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Line 3 between Liège and the German border was inaugurated on June 12, completing the last link in the star-shaped national high speed network and making Belgium the first European country to have a network of high speed lines linking its borders. Line 3 became available to operators from June 14. At present it is only used by DB's ICE3 trains, but Thalys is expected to begin running over the route by the end of this year, cutting Liège - Köln journey times from 1 h 23 min to 1 h 1 min. From Chênée near Liège trains run at 200 km/h through the Soumagne Tunnel, the longest double-track tunnel in Belgium at 6·5 km. Trains then run at 260 km/h parallel to the E40 motorway to Walhorn, where Line 3 ends as it leaves a 1·1 km cut-and-cover tunnel to rejoin the upgraded conventional line to the border. The TUC RAIL subsidiary of infrastructure manager Infrabel built the 36 km line in 2001-07 at a cost of €830m, including ETCS Level 2 signalling and train control. Tracks and electrification were certified in October 2007, followed by signal and safety testing, but the launch of services had to wait until sufficient suitable trains were fitted with ERTMS on-board equipment.

The International Association of Public Transport (UITP) has just announced that the theme of its next World Congress and Exhibition will be ‘Public transport: Making the right mobility choices’. In the current context of climate change, congestion, traffic paralysis, air quality concerns and the energy debate, it is beyond doubt that all cities need a good public transport network.

PARIS Transport Authority (RATP) has selected a consortium of Alstom and Bombardier to supply 60 double-deck MI09 trains for RER Line A

CHINA’S Ministry of Railways (MoR) has placed an order for 100 high-speed CRH trains from a Chinese joint venture in a deal worth around Yuan 29.2 billion ($US 5.74 billion). The 350km/h trains will be built by CNR subsidiaries Tangshan Railway Vehicles, Changchun Railway Vehicles, and the Chinese Academy of Railways and will be based on the Siemens/Tangshan CRH 3 Velaro trains, 60 of which are currently being supplied for services on the Beijing – Tianjin high-speed line

THE Turkish prime minister, Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, officially opened the first part of the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed line today. The 206km section runs from Sincan to the west of Ankara to Inonu near Eskisehir. The inaugural train completed the trip in 1h 28min. Turkish State Railways (TCDD) will launch the country’s first high-speed rail service tomorrow. Services will be provided by a fleet of 10 six-car 250km/h emus supplied by CAF, Spain.

Results of the EC project SILENCE will be presented at the 'Noise in the City' Conference this year.

THE MAYOR of London Mr Boris Johnson has officially inaugurated the £180 million extension of the Docklands Light Railway to Woolwich Arsenal. The 2.5km extension runs in twin-bore tunnels from the east end of King George V station and beneath the River Thames at depths of up to 35m. The final section passes through a cut-and-cover tunnel into the new terminus at Woolwich Arsenal, where the line ends beneath the existing heavy rail station. The line was designed and constructed by a joint venture of Amec and Colas Rail and opened seven weeks ahead of schedule.

BELGIUM: SNCB has exercised options for an additional 60 Class 18 electric locomotives and 72 M6 double-deck coaches. An option has been taken up for Siemens to supply a further 60 Eurosprinter ES60U3 electric locomotives at a cost of €222m, with deliveries to run from June 2010 to April 2012. A previous order for 60 locomotives was placed in December 2006.

The EU Committee of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) today addressed a letter to the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and the College of Commissioners urging them to include urban and suburban public transport networks in the transport infrastructure investments which are to form part of the European economic recovery plan due to be unveiled tomorrow.

EUROPEAN Transport Commissioner Mr Antonio Tajani has signed 11 financing decisions that will allocate Euros 1.7 billion to key rail projects over the next five years, including two major new Alpine tunnels. The Brenner Base Tunnel in Austria will benefit from funding worth Euros 903.1 million, including Euros 58.3 million for works on the Kundl/Radfeld-Baumkirchen line on the northern approach to the tunnel and Euros 58.8 for the southern approaches on the Italian side of the border. Euros 675.8 million has been allocated for the Lyon-Turin line via the Mount Cenis Tunnel. Other routes set to benefit from the funding include Erfurt-Halle/Göbers (Germany); Trieste (Italy)-Divaca (Slovenia); Trieste-Ronchi de Legionari Sud; Genoa Voltri-Genoa Brignole (Italy); and Budapest Keleti-Misolc-Nyíregyháza (Hungary).

GERMAN RAIL (DB) and KeyRail, the infrastructure manager of the Betuweroute dedicated freight corridor, have begun testing 1000m-long freight trains between Oberhausen in Germany and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Project GZ1000 is being financed by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology with the aim of increasing capacity on heavily-utilised freight routes. DB currently operates freight trains up to 750m in length, although tests were carried out earlier this year using 835m-long trains between Hamburg and Ringsted in Denmark.

NETWORK RAIL has chosen Ansaldo STS as its preferred supplier to implement the second phase of Britain’s first European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) project. The Euros 48 million contract will be signed next month and covers the installation of ERTMS on the Cambrian line in central Wales. The project involves replacing the existing Radio Electronic Token Block (RETB) and Track Circuit Block (TCB) signalling with ETCS Level 2, which will operate without lineside signalling. Train detection will be carried out by axle counters, and the system will be monitored centrally from a new signalling control centre at Machynlleth. A fleet of 17 dmus operated by Arriva Trains Wales, and four locomotives owned by Network Rail will be equipped with ETCS.

A workshop dedicated to the 'Evaluation and impact assessment of European framework programmes for research and development' will take place at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, on 3 December. The event will focus on presentations and discussions regarding the issue of methodology for evaluations and impact assessment studies, so that results are comparable and allow for an overall synthesis giving a global view of what has been achieved with the framework programmes.

THE French secretary of state for transport, Mr Dominique Bussereau, met representatives from 55 local authorities in southwest France in Bordeaux yesterday to try to win support for local funding of the Sud Europe Atlantique high-speed project. This involves extending TGV Atlantique south from Tours to Bordeaux and the construction of branches from Poitier to Limoges, and from Bordeaux to Toulouse and Spanish border. “No community has opposed the project,” says Bussereau, but many authorities asked for amendments. Bussereau pledged to put revised proposals to the local authorities by December 1, and the authorities agreed to vote on the proposals by the end of January. The government is seeking local contributions of up to Euros 3 billion. French Rail Network (RFF) is already analysing bids to construct the Tours-Bordeaux section with a view to launching a second tender in the spring. It is hoped to start work on this section in 2011.

CHINA’S Ministry of Railways (MoR) has promised to invest quickly and aggressively as part of a government plan to stimulate the slowing economy. MoR says it will increase investment by Yuan 50 billion ($US 7.3 billion) to Yuan 150 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, taking its investments for this year to around Yuan 350 billion. MoR intends to invest around Yuan 600 million next year, around double the figure previously envisaged. “The scale of construction and size of investment will be unprecedented in China's railway history,” Mr Yang Zhongming, head of MoR’s planning department, told the government-owned People’s Daily newspaper.

BOMBARDIER has opened a new $US 41.4 million rolling stock plant at Salvi in the Indian state of Gujarat. The site has facilities to manufacture stainless steel coach bodies and bogies as well as final vehicle assembly. Production will begin in March and the first vehicles to roll out of the factory will be Movia metro cars for Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, 388 of which will be manufactured at Savli. The plant was designed and built from scratch, with production technology based on Bombardier’s coach manufacturing plant in Görlitz, Germany.

BELGIUM: Work is to start on November 12 on construction of the Liefkenshoek Connection serving the port of Antwerpen, following the signing of a PPP concession for the project. Infrastructure manager Infrabel confirmed on November 5 that it had reached financial close on the deal, under which LocoRail NV will design build finance and maintain the line. The Liefkenshoek Connection is a major element in Infrabel’s programme to expand rail access to the port, on which the infrastructure manager has already committed expenditure of €100m to provide additional capacity between 2007 and 2020. The PPP covers the construction of a new line linking the Bundel Zuid marshalling yard and the Deurganck Dock on the left bank of the Schelde with the main marshalling yard and the port railway on the right bank. This includes the boring of two single track tunnels under the river and the entrance to the docks. Tendering for the project began in April 2006, and three consortia were shortlisted for the final round. Infrabel subsequently awarded the DBFM concession to the LocoRail consortium, which groups CFE NV, VINCI Concessions SA, and BAM PPP Investments Belgium. Engineering and construction will be handled by the THV LocoBouw consortium, which includes MBG, VINCI Construction Grands Projets, CEI-De Meyer and Wayss & Freytag. Capital cost of the project is put at around €680m, of which €107m is coming from the Flemish regional government. The DBFM contract covers all civil works but does not include the railway systems, track and signalling, which will be installed by Infrabel at a further cost of €75m. Infrabel will pay an annual availability fee of €50m for use of the connection over the 38 years of the concession, after which it will assume ownership of the assets. The infrastructure manager says it will not impose any additional charges on train operators using the line, ‘in order to safeguard the competitiveness of the port of Antwerpen’. With construction starting this month, civil engineering is due to be completed by mid 2013. Infrabel will install the tracks, signalling and overhead electrification wiring in several stages during 2012-14. Testing of the completed line should begin in spring of 2014, allowing commercial services to start in the middle of that year. Construction of the Schelde tunnel is expected to reduce the pressure on the existing Kennedy rail tunnel and the major junction at Berchem, which Infrabel says is ‘nearly saturated’. Working with the port authority, the Flemish region and the Belgian government, Infrabel expects rail’s market share of traffic through Antwerpen to increase from 8% today to approximately 15% in 2020.

METRO Madrid has awarded CAF, Spain, a contract to supply and maintain 60 trains under a 17-year leasing agreement. CAF says the contract is worth Euros 200 million, around half the cost of purchasing the trains outright. Twenty-seven six-car trains will be built for Line 6, which is currently being modernised, while the remaining 140 vehicles are destined for Lines 2, 9, and 11, which are being extended, and Lines 8 and 10 where additional capacity is required. The lease is being financed by the Community of Madrid (52%) and the city council (48%). The first trains will be delivered in 2010.