Qatar breaks ground on Doha metro

12 October 2012

QATAR: Groundbreaking ceremonies on October 10 marked the start of work on the key interchange station at Msheireb, which will form the hub of the Doha metro network. Qatar Rail CEO Saad Ahmed al-Muhannadi and the Managing Director of Msheireb Properties Abdulla al-Subaie joined the celebrations, along with QR’s senior programme director Peter Lynch and other local officials. The station is being built as part of Msheireb Properties’ landmark Msheireb Downtown Doha regeneration project. The Qatar Integrated Railway Project covers four metro lines in Doha, tram routes in West Bay and Lusail, a high speed line and dedicated freight railways. In August Qatar Rail signed five contracts totalling 1·48bn riyals for work on the first phase of the metro, which covers 129 route-km including the Red, Green and Gold lines. According to al-Muhannadi, Phase 1 is due to open in ‘the fourth quarter of 2019’, well ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup . Contractor HSP Enabling JV, a joint venture of HBK, Saudi Bin Laden Group, and Porr, began work began last month to prepare the alignment and construction sites before the design-and-build contractors to start work in early 2013. The core city-centre interchange at Msheireb is located at a point where the Red and Green lines will be running in parallel and intersected by the Gold line. The station concourse will be 15 m below ground, with a direct connection to the retail developments. The Red and Green line platforms will be 22 m below ground, and Gold line at a depth of about 33 m. Msheireb Properties’ Chief Officer for Design & Delivery Mohamed al-Marri said integrating the metro interchange within the sustainable MDD project would help to minimise its environmental impact, as well as connecting communities across the country more closely with the heart of the capital. According to al-Muhannadi, Phase 1 of the metro includes 60 km of twin-bore tunnelling. The Red Line will link New Doha International Airport with Qatar University via Msheireb and West Bay. The Green Line will link Msheireb to Education City and the east-west Gold line will connect Airport City North to Al Waab. Tenders for construction of the elevated sections are to be invited before the end of this year, so that contracts can be awarded in the third quarter of 2013. Contracts for the trackwork and E&M systems are to be placed in the first quarter of 2014, and the rolling stock contract will be awarded in the second quarter of 2015.

· For more about the Qatar Integrated Railway Project, read our article from the March 2012 issue of Railway Gazette International, available to subscribers in our digital archive.

· AusAID pledges funding as Cambodian rehabilitation resumes

· 11 October 2012

CAMBODIA: Australian overseas development agency AusAID has pledged further financial assistance to support the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s partly-modernised metre-gauge network. AusAID’s contribution of at least A$1m will support the relocation and compensation of families affected by the US$141m railway modernisation. The upgrading work is being co-ordinated by the Asian Development Bank in partnership with the Cambodian government and AusAID. A 30-year operating concession was agreed in June 2009 with the Toll Royal Railways joint venture of Australian logistics group Toll and the Cambodian Royal Group of Companies, and freight services between Phnom Penh and Touk Meas commenced in October 2010. However, these were suspended in March this year when TRR said it was putting operations on hold because of delays in the infrastructure enhancement works. On August 29, TRR Chief Executive David Kerr announced that the concessionaire intended to resume revenue services and invest further in refurbishment and procurement of rolling stock. TRR also confirmed that upgrading work had recommenced on both the 256 km Southern line linking Phnom Penh with the port of Sihanoukville, and the Northern line running from the capital to Sisophon, close to the Thai border. TRR has signed a letter of intent with Richz Electronic Services of Malaysia to act as a ‘strategic partner for the provision of locomotive components and spare parts’ and technical assistance in the rebuilding of Alstom locomotives in Cambodia. TRR is also working with the government to ensure ‘transparent processes are established and followed’ when tenders are called for the purchase of new container wagons and locomotives rated at 1500 kW to 2200 kW, Kerr said on September 20.

· A detailed report on the Cambodian railway upgrading programme appeared in the August 2012 issue of Railway Gazette International, available to subscribers via our digital archive.

· Testing starts on northernmost PDL

· 11 October 2012

CHINA: Test running on the Harbin – Dalian Passenger-Dedicated Line commenced on October 8, when the first train was dispatched from the new Harbin West station at 07.30. Designed for operation at up to 350 km/h, the 921 km line has been under construction since August 2007, at a cost of 92bn yuan. Tracklaying was completed in December 2010, but opening was delayed by the suspension of work on high speed line projects. Following three or four months of test running, revenue services are now expected to begin at the end of 2012 or in early 2013. Linking 24 stations including Changchun, Shenyang and Anshan, the line connects with the original Shenyang – Qinhuangdao PDL and the new Changchun – Jilin line. It is to be operated with CRH380B trainsets, which are expected to achieve end-to-end journey times of around 3 h 30 min, cutting 9 h off the best timing on the existing line. The most northerly high speed line in China has been designed to cope with the region’s severe climate, where winter temperatures can typically drop to -38°C. Snow melting equipment has been provided along the route, and the track structure has been modified to withstand the very low temperatures. Lineside facilities including substations have also been protected against freezing. The line is expected to provide a significant economic boost for the three northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. It will also free up capacity on the existing line for a further 60 million tonnes of freight per year, according to the Ministry of Railways.

· Japan to fund four-tracking in West Java

· 15 October 2012

INDONESIA: Work is expected to begin by the end of the month to increase capacity on a congested mixed-traffic corridor in the suburbs of Jakarta. Central to the project is the four tracking and resignalling of the current 32 route-km double-track alignment between Manggarai and Cikarang. State railway PT KAI has had proposals in place for the work for eight years, but progress has been stymied by funding and land acquisition difficulties. The Ministry of Transportation announced on October 9 that US$228m of soft loans from Japan International Co-operation Agency had been finalised to fund the construction work, and a contract with a joint venture of Sumitomo Corp and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd was due to be signed this week. Civil works are to be managed by Mitsubishi in two phases, the first covering a 15 km section from Manggarai on the southern edge of Jakarta to Bekasi, which is currently the limit of PT KAI’s Jabotabek electrified suburban network. The remaining 17 km to Cikarang would then be four-tracked and electrified, allowing suburban services to tap into strong demand in outlying residential areas. Completion is expected by the end of 2016. In total, four work packages are included in the contract, including enhancement of overhead electrification, power supply, signalling and telecoms equipment plus remodelling work at some intermediate stations. According to Railways Minister Tandjung Inderawan, the project should enable dedicated tracks to be created to separate freight and passenger services. ‘We are currently accelerating the whole four-track project because this will help boost the economy and reduce logistics costs across Java’, he explained. The enhancement project will also deliver additional capacity to support the US$1·1bn Trans-Java double-tracking project, which is expected to be completed by the end of next year. Inderawan reported that work to double 425 km of single line was approximately 40% complete, with the Semarang – Surabaya section still to be treated.

· Government sets out transport priorities

· 05 October 2012

FRANCE: The broad outlines of future transport policy were unveiled by Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier at a cabinet meeting on October 3. As well as supporting economic development, this would aim to ensure equal treatment for all regions and facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy. Cuvillier announced that a commission of MPs, senators and experts would be formed in mid-October to draw up within six months a framework document to guide transport policy. Given the difficulty of financing in its entirety the previous administration’s national transport infrastructure plan, costed at €245bn over 20 to 30 years, future projects would need to be developed according to a ‘realistic’ timescale. The new priorities of the Hollande administration include improving ‘everyday’ transport, continuing modernisation of the rail network by renewing at least 1 000 km a year, and increasing funding support for SNCF Intercités services. Terms and conditions of employment need to be harmonised across the rail sector, according to the transport ministry. To revive rail freight, the government believes that better traction and rolling stock are required and that local initiatives to keep freight on rail must be encouraged. Rolling motorway and other intermodal services are to be developed and better rail connections provided to major ports. In the urban sector, new projects would be invited to participate in a third round of bidding for government funding, to be held in the first half of 2013. This would be open to light rail as well as other ‘innovative’ projects such as busways or electric car hire schemes.

· Alstom unveils KZ8A freight locomotive

· 03 October 2012

KAZAKHSTAN: The first of 200 KZ8A twin-section freight locomotives being supplied by an Alstom-led consortium to national railway KTZ was unveiled in Belfort, eastern France, on October 2. Under a contract valued at €1·3bn signed in March 2011, the EKZ joint venture of Alstom Transport (50%), Transmashholding (25%) and KTZ (25%) will assemble a pre-series batch of 10 locomotives at Belfort, with a further 15 to be shipped to Kazakhstan in kit form. A locomotive manufacturing facility is nearing completion in Astana where the remaining locomotives will be produced, and Alstom expects it to be formally opened on December 12 2012. Rated at 8 800 kW, the twin-section double Bo-Bo KZ8A has been designed to meet the specific operating conditions found in Kazakhstan, typified by extreme temperatures ranging from +50°C to -50°C. A number of design measures have been included to mitigate against particular problems known to occur at temperatures below -40°C, such as the risk of grease on ventilator fans freezing. All air inlets are mounted on the roof to limit snow ingress, double-skin bodyshells are produced from specially-treated steels and components mounted on electronic cards have been treated with a protective varnish. Whilst the locomotives are required to meet the Russian GOST technical standards which also apply in Kazakhstan, the KZ8A design differs significantly from the 2ES5 locomotives now being produced for Russian Railways by the Alstom-TMH joint venture at the Novocherkassk plant in Russia. According to Jean-Marc Guillemin, Kazakh locomotives project director at Alstom Transport, the 2ES5 is effectively ‘a Russian design with Alstom components’, but the EKZ locos are designed ‘specifically to meet the needs of a different client, KTZ’. This has enabled Alstom to have a greater degree of design input, for example by providing extensive insulation of the cab and equipment compartment. Heaters are fitted to the cab floor, seats and driving desk, and a jack has been fitted to raise a snow-laden pantograph. Design work is also progressing at Belfort on the KZ4AT passenger locomotive; 95 single-unit 200 km/h locos are being supplied to KTZ as a follow-on order to the KZ8A. The first locomotive is expected to be rolled out in 2014 with production in Astana commencing the following year. * Alstom signed a 25-year contract on October 3 with KTZ subsidiary AO Lokomotiv covering the maintenance, overhaul and refurbishment of 27 KZ4AC passenger locomotives. Effective immediately, the agreement is worth in ‘excess of €100m’ according to Alstom. The KZ4AC locomotives are used primarily on long-distance passenger work, and were supplied by CSR Zhouzhou with Siemens electrical equipment.

· Government sets out transport priorities

· 05 October 2012

FRANCE: The broad outlines of future transport policy were unveiled by Transport Minister Frédéric Cuvillier at a cabinet meeting on October 3. As well as supporting economic development, this would aim to ensure equal treatment for all regions and facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy. Cuvillier announced that a commission of MPs, senators and experts would be formed in mid-October to draw up within six months a framework document to guide transport policy. Given the difficulty of financing in its entirety the previous administration’s national transport infrastructure plan, costed at €245bn over 20 to 30 years, future projects would need to be developed according to a ‘realistic’ timescale. The new priorities of the Hollande administration include improving ‘everyday’ transport, continuing modernisation of the rail network by renewing at least 1 000 km a year, and increasing funding support for SNCF Intercités services. Terms and conditions of employment need to be harmonised across the rail sector, according to the transport ministry. To revive rail freight, the government believes that better traction and rolling stock are required and that local initiatives to keep freight on rail must be encouraged. Rolling motorway and other intermodal services are to be developed and better rail connections provided to major ports. In the urban sector, new projects would be invited to participate in a third round of bidding for government funding, to be held in the first half of 2013. This would be open to light rail as well as other ‘innovative’ projects such as busways or electric car hire schemes.

Date: 2014-12-21; view: 1390