Some international articles

[ozbob]

From the Railway Gazette click here!

BLS buys double-deckers for Bern S-Bahn

BLS buys double-deckers for Bern S-Bahn
30 March 2010

SWITZERLAND: BLS has placed its largest ever rolling stock order, awarding Stadler Rail a SFr493·7m contract to supply 28 four-car double-deck electric multiple-units to increase capacity on Bern S-Bahn services.

The 160 km/h units will be delivered from Stadler's Bussnang plant between autumn 2012 and the end of 2014. They will enter service on route S1 from Fribourg to Bern and Thun during 2013, and the following year will be introduced on S3 from Biel to Bern and Belp, and S6 from Schwarzenburg to Bern.

The Bern S-Bahn network is seeing rapid growth, with passenger-km up 44% in five years and predicted to increase by a further 60% by 2025. The new trains will offer 274 standard and 62 first class seats, plus space for 110 standing passengers at 3/m2. Working in pairs, the 15 kV EMUs will provide a 30% increase in capacity within the maximum length imposed by the platforms. There will be space for three wheelchairs, and one of the two toilets will be fully accessible.

The order is being financed jointly by the Federal Office of Transport and the cantons of Bern and Freiburg.

The order is part of a procurement strategy which will see BLS reduce the diversity of its fleet from 125 trainsets of seven types at present to 141 of four types. An order for 54 single-deck units is planned for 2019, bringing the total investment in rolling stock to SFr1·2bn by 2025.

[ozbob]

From the Railway Gazette click here!

Kawasaki preferred bidder for Washington metro

Kawasaki preferred bidder for Washington metro
29 March 2010

USA: Kawasaki Railcar has been nominated as preferred bidder to supply up to 748 new cars for the Washington metro network.

Kawasaki's offer was presented to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board of directors on March 25 but a vote to approve the contract was postponed, as board members said they needed more time to scrutinise the details of the costly programme.

Initially, 64 cars designated series 7000 would be ordered for Phase 1 of the Dulles International Airport Corridor extension, followed by another 300 units to replace the system's original 1000-series cars which are nearly 35 years old. Four further options totalling 384 vehicles are included but as yet these are unfunded.

The 7000s would be configured as four semi-permanently coupled cars − the current practice is two-car sets − with the intention of running eight-car trainsets during peak periods; unlike previous orders from Rohr, Breda, CAF and Alstom, the new equipment would not be technically compatible with the older stock.

Kawasaki was selected after its bid was placed first in both technical and price rankings, which were evaluated separately. Seven firms responded to WMATA's tender but only the three bids from Alstom, Bombardier and Kawasaki were accepted. The latter was deemed to have the strongest approach technically and included a performance guarantee to meet and exceed the specified mean distance between delays of 240 000 km.

Kawasaki's price of $1·48bn was $120m less than the next lowest offer and was based on the total quantity of 748 cars; the initial 364 vehicles would cost $765m. WMATA hopes to have a prototype car delivered by December 15 2012, with the first 64 cars to be completed by April 1 2014. Delivery of the next 300 cars would start in April 2014 for completion by March 1 2016.

[frereOP]

...which are nearly 35 years old.

And how old are train sets in Australia?  The double-decker stainless steel Comm-Eng trainsets that replaced the old red rattler trains in Sydney (some of which were more than 70 years old) when I was at Uni in the mid 70's are still being used (and being supplemented with Tangara and Millenium trains) and as for the Inter-city (Sydney-Wollongong, Sydney-Newcastle, Sydney-Lithgow) sets, they are even older with their original green vinyl seats!  XPT's were introduced in the late 70's and are still going as well.

[frereOP]

BLS buys double-deckers for Bern S-Bahn

BLS buys double-deckers for Bern S-Bahn
30 March 2010

SWITZERLAND: BLS has placed its largest ever rolling stock order, awarding Stadler Rail a SFr493·7m contract to supply 28 four-car double-deck electric multiple-units to increase capacity on Bern S-Bahn services.

The 160 km/h units will be delivered from Stadler's Bussnang plant between autumn 2012 and the end of 2014. They will enter service on route S1 from Fribourg to Bern and Thun during 2013, and the following year will be introduced on S3 from Biel to Bern and Belp, and S6 from Schwarzenburg to Bern.

These are really nice Inter-city trains.  The double deck sets are currently used on the Zurich to Bern line but single deck (and still very modern and new) trains from Bern to Interlaken.  The advantage of rail in Europe is that there is so much "friendly" competition that services and rolling stock have to be up to scratch to compete.  To travel from Bern to Interlaken (via Thun), you have a choice of Swiss IC, German ICE and French TGV services.