 1 22/05/2020 14:20 Page 3

4

creation, social inclusion,health and sustainability. Thesignatories are also right toemphasise public transport’senvironmental credentials.While SCI predicts that rail

is set to benefit from the EU’sGreen Deal programme, thesector cannot take its greenstatus for granted, particularlyif ridership remains suppressed.The road sector is making

rapid progress with electricvehicles and has a real chanceof ending rail’s hegemonyover the argument within thenext 10 years. In addition,while delivering truly automatedroad vehicles in congestedcities is a monumental task,long distance ‘smart’automated motorways arelooking feasible a lot sooner.Offering the time to relax andwork as you would on a trainjourney but within thesanctuary of an individualprivate vehicle is a real threatto long-distance rail.For rail to maintain the

upper hand, and to remain thesustainable mode of choice,the new normal must work forand not against public transport.To do that, people must beencouraged to travel by train.

AS Covid-19 lockdownsbegin to ease, a new

normal is emerging for railtransport.China’s employment of

social distancing at stationsand onboard trains, which wereported last month, is steadilybecoming established practiceon networks around the world.In many countries the adviceremains to travel only whennecessary and to wear a mask.Passengers must maintain adistance ranging from 1-2mdepending on the country, andincreasingly many governmentsand authorities are trackingmovements using smartphoneapps.While essential to safeguard

the population’s health, this isa potentially calamitoussituation for operators. TheInternational Association ofPublic Transport (UITP)projects a É40bn hit at thefarebox for European publictransport operators in 2020(p14). US transit providers aresimilarly facing a $US 23.8bnshortfall by the end of 2021 inaddition to the $US 25bnalready covered by the USgovernment’s Covid-19 reliefpackage.Rail market analysts at SCI

Verkehr (p8) do not foresee areturn to pre-Covid-19 trafficlevels before 2024 in their mostlikely outcome scenario for thecurrent crisis, in which morelocalised public lockdownsreturn. In the most optimisticscenario, where the virus iseradicated by the middle ofnext year, rapid recovery isexpected by the end of 2021following a 50% reduction intraffic in 2020. However, in themost pessimistic case, whereeconomies are hit hard andunemployment increases by30-40% in 2020, SCI says thatrail transport performance willnot reach pre-crisis levelsbefore 2025.

In this scenario, SCI assumesthat more people will changetheir travel behaviour in thelong-term at the expense ofrail. This situation will worsenthe longer the crisis lasts, andit will become harder toconvince those using their carsto return to trains and buses.While understandable given

the risk, the British government’s

policy to advise people toavoid public transport is notthe right message for the newnormal. Encouraging people touse private transport heightenscongestion and extenuates airpollution. In addition, manycities are simply not geared upfor a huge influx of cars. Thankfully this negative

approach appears to be theexception rather than the rule.In cities across Europe, leadershave been actively usingpublic transport services whilefollowing the new protocols toemphasise that it is safe andinviting citizens to do thesame. Trenitalia is alsoreassuring high-speedpassengers by providingcomplimentary personalprotective equipment (PPE)kits to maintain personalhygiene while travelling.As the recession takes hold,

there is a risk that politiciansand decision makers becomeblind-sided by short-termtrends when deciding whereto direct recovery funds. Demand for travel might be

reduced now and in theimmediate future. But even inSCI’s most pessimistic forecast,

as in past crises, demand willreturn and with it the capacityconstraints which restrictedprogress in the recent past. For this reason, it is

imperative that decisionmakers continue to take thelong-term view and use thistime wisely. Indeed, theywould do well to note PKPCargo’s approach (p18). Instead of making

“impulsive” decisions to fireemployees and respond to thehere and now, as CEO, MrCzeslaw Warsewicz, told me,the freight operator is usingthe Polish government’seconomic relief package to buytime to reflect on and tweak itslong-term strategy.The wider sector should also

use this time to adapt to thenew normal so it works in itslong-term interest. Forexample, some infrastructuremanagers have already takenthe opportunity to increasemaintenance or bring forwardupgrades while there are lesstrains running. Perhaps otherscould do the same?Of course, with a limited pot

of money available, and withgovernments alreadycommitting billions to keeppassenger operators afloat,rail, as always, will have tofight to secure the investmentit needs. A letter to the EU signed by

80 public transport companyCEOs and city representatives,which was presented by theUITP, urged Europeaninstitutions to include urbanpublic transport as one ofthe strategic sectors inthe EU’s plan forrecovery from theCovid-19 pandemic.This display of

unity is encouraging.As the letter states,public transport is akey accelerator of theeconomy, job

New normalpresents risk torail transport

This month | Kevin Smith

As the recession takes hold, there is a risk that politicians and decisionmakers become blind-sided by short-term trends.

ks@railjournal.co.uk

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6 IRJ June 2020

in January and February up9%. However, measuresintroduced to control thespread of coronavirus sawtravel “collapse,” resulting inan overall decrease of 4%.

May 4

Following a decision on April24 by Belgium’s NationalSecurity Council to easecoronavirus travel restrictions,SNCB and Infrabel restoredmost passenger rail services. = Regional rail services acrossGermany began operating at90% of normal service, as anumber of lock-down measuresacross the country were lifted.

May 5

China National Railway (CR)announced a loss of Yuan611.8bn ($US 86.6bn) in thefirst quarter of 2020 due to ahuge drop in passenger trafficas a result of the coronaviruspandemic. This compares witha loss of just Yuan 2.2bn forthe same period in 2019 andreflects a 28.1% drop inrevenue to Yuan 1883bn.Passenger ticket revenue fellby 51.1% to Yuan 45.3bn,reflecting a 54.8% drop inpassenger traffic to 378 millionjourneys. Conversely, CRachieved a 3.1% increase infreight traffic during the firstquarter and carried 8.24million tonnes of freight.

May 7

SNCF announced that it wouldgradually resume serviceswith a goal of reaching normallevels of service by the end ofJune. SNCF usually operatesaround 15,000 trains a day, butthis was reduced to just 2650during the height of thepandemic. From May 11, SNCFplanned to reintroduce 50% ofTransilien and TER services,

April 21

The European Railway IndustryAssociation (Unife) and theCommunity of EuropeanRailways and InfrastructureManagers (CER) called for railto be included in the EU’spost-Covid-19 recovery plan.In an open letter to senior EUofficials, the associations calledfor policy to support rail as alow-emission transport option.= KTZ Freight Transportationwaived some of its fees andcharges to support freightoperation.= Netherlands Railways (NS)began production of 80 powermodules for emergency hospitalventilators, using its rollingstock workshops. The powersupply units are produced byNS and developed and testedby TU Delft.

April 22

French infrastructure managerSNCF Network set up anorganisation to maintain railfreight services, in particularthe transport of essentialgoods. SNCF Network led thesystem, which operates sevendays a week and defines trafficpriorities, day-to-day freight

traffic and anticipates transportplans as far ahead as possible.

April 24

Spanish national operatorRenfe deferred the launch ofits low-cost high-speed Avloservice indefinitely. Avlo wasdue to be launched on April 6,but this was initially delayeduntil April 26 due to thepandemic. No revised launchdate has been set.

April 26

CD, working with the CzechMinistry of Transport, partiallyresumed operation of long-distance passenger services.This included the XftufsoFyqsftt linking Prague, Pilsenand Cheb, the Wjoepcpob!Sbjmkfufrom Prague to Breclav, thePsf!Npvoubjot!service fromPrague to Ústí nad Labem,Karlovy Vary and Cheb, andthe domestic section of theXbmmbdijbo!Fyqsftt from Pragueto Olomouc and Horní Lidec.

April 29

Canadian National Railway(CN) revised its financialoutlook for 2020 in the light of

the coronavirus pandemic,which it says is having anunprecedented andextraordinary impact on theeconomy. “The economicoutlook, and therefore overalldemand for transportationservices, are highly correlatedwith the duration of containmentmeasures and the impacts onbusinesses and consumers,which at this point remainuncertain,” CN says. = Air France accepted a É7bncoronavirus aid package,which imposed three conditionson the airline, including astipulation that it was to stopcompeting with TGV serviceswhere trains offer a comparablejourney time of 2h 30min orless. Only passengers usingflights between Paris andBordeaux, Lyon, Nantes orRennes to connect with flightsto other destinations will beallowed to travel by air. = Swedish National operatorSJ announced that salesplummeted during the lasttwo weeks of the first quarterof 2020, resulting in a loss ofSKr 72m ($US 7.3m) despite astrong start to the quarter.Until mid-March, SJ recordedsome of its strongest weeksever, with passenger numbers

Operators cautiously relaunch servicesas national lockdowns easeAfter drastically cutting back services in response to dwindling passenger numbers in March and April, railoperators have begun the process of returning to normal, albeit with social distancing and otherpreventative measures in place. David Burroughs tracks how the industry responded day-by-day.

News | Covid-19 pandemic

Network Rail has introduced policies of social distancing between employees at work sites. Photo: Network Rail

June coronavirus_Layout 1 21/05/2020 19:42 Page 6

along with 30% of TGV services.This was due to be increasedon May 25 to 75% of Transilienand TER services. TGV serviceswould increase to 50% aroundMay 24.

May 11

Following a six-week hiatus,DB relaunched ICE servicesfrom Frankfurt via Saarbrückento Paris. DB is now runningtwice-daily services on the routefrom Karlsruhe via Strasbourgto Paris. A further increase ininternational ICE and TGVservices is scheduled for June.

May 12

Alstom estimated the impactof the coronavirus pandemicon sales for 2019-20 at aroundÉ100m. Alstom put in placecrisis cells at all levels of thecompany and an operational,commercial, cost and cashmitigation plan is beingimplemented. Alstom startedto slowly reopen most of itssites from the end of April, butsaid a progressive alignmentwith its supply chain wasrequired before a partialrestart of production couldcommence in early May.= The Association of GermanRailway Engineers (VDEI)rescheduled the InternationalExhibition for Track Technology(IAF) until May 31-June 22022. The 28th IAF trade fairin Münster, which takes placeevery four years, wasoriginally scheduled for May18-20 2021, but VDEI decidedto delay IAF by one year dueto the pandemic and MesseBerlin’s decision to postpone

InnoTrans to April 27-30 2021.= The US OneRail Coalitionwrote to Congress urging morethan $US 25bn in additionalcoronavirus emergency supportfor passenger operators andprotection for rail workers.

May 13

Germany’s Federal StatisticalOffice (Destatis) estimated thatthe number of passengersusing local public transport,including bus and train, in thefirst quarter of 2020 decreasedby around 11% compared withthe same quarter in 2019. Thestrongest decrease was acrossregional rail traffic, with S-Bahn numbers down around15%, while light rail and U-Bahn also saw steep declines.

May 14

The European Union (EU)published a 15-page set ofguidelines for the gradual andsafe restoration of transportservices as coronavirusrestrictions are lifted. The EUsaid that as the health ofpassengers and workers is thekey priority, the easing oftravel restrictions should begradual so that operators havetime to readjust to risingpassenger and freight demand. = NS announced it wouldintroduce a “timetable ofnational interest” from June 2.This will provide a similarlevel of service as the normaltimetable, but will only beavailable for necessary journeys.

May 15

Britain’s Department for

Transport (DfT) agreed to a£1.6bn support package forTransport for London (TfL) tomaintain rail and bus servicesand plug a yawning fundinggap. TfL said that as a result ofcoronavirus lockdownmeasures, there had been a95% reduction in journeys onLondon Underground, and an85% drop in bus travel. “Thishas caused an overall operatingincome loss of around 90%including non-passengerincomes, such as advertisingrevenue,” TfL said. = CD reintroduced furtherPandolino inter-city services,running between Prague andOstrava and Jizní - Prague -Ceské Budejovice.

May 18

China National Railway said2920 trains carrying 262,000TEU ran between China andEurope from January to April,a 24% increase year-on-year. InApril alone westbound volumeswere up 58% and eastbound29% for a total of 88,000 TEU.The figures bucked the trendseen in maritime and airfreight transport which all butceased due to the limitationscaused by the coronaviruspandemic and were strugglingto catch up (p18). =Moscow Metro installed 140hand sanitiser dispensersacross all 31 stations on theMoscow Central Ring.= DB began operating ICEtrains at full capacity on theimportant rail link betweenCologne/Düsseldorf and Berlin.= NJ Transit was awarded $US1.4bn in federal aid throughthe Coronavirus Aid, Reliefand Economic Security (Cares)

IRJ June 2020 7

Act. The Cares Act Fundingcan be used for operatingexpenses to prevent, preparefor and respond to the Covid-19 crisis dating back toJanuary 20. = The New York MetropolitanTransportation Authority(MTA) expanded itspartnership with NorthwellHealth-GoHealth andBioReference Laboratories toprovide antibody testing for allMTA employees throughoutthe New York metropolitanregion at no cost. The antibodytesting provides MTA andNew York State healthauthorities with a betterestimate of the overallinfection rate.= British operators increasedservice frequency from half totwo thirds of normaloperation. Operatorsimplemented one-way systemsat stations, floor markings,more security staff for crowdcontrol as well as taping offsome seats and introducingnew cleaning measures.

May 19

Danish operator DSBannounced that the pandemiccaused a pre-tax loss of DKr119m ($US 17.4m) in the firstquarter. Passenger numbersgrew in January and February,but dropped significantly inMarch.= Swiss Federal Railways(SBB) announced it wouldwaive rent for businesses inproperties that had been forcedto close by the pandemic, andreduce rent for those that hadbeen able to stay open but hadstill recorded a reduction inrevenue. IRJ

Operators have stepped-up their cleaning regimes to reduce the spread ofthe virus. Photo: Deutsche Bahn AG/Pablo Castagnola

Facemasks are now either compulsory or recommended on many servicesaround the world. Photo: Amtrak

June coronavirus_Layout 1 21/05/2020 19:42 Page 7

8 IRJ June 2020

scenario, SCI Verkehr expectsa fast return to pre-crisis trafficlevels by the end of 2021. Theprerequisite for this is thatfurther waves of infection andshutdowns are prevented, andthe pandemic is defeated in2021. People will thereforequickly return to their oldtravel habits. With a decline of50%, however, passengertransport will be heavily

affected by the crisis in 2020even in this optimisticscenario. For the period up to 2025,

SCI Verkehr assumes that theEuropean economy willrecover rapidly. Individualcountries as well as theEuropean Union (EU) will usethe crisis, and subsequenteconomic stimulus packages,to strengthen the EU’s GreenDeal and will intensify railinvestment as theenvironmentally-friendlymode of transport. Thestruggling airline industrygives up market share infavour of long-distance andinternational rail transport. By2025, transport performancewill reach the level expectedbefore the crisis.

Impact on operatorsThe Covid-19 crisis hits

passenger transport operatorshard in all three scenarios.While demand has collapseddramatically, many operatorshave reduced their servicesbut not all to the same extent.On the one hand, passengerrail transport ensures the basicsupply of mobility in manyregions, and on the otherhand, the capacity utilisation

PASSENGER rail transportwas one of the first sectors

to be hit by the full force of thecoronavirus pandemic and theassociated lockdowns.Demand plummeteddramatically in March. WhileSweden experienced a 40%decline in public transportusage with only minorrestrictions, demand inparticularly badly affectedcountries, such as Italy andFrance, fell by over 90%. Withincreasing easing ofrestrictions, passengers havebeen returning since May, butstill at a low level.SCI Verkehr has produced

three scenarios for the futuredevelopment of passenger railtransport: = the lockdowns return= disrupted markets, and= rapid recovery.In the lockdowns return

scenario, SCI assumes asecond wave with renewedlockdowns in autumn 2020,with passenger numbersplummeting again - albeit notas sharply as at the beginningof this crisis, since new rulesof behaviour, such as wearingface masks, have beenpractised and lockdowns aremore regionally pronounced.

Transport performance for2020 as a whole is 40% belowthe level of 2019. A vaccine ormedication to combat Covid-19 is expected in all scenariosby mid-2021. However,demand in this probablelockdowns return scenarioonly increases slowly evenafter this and does not returnto pre-crisis levels in continentalEurope as a whole until 2024. Although most people will

return to their old travelbehaviour, there will be a shiftin the modal split in favour ofcars and, for shorter distances,bicycles, which are thepreferred mode of transportduring the crisis. Demandpeaks will be lower forcommuter transport, as moreemployees will work fromhome for at least a few days.Long-distance passengerdemand will be slowed downby the absence of businesstravellers, as meetings aremore often held digitally. In the disrupted markets

scenario, the pandemic takes asimilar course, but the economyis hit harder, there are manycompany insolvencies andunemployment rises by 30-40% in 2020 compared with2019. During the crisis,

countries have become heavilyindebted, rail investment isbeing cut back and infrastructureprojects are being cancelled.Services operating under PSOcontracts will be reduced ascountries and regions also cutoperating funds. In this pessimistic scenario,

SCI Verkehr also assumes thatfar more people will changetheir travel behaviour in the

long-term at the expense ofrail. The longer the crisis lasts,and the more people becomeaccustomed to driving orcycling, the more likely thisscenario will happen. A weakeconomy and highunemployment will furtherslowdown the recovery ofmobility. Under thesecircumstances, rail transportperformance will not reachpre-crisis levels by 2025.In the rapid recovery

Remainder of 2020 looks bleak for rail

Although most people will return totheir old travel behaviour, there will bea shift in the modal split in favour ofcars and, for shorter distances, bicycles.

In their latest study of the rail market, Alexander Herbermann and Maria Leenen from German rail marketanalyst SCI Verkehr explain how the Covid-19 crisis is a turning point for passenger transport in Europe asthe prospects for rail competition look bleak.

News | analysis

Even in SCI’s most optimistic scenario, passenger numbers would not return to pre-crisis levels before the end of2021, compared with beyond 2025 in the worst-case scenario. Photo: Deutsche Bahn AG/Oliver Lang

June SCI_Layout 1 21/05/2020 18:20 Page 8

of trains needs to remain lowso that passengers can keeptheir distance and the spreadof the coronavirus can beslowed down. As a result,falling ticket revenuescontinue to be offset by highcosts, putting a strain oncompany liquidity. However,the consequences of the crisisdiffer depending on the typeof operator.

State supportThe largest operators in

Europe are the state-ownedincumbent railways, which arealso market leaders in theirdomestic markets with highshares even in competitivemarkets such as Germany.State railways are also activein other European countriesvia subsidiaries, such asArriva, owned by German Rail(DB), and Keolis, a subsidiaryof French National Railways(SNCF). Although integratedrailways such as DB or ItalianState Railways (FS) inparticular are generally betterable to absorb revenue lossesin passenger transport, theirfreight and infrastructuredivisions are also reportinglosses in these challengingtimes. SCI Verkehr expects national

governments to support theirtransport companies, takinginto account European subsidyregulations. Germany, forexample, plans to increaseDB’s equity capital by billionsof euros to compensate for80% of the losses of É11bn-É13.5bn expected in total as aresult of the crisis. However,as a consequence of the Covid-19 crisis and governmentsupport, state railways couldalso be forced to review theirinternational activities.Private open-access

operators, such as NTV-Italo,

Westbahn, RegioJet or LeoExpress, have been theexception in continentalEurope and are active inproviding commercial long-distance services. Since theseoperators are almost exclusivelydependent on ticket salerevenues, the Covid-19 crisisthreatens their existence. SCI Verkehr expects that

private open-access operatorswill be dependent ongovernment support, especiallyif demand recovers slowly. Forexample, in order to maintainservices on the importantVienna - Salzburg route, theAustrian government promisedfinancial support in mid-Aprilto both Westbahn andincumbent Austrian FederalRailways (ÖBB). The trainservices are ordered from ÖBBand Westbahn as a PSO for thenext three months under acontract worth É48.3m. In theCzech Republic, on the otherhand, it was announced thatstate-owned Czech Railways(CD) has started talks about anentry into the open-accessoperator Leo Express. SCI Verkehr expects the

Covid-19 crisis to have anegative impact on thedevelopment of railwaycompetition in Europe. Althoughthe national open-accessmarkets will be opened in2021, many operators willcritically review their announcedexpansion plans. While someplans might be postponeduntil demand has recovered,others will be cancelled, as thecurrent crisis shows the highrisks of the business and itbecomes more difficult andexpensive to finance companiesand rolling stock. IRJ

IRJ June 2020 9

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SCI Verkehr’s study, Passenger rail -current developments of the Covid-19 crisis in Europe, is available viathe SCI website: www.sci.de/shop.

RAIL freight transport has been increasingly affected by thecoronavirus pandemic since April with operators reporting

declines of between 20% and 35%, while the transport of newautomobiles has come to a complete standstill.For the year as a whole, SCI Verkehr forecasts a 20% decline

in freight traffic in continental Europe in what the analystsregard as the likely event of a renewed lock-down this autumn.In this situation, recovery to pre-crisis levels is unlikely until2023 or 2024.

20% drop in European rail freight in 2020

June SCI_Layout 1 21/05/2020 18:20 Page 9

10 IRJ June 2020

News | headlines

THE German federalgovernment is considering

a huge bailout for German Rail(DB) which has beenhaemorrhaging money due tothe coronavirus pandemic.

According to a documententitled Efbmjoh!xjui!uifgjobodjbm!dpotfrvfodft!pg!uifdpspobwjsvt!qboefnjd!po!EC, thegovernment estimates that thefinancial impact of thepandemic on DB could reachbetween É11bn and É13.5bnby 2024.

The government isconsidering funding around80% of the increased costs. Thegovernment’s equity stake inDB could be increased fromÉ6.9bn to É8.4bn and DB’scurrent debt limit of É25bnwould be raised. DB’s net

financial debt was É24.2bn atthe end of the 2019. In return,DB would contribute anestimated É5.1bn to plug thefinancial hole by cutting staffand materials costs, anddelaying rather than haltinginvestment projects.

However, the financialpackage would have to beapproved by the federalparliament, the EuropeanCommission, and DB’ssupervisory board. Accordingto [fju!Pomjof, if the deal isapproved, DB could receive aninitial cash injection of É4.5bn,with more money by the endof the year. DB had hoped toraise additional funds from thesale of its Arriva subsidiary.However, this has beenpostponed indefinitely.

DB has been criticised formaintaining around 75% of itspassenger services when trafficfell to 10-15% of the pre-coronavirus level. DB claimsthe services were needed totransport critical workers. DB’sfreight business has also beenhit, with a drop in traffic ofaround 40% according to [fjuPomjof.

Mofair, which representsindependent passenger railoperators in Germany, saysDB’s request for É8-10bn ingovernment funding by 2024should not be used to prop upDB’s commercial activitiessuch as its long-distancepassenger business. It addsthat there should be “completetransparency as to why fundsare needed and what exactly

they should be used for.”Mofair’s president, Mr

Christian Schreyer saysreimbursing infrastructuremanager DB Networks orstation operator DB Station &Service for coronavirus-crisis-related loss of revenue is“correct and important,” but itmust be ruled out for DBtransport companies, especiallyDB Long Distance, while itscompetitors are not reimbursed.“Otherwise there would bemassive distortions ofcompetition,” Schreyer says.

According to the governmentdocument, DB could face adrop in revenue of É5bn thisyear - DB reported adjustedsales of É44.4bn in 2019. DBalso faces additional costs forcleaning trains and stations.

German government considers massive aid package for DB

SPAIN’s National Marketand Competition Authority

(CNMC) has reversed adecision to restrict the lengthof national operator Renfe’scontract to operate a packageof high-speed services from 10to five years.

Renfe was one of threebidders selected to negotiateaccess agreements, securingPackage A to run 70% ofservices on Madrid - Barcelona- French border (Corridor 1);Madrid - Valencia/Alicante(Corridor 2), and Madrid -Seville/Málaga (Corridor 3) inNovember 2019.

CNMC signed off 10-yearcontracts between infrastructuremanager Adif AV and Ilsa, aconsortium of Italian nationaloperator Trenitalia and Spanishregional airline Air Nostrum,and Rielsfera, a subsidiary ofFrench National Railways(SNCF), in April.

However, CNMC ruled onApril 7 that Adif AV and Renfehad not proven the existence ofextraordinary reasons to extendthe maximum permittedcontract term of five years tothe 10-year contract lengthrequested. Following a review,the authority confirmed on

May 7 that the operator hadsince provided additionalevidence which satisfies theseexpectations, including necessaryfleet investment to meet theservice capacity committed toAdif AV. In addition, operatingthe service was found to requirespecial investments and Renfewill face risks from the pendingamortisation of its rolling stock.

The three operators arepermitted to enter the marketfrom December 14 providedthey request the necessary pathsfrom Adif AV by June 15 althoughIlsa has confirmed that it willenter the market in 2022.

Renfe gets 10-year high-speed contract after U-turn

COLOMBIA’s NationalInfrastructure Agency

(ANI) has terminated PacificRailway SAS’ (FDP) 30-yearconcession for “serious anddirect” breach of contract andhas ordered it to pay morethan Pesos 97bn ($US 25m) indamages.

ANI had earlier accusedFDP of failing to maintain therailway and repair a bridgeover the El Bolo river, imposinga fine of Pesos 2.4bn on FDP.

According to a report by theRailway Concession Consortium,the 380km 914mm-gaugerailway linking the port ofBuenaventura, Cali andZaragoza, with a branch fromZarzal to La Tebaida, is in verypoor condition with unrepairedlandslides in some locations.The railway has been out ofservice since April 7 2017.

The concession contract wassigned on December 18 1998and came into force on March14 2000. The concession wasdue to run until 2030. FDP is asubsidiary of RailroadDevelopment Corporation,United States.

ANI says it will start theprocess to award a newcontract and, in parallel, willstudy different options torevive the railway.

Colombia annulsPacific Railwayconcession

TURKEY inaugurated two key domesticfreight initiatives last month. Freight services

are now operating through the Marmaraytunnel under the Bosporus in Istanbul while afive-year project to reopen the 431km lineconnecting Sivas with Samsun on the Black Seacoast following a É350m rebuild was completed.

Minister of transport, Mr Adil Karaismailoglu,and Mr Ali Ihsan Uygun, general manager of

Turkish State Railways (TCDD), boarded the firstdomestic freight train at Sögütlüçesme stationon the Asian side of Istanbul at 22.40 on May 8and travelled in the locomotive cab as far asKazliçesme station on the European side wherethe train arrived at 23.04.

The 1200-tonne train with 16 flat wagons wasloaded with 32 containers containing plastic rawmaterials destined for Çorlu. Up to now, railfreight has been transported by ferry fromDerince on the Anatolian side to Tekirdag on theEuropean side.

The Sivas - Samsun line closed on September29 2015 to allow work to continue unimpeded.TCDD says 378km of trackbed and superstructurewas renewed and ERTMS installed. The line iselectrified at 25kV ac.

The first commercial freight train ran on theupgraded line on May 4. TCDD expects the lineto transport 3 million tonnes of freight annually.

Turkey boosts domestic rail freight connections

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IRJ June 2020 11

AustraliaAdani Australia, the developerof the controversial Carmichaelcoal mine in northernQueensland, has awarded a $A 220m ($US 140m) contractto Martinus Rail to construct a200km 1067mm-gauge line fromthe mine to Abbott Point port.

AustriaÖBB Infrastructure’s RailEquipment subsidiary haslaunched a tender worth up toÉ301m for up to 20 rescuetrains. The frameworkagreement to design,manufacture, deliver, obtainapproval and commission upto 20 trains will include a fixedcall for five trains.

BritainTranslink, which operates the1600mm-gauge rail network inNorthern Ireland, has extendedits maintenance contract withCAF for the class 3000 DMUfleet. CAF will maintain thefleet of 69 cars, which itsupplied in 2002-04, foranother 15 years at a cost ofmore than É60m.

Czech RepublicInfrastructure manager SZ hasrepublished a tender to preparedocumentation on thealignment for the initial 23kmsection of the country’s firsthigh-speed line (p26). Thetender includes an environmentalimpact study (EIS), and anoption to undertake the workrequired to receive approvalfor the alignment and EIS.

GermanyBavarian Railway Company(BEG) has awarded DB Regiothe Franconia and SouthThuringia contract to operateservices from Nuremberg andBamberg to Würzburg,Saalfeld, Sonneberg and Erfurt.The concession includes 5.1million train-km withinBavaria, with the remaining0.6 million train-km inThüringen.

ItalyBombardier and nationaloperator Trenitalia havesigned a six-year logisticsservices contract to supportthe fleet of ETR 500 300km/htrains, with an option for a

In brief

THE administrator of thetroubled Passenger Rail

Agency of South Africa (Prasa),Mr Bongisizwe Mpondo, says“steady progress” has beenachieved since his appointmentfour months ago, althoughsome initiatives are beinghampered by the coronaviruspandemic.

Speaking via Twitter on May7, Mpondo outlined how he istrying to “bring a semblance oforder” to what he describes asa “broken business” due to the“systemic erosion of value thebusiness has experienced overa number of years.” Mpondosays that “there remains a lotof work to do.”

Since January, an Excostructure has been establishedsupported by five sub-committees all of which meetevery two weeks. Mpondo hasalso appointed a team of fivetechnical advisers recruitedfrom government departments,a state research institute andindustry.

Mpondo says most executivevacancies have been filled andthe following appointmentswere due to be made lastmonth: Prasa Rail CEO, PrasaTech CEO, Autopax (bus) CEO,chief information officer andcompany secretary.

Partnerships have beenformed with national freightoperator Transnet, tractionpower supplier Eskom totackle cable theft and monitorsubstations and renegotiate

tariffs, and the South AfricanPolice Service to improveprotection of stations and railinfrastructure. Mpondo says anumber of arrests have beenmade.

CorruptionAs part of the administrator’s

plan to root out corruptionwithin Prasa, 12 senior membersface disciplinary action andinstances of possible corruptionwill be handed over to theNational Prosecuting Authority.Prasa will conduct lifestyleaudits of all finance andsupply chain employees andthe top 300 managers, and sofar the names of 186 senioremployees have been putforward to South Africa’s StateSecurity Agency for vetting.

“Over the past 10 years wehave seen a steady and a sharpdecline in fare revenue whichhas necessitated an increase inthe operating subsidy,” Mpondosays. “On the other hand, ourexpenses have increasedunabated. Furthermore, it hasbeen an accepted practice atPrasa to budget for a deficit.This is the dire situation we areearnestly seeking to reverse.”Mpondo says initiatives areunderway to increase revenueover time, and there is particularattention on reducing costs.

A review of Prasa’soperating model confirms thatstructural impediments haveworsened since the company

was set up to operatecommuter and long-distancepassenger services in 2009. Theadministrator plans to streamlinefunctions and was due to putforward final recommendationsat the end of May.

However, Prasa estimates aRand 199m ($US 10.8m) loss inrevenue in April and May dueto the coronavirus lockdown,and a revenue loss for the wholeyear of Rand 757m.

The operator has reviewed itsprogramme to recover commuterrail services on the CentralLine corridor in Cape Townand the Mabopane corridor inJohannesburg due to thecoronavirus lockdown, thefencing programme andincreased theft and vandalism,while the Central Line hasbeen severely impacted byillegal settlements. Buses weredue to provide an interimservice from August but thishas now been pushed back toNovember. This means a limitedtrain service will now resumein February or March 2021 withfull services in August 2021.

Mpondo adds that Prasa hasnot delivered on its owncapital investment programmeduring the last two yearswhich has had a detrimentaleffect on operations and thesupply industry resulting in a“lose-lose situation.” Prasa isplanning to go out to tenderfor a range of projects worthRand 7bn during the 2020-21financial year.

Prasa recovery plan starts to make progress

Photo: David Gub

ler

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12 IRJ June 2020

News | headlines

THE British parliament’sPublic Accounts Committee

(PAC) published a scathingreport on the HS2 high-speedrail project on May 17, accusingthe Department for Transport(DfT) of withholdinginformation regarding theproject’s cost and schedule.

“The HS2 programme hasgone badly off-course and isnow estimated to cost up to£88bn, significantly more thanthe original budget of £55.7bn(both figures are 2015 prices),”the House of Commons PACsays. “We are unconvinced thatthere will not be further costincreases… especially giventhat the route and forecast costof the northern sections of theproposed railway is still veryuncertain and will remain sofor years to come.”

The PAC also notes thedelays to the project, with thefirst phase from London toBirmingham and Lichfield nowexpected to open in 2029 at the

earliest, three years later thanoriginally planned.

The PAC has made sevenobservations:= a lack of transparency by theDfT and HS2 Ltd, whichundermined public confidencein the project= a failure by the DfT toprovide parliament with aclear warning that the projectwas going off-course and valuefor money was at risk= the PAC says that despiteraising concerns, it is stillunconvinced that the DfT andHS2 Ltd have the skills andcapability to implement theproject, and HS2 Ltd lacks thecommercial skills to managethe main construction contracts= despite being seven yearsinto the project, “hugeuncertainties” remain with thedesign and delivery of theexpansion of London Eustonstation – DfT, HS2 Ltd andNetwork Rail are currentlyrevising the plans following

recommendations by theOakervee Review of HS2= the DfT and HS2 Ltd’sfailure to understand theconsequences of changes to thehybrid bill for Phase 1 as itpassed through parliament,which led to cost increases= the DfT is not giving enoughattention to the integration ofHS2 with the existing networkand the government’s decisionto pause Phase 2b to Manchesterand Leeds and to try to integrateit with Northern PowerhouseRail will increase complexityand make the need forintegration even greater, and= the DfT is failing to makesufficient and meaningfulchanges to its management ofinfrastructure projects despitethe problems with past projects.

The PAC has given the DfTand HS2 Ltd between threeand six months to respond,and says it will regularlyexamine how the project isprogressing.

Parliamentary committee issues scathing HS2 report

HS2 begins track and systems procurement as Old Oak Common station site approved

IRAN’s Ministry of Roadsand Urban Development has

signed a memorandum ofunderstanding with Mapna toconstruct an electrified 510kmline between Ahwaz andIsfahan.

The line will link thesouthwestern KhuzestanProvince with Isfahan, throughmountainous terrain. Mapnawill construct the railwayunder an engineering-procurement-construction(EPC) scheme, and will beresponsible for financing theproject, which will cost anestimated É3bn.

The line is expected to halvethe number of passenger andfreight vehicles on the Ahwaz- Isfahan road. The line willalso improve access to acheaper supply of iron-ore incentral Iran for the steelindustry in KhuzestanProvince.

SWISS Federal Railways(SBB), Thurbo and Region

Alps have launched a jointtender for 194 single-deck S-Bahn EMUs to replace life-expired trains.

The three operators plan topre-qualify bidders by the endof 2020. The three best bidswill then be selected forevaluation, and the first trainshould enter service inDecember 2025. The value ofthe contract is estimated at SFr1.5bn ($US 1.54bn).

SBB will have 106 trains,Thurbo 70 and Region Alps 18.The contract will includeoptions to supply up to 316trains, as well as maintenanceand the installation of ETCS.The trains will need to bedesigned to operate inGermany and Austria.

SBB hopes to rationalise itsfleet and intends to have justtwo types of single-deck EMU:this train and a new design toenter service in the period2037-2048.

Three Swissoperators launchjoint EMU tender

An artist’s impression of the conventional platforms at Old Oak Common.

Iran signs MoUwith Mapna for510km line

HS2 Ltd launched tenderprocesses last month for

the signalling and traincontrol system and 280km ofhigh-speed track while OldOak Common station hasreceived planning permission.

The Control, Command,Signalling (CCS) and TrafficManagement systemscontracts will have acombined value of £540m. Thesystems will use ETCSsignalling and the latest trafficmanagement technology tocontrol trains travelling at upto 360km/h between London,Birmingham and Crewe,

where HS2 trains will join theWest Coast Main Line.

HS2 plans to announce ashortlist of bidders next yearto award the contracts in 2022.

The track systems contractspecifies the use of slab trackand covers design and buildbetween London, Birminghamand Crewe. The winners willalso take a lead role inmanaging and coordinatingthe interfaces between thetrack and other elements ofthe rail systems with theprocurement split into fourpackages.

Shortlists for the contracts

are expected to be announcedtowards the end of the year,with contracts awarded in2022.

Old Oak Common will bethe temporary Londonterminus of the line when itopens in 2029 andconstruction of the station wasapproved by Old Oak andPark Royal DevelopmentCorporation on May 20.

HS2 Ltd awarded a contractto a joint venture of BalfourBeatty, Vinci and Systra tobuild the station in September2019 and construction willbegin in June.

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In brief

further six years. Bombardierwill ensure continuousavailability of spare parts andrepairable components.

New ZealandThe government has allocated$NZ 1.2bn ($US 718m) to railin its 2020 budget. The fundingincludes $NZ 421m for newfreight wagons and locomotives,$NZ 246m to supportinvestment in track andsupporting infrastructure, and$NZ 400m to help replacenational railway KiwiRail’sageing road/rail ferries andassociated portside infrastructure.

SwedenGreater Stockholm TrafficCommission has awardedTransdev a concession tooperate the Roslags commuterrail network on behalf ofStockholm Transport (SL). The12-year concession will comeinto force on April 2 2021 andis valued at around SKr 4bn($US 405m).

SwitzerlandAn ICE-S measuring train onloan to AlpTransit Gotthardhas reached 275km/h in thenew 15.4km Ceneri BaseTunnel under the Swiss Alps,operating with ETCS Level 2.Testing started in the tunnelon March 1 after AlpTransitreceived approval from SwissFederal Office of Transport onFebruary 17.= Stadler’s IT system wastargeted with a cyber-attack,the company announced onMay 7, with malware used tosteal information. Thecompany says it immediatelyinitiated the required securitymeasures and involved theresponsible authorities. Adetailed investigation is nowunderway.

United StatesThe Thirteenth Court ofAppeals of Texas ruled onMay 7 that Texas Central is arailroad company and inter-urban electric railway,effectively ending a four-yearcourt battle with landowners.The landowners argued thatthe project was not a railwayand did not have theassociated rights, includingeminent domain and access toproperty for surveyors. IRJ

IRJ June 2020 13

INDIAN Railways (IR) hasput into service the first of

800 WAG-12 or Prima T8electric two-section locomotivessupplied by Alstom.

This follows certification foroperation by the Ministry ofRailways and Commissioner ofRailway Safety/RDSO.

The locomotives will bedeployed on India’s newDedicated Freight Corridors.Commissioning of the firstsections of the Eastern andWestern corridors is underway,and both lines should becompleted by the end of 2021.

Alstom says the 9MWlocomotives are the mostpowerful to operate in India.The units will be able to haul6000-tonne freight trains andhave a maximum speed of100km/h, which can beupgraded to 120km/h.

The WAG-12s use an InsulatedGate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT)traction system and are

designed for regenerativebraking.

Each locomotive is 38.4mlong, 3058mm wide, and 4245mhigh. The units have a doubleBo-Bo wheel arrangement andweigh 200 tonnes with a 25-tonne axleload, and 180 tonneswith a 22.5-tonne axleload.They can operate between -10oC and 50oC.

The locomotives are beingsupplied under a É3.5bncontract awarded by a jointventure of India’s Ministry ofRailways and Alstom in 2015.

The contract includes 11 yearsmaintenance and constructionof a manufacturing plant atMadhepura in Bihar state, whichhas a production capacity of 120locomotives per year, and twodepots. The depot at Saharanpurhas already opened while theNagpur facility is still underconstruction. The locomotiveswere designed at Alstom’sEngineering Centre in Bengaluru.

MEXICO’s NationalTourism Promotion Fund

(Fonatur) has announced thewinners of constructioncontracts to build the MayanTrain project, which aims toboost tourist services aroundthe Yucatan peninsula througha combination of new lineconstruction and upgradesbetween Palenque, Izamal,Cancun and Escárcega.

The project is divided intoseven sections totalling 1452km.A consortium led by Mota-Engil México is the winner ofthe tender to construct the 227kmfirst section, which consists ofthe Palenque, Chiapas -Escárcega, Campeche section,

and includes upgrading theexisting Chiapas - Mayab line.The consortium, which includesChina CommunicationsConstruction Company, CoshGroup, Eyasa and GavilEngineering, submitted a bidof Pesos 15.5bn ($US 622.7m).

The contract for the 235kmsection 2 of the project, whichwill run from Escárcega toCalkiní, was awarded toOperadora Cicsa and FCCConstrucción with a bid worthPesos 18,553.7bn on April 30.

The section 3 contract wasawarded to a Mexican-Spanishconsortium comprisingConstrucciones Urales, GamiIngeniería e Instalaciones and

Azvi, Spain, which submittedthe winning bid of Pesos10,192.9bn ($US 438.4m). The172km section will run fromCalkiní via Campeche to Izamal.Construction started on May 25.

The Mexican government isexpected to award a contractdirectly to Ingenieros CivilesAsociados (ICA) to build the196km section four, which willrun from Izamal to Tulum, asthe company is alreadyworking on a road project.

Section five will run fromCancun - Tulum (117km);section six from Tulum toBacalar (223km); and sectionseven from Bacalar toEscárcega (277km).

Mayan Train construction contracts awarded

ADIF High Speed (Adif AV)started test running under

ERTMS Level 2 on the 110.7kmZamora - Pedralba de la Praderíasection of the Madrid - Galiciahigh-speed line on May 15.

The tests ran until May 19 at200km/h using a series S-112AVE train as well as two seriesS-730 AVE trains. Testing wasconducted in both nominaland degraded ERTMS conditionsin order to verify the safeoperation of the system. Theline is also equipped withSpain’s conventional Asfasignalling system as a backup.Trains operated successivelyand in opposite directions totest train passing.

Once the test results havebeen verified, reliability testrunning and driver trainingwill start. Testing of ERTMSLevel 2 has already beencompleted on the Olmedo -Zamora section of the line,which opened in December2015 and Adif AV hopes tostart driver training foroperation under ERTMS soon.

The remaining 101kmPedralba de la Pradería -Taboadela section is underconstruction. Track laying isdue to be completed thismonth, followed by electrificationin July. This section willconnect with the broad-gaugehigh-speed line from Ourenseto Santiago de Compostella.

ERTMS testingstarts on newSpanish HS line

India’s most powerful locomotive enters service

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13a IRJ June 2020

News | headlines

SJ to expand domestic night train offer asSweden eyes continental connections

THE Chilean governmenthas approved Chilean State

Railways’ (EFE) $US 1.9bn2020-22 investment plan.Work on the $US 1.3bn

project to introduce a commuterrail service between Santiagoand Melipilla will start in June,CO!Bnfsjdbt reports, whileconstruction of the $US 650mSantiago - Batuco line and the$US 220m Biobío rail bridge inConcepción will begin next year.EFE is also planning to

modernise the Santiago -Chillan inter-city service at acost of $US 115m and expects

to award contracts in August.EFE plans to partially financethe works through a $US 130mbond issue.The 2020-22 plan is part of a

long-term $US 5.57bn investmentplan intended to raise theannual number of passengerscarried from around 50 millionat present to 174 million in2027, and annual freighttonnage from 11.5 million to21 million over the same period.EFE says 42% of the planned

investment would be forsuburban services over existinglines from Santiago to the

south, southwest and northwest,serving new housingdevelopments. The bulk of the money will

finance the new commuter railservice from Santiago Alamedato Malloco and Melipilla. Theproject was tendered in 2002but received no valid bids. Thenew project will be implementedsolely by EFE and, with annualridership estimated at between30 and 50 million passengers,would be EFE’s most heavilyused service.Around 20% of the investment

would be for suburban services

serving the cities of Concepciónand Valparaíso, includingexpanding the Valparaísoservice to Quillota and LaCalera. Other projects includethe renovation of the Talca -Constitución line, rolling stockpurchases for the Santiago -Nos - Rancagua commuter lineand upgrading the freight linkto San Antonio.A further 20% is aimed at

facilitating freight movementby rail, especially betweenSantiago and a new megaportin San Antonio, on the coast tothe west of Santiago.

Chile approves $US 1.9bn 2020-22 rail investment plan

AEuropean project hasreleased a toolbox of

solutions intended to improvethe management and design oflevel crossings.The Safer Level Crossing by

Integrating and OptimisingRoad-Rail InfrastructureManagement and Designproject (Safer-LC), coordinatedby the International Union ofRailways (UIC), was one ofthree safety improvementprojects that received fundingin 2016 through the EuropeanUnion’s Horizon 2020 researchand innovation programme. The toolbox is designed as a

web-based platform that willbe updated by the UIC. UICsenior research advisor, MrGrigore Havarneanu, says thetoolbox can be used as adecision support tool, whichgroups several assessmentmethodologies as well as awide-range of cost-effectivesafety measures.The measures can be sorted

by criteria including type orusers and level crossing costs,which can help end-users selectthe most appropriate solution.Each measure is presentedwith a short description, studyresults, the potential benefits,recommendations, mainpsychological functionsinvolved, documents, relatedmeasures, a gallery of examples,and a comments section.Nearly 300 people die each

year in accidents at levelcrossings across the EU.

UIC level crossingsafety projectreleases results

SWEDISH passengeroperator SJ has announced

plans to restore overnightservice between Gothenburgand Duved in Jämtland, whichit will now run on a commercialbasis, from December 13.National transport

administrator Trafikverketawarded SJ a public serviceobligation contract for theStockholm - Duved portion ofthe route on February 10.However, SJ will now offercommercially-run overnightservices between Gothenburgand Duved as well as Stockholm- Umeå and Gothenburg - Umeå.Trains from Gothenburg will

follow the existing route viathe Western Main Line andÖrebro.Meanwhile a report issued

by Trafikverket on April 27found that an “appropriatefirst step” to expand Sweden’s

overnight rail offer tocontinental Europe would beto procure a service to Germanyand Belgium via Denmark.The report says that services

on the route could start asearly as 2022-2023, particularlyif a direct award contract isoffered. Trafikverket recommendsthat this initial contract shouldrun for four years with anoptional two-year extension.The report investigates the

necessary conditions to procureregular overnight services fromSweden to continental Europeand was commissioned by theSwedish government in 2019.The report says that capacity islimited in Hamburg, Cologneand Brussels during themorning and early eveningpeak, so it may be necessary tobe flexible with timetables.However, the end-to-endjourney time of 17 hours might

preclude reasonable departureand arrival times, although theopening of the Fehmarn fixedbelt, currently scheduled for2028, could reduce journeytimes by 2 hours.Other possible hurdles include

procuring rolling stock, withsupplies currently limited.Trafikverket says coaches couldbe leased or bought directly bythe authority or supplied by theoperator under the contract terms.The report adds that it is

currently not possible to combinea PSO contract with an open-access arrangement requiredwhen operating in Germany,which regards long-distancerail travel as a commercialbusiness. However, the reportnotes that a compromise mightbe reached by combining PSOcontracts in Sweden andDenmark with a commercialcontract in Germany.

SJ will once again offer overnight servicesfrom Gothenburg to Jämtland, including Åre.

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In brief

BritainInfrastructure managerNetwork Rail (NR) has begunremoving sections of a 1960sviaduct at Bletchley for theEast-West Rail project. NRstarted to dismantle 14 spansof the 37-span viaduct whichcrosses the West Coast MainLine (WCML) so that they canbe rebuilt to modern standards.

EstoniaRB Estonia, responsible forimplementing the Rail Balticaproject in Estonia, has issued acall for tenders for the designof Muuga multimodal freightterminal. Muuga is the largestfreight port in Estonia and islocated 17km northeast of thecapital Tallinn.

GermanyGerman Rail (DB) spentÉ118.6m on noise abatementin 2019, up from É97.8m in2018, with 53km of soundproofwalls installed along existinglines, taking the total to morethan 600km. Since DBlaunched its noise reductionprogramme in 1999, É1.9bnhas been invested in noiseabatement measures alongmore than 1800km of track.

NorwayThe government has allocatedan additional NKr 826m ($US75m), of which NKr 548m isnew funding, to infrastructuremanager Bane Nor to supportongoing rail projects in therevised state budget announcedon May 12. The additionalfunds will support thedevelopment of track-doubling projects on the Follo,Østfold and Vestfold lines.However, track doubling ofthe Kleverud - Sørli section ofthe Dovre Line between Osloand Lillehammer has beendelayed until 2022, reducingexpenditure by NKr 180m in2020 and NKr 510m in 2021.

RussiaKnorr-Bremse has signed acontract with Siemens tosupply equipment for 13 high-speed Sapsan trains forRussian Railways (RZD). Thesystems supplied by Knorr-Bremse designed to operatereliably at temperatures of -50°C. IRJ

IRJ June 2020 13b

US Class 1 railway NorfolkSouthern (NS) says the

successful introduction ofPrecision Scheduled Railroading(PSR) is allowing it to disposeof 703 excess locomotives.NS has cut its locomotive

fleet by 22% since thebeginning of 2019 from 3515active and 606 inactive units to2801 active and 402 inactive/surge locomotives at the end ofthe first quarter of 2020. It hasalso reduced the number oflocomotive types from 19 to 10.This has cut operating andmaintenance costs and reducedthe average age of the fleet.The announcement was

included as part of NS’ 2020first-quarter financial results,in which it achieved recordquarterly operatingperformance in the firstquarter of 2020, with average

train speed increasing by 10%from 34.9km/h a year ago to38.3km/h and a 16% reductionin terminal dwell time from22.2 hours to 18.6 hours.NS has already witnessed

the impact of the coronaviruspandemic. First quarteroperating revenue fell by 8% to$US 2.6bn compared with thefirst quarter of 2019, driven byan 11% drop in total volume.

Precision Scheduled Railroading helps NS to cut loco fleet

INFRASTRUCTURE SouthAustralia (ISA) recommendsrail and tram franchising aspart of its new 20-yearinfrastructure strategy.ISA, which provides advice

to the South Australian stategovernment, says franchisingis “a model which has shownto provide efficiency savingsthat could be reinvested in thenetwork, provided appropriatecontractual incentives andcontrols are put in place.” ISAhas drawn this conclusiondespite the fact thatfranchising of the Melbournecommuter rail and lightnetworks in neighbouringVictoria was abandoned as itfailed to produce any benefits.ISA says there was a 42.8%

increase in rail journeys and a

75.3% jump in tram tripsbetween 2013-14 and 2017-18compared with a 21.8% rise inbus patronage. As a result, theproportion of bus trips comparedwith rail has fallen from 79% to68% over the same period.ISA says “Adelaide is

reaching a tipping point due toincreasing congestion” andthat it wants public transportto play a greater role.Nevertheless, ISA says itfavours building bus lanes andeventually bus rapid transitrather than expanding the tramand commuter rail networks.ISA says options to increase

commuter train frequenciesshould be explored by runninglonger trains and improvingsignalling. In the long term,ISA says the terminus nature of

Adelaide station will need tobe reviewed with the potentialto create a city centre rail loop.ISA also calls for a programmeto remove level crossings alongkey corridors to providemaximum benefit to road users.ISA notes that road freight

accounts for 88.3% of domesticfreight compared with 5.9% forrail. It says much of the currentroad network is in poorcondition, which limits efficiencyand productivity. To capturepotential growth opportunitiesfrom its iron-ore resources, ISAsays the government shouldwork with industry and localcouncils to identify potentialefficiency and safetyimprovements to supplychains, including investmentsin additional rail spurs.

Franchising back on the agenda in South Australia

Czech government increases rail investment budgetTHE Czech Republic

government has increasedthe investment budget forinfrastructure manager SZ byKoruna 3.5bn to Koruna 46.9bn($US 1.9bn) for 2020. SZ has prepared investment

projects worth more thanKoruna 24.2bn this year, whichis Koruna 4.6bn more than in2019. SZ says despite theeffects of the coronaviruspandemic, it has investedalmost Koruna 6.9bn up to

April 30, which is 28% of theannual budget. By comparison,SZ had only invested 22.5% ofthe total budget during thefirst four months of 2019.“Regardless of the current

situation, we continue withoutinterruption in the preparationof other planned investmentprojects,” says SZ directorgeneral, Mr Jirí Svoboda.The additional funding will

be used for track repairs andmaintenance and work on

station buildings. The largestallocation of funds comprise:= Koruna 280m to repair bothtracks between Decín-ProstredníZleb and Dolní Zleb from mid-July to the end of October= Koruna 200m for a Koruna500m project to repair unstableembankments between Hájek -Dalovice, and= Koruna 151m for a Koruna242m scheme to repair theMostek - Horka u Staré Pakyline.

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14 IRJ June 2020

News | transit

THE governor of São Paulo, Mr João Doria,has approved investment of Reais 58.8bn

($US 10.8bn) to expand the city’s rail and busrapid transit networks by 2023.Some projects in the Pluriannual Plan (PPA)

will be funded through public-private partnerships(PPP) and the objective is to increase the numberof annual journeys by metro, commuter rail andbus to 3.39 billion by 2023.On the commuter rail network, the following

extensions are planned: Line 9/Emerald to

Varginha which will increase ridership from171.3 million passengers/year to 206.4 millionby 2023, Line 13/Jade to Bonsucesso inGuarulhos and the central region of São Paulo,and Line 11/Coral to Barra Funda.In addition, the plans include modernising

Line 7/Ruby, Line 8/Diamond, Line10/Turquoise, Line 11/Coral and Line12/Sapphire. Upgrading Line 11/Coral shouldincrease ridership from 221.5 millionpassengers/year to 229.7 million by 2023.

THE International Associationof Public Transport (UITP)

says initial data on the possibleimpact of the Covid-19 pandemicon public transport in Europeshows that operators are set tosuffer a É40bn shortfall infarebox revenue by the end of2020.In the data submitted by

UITP members up to May 7and released on May 13,Germany’s public transportsector is expected to report a

loss of É5-7bn, includingÉ150m by BVG in Berlin. InFrance, outside of Paris, localtransport farebox revenue isexpected to fall by more thanÉ1bn with losses relating toaccessing public transportestimated at É2bn. In Paris,Ile-de-France Mobility hasalready reported losses ofÉ2bn since the beginning oflockdown restrictions in mid-March. Paris TransportAuthority (RATP) has lost

around É320m with ridershipdropping by 95%.Among the other data received:

= Netherlands: urban andregional operators are projectedto lose É0.8-1bn in 2020= Spain: operators are losingÉ250m per month in fare revenue= Portugal: operators are losingÉ80m per month in fare revenue= Sweden: operators are losingaround É100m per month= Finland: Helsinki is expectedto lose É150m

= Norway: ticket income isexpected to fall by É400m thisyear, with additional costsincreasing this lose to É625m = Italy: a É1.5bn shortfall inticket revenue is forecast in2020 with a 50% reduction inpassenger numbers, and= Austria: Wiener Linien hasexperienced an 80% drop inpassenger numbers since mid-March and is expectingrevenue losses of aroundÉ150m by the end of the year.

PURPLE Line TransitConstructors (PLTC), the

design-build team implementingthe 25.7km Purple Line lightrail project in Maryland, UnitedStates, will abandon the project.The consortium cites continuingdelays out of its control forcompromising the delivery ofthe $US 2bn construction scheme.The line from Bethedsa to

New Carrollton, which brokeground in 2017, is being builtfor Maryland Department ofTransportation (MDOT) andMaryland Transit Administration(MTA) under a $US 5.6bn 36-year public-private partnership(PPP) deal agreed with PurpleLine Transit Partners (PLTP) inspring 2016. PLTC notified PLTP of its

intent to exit the PPP on May 1.Project manager, Mr ScottRisley, said delays caused by alawsuit, problems obtainingland for the right-of-way, last-minute changes in designrequirements and difficulties inobtaining state environmentalapprovals had added 2.5 yearsand $US 519m to the cost ofthe project. “Without financial

compensation by the state, theconstruction firms would beforced to absorb hundreds ofmillions of dollars in additionalcosts that are [the state’s]responsibility. This is neitherreasonable nor sustainable forPLTC,” Risley said, adding ina later statement that PLTCwas unable to obtain the timeand cost relief to which it isentitled from MDOT/MTA.

TWO operators of Germanpassenger concessions -

GoAhead and Abellio - arebeing sanctioned due to poorperformance, mainly caused bythe national shortage of drivers.The Baden-Württemberg

Ministry of Transport andGoAhead have agreed to allowanother operator to temporarilytake over part of the StuttgartNetwork rail concession. Atender has been published toappoint a new operator for theRE8 Stuttgart - Heilbronn -Würzburg ‘Frankenbahn’service. It is hoped to awardthe contract, which will probablybe for two years, later this year.According to the Ministry of

Transport, GoAhead has notbeen able to ensure reliableoperation since it started tooperate three services under theStuttgart Network concessionin December 2019: semi-fastRegional Express services onthe RE8 Stuttgart - Würzburgand RE90 Stuttgart - Nurembergroutes, plus slower RegionalBahn trains on the RB16Stuttgart - Ulm route.GoAhead has suffered from

a shortage of drivers andexperienced technical problemswith some of the Stadler Flirt

EMUs, which it has introducedleading to cancellations anddelays.“Since last December, we

have doubled the offer on theFrankenbahn to an hourlyfrequency in order to attract asmany passengers as possible,”Mr Winfried Hermann, Baden-Württemberg transport ministerexplains. “But this only worksif the reliability is right. That iswhy we have developed a newsolution for a longer transition(to the new operator).”

AbellioRhine-Ruhr Transport

Authority (VRR) issued aformal warning to concessionaire

Abellio on May 12 requiringsignificant improvement toservice reliability.VRR told Abellio that the

“bad and unacceptable level ofservice, especially for the S-Bahn lines S3 and S9 plusregional line RE49” needed tobe remedied by specific datesin June and July at the latest.Introduction of new S9 servicesusing the 14km previouslyfreight only Gelsenkirchen-Buer Nord - Recklinghausenline, originally scheduled forMay 1, must now be introducedby September 15.Abellio warned VRR earlier

in May that it was unable toprovide sufficient resources tooperate the contracted timetable.

UITP projects €40bn hit for European public transport in 2020

Contractor pullsout of Maryland’sPurple Line PPP

GoAhead and Abellio in trouble over German concessions

São Paulo pledges $US 10.8bn to expand urban networks

Abellio warned VRR in May that it was stuggling to meet contractobligations under the contract.

June TN_Layout 1 21/05/2020 19:28 Page 14

IRJ June 2020 15

trains is expected within sixmonths, with another eighttrains following 11 monthsafter the contract is signed.

Kraków MPK Kraków has increased itsorder for Tango LRVs under aframework agreement worthabout SFr 120m ($US 123.5m).Under the new agreement,Stadler will supply 60 TangoKraków Lajkonik II low-floorLRVs.

LisbonLisbon Metro has signed aÉ48.6m contract with ZagopeConstruction and Engineering,Portugal, for Lot 1 of theYellow and Green lineextension project, which willconnect Rato station, thesouthern terminus of theYellow Line, with Santosstation on the existingcommuter line to Cascais.

SacramentoSacramento Regional TransitDistrict has awarded acontract to Siemens for 20 low-floor LRVs. The contract,which includes spare partsand maintenance, is worth$US 100m and includes anoption for up to 72 vehicles.

ShenyangThe first phase of ShenyangMetro Line 10, which runsfrom Dingxianghu toZhangshabu, opened on April29. The 27.2km metro line has21 stations.

SingaporeSMRT Trains has awardedAlstom a 16-year contract toguarantee the reliability of theCircle Line driverless traincontrol system. Alstom, whichoriginally supplied the CBTCsystem in 2009, will guaranteeits reliability and availabilityand supply spare parts, carryout repairs, and provideobsolescence management andtechnical support until 2035.

Tianshui CityThe first phase of Tram Line 1opened on May 1, runningfrom Tianshui railway stationto Wulipu. The 12.9km east-west route runs alongside thenorthern bank of the WeiRiver, with 12 stations. IRJ

BogotaThe president of Colombia, MrIván Duque Márquez, presidedover the signing of a studies,design and supervisioncontract for the $US 1.5bnRegiotram del Norte railproject. Regiotram del Norteinvolves rebuilding the existing39.5km Bogota - Zipaquirá linefor both freight and light railpassenger operation.

DelhiIndia’s National CapitalRegion Transport Corporation(NCRTC) has awarded L&TConstruction’s Heavy CivilInfrastructure subsidiary twocontracts to construct part ofthe 82km Delhi - Gaziabad -Meerut Regional Rapid TransitSystem (RRTS) line in UttarPradesh. The contracts include32km of viaduct and sevenelevated stations along theDuhai - Modi Nagar and ModiNagar - Shatabdi Nagar sections.

HangzouHangzou Metro opened the35.1km Line 16 on April 23,along with two extensions toLine 5. Line 16 has 12 stations,with services operated withfour-car 120km/h type Bmetro trains. Line 5 is now56.21km with 39 stations.

HelsinkiHelsinki Regional Transport(HSL) has awarded VR Groupa 10-year contract to operatecommuter services around theFinnish capital, the first timethe contract has been put outto competitive tender.

InternationalThe governments of Austriaand Liechtenstein togetherwith Austrian FederalRailways (ÖBB) have signedan agreement to finance aninternational S-Bahn service.The new service will connectFeldkirch, Austria, withNendeln, Liechtenstein, andBuchs in Switzerland.

IstanbulCRRC Zhuzhou has won aLira 1.55bn ($US 221.8m)contract to supply 176 metrocars for the under constructionLine M11 to Istanbul’s newairport, which opened in April2019. Delivery of the first two

In brief

Areport from a Hong Konggovernment-appointed

inquiry released on May 12 hasheavily criticised MTR andcontractor Leighton Asia for“serious deficiencies” in theirsupervision of the Sha Tin -Central Link metro project butconcluded that structures atand near Hung Hom station,the status of which promptedthe review, are safe and fit forpurpose.Reports of poor construction

and a cover-up of mismanagedwork on additional platformsat Hung Hom emerged in May2018. MTR told IRJ at the timethat a number of constructionchanges had been made toworks on the platform slab atthe Hung Hom stationextension by the contractorwithout full documentationand formal submissions toMTR’s project managementteam. The government wasalso not informed of thechanges.The $HK 90.7bn ($US

11.7bn) project is the costliestin the history of MTR and wasoriginally scheduled to open inmid-2019.The project has now been

given the green light forcompletion. The Sha Tin -Central Link (SCL) is 93%complete and the easternHung Hom - Admiralty sectionis scheduled to open in thefirst quarter of 2021. The initial6.8km Tuen Ma Line from TaiWai to Hung Hom opened inFebruary.“The commission is fully

satisfied that, with suitablemeasures in place, the stationbox structure will be safe andalso fit for purpose,” the reportsays. “However, the commissionrecognised that in a number ofrespects, in the course ofconstruction of the station boxstructure, there wereunacceptable incidents of poorworkmanship on sitecompounded by laxsupervision, and that in anumber of respects also,management of the endeavourfell below the standards ofreasonable competence.”As well as MTR and the

contractor, the report says thegovernment should be heldpartly responsible as it hadbeen “the ultimate approverand accepter” of the completedworks.

THE Berlin Senate and thestate of Brandenburg have

confirmed details of thetendering procedure for twoBerlin S-Bahn operatingconcessions and an associatedfleet maintenance contract,which is set to commence “assoon as possible.” The tender will be split

between 15-year operatingconcessions on North-South S-Bahn (lines S8, S85, S86, S2,S25, S1 and S15) and east-westStadtbahn (lines S9, S75, S5, S7,

and S3) sub-networks, and a30-year vehicle delivery andmaintenance contract.Bidders can either bid to

become the operator of each ofthese concessions or combineoperation with delivery andmaintenance of a new fleet oftrains.Alternatively, bidders can

offer to run the entire systemand deliver and maintain thecomplete fleet.The contracts are due to

commence at the end of 2027.

Berlin and Brandenburg confirm startof S-Bahn tendering process

Sha Tin - Central Link safe to complete

June TN_Layout 1 21/05/2020 19:28 Page 15

16 IRJ June 2020

News | financial

ALSTOM achieved a 2%increase in sales to É8.2bn

in 2019-20 and a 4% rise inadjusted Ebit to É630mdespite an 18% fall in orders toÉ9.9bn.Alstom also managed to

increase its order backlog by1% to É40.9bn, its Ebit marginfrom 7.5% to 7.7%, and netincome from É433m toÉ446m.Alstom says the sharp drop

in orders in the 2019-20financial year, which ended onMarch 31, was due to itsexceptional order intake in2018-19. Nevertheless, Alstomsays its book-to-bill ratioremains strong at 1.2.Rolling stock sales increased

by 14% organically to É3.94bn,signalling sales rose by 13%organically to reach É1.49bn,but services sales fell by 6%organically to É1.47bn.Signalling and servicesaccounted for 51% of orders in2019-20.Alstom estimates the impact

of the coronavirus pandemicon sales for 2019-20 at aroundÉ100m, and says it expects itsobjective of a 5% averageannual growth rate up to 2022-23 to be “slightly impacted”by the temporary slowdown oftender activity.

THE northeast German state ofMecklenburg-Vorpommern

has announced changes toupcoming tenders forconcessions to operate theBaltic Coast regional network.Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Transport (VMV) intends toaward contracts to operateregional services on the routesconnecting the island of Rügenwith Stralsund, Rostock andHamburg as follows: = Baltic Coast Network I (RE 1Hamburg - Schwerin -Rostock), which will initiallybe let as a ‘bridge contract’from December 2021 toDecember 2025 and represents2.3 million train-km, and

= Baltic Coast Network II (RE9and RE10 Rostock - Stralsund -Binz/Sassnitz/Züssow) fromDecember 2021 to December2034, which represents 1.8million train-km.From December 2029, at the

earliest, the concession willincorporate an additional 1million train-km.

Southwest tendersTransport authorities from

the southwestern states ofRhineland-Palatinate, Saarlandand Baden-Württemberg ledby Rhineland-Palatinate SouthLocal Transport alsoannounced details of two

tenders covering regional railservices on non-electrifiedroutes centred on Kaiserslauternand Saarbrücken.Lot 1, which runs from

December 2024 to December2039, covers the operation of4.6 million train-km annuallyusing a new fleet of batteryelectric multiple units (BEMUs)on several routes.Lot 2 covers 1.3 million

train-km annually and will runfrom December 2023 to June2037, primarily on the largelynon-electrified route betweenMainz/Bingen andKaiserslautern, currentlyoperated by both DB Regioand Vlexx.

FOUR North American Class1 railways have reported

record quarters for the start of2020, despite the coronavirus.Canadian Pacific Railway (CP)

set records for operating ratioand revenue in Q1, and willcontinue to invest in anticipationof an economic recovery, ratherthan increase its shareholderdividend and buy back shares.CP’s first quarter 2020

operating revenues increasedby 16% to a first quarter recordof $C 2.04bn ($US 1.44bn), from$C 1.77bn last year. CP’soperating ratio improved by1010 basis points to a first-quarter record of 59.2%.Operating income increased by54% to $C 834m from $C 543mlast year.

CSX set a Class 1 railwayfirst-quarter operating ratio recordof 58.7%, improving 80 basispoints from its 59.5% operatingratio in the first quarter of 2019.CSX achieved this milestonedespite a drop in revenues, butwith a corresponding drop inoperating costs. The railwaywithdrew its guidance for theremainder of the year.CSX net earnings were $US

770m compared with $US 834min the same period last year.Revenue for the first quarterdecreased 5% over the firstquarter of 2019 to $US 2.86bn.Canadian National Railway

(CN) achieved a 13% increasein operating income to $C 1.22bnfor the quarter despiteblockades of its network and

the impact of coronavirus.While revenue remained flat at$C 3.55bn, CN managed toreduce operating expenses by5% to $C 2.23bn.Union Pacific (UP) achieved

an all-time best operating ratio

of 59% for the quarter, and anincrease in net income from$US 1.4bn in 2018 to $US 1.5bn.The railway’s 59% operatingratio is a quarterly record andthe fourth consecutive quarterbelow 60%.

Revised tendering plan confirmed for northeast Germany Alstom increasesyearly salesdespite order drop

Record quarter for four Class 1s despite Covid-19

The tender from Rhineland-Palatinate South Local Transport includes the operation of RE 6/RB 51 Kaiserslautern –Neustadt/Weinstrasse – Landau – Karlsruhe services from December 2024. Photo: Deutsche Bahn AG/Uwe Miethe

Canadian National was forced to deal with lower commodity volumesmostly due to the impact of the illegal blockades in February.

June FN_Layout 1 22/05/2020 12:42 Page 16

IRJ June 2020 17

surpassed É6bn. Ebitda alsoincreased by 6.6% from É392min 2018 to É418m.

GermanyThe Federal Cartel Office hasapproved CRRC ZhuzhouLocomotive’s acquisition ofVossloh Locomotives sayingits concerns do not justifyrejecting the merger.

InternationalVoith, Germany, and PCSHolding, Switzerland, are toacquire 59% of the shares inTraktionssysteme Austria(TSA) for an undisclosed sum.TSA produces electric motors,generators and transmissionsfor rail and road vehicles.

NorwaySix train builders have beenpre-qualified by Norwegianrolling stock company NorskeTog to bid for a contract tosupply up to 200 EMUs. Theinitial contract will be for 30trains with an option for up to170 additional trains. IRJ

BulgariaBulgarian State Railways(BDZ) has awarded Siemens aLev 55.5m ($US 31m) contractto supply 10 electric Smartronpassenger locomotives. Siemenssubmitted a bid that was Lev2m cheaper than the expectedvalue of the contract.

Czech RepublicCzech Railways (CD) recordeda profit of Koruna 1.3bn ($US51.5m) in 2019, with all sectorsof the group contributing tothe positive result. Thepassenger division remainedprofitable, and retains 90% ofthe Czech market, despite adifficult year due to “ongoingliberalisation of the railtransport market.”

FranceKeolis recorded a 10.9%increase in revenue last year,up from É5.93m in 2018 toÉ6.58bn in 2019. This is thesecond consecutive year thatrevenue growth has exceeded10%, and the first time it has

In brief

www.ultimate-eur.com

DOORSGANGWAYSINTERIORS

System solutions from one source

Highest quality standards

Fast construction concepts

Intelligent delivery logistics

NORWEGIAN infrastructuremanager Bane Nor has

announced three tenders witha combined value of more thanNKr 2bn ($US 195.6m) as itlooks to support theconstruction industry throughthe coronavirus pandemic.The tenders are part of the

track-doubling project on theVestfold line betweenDrammen and Kobbervikdalen.

This batch of work includesrebuilding Drammen station,the construction of tracks andoverhead electrification, andthe installation of electrical andtelecommunicationsinfrastructure between Drammenand Kobbervikdalen.Bane Nor is planning to sign

the contracts for the tenders inthe first quarter of 2021, withwork starting in spring 2021.

THE Hungarian governmentsigned a loan agreement

with the Chinese Exim Bankon May 4 to finance 85% of theForints 578bn ($US 1.78bn) costof upgrading the Budapest -Belgrade main line, with theremaining 15% to be financedby the Hungarian government.The loan has a fixed interest

rate and the Hungarian has theoption to repay instalmentsahead of schedule if needed.The signing of the loan

agreement was a precondition

for the contract signed in June2019 with the Chinese-HungarianCRE Consortium, which isrebuilding the main line. Work on upgrading the Serbian

section is already underwaywith this expected to becompleted in 2022, while theHungarian section is expectedto be completed in 2025.The project includes track-

doubling between Soroksár inBudapest, and the Serbianborder between Kelebia andSubotica.

HUNGARY’s nationalpassenger operator, MAV-

Start, has issued a call fortender for a frameworkcontract to supply up to 50battery-electric trains.The tender calls for 30 150-

seat and 20 200-seat low-floortrains designed to operate onlines electrified at 25kV 50Hzas well as under battery power.MAV-Start intends to purchasethe 20 200-seat trains first.Bids will be evaluated

according to the followingquality criteria with a maximumweighting of 1200 points:= general warranty period 24-36 months - weighting: 50= traction battery warrantyperiod 120-144 months -

weighting: 50= long battery range 80-120kmat 100km/h - weighting: 50= low floor (less than or equalto 750 mm) passengercompartment ratio 40-75% -weighting: 50= synchronous operationinsurance with 415-seriestraction motor trains -weighting: 25= maximum capacity on a 200-seat EMU 200-220 seats -weighting: 25, and= maximum capacity on a 150-seat EMU 150-165 seats -weighting: 25The deadline for submission

of bids is June 22. Theframework contract is expectedto run for nine years.

Loan for Budapest - Belgrade upgrade

Bane Nor announces Vestfold linetenders worth NKr 2bn

MAV-Start invites bids for BEMUs

June FN_Layout 1 22/05/2020 12:42 Page 17

18

AS the source of the coronaviruspandemic, China was also thefirst country to begin the

economic recovery. Factories andbusinesses began reopening inFebruary, and many enterprises havesince turned to trans-Eurasian railfreight services to speed up theshipment of products and to receiveessential components and goods. China National Railway reports that2920 trains carrying 262,000 TEU ranbetween China and Europe fromJanuary to April, a 24% increase year-on-year. In April alone westboundvolumes were up 58% and eastbound29% for a total of 88,000 TEU.In Europe, rail freight loadings at theport of Duisburg, Europe’s largestinland port, increased from the usual35-40 trains per week to 50 in April. ThePolish border has similarly witnessedextensive congestion as freight waits totransfer to the 1435mm-gauge network

before heading to destinations acrossthe continent. The scene is in stark contrast with theCovid-19 shutdowns, which haveground much of the continent to a haltin recent months and are set to plungeEurope’s economy into one of thedeepest recessions ever known. Indeed,for Polish rail freight operator PKPCargo, while the increase in demand foreast-west intermodal rail freight iswelcome, it does not mask the reality oflosses elsewhere.PKP Cargo serves Poland’s threeseaports, which have experienced a 50%decline in shipments from China sincethe start of the pandemic. While railfreight from China is reaching thecontinent within 12-14 days, the two tothree-month journey for ships, whichcarry the majority of Europe’s goods,means the recovery will be muchslower. The situation is compounded bymany of the ships now passing around

the Cape of Good Hope rather than viathe Suez Canal, adding weeks to thejourney.“Obviously we are in a difficulttime,” says Mr Czeslaw Warsewicz,PKP Cargo president. “For the wholetime we have been operating as normalboth domestically and internationally,but demand from the economy waslower, especially for power. Oureconomy and electricity is based oncoal, and 50% of our turnover is basedon the transport of coal. General powerproduction in Poland dropped by 10%and this has slowed demand fortransport of coal. “There was also a fall in intermodaltransport, especially between seaportsand destinations in Poland andelsewhere in Europe. The number ofships from China fell by 50% and thetraffic for transfers from ports wasmuch lower as a result.”The situation might have been much

Poland | freight

Embracing intermodalPKP Cargo develops new strategyPKP Cargo, like all operators, has suffered a hit as a result of the coronavirus shutdowns. However, the companyremains committed to a strategy of increasing intermodal volumes as it transitions from a railway operator into a logistics specialist, as CEO Czeslaw Warsewicz reveals in an exclusive interview with Kevin Smith.

June PKP Cargo_Layout 1 21/05/2020 18:00 Page 18

worse for PKP Cargo if the operator did not act tokeep its business operational. A Crisis ManagementTeam was established in the early days of the crisis todevelop and implement the necessary safety proceduresfor dispatch employees, traction teams and otherpeople directly responsible for handling trains andloads. The operator also benefitted from the EuropeanUnion’s Green Lanes policy, which maintained seamlessborder crossings on TEN-T corridors for all freight.Like many businesses, PKP Cargo has received statesupport to cover key costs during the crisis. In Polandthe government is reimbursing the salary costs ofemployees at firms which have reported a 15% ormore reduction in activity as a result of Covid-19.PKP Cargo employee working hours have been cut by10% overall as a cost saving measure and Warsewiczsays this move has stabilised the business and willmostly compensate the anticipated 20-25% reductionin turnover. He says volumes are expected to begin aslow recovery from this month.The Covid-19 downturn comes off the back of asuccessful 2019 for PKP Cargo. Despite difficulteconomic conditions and an overall decrease in thetransport of goods, which the company says isconsistent with rail freight operators across Europe,the operator reported revenues of Zlotys 4.87bn($US 1.18bn), its second best annual result sincelisting on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2013.However, this was down 7.1% from the Zlotys 5.24bnreported in 2018, the company’s best ever result.Ebidta was also down 5.2% year-on-year to Zlotys860m. In total, the group transported 108.6 million tonnes

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20 IRJ June 2020

of goods in 2019, a 10.9% decrease year-on-year. Coal accounted for 47.9 millionof this figure, a reduction of 6.3%compared with 2018. Aggregatesaccounted for 20.4 million tonnes (-21.6%),and metals and ores 9.3 million tonnes(-26.2%).Intermodal was the only segment

where volumes increased - from 9.2million to 9.5 million tonnes, or 2.7%.Intermodal is also where PKP Cargo ispinning its future hopes. As Poland begins to move away from

fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy,coal shipments are expected to decreasein the medium-term. Equally, a boom ininfrastructure development andupgrades across the country fuelled byEU funds helped to establish PKPCargo as the country’s leading shipperof aggregates. Yet this segment is notlikely to sustain growth in the long-term.“We have no choice but to take into

consideration the changes that will takeplace in Poland and in Europe, whichwill demand greater specialisation,”Warsewicz says. “Increasingly logisticswill become a factor in every success ofthe business, and this is why in thelong-term we will focus more and moreon this element.”Warsewicz recognises that this

transfer process will not happen rapidlyand says that in the more immediateterm the emphasis is on improvingservice efficiency and reliability. Hesays the three-month window offeredby the state’s support package is

providing the company with time toreflect on what its longer-term objectivesare, and how it can achieve them whileremaining relevant in the short-term.“No-one knows what will happen in

the next two, three or four months,”Warsewicz says. “My feeling is that thesituation will return to somethingresembling normal, but you don’t knowfor certain. We don’t want to make anyimpulsive decisions to fire employees orto decrease the scale of the business. Forthese three months we have theopportunity to update the strategy for achanging situation and the possibleimpact on the economy of Covid-19.”

AmbitionAs part of this process, Warsewicz

says PKP Cargo will engage with clientsto try and estimate how the businesswill develop for the remainder of theyear and for the next two or three yearsso it might respond accordingly. “Ourmain ambition is to balance cost withturnover in this short period so we canprepare ourselves to make a net profitin the near future,” he says.Warsewicz adds that he is heartened

by the importance of the railway tokeep the economy moving during thepandemic. This along with strongenvironmental credentials should holdthe sector in good stead for the future.Yet rail freight’s Achilles heel -

predictability and reliability of delivery- remains. For Warsewicz, if PKP Cargo

is to deliver on its ambitions andbecome a complete logistics provider, itmust increase the attractiveness ofintermodal rail services, which are thebackbone of its offer. To address these fundamental flaws,

improvements to Poland’s railwayinfrastructure are essential. Warsewiczsays he is encouraged by progress withthe National Railway Programme, thelargest infrastructure investment in thehistory of Poland’s railway. Infrastructuremanager PKP PLP is investing Zlotys70bn up to 2023 on upgrades across9000km of track as well as improvingpassenger infrastructure and signallingand telecommunications systems. The importance of these investments

is emphasised by the fact that railfreight only accounts for 20-25% of alltransport from Poland’s ports,compared with 40-45% elsewhere inEurope. Improving access to terminalsand rail infrastructure capacity so thereare more freight paths will help toincrease this figure. Equally it will helpto increase the average speed from20km/h for freight services at present.“If we can get this to 45-50km/h after

modernisation, we can double thespeed of our service, which is veryimportant when competing with roadtransport,” Warsewicz says.“To truly be a logistics operator we

must have a door-to-door service,”Warsewicz continues. “We need anetwork of terminals. We already havesome, but the state is investing in more.

Poland | freight

For these three months we have the opportunity toupdate the strategy for a changing situation and thepossible impact on the economy of Covid-19.Czeslaw Warsewicz

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IRJ June 2020 21

Compared with the EU average, wehave two to three times fewer per 100network-km, and that is why we have abig gap between us and the rest ofEurope. The state is investing a hugeamount in infrastructure and this iscritical to help us to become morecompetitive and efficient comparedwith other modes of transport.”

RestructuringWith PKP Cargo transitioning from arailway operator to a logistics company,and an infrastructure owner to a serviceprovider, a major restructuring of thebusiness is necessary. This process will involve combiningexisting domestic subsidiaries as well asits international arm, PKP International,which the company bought outrightfrom Czech operator Advanced WorldCargo (AWT) in 2017, into a singlelogistics company. Warsewicz does not rule outacquisitions if, following a review ofinternal processes, the company isfound to be lacking in a specific area.He is also quick to emphasise that thecompany is ready and willing to useservices offered by others - such asplanes, ships or specific logistics processes- if it improves the offer to the customer.“We want to maximise our efforts forthe client and to do this we want to be alogistics partner that will deliver at theright time, at the right place, and at theright price,” Warsewicz says. “Differentclients have different priorities; forsome it is all about price, and for othersit is all about time of delivery. This is

why we need to prepare individualoffers for each client.”Harnessing new digital technologiesis considered crucial to improving thereliability of this tailored service.Warsewicz says PKP Cargo is close toagreeing a contract to install a TransportManagement System, which he sayswill track all of the company’s assets inreal-time, improving the visibility ofgoods and assets moving throughoutthe network and aiding servicereliability. Clients will have access to anapplication which enables them to tracktheir service. Equally the applicationwill improve monitoring of PKPCargo’s own activities and assets,enhancing operational efficiency andinforming maintenance activities.“This is a critical process that we willfinalise this year,” Warsewicz says. One service that will ultimatelyharness this tracking capability issubsidiary PKP Cargo Connect’sConnect Operator intermodal service,which was due to launch as IRJ went topress. These trains will operate severaltimes per week from the port at Gdanskto Warsaw Praga and Poznan Franowo,offering a transit time of eight hours,and to Gliwice B Kontenerowa for a 15-hour journey. Crucially, they will run tofixed timetables and will offercustomers a complete picture of whereshipments are and when they are due toarrive at their destination. PKP CargoConnect will also offer an onward roadtranshipment service to support lastmile operation.Another step to improve cross-border

intermodal capability was emphasisedin the operation of a pilot intermodaltrain between Germany and Lithuaniain partnership with LithuanianRailways’ subsidiary LG Cargo andGerman intermodal technologyprovider CargoBeamer last month. The train was the first such service toreach the Baltic States. The 22-wagontrain arrived at the Sestokai terminal insouthwest Lithuania following a two-day 1500km journey fromKaldenkirchen intermodal terminalclose to the Dutch border in Germanyvia Poland and the standard gauge lineto Sestokai. The outbound train wasloaded with trailers from eighttransport and logistics companies. Itcarried 23 trailers on the return leg.The companies touted theenvironmental friendliness of theservice - it was estimated to reduce CO2consumption by 100 tonnes comparedwith an equivalent journey by road.Warsewicz says that the partners areworking on developing a competitivetransport offer for the route in thefuture. Indeed, as PKP Cargo embracesintermodal, further innovations areexpected as the company seeks to growand enhance this area of the business asothers begin to decline. Rather than using the Covid-19epidemic to firefight, the company isembracing the breathing space offeredby the government funds to reassessand improve its offer. Whatever happensin the next few months, PKP Cargoseems well placed to respond accordinglyand strengthen its position in themarket. IRJ

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22 IRJ June 2020

THE railway industry has alwaysrightly been known for its high safetystandards, but meeting such high

standards can slow the introduction ofnew technologies as they go throughthe stringent testing and developmentphases required. This can result in difficulties testing

new technologies on operationalrailways, as operators can be reluctantto allow the introduction of newinnovative components. In order toremove this barrier, Czech signallingdeveloper and supplier AZD Prahacame up with a novel solution: to buyits own railway. The opportunity presented itself in

2016, when infrastructure manager SZ

(formerly SZDC) was looking toconsolidate its network by sellingunder-used lines. AZD was initiallyinterested in the 22km Dolní Bousov -Kopidlno line, says AZD Europeanaffairs director, Mr Vladimír Kampík.However, after preparing the biddocuments for the line, the companydecided it would also bid for the 38kmCízkovice - Obrnice line in the Ústíregion.Dubbed the “Plum Railway” due to

the fruit trees that used to growalongside its tracks, the line was put outof commission due to its slow speedsand state of disrepair, with the lastpassenger services running in 2007. After the bids for both lines were

successful, AZD began upgrading themto an operational standard, includingenhancing drainage along the entiretrackbed of the Plum Railway, replacingrails and sleepers, modifying trackgeometry and installing ERTMS toincrease the maximum speed along theline to 100km/h.Following this, AZD began operating

a weekend tourist service betweenLovosice and Most, working with theÚstí nad Labem region. The popularityof this service, along with the improvedjourney times provided by theupgraded line and the new signallingtechnology, sparked discussions aroundthe resumption of daily services, whicheventually began at the end of 2019.

Czech Republic | Plum Railway

Reopening the Plum RailwayRailway industry suppliers are always looking for new ways to develop and test their products beforeintroducing them to market. AŽD Praha has taken this to the next level by buying and operating its own line.Zdenek Chrdle and Vladimír Kampík tell David Burroughs how the company is benefiting from this novelapproach.

June Plum Railway_Layout 1 21/05/2020 15:14 Page 22

IRJ June 2020 23

AZD is now operating 11 daily round trips along the51km line between Litomerice and Most, which includes thePlum Railway, with another seven daily trains along theshorter Litomerice - Trebívlice section of the line. Servicesare operated using three low-floor RegioSprinter units andone backup unit, which were purchased from Germanybefore being upgraded to meet Czech standards. This includedthe installation of an onboard vacuum toilet, along withair-conditioning, Wi-Fi, power sockets, and space forpushchairs, bicycles and skis. Each two-car train hascapacity for 165 passengers, including 65 seated.“We use it as a showroom and we are still continuously

installing the newest technology, not only from AZD butalso from our related companies,” says AZD generalmanager, Mr Zdenek Chrdle. “We have the advantage thatthe train is operating every day so all the new installationsare immediately proven during operation.”The line has three stations, at Trebenice, Trebívlice and

Libceves, along with five ‘intelligent’ stops. Developed byAZD, these feature a small shelter with a signal light on topthat turns off when a button is pressed by the passenger.The driver in turn looks for the light when approachingthe station, stopping to pick up the passengers if the lightis turned off. The stops also feature e-paper displayssimilar to the kind used in Kindle e-readers to displaytimetable information, intelligent lighting that dims whenno passengers are present, and connected-fibre CCTV.Services are controlled from a dispatch centre in

Lovosice, using a fully electronic StationSWing ESA-44

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June Plum Railway_Layout 1 21/05/2020 15:14 Page 23

24 IRJ June 2020

interlocking. AZD has installed GSM-Ralong the entire line, together withETCS Level 2 along two-thirds of theline. The remaining third will becovered with ETCS Level 1 by the endof the year as a demonstration. Whilethe company has installed ETCS Level 2along hundreds of kilometres of track, itis yet to build up a similar portfolio forETCS Level 1, a gap filled with itsinstallation on the Plum Railway.

Automatic Train OperationAZD is also involved in Shift2Rail’s

development of Automatic TrainOperation (ATO). The line was due tohost a test of ATO at Grade ofAutomation 2 (GoA2) this month,ahead of a presentation of the project atInnoTrans in September. However, thishas since been delayed due to theCovid-19 pandemic, with thedemonstration now expected to takeplace ahead of InnoTrans’ revised dateson April 27-30 2021. Nevertheless, thetechnology is installed and ready on theline, Kampík says, and work is ongoingwith a goal of developing GoA3. The ATO system aligns with the

standards developed by the Unisigindustrial consortium, which comprisesAZD, Alstom, Bombardier, CAF, HitachiRail, MerMec, Siemens, and Thales asfull members, while CM and Sirti areassociate members. New features were installed along the

Cízkovice - Obrnice section of the line,

including modern electronic GateSWingPZZ-J level crossings with LED warninglights and new telescopic barrier beamsmade of composite materials or aluminium.As part of its level crossing

development, AZD is involved in the C-Roads project, a Europe-wideprogramme to develop CooperativeIntelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) toimprove road safety. The system usesdata from road vehicles to allow them

to communicate with each other and thesurrounding infrastructure. The C-ITS systems will provide

drivers with information on upcomingtraffic and road conditions, helping toimprove flow and prevent traffic jamsand serious accidents. The technologywill also be able to communicate withlevel crossings, alerting the driver thatthe barriers may be closing or that atrain may be approaching. AZD is also installing and testing a

number of new developments not usuallyseen along a small rural railway, includingFieldSWing SNA-100 prototype signals

designed for lines with operatingspeeds of more than 160km/h andalternative point machines.Maintenance along the line will be

streamlined through the use of fibre-optic cables and drones. A globaldiagnostic system, based at Trebívlicestation, will continuously monitor andevaluate key parameters and alltechnical installations along the line.Using a system supplied by Frauscher, a

fibre-optic cable is laid along the line,which uses rail defectoscopy to detectcracks or breaks in the rail by pickingup the vibrations produced by the trainpassing by.The goal is to create a system whereby

the detection of a fault would trigger adrone, which would autonomously fly tothe location to observe and photographthe affected rail. The system has been tested successfully

using pilots who fly the drone usingGPS localisation. Autonomous flight isnot yet possible due to legal restrictions.AZD is seeking a change in legislationto allow it to operate the droneautonomously over roads, but thisprocess has been put on hold during theCovid-19 pandemic.The system will also monitor level

crossings, ETCS, public informationsystems, station lighting and otherelements, along with the technicalcondition of culverts and bridges aftersmart sensors are installed.The coronavirus pandemic has not

affected the operation of the line itself,Kampík says, and the line continues toprovide the full services proscribedunder the contract with the Ústí nadLabem region.Reopening of the line has helped to

increase awareness of AZD’s brandamong the general public. The companyis also continuing the line’s heritage.The plum trees which gave the line itsname have been replanted and theirfruit is now used to produce AZD-branded Slivovice brandy. “Wewelcome all visitors who would like tosee the line in operation and see theinstallations,” Chrdle says. “It is open toall.” IRJ

Czech Republic | Plum Railway

We have the advantage that the train is operating everyday so all the new installations are immediately provenduring operation. Zdenek Chrdle

AZD is trialling the use of autonomous drones to respond to faults and record photos and videosto advise engineers of possible infrastructure faults.

June Plum Railway_Layout 1 21/05/2020 16:09 Page 24

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High speed | Czech Republic

Momentum builds for Cze Facing growing passenger and freight traffic with limited options to increase capacity, the Czech Republic isturning to the development of new high-speed lines as a way to improve connectivity across the country.David Burroughs meets SŽ director of international affairs, Radek Cech, and head of department, high-speedpreparation, Martin Švehlík, to hear how plans for the network are progressing.

June Czech HS_Layout 1 21/05/2020 15:01 Page 26

SITTING in the centre of Europeand surrounded by five majorcountries including Germany,

Poland and Austria, the Czech Republicholds an important position when itcomes to facilitating transport across thecontinent. But this also poses challengesfor a network that still has a maximumoperating speed of 160km/h and isfacing increasing demand.On the back of growing passengerand freight traffic, the country’s railnetwork was coming under increasingstrain, at least until the coronaviruspandemic struck. In 2019, nationaloperator Czech Railways (CD), whichhas 90% of the market, carried 182million passengers, with averagejourney distance and train occupancyboth increasing by about 10% comparedwith 2018.

This strain on capacity is compoundedby the nature of the network under thecontrol of infrastructure manager SZ,formerly SZDC, which continues tocarry mixed traffic on the same lines.“We have a different situation fromGermany or Austria, where they havesegregated lines for different types oftraffic,” SZ director of internationalaffairs, Mr Radek Cech, explains. “Wedon’t have this - we use the same tracksfor all types of trains. On the line to theeast (of Prague) we have trains everytwo minutes, but it’s also about the typeof train, fast, regional or freight trains,which makes it very difficult.” This tight headway means that anydelay can have a domino effect, causingsignificant disruption to other services.To solve this capacity challenge, thecountry is looking to build a series of

high-speed lines. The initial emphasis ison bypassing the most congestedsections of the network, before developingthese connections into a three-linenetwork. The new network will serveonly long-distance passenger trains,freeing up space on the conventionalnetwork for local and regionalpassenger services and freight trains.

Government approvalThe plan has been in the pipeline foryears, but the programme fordeveloping the high-speed rail networktook a major step forward afterreceiving approval from the Czechgovernment in May 2017. Thegovernment resolution called for anetwork with a speed of between 300-350km/h, where feasible, that would

zech high-speed project

The new high-speed network will improve capacity across theconventional network, which is currently struggling to meetdemand. Photo: Shutterstock/Olga Oggi

27

June Czech HS_Layout 1 21/05/2020 15:01 Page 27

28 IRJ June 2020

improve access to affordable transportservices, strengthen the Czech Republic’sinternational competitiveness, reducethe environmental impact of transport,and improve accessibility to regionalcentres and international cities.Decreasing the travel time betweencity centres has the additional benefit ofimproving economic activity bybringing workers residing outside ofcities within commuting distance ofmore jobs.The highlight of the project is thePrague - Brno - Ostrava high-speed line,which will include the Brno - Breclavbranch to the south. The V-shaped linewill bring Jihlava and Brno within lessthan 30 minutes of Prague.A second segment of the project,which is being developed incooperation with German Rail (DB),will see the construction of a line southfrom Dresden to Prague. This project,which is still in the development stage,will include a tunnel beneath the OreMountains near the village of Stradov.The line is expected to run southpartially underground, with anunderground station at Ústí nad Labemand in tunnel to Litomerice from wherethe line will continue on a dedicatedalignment to Prague, where its entrypoint is yet to be decided.Last year, SZ launched threefeasibility studies: one covering the linenorth from Prague towards Dresden,due to be completed in the spring ofthis year, a second covering the Prague- Brno line and on to Austria andSlovakia, due to be completed in theautumn, and a third studying the Brno -Ostrava section of the network, which isdue to be completed by the end of theyear.

While these studies are ongoing, theearly results show a strong need toconstruct key sections of the network assoon as possible. The Czech Ministry ofTransport subsequently gave approvalfor the next phase of these sections’development process to take placeconcurrently with the feasibility studies. “This project has benefits without thefull system,” Cech says. “It will be builtsection by section, and for every sectionit will be possible for the trains to leavethe new line to re-join the existingnetwork.”The first section which is set to moveforward is the 23km Prague - Porícanysection of the Prague - Brno high-speed

line. This will run from Prague-Bechovice, a suburb on the easternoutskirts of Prague and will increasecapacity from the east.In January, SZ published a tender toprepare documentation to apply forplanning permission for the section,which was followed in April with arepeat tender that reflected the questionsand objections raised by the industryduring the process launched in January.The tender includes an environmentalimpact study, as well as an option toundertake the work required to receiveapproval for both studies. The 14-monthcontract, which is worth around Koruna240.5m ($US 9.6m), will be awardedunder the best value approach/bestvalue procurement (BVA/BVP) model,and not necessarily according to thecheapest bid. Construction of the network isexpected to begin in 2025, beginningwith the Prague - Porícany section, withwork on subsequent sections predictedto begin in 2027 and 2029. Constructionis expected to take around five years foreach section, although the tunnel betweenthe Czech Republic and Germany couldtake up to 10 years to complete.

International cooperationOn May 11, SZ and Germaninfrastructure manager DB Networkreleased a tender to undertake theproject management for the Dresden -Prague line during the pre-projectpreparation phase from 2020 to 2024.

High speed | Czech Republic

Planned HS linesProposed HS linesOther linesGERMANY

GERMANY

SLOVAKIA

POLAND

POLAND

AUSTRIA

N

IRJ

Cheb

Karlovy Vary

MostLiberec

Kladno

Beroun Prague KolínPardubice

Hradec Králove

OstravaPilsenBenešov

Havličkův Brod

Jihlava

Olomouc

Přerov

Brno

Břeclav

Ceské Budějovice

Domažlice

Űstí nad Labem

Poříčany

Světlá nad Sázavou

Űstí n Ori

Czech Republic

The country’s fastest services are currently offered by the Alstom-built class 681 Pendolinotilting trains operated by ČD.

June Czech HS_Layout 1 21/05/2020 15:01 Page 28

IRJ June 2020 29

The Czech government has budgetedÉ10m in 2020 for the planning anddevelopment stage, and SZ is planningto apply for funding through theEuropean Union’s Connecting EuropeFacility (CEF) to construct the lines, asthey will form part of the TEN-T network.“The CEF fund is logical because it’snot only a national project, it’s also

connecting Vienna, and other parts ofEurope and southern Europe includingItaly, Austria and Hungary,” Cech says.“On all of these lines you can runinternational trains between theEuropean capitals.”In April 2019, SZ signed an agreementwith French National Railways (SNCF)

to support the development of aplanning framework for high-speedlines in the Czech Republic. SNCF wasselected as a partner based on theoutputs of SZ’s High-Speed RailTechnical and Operational Study, whichfound the French network, designedsolely for passenger services, was closerto the needs of the Czech network than

others such as Germany, which carriesboth passenger and freight.“Our French colleagues came hereand together we prepared specialstandards for Czech needs that arebased on French experience,” Cechsays. ”These are not French standards,they are Czech standards developed

with great support from our Frenchcolleagues.”For the Prague - Dresden line, SZ isworking with DB to develop a commonstandard which matches Germanstandards and enables cross-borderinteroperability.All lines will be equipped with ETCSLevel 2, which is expected to be rolled-out across 461km of the conventionalmainline network by the end of thisyear. Under the Czech national ETCSimplementation plan, trains without ETCSwill not be allowed to operate on ETCS-equipped routes from January 1 2025. The contracts to build the lines will belet through European-wide tenders, withSZ looking to the major players in high-speed civil engineering to take part inthe construction phase. The project couldalso be an opportunity for local businessesto increase their expertise. “It may be agood chance for them to participate, butthey may need to partner with otherEuropean companies,” Cech says.Through the development andconstruction phase and on to itseventual opening, the high-speedproject looks set to change the Czechrail landscape forever. IRJ

Our French colleagues came here and together weprepared special standards for Czech needs that arebased on French experience. Radek Cech

Systems for Automatic Train OperationDriveSWing DRS-10 ATO over ETCS

• Connected, energy saving and interoperable • Compliant to ERTMS/ETCS specifications

– onboard and trackside• Ready for mainlines – high-speed

and regional passenger trains• Ready for freight trains• Energy and CO2 emissions savings 10-30 %• Increasing tra� ic density and punctionality,

dynamic time-table• GoA 2 – decreasing demands on drivers = less stress,

less errors• Ready for ETCS Level 3

AŽD Praha - leader in ATO for railwaysATO GoA 2 in commercial operation on mainlines for 25 years @300+ vehicles

www.azd.cz

June Czech HS_Layout 1 21/05/2020 15:01 Page 29

30 IRJ June 2020

MR Achal Khare, managingdirector of India’s NationalHigh-Speed Rail Corporation

(NHSRCL), which is responsible forimplementing the Mumbai -Ahmedabad high-speed project, hasbeen facing uncomfortable questionsrecently.These include how real are fears that

the project - India’s first high-speedrailway - is likely to miss its December2023 completion deadline and sufferhigher costs. With execution work onthe line at a standstill for the last threeyears, what is the justification to invitetenders to prepare Detailed ProjectReports (DPRs) on six other lines? Whatare the reasons for the variance infigures furnished by NHSRCL and thestate governments of Gujarat and

Maharashtra regarding land acquisition?How will the project re-start inMaharashtra following the decision byMr Uddhav Thackeray, the state’s newchief minister, to halt execution work ona scheme he describes as a “whiteelephant”? Khare faces other challenges too. In

the wake of the coronavirus pandemic,the Indian government has banned allforeign nationals from entering thecountry, which is likely to adverselyimpact project implementation. Indeed,80% of the Rs 1 trillion ($US 14.6bn)needed to fund the project will comefrom a 20-year Japan InternationalCooperation Agency (Jica) loan of Rs880bn with a 1% interest rate and a 15-year moratorium on repayment. Another problem concerns the ever-

widening gap between the Indian rupeeand the Japanese yen. When thecontract was signed in 2014, the valueof the Jica loan component wasestimated at Rs 880bn, but the fall in thevalue of the rupee against the yen isestimated to have increased the cost of theproject by Rs 430bn. “The Memorandumof Understanding between the twocountries covers depreciation costs, butnot currency fluctuations,” Khareadmits. If the rupee does not stabilise, the

Indian government could well end uppaying substantially more to repay theloan in addition to the interestpayments to the Japanese government.“The Delhi Metro had a Jica loan ofapproximately Rs 10bn in 2002 but endedup paying back Rs 17bn, an increase of

High speed | India

Mumbai - Ahmedabad high-speed projec

India’s first high-speed project - a 508km new line linking Mumbai with Ahmedabad - faces major challengesto meet the December 2023 opening date.

June India HS_Layout 1 21/05/2020 16:51 Page 30

IRJ June 2020 31

70%, after the end of the 10-yearmoratorium in 2011-12. A similarsituation cannot be ruled out in respectof the loan for the high-speed project,”former Railway Board member, MrSubodh Jain, warns.Additionally, the trend of spiralling

project costs does not appear to havebeen halted. From the initial estimate ofRs 970bn, the project cost climbed to Rs1080bn after the Indian government optedfor an almost entirely elevated line, andthere have been indications lately thatthe project cost could rise still further.

“Some changes in project costs arelikely because of certain alignmentchanges and engineering modifications,”Khare says. “For example, instead of theearlier plan to use drilling and blastingfor tunnelling, it has been decided touse 13.2m-diameter tunnel boringmachines to bore tunnels beneath ThaneCreek near Mumbai where there is aflamingo sanctuary. Design changeshave also been made to the constructionof Vadodara’s high-speed station becausethe height of the station and overheadwires in the original plan would haveinterfered with the guidelines of theAirport Restrictions Zone.”Project costs are also likely to escalate

because of the growing demand from

farmers for a bigger compensationpackage in exchange for surrenderingland for the project. Farmers inMaharashtra and Gujarat have refusedto part with their farmland for the project.

Growing criticismNHSRCL has faced growing criticism

regarding the slow progress in executingthe project. Early last year, the corporationfloated nine civil work tenders out ofthe total of 14, but the opening date ofthe financial bids was continuouslypushed back from November last yearto January and then March this year.Now, the latest projections are that thebids will not be opened until November.“Unless the monetary issues are sortedout between India and Japan, it will notbe possible for NHSRCL to open andaward the tenders,” an official earlierassociated with NHSRCL says. Unofficial estimates are that the

Japanese component of the project hasnearly doubled and that NHSRCL hasbeen under pressure to revise itsfinancial estimates. Khare, however,maintains that the exercise to formulatethe project estimates will be undertakenafter the bids are opened. Regarding thedecision to push back the tenderopening date, he said that this had beendone on account of the corporation’sother preoccupations.Nevertheless, Khare lists the

achievements so far: = tendering of civil works for 345kmout of a total length of 508km= relocating 916 of the 1638 publicutilities involving state governments= completion of joint measurementsurveys in 291 of the 297 villagesidentified for purchase= acquisition of 810 hectares of the total of1396 hectares needed for the project, and = finalisation of a system to paycompensation to farmers for landsurrender. In addition, an agreement on moving

utilities to build the high-speed station ona 76 hectare site at Sabarmati in Gujarathas also been reached, while a high-speed training institute has been

constructed at Vadodara and will openin December. “These are time-consuming and

complex issues, but it is difficult toproceed without resolving them first,”Khare says. However, major tasks remain. A joint

venture for rolling stock assembly ormanufacture has yet to be agreed.“Japanese companies such as Kawasakiand Hitachi have been in talks withIndian public sector undertakings, suchas Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited(BHEL) and Bharat Earth Movers Limited(BEML), and an agreement is expectedto be firmed up soon,” Khare says. A bigger challenge will be resolving

issues concerning project finance atupcoming meetings of the Indo-JapanTechnical Committee and the ProjectJoint Committee, co-chaired by Mr RajivKumar, vice-chairman of the Indiangovernment policy think tank NitiAayog. But the biggest challenge will be

meeting the December 2023 completiondate, when 10-car trains each carrying750 passengers are due to startoperating on the new line. As trafficbuilds up, 16-car trains carrying 1250passengers will be introduced. The lineis expected to operate 35 trains per dayper direction, carrying 17,900passengers. Traffic on the new line iseventually expected to reach 92,900passengers/day. IRJ

Mumbai - Ahmadabad high-speed line

508km471km25km12km10350km/h2h 10min

Total lengthElevatedTunnelsEmbankments and cuttingsStationsDesign speedJourney time

These are time-consuming and complex issues, but it isdifficult to proceed without resolving them first.Achal Khare

ect takes stock

Services on the line are due to begin inDecember 2023, but it is yet to be seenwhether this goal will be met.Photo: Shutterstock/Hitman H

June India HS_Layout 1 21/05/2020 16:51 Page 31

32 IRJ June 2020

THE French National Railways(SNCF) train maintenance systemwas characterised by a

combination of several maintenancetypes and strategies ranging frompreventive systematic maintenance tocorrective maintenance. However, theemergence of new informationtechnologies such as the internet ofthings (IoTs) coupled with the entryinto service in Paris of BombardierSpacium commuter EMUs equippedwith sensors have driven changes to theway SNCF maintains its trains. Theintroduction of onboard/waysidediagnostic systems presented asignificant opportunity to cutmaintenance costs while at the samesignificantly improving reliability,availability and service quality.When the trains were introduced 10

years ago, Ile de France transportauthority and Bombardier did notforesee all the challenges andpossibilities offered by this project. These highly complex trains with

electronics, informatics, data networksand onboard computers need highly-skilled people to maintain the fleet inoperational condition. This was the first project to fully

implement functional analysis, failuremodes and effects analysis (FMEA) andlogistic support. The introduction ofonboard/wayside diagnostics systemsmade it possible to introduce conditionbased maintenance (CBM) into themaintenance monitoring process.It is interesting to note that even if

remote diagnosis and CBM were perceivedas modern gadgets at the beginning ofthe project, they became increasinglyvaluable over time and are now consideredas a major change in train maintenance.Indeed, they change the way toconceive, schedule and industrialisemaintenance. Today’s processes are nolonger the same. Moreover, they presenta significant opportunity to reducemaintenance costs, while also having apositive impact on reliability, availabilityand service quality.

SNCF rolling stock engineering iscurrently using remote diagnosis tooptimise maintenance. Fault or statuscodes, counters and associated parameterssuch as GPS position, date, time, oroperating diagram are used to optimise:= availability and correctivemaintenance - by setting specificequations and filters, it is possible tocapture failure alerts and health statusand to plan appropriate correctivemaintenance; for example, if an obstacleis detected during a door closing cycle,it could be due to an action by apassenger, but if an obstacle is detectedon consecutive occasions when a doorcloses, this could be a specific doorfailure= systematic preventive maintenance -direct information provided by countersleads to a change in preventivemaintenance steps, while all the capturedcodes and their parameters will providea huge amount of data for maintenancefeedback and calculating the remaininguseful life (RUL), and

Train maintenance | France

Digital transformation improvesSNCF’s maintenance systems

French National Railways (SNCF) has adopted a new approach to train maintenance based on incorporatingremote diagnosis and condition based maintenance. Cyril Verdun and Pierre Audier from SNCF and FabienTurgis from Ikos explain how this has improved performance and reduced costs.

June SNCF TM_Layout 1 21/05/2020 15:21 Page 32

IRJ June 2020 33

= maintain in operating conditions -dynamic dashboards fed by data areused for decision help support. Thisallows key performance indicators(KPI) and main train systems to bemonitored in real-time to aid management.Besides remote diagnosis, CBM is also

used to prevent failures and to reducethe amount of maintenance required. Inaddition to the data used for remotediagnosis, analogue data sent by the trainare captured and analysed. As eachsubsystem is characterised by specificproperties during its nominal operatingcycle, comparisons can be made todetect deviations, abnormal behaviouror remarkable observations using expertsystems. For each system or subsystem,

indicators can be computed and classifiedat several levels of criticality to determinethe degree of system degradation. Inaddition, each indicator is associated

with parameters such as the trainnumber, date, time, operating diagram,and GPS position stored in a database.Using these indicators and parameters,system health status can be computedand used to delay or eliminate apreventive maintenance step. Moreover, when the health status is

considered too bad, alerts can be createdfor corrective maintenance. For example,the repetition of a deviation observed intraction motor current can be attributedto an abnormal behaviour.From the data acquisition step to the

creation of a maintenance order, remotediagnosis and CBM can be presented asa data value chain (Figure 1). First, allthe available system data are recordeddirectly from the train network orconnected sensors (IoT) either onboardor on the wayside. Once data from each

system are captured, they are transmittedto the wayside via a physical or cloudserver. Raw data are then filtered and

processed to transform analogue and

logical data into health indicators.These indicators are processed to defineprognostics based on expert systems.Prognostics results are converted intomaintenance orders which can beunderstood by maintenance staff andtrain schedulers. The maintenanceorders are dispatched via the informaticssystems and can be visualised usingspecific tools. One of the keys to success is to

combine skills from data scientists androlling stock experts to create relevantprognostics. It was decided to prioritisesuch a system as an alternative methodrather than using machine learning orartificial intelligence turnkey solutions. Indeed, SNCF has several experts for

each train system, and it made moresense to use their precious technicalskills by combining them with the data

brought by data scientists to create oneexpert system for each system to bemaintained. To date, CBM is appliedfully to compressors, passenger access,toilets, and heating ventilation and airconditioning (HVAC).This digital transformation has

changed the way SNCF operates itsmaintenance system, from the managerdown to the maintenance technician.Before preventive scheduled maintenancewas introduced (Figure 2), traininspection frequency was determinedby the number of operating days and/orthe distance travelled. Each inspectionconsisted of several maintenance tasksscheduled by the fleet technicalsupervision unit which assigned specificinfrastructure, tools, time windows andtechnicians to a train for each operation.Under this system, the supply ofreplacement parts and train downtimemust be anticipated, as the need forcorrective maintenance is known onlyafter all tasks have been checked.The new maintenance strategy

combines both preventive scheduledmaintenance and condition basedmaintenance (Figure 3), with theobjective of increasing safety, availability,reliability and reducing the frequency ofscheduled maintenance. However, somepreventive scheduled maintenancetasks, such as lubrication or visualinspections, cannot be eliminated as

Figure 1: remote diagnosis and CBM presented as a data value chain.

Figure 2: preventive scheduled maintenance system.

Digitalisation has changed the way we conceive,schedule and industrialise maintenance.

Figure 3: condition based maintenance process.

June SNCF TM_Layout 1 21/05/2020 16:54 Page 33

34 IRJ June 2020

they require human intervention. Thisalso concerns components, functionsand failure modes which are notaffected by the monitoring system.To develop the maintenance system

based on data analysis, existingmaintenance plans were analysed andbroken down for each specific systemaccording to opportunities highlightedby data analysis. First, the maintenancetasks that can be realised, delayed oreliminated using real-time monitoringand data analysis were identified, whilereliability centred maintenance (RCM)is carried out for the other tasks. Themaintenance plan was then reshaped toseparate those maintenance tasks whichcan be realised using real-time monitoringand CBM from those which cannot. After data analysis, a “connected”

traceability with pre-validated maintenanceoperations is edited and incorporatedinto the preventive scheduledmaintenance process. For example, fourtasks related to door maintenancecovered by connected traceability meantthat only 13 interventions were neededon a six-car train instead of 48systematic inspections and interventions. Connected traceability has several

benefits:= preventive maintenance steps can bedelayed or replaced by CBM - forexample, if all systems are found to beworking normally just before a depotvisit, the visit can be postponed= preventive maintenance steps can bemaintained, but the maintenance timewill be reduced as only non-validatedoperations need to be carried out, and= corrective maintenance can be donewhile other maintenance is beingcarried out. To aid the management process, all

processed information is collated andpresented in a visualisation tool tosupport decision making. For example,a train fleet is shown with specificpatterns and colour codes using squaresto represent each train. The colour in

each square refers to the criticality levelof a system and the size of the squarerelates to the time needed to fulfil aspecific maintenance visit.Digitalisation has changed the way

we conceive, schedule and industrialisemaintenance. This is such a long andcomplex procedure that it requires strictcontrol and the correct formalisation ofevery process. In the beginning, someworkshops were appointed as pilotlocations and have now totally switchedto the digital era. However, one of the biggest challenges

was to provide change managementsupport and training for people. Whilethe younger generation is familiar withdata and computer-based work tools,older employees may be unwilling tochange the way they work and oftenneed support. SNCF has built a global framework to

control and support this digitaltransformation at every level of thecompany. Indeed, change managementis a key element of the whole data valuechain. You can have the best algorithmsand the best prognosis, but if maintenancestaff do not change the way they work,

there is no point.Today, about 250 Bombardier Spacium

EMUs are operating on Paris suburbanservices and performance measuredover the last five years has resulted in:= the number of breakdowns beingreduced by half, while the efficiency oftroubleshooting agents has beenstrongly reinforced by data analysistools= a 30% improvement on entrances/exitsat maintenance depots, representing again of two trains per site= a 20% cut in the number of trains takenout of service for maintenance, and= a 20% reduction in maintenance costs. This new maintenance strategy also

represents a huge potential forinfrastructure maintenance by using allthe data available in the train tomonitor infrastructure. For example,trains are used to identify areas wherecatenary voltage dips or to spot trackadhesion problems.The emergence of onboard/wayside

diagnostics system and trains equippedwith sensors offers a significantopportunity to reduce maintenancecosts, while also having a strongpositive impact on reliability,availability and service quality. This hasenabled SNCF to develop a newmaintenance strategy, combiningremote diagnosis, preventive scheduledmaintenance and condition basedmaintenance. SNCF has also built a global

framework to control and support thisdigital transformation at every level ofthe company, to face the deep change inits whole maintenance system.Thisstrategy is now fully operational on oneof the most important mass transit fleetsin Europe and the results can already beseen. IRJ

Train maintenance | France

Digital maintenance tools have allowed SNCF to halve the number of breakdowns, whileimproving the speed at which maintenance work is undertaken.

SNCF has combined both reliability centred maintenance (RCM) and condition basedmaintenance (CBM) into its maintenance strategy.

June SNCF TM_Layout 1 21/05/2020 15:21 Page 34

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28-30—SingaporeSITCE 20208 UITP, Brussels, Belgium.www.uitp.org/events/sitce-2020

November 20204-5—Bangkok, ThailandNEW DATE: Asia Pacific RailConference8 Terrapinn, Singapore.www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/asia-pacific-rail

10—London, BritainNEW DATE: UK Rail StationDevelopment and RegenerationConference8Waterfront, London, Britain.https://bit.ly/38mfRA4

10—Stockholm, SwedenScandinavian Rail EvolutionConference8 Rotatia, Ashford, Britain.www.scandinavianrail.co.uk

16-18—Amsterdam, NetherlandsNEW: World Rail Festival8 Terrapinn, London, Britain.www.terrapinn.com/conference/rail-festival

25-26—Bangkok, ThailandNEW: Rail Asia Expo8AES, Bangkok, Thailand.www.railasiaexpo.com

June 202017-18—Frankfurt, GermanyRailTech Infra Forum VirtualConference8 ProMedia, Breda, Netherlands.https://events.railtech.com/rail-infrastructure-forum-2020

17-18—Chicago, USARail Insights Conference8 Simmons Boardman, NewYork, USA.www.railwayage.com/insights

July 20201-3—Berlin, GermanyCOMPRAIL 2020, onlineInternational Conference onRailway Engineering Design andOperation 8Wessex Institute of Technology,Southampton, Britain.www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences/2020/comprail-2020

August 202012-14—Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Rail Asia Solutions Conference &Exhibition8 TDH, Cranleigh, Britain.www.tdhrail.co.uk/rsa

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September 20201-3—Poznan, PolandRail Freight Summit8 ProMedia, Breda, Netherlands.https://events.railfreight.com/railfreight-summit-2020

9-10—Albury-Wodonga, AustraliaInland Rail Conference8ARA, Canberra, Australia.https://ara.net.au/events-and-networking/inland-rail-conference

13-16—Dallas, USAWorld Rail Festival8AREMA Conference & ExpoAREMA, Maryland, USA.https://conference.arema.org/

30—Paris, FranceInternational RailwayStandardisation Conference8 UIC, Paris, France.

https://uic.org/events/3rd-international-railway-standardisation-conference

October 20205-7—Dubai, UAEUITP/MENA Transport Congressand Exhibition 8 UITP, Brussels, Belgium.www.menatransport.org/events/mena-transport-congress-exhibition

8-9—Berlin, GermanyComposites in Rail Conference8AMI, Bristol, Britain.www.ami.international/events/event?Code=C1070

12-15—Changsha, ChinaMaglev 2020 InternationalConference8 Hunan Maglev Research,Changsha, China.www.maglev2020.com

20-22—Kyiv, UkraineRail Expo8 PromGruz, Dnipro, Ukraine.https://railexpoua.com/en

27-28—Sydney, AustraliaRISSB Safety Conference8 RISSB, Melbourne, Australia.www.rissb.com.au/events/rissb-rail-safety-conference-2020/

36 IRJ June 2020

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IRJ June 2020 37

Advertisers Index

Contacts | editorial Fresh faces

Contacts | advertising

Executive offices

Ms Eva Kreienkamp has been appointed as the newCEO of Berlin Transport Authority (BVG), taking upthe role on October 1. Kreienkamp is currently themanaging director of Mainz Transport Authority(MVG), where she has promoted the digitisation ofmunicipal transport and major infrastructure projects.

Mr Magnus von Bahr has been appointed as new CEO ofSwedish rolling stock leasing company Transitio, and willtake up the position on July 1. The 48-year-old hasbeen Transitio’s technical director for the past nine years.Prior to this, von Bahr was responsible for technicaland traffic projects at Greater Stockholm Local Traffic.

Mr Eric Alix has been appointed president of RATPSmart Systems. The 49-year-old, who holds a degreein engineering from the Higher School of PublicWorks, Building and Industry in Paris, began hiscareer as a consultant at Orgaconseil in 1996.

Mr Ben Ackroyd has been named as managing directorof British operator Trenitalia c2c, replacing Mr JulianDrury, who will retire in September after 40 years inthe industry. Ackroyd is currently engineering directorat Northern, a role he previously held at c2c between2011 and 2015.

Mr Leopoldo Maestu has been appointed as managingdirector for Alstom in Spain, and will also join thecompany’s Europe management committee. Mr AntonioMoreno, who has served as managing director forAlstom in Spain since 2010, has been confirmed asmanaging director for Central and Eastern Europe.

To feature your new executive in the Fresh Faces section,contact David Burroughs at dburroughs@railjournal.co.uk

Mr Daniel Hentschel has been named as the new railwayoperations manager for DB Regional subsidiary StartRegional Transport Germany. Hentschel will take chargeof operations and driver management in the company,while also being responsible for operational safety andworking with the Federal Railway Authority (EBA).

AZD Praha 29Device Technologies 21IRJ Pro 35Liebherr 5Messe Berlin (InnoTrans Exhibition) 23Pandrol BCProgress Rail IFCRawie 19Ultimate Europe 17Voestalpine Railway Systems 9Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric IBC

June Ad Index_Ad Index 22/05/2020 13:06 Page 37

38 IRJ June 2020

shutdown some of theircontracts with us. Reducingthe cost is an ongoing processand it is not simple, but we tryour best.”Andersson says that in such

a climate the operator has tobe creative and potentiallytweak its business model toremain viable. However, withcurrent measures only set tocover 50-60% of losses,commercial operation wouldonly be restored throughmajor dispensations, such assubsidised infrastructureaccess charges, a temporarypublic service obligationcontract like Westbahn hassecured in Austria, or offeringcredit to help operators withfixed costs.“If we are to take these big

steps to favour sustainabletravel, then it will requiresome help from thegovernment or from the EU,that is clear,” Andersson says.In a Facebook post to

passengers on April 9,Snälltåget said it was certainthe appetite for using its trainswill return, and with a majorcompany like Transdev behindit, it has the resources to focuson the long-term. But like any business it can

only sustain losses for so long.Until there is a vaccine for thevirus, or higher levels ofcompensation, the future forSnälltåget looks a little lessrosy than it did before thecrisis. IRJ

STENA Line’s announcementthat it was suspendingferry services betweenTrelleborg and Sassnitz onApril 8 due to coronavirustravel restrictions was a blowfor Swedish private railoperator Snälltåget.The operator uses the ferry

for its seasonal overnight trainservice from Malmö to Berlinand had already suspendedoperation until June 15following the Swedish statedepartment’s recommendationsagainst all international travel.The operator planned to offera daily service from June 22and was eagerly awaiting anannouncement from theSwedish government at theend of May of what it might,or might not, be able to offerand from when.Speaking to IRJ, Mr Marco

Andersson, Snälltåget’smarketing manager, said theoperator was carrying just 15%of its usual passengers at theend of April but was stilloperating around 30% of itsusual traffic, a level which willnot sustain the business.Owned by Transdev,

Snälltåget operated its firsttrain between Malmö andStockholm way back in 2007. Ithas since grown to offer twotrains per day between thecities as well as a winterservice to Åre, and a thrice-weekly overnight service toBerlin, which launched in2012. Indeed, Snälltåget is theonly operator to offer overnightservices between Sweden andcontinental Europe.“It is possible to survive

with some reductions, but weneed to return to about 75% ofour operation to be profitableagain,” Andersson says. “Wedon’t know when that is goingto be possible and that is thebig question that everyone isseeking the answer to.”Before the crisis hit, the

future was looking positive forSnälltåget. The operator investedin 10 former Nightliner

couchette coaches in 2019 tofacilitate the Malmö - Berlinservice increase. The coacheshave six berths per compartmentand capacity for 60 passengers. The operator was also

reporting a steady increase inridership on its domestictrains as more Swedes soughtalternatives to flying. Anderssonreports that Snälltåget hadsold out many of its trains andwas looking forward to a busysummer season.

ResumptionCovid-19 is a major shock,

but Andersson says theoperator is staying optimistic.Snälltåget is targeting theresumption of its Malmo -Stockholm - Jämtand mountainarea night trains on two days aweek from July 29 untilSeptember 27, potentiallycarrying passengers going ondomestic holidays. In addition,while legacy equipment usedto operate the Malmo - Berlinservice was limited to only theTrelleborg - Sassnitz crossing,the operator is exploring howit might use the new equipmenton the ferry from Trelleborg toRostock, or via the Öresundrail link to Denmark.Whatever the operator is

able to offer, capacity is verylikely to be restricted by socialdistancing measures. Alreadya significant proportion of theseats on the trains whichcontinue to run are blocked

off, limiting the number ofpeople able to ride.“It will make everything

more complicated,” Anderssonsays. “If we need to keepsocial distancing for a longtime, then maybe the ridershipwill increase but we will stillneed to get paid for the emptyseats in some way. It will bevery hard to make a profitbased on these conditions.”Snälltåget is eligible for the

Swedish government’s generalsupport package for businesseswhere the government ispicking up 50% of the cost ofwages if employees are workingless than 40% of their usualhours. The operator could alsoapply for a new programmewhich is subsidising costs forbusinesses that have lost morethan 30% of revenue.But while the Swedish

government has been quick toact to offer the aviation sectorand the 22 airlines that useSwedish airports financialsupport to the tune of a É465mloan package, similar supportfor the country’s rail operatorsis not yet forthcoming.“In April our staff have been

working around 20%,”Andersson says. “But we stillhave 50% of these costs tocover, and to be honest, thisonly accounts for a smallproportion of our overall costs.We have the financial costs ofleasing the locomotives andwe still have to negotiate withsuppliers that want to

Covid-19 checks Snälltåget’s progressSwedish private operator Snälltåget is counting the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic as it continues to run areduced service. But as Marco Andersson, Snälltåget’s marketing manager, reveals to Kevin Smith, theoperator is hopeful of riding out the storm.

The last word | Sweden

Snälltåget is planning to restore services to the Jämtland region in July to meet demand from domestic holidaymakers.

June TLW_Layout 1 28/05/2020 12:50 Page 38

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