Safety statistics in the European Union rail market

In 2005, the 25 countries in the European Union reported 7,023 significant railway accidents, with 1,464 fatalities, according to a report from the European Railway Agency. Sixty-two train passengers lost their lives, accounting for just 4% of deaths in railway accidents. The EU-25 reported in the same year 1,272,000 accidents and 41,500 fatalities for the road transportation. “These statistics show that travelling by rail is relatively safe,” said Marcel Verslype, executive director of the European Railway Agency.

Most people were killed in accidents caused by rolling stock in motion (67%). The report found that level crossings accounted for 29% of fatalities, as road users infringing rules risked dying on average 10 times more at a level crossing than in any other road context. “To tackle level crossings and other safety issues, the European Railway Agency is developing common methods to measure safety performance, setting targets at Member State level and checking their achievement” said Verslype.

(Source: The European Railway Agency )

High-speed cross-border partnership in Western Europe

Several leading European high-speed train operators - Deutsche Bahn (Germany), SNCF (France), SNCB (Belgium), NS Hispeed (The Netherlands), ÖBB (Austria), SBB (Switzerland) and Eurostar (UK, France and Belgium) - teamed up with subsidiaries Thalys, Lyria and Alleo to form Railteam, an international framework facilitating cross-border travel by high-speed trains. Railteam aims at offering quality services in seamless train connections, with through ticketing and fares, as a real alternative to air alliances and to road travel.

The European high speed network is to triple until 2020, and 25 million international passengers are estimated to use high-speed train services by 2010.

(Source: Railteam )

Chinese investment for Angolan rail line

Angolan oil will pay for the US$300 million Chinese credit to rebuild the 1,350 km Benguela– Moxico rail link for copper exports from the Congo-Zambian copper belt. This will be the only land connection between the Atlantic port of Lobito to Luau on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, and further to the rail network from the Zambian capital Lusaka, which in turn serves most of southern Africa, revealed International Transport Journal. China is now the largest copper consumer in the world and has become a key economic player in Angola by providing infrastructure development in exchange for crude oil.

(Source: International Transport Journal )

RDC walks away from Guatemala

The US-based Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) filed a claim on behalf of itself and its Guatemalan affiliate, Ferrovias Guatemala (FVG), to institute arbitration proceedings against the Republic of Guatemala under the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). RDC is seeking compensation in excess of US$65 million from the government of Guatemala for undermining the company’s “efforts to restore and operate the completely abandoned national railway in Guatemala”, as RDC Chairman Henry Posner III said.
In August 2006, the Guatemalan government declared the rolling stock component of the 1998 privatisation of the abandoned national railway as “lesivo,” or against the interests of the state. Being unable to attract credits and accumulating serious losses, FVG declared its intentions to suspend all rail services on 1 October 2007.

(Source: Railroad Development Corporation )

Bombardier secures two new contracts

Bombardier Transportation has consolidated its position in the French rail market after receiving an additional order for 19 high-capacity AGC type (Autorail Grande Capacité) trains from the French National Railways (SNCF), valued at 82 million euros. By 2011, almost 700 AGC trains, manufactured at Bombardier’s Crespin plant in northern France, will be in service in twenty-one French regions.

Transport for London (TfL) placed an additional 53 million euros order for 36 Electrostar electric multiple units that will operate on the East London Railway and North London Railway. The new vehicles will be delivered between March 2009 and May 2010.

(Source: Bombardier Transportation )

Railway rehabilitation in Philippines

Philippine National Railway (PNR) will have the Alabang – Muntilupa – Calabama line rehabilitated after awarding the Pesos 4.5 billion (US$93.4 million) contract to China National Technical Import and Export Corporation (CNTIC), according to International Railway Journal. This  project, due to be completed in 2009, is part of the US$300 million Philippines Mainline South Railway upgrading plan that includes improvement of track, signalling, communications facilities as well as rebuilding of bridges.

(Source: International Transport Journal )

Arriva wins rail franchise

British bus and rail operator Arriva secured the cross-country rail passenger franchise, that covers more than 2,500 km of track and over 100 stations, from south-east Cornwall, England, to Aberdeen in Scotland. Arriva will take over from Virgin group on 11 November 2007 and will run the franchise until 31 March 2016, with the last two years and five months conditional upon achieving certain performance targets, the company said. Annual revenue is estimated to exceed £600 million in the first full year, and the government will provide £1.05 billion subsidy over eight years. Arriva promised radical improvements in ticketing and seating capacity, along with investments in rolling stock.

(Source: Arriva )

Georgian Railways not for sale

State-owned Georgian Railways will not be privatised soon, according to the Georgian minister of economic development Giorgi Arveladze, quoted by International Transport Journal. However, he said that private business might be an option for the railway's management, after changes in the privatisation legislation saw the railway dropped off the list of strategically important state assets. The government is seeking private funds in addition to the GEL 140 million (US$85 million) already earmarked for developing the rail infrastructure.

Georgian Railways carried 3.9 million passengers and 22.6 million tons of cargo in 2006, serving as an important transit link between Europe and Central Asia.

(Source: International Transport Journal )

Athens train crash

Dozens of passengers were injured after a freight train collided with a suburban passenger train during the morning of 12 July 2007, in Athens. The Guardian newspaper quoted state-run NET television as saying that 53 people had been injured, but authorities could not immediately confirm that figure. Andreas Vassilopoulos, leader of the Greek Rail Workers' Association, said those two trains should not have been on the same track. This was the latest in a series of rail accidents that have occurred with trains run by the state company OSE.

(Source: The Guardian )

Toxic cloud threat

Hundreds were evacuated from their homes after a train carrying highly toxic phosphorous derailed near Lviv, in Ukraine, on the night of 16 July 2007. Six cars of the freight train, which was en route from Kazakhstan to Poland, caught fire and the toxic yellow cloud caused by the blaze covered an area of 90 sq km above 14 villages. More than 140 people received medical care, BBC News reported.

 (Source: BBC News )

Thousands to lose jobs in Nigeria

State-owned Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) could cut some 2,000 jobs in an attempt to improve its performance and services, according to a reliable source cited by This Day (published in Lagos). Corporation chairman Malam Lawal Batagarawa confirmed the retrenchment, but refused to disclose numbers. NRC reduced its workforce from 14,000 to 6,400 between 1999 and 2005.

(Source: This Day )

Congo train derailment kills a hundred people

About a hundred people lost their lives and many more were injured in an overnight accident at 170 km north of Kananga, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on 1 August 2007, according to the International Herald Tribune. The United Nations’ peacekeeping operation in DRC has sent helicopters with doctors, nurses and medical equipment. The train's locomotive stopped responding to controls and seven cars derailed, leaving the conductor without a way to brake, said Medard Ilunga, head of Congo's state railway agency. It is the second rail accident in three weeks on the dilapidated rail network of Congo.

(Source: International Herald Tribune )


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