EUR 300 million for rolling stock

This September, the Romanian Railway Reform Authority (ARF), subordinated to the Romanian Ministry of Transport, will launch the tender for the procurement of electric and multiple-units. The declaration was made on 9 July by Romanian Minister of Transport, Răzvan Cuc.

The new rolling stock procurement project amounts to EUR 300 million. At the moment, it is necessary to buy over 100 electric units, trains and diesel units to meet mobility demand and train timetable on the main routes of Romania. After procurement, the new trains will travel between Bucharest and Craiova, Constanta and Brasov, but also on the upgraded western sections of the country.

Currently, CFR Călători’s rolling stock fleet includes 1 532 units: 1 050 cars (950 classic cars, 100 sleeping coaches, couchette cars, restaurant cars and bar-bistro cars), 126 multiple-units (68 Desiro, 8 ADM11, and 50 others), 8 EMUs and 348 locomotives (237 electric locomotives, 111 diesel electric locomotives and hydraulic).

The decision of establishing the Railway Reform Authority was made based on the fact that Romania has to implement, according to the approved General Transport Master Plan, the railway sector reform focused on four directions such as:

• the reconstruction of the rail transport network to focus on an efficient transport network so that the allocation of funds for maintenance and running repairs would be focused on a financially sustainable rail transport network;
• the attribution of public services contracts for railway operation so that passenger transport would take place only based on tenders organized under the law that regulates rail transport operators;
• the introduction of performance indicators to represent the foundation of monitoring the legally concluded public services contracts;
• the introduction of programmes to boost the efficiency of activities in the railway sector, including for CFR SA, that need to be implemented by a specialized structure under the authority of the Ministry of Transport.

The procurement of rolling stock dedicated to railway passenger transport services is also one of the Romanian Railway Reform Authority’s attributions.

The Serbian government expects to finalise its talks with the European Investment Bank (EIB) over receiving funding for the overhaul of the Nis-Dimitrovgrad railway at the Western Balkan summit in Trieste, Italy, according to Infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic.
In addition to the electrification of the railway section, the talks will also cover a project for the construction of a bypass railway in Nis, Zorana Mihajlovic added. “The final negotiations will be held in Trieste, and we expect the contract to be signed in the short term,” she noted.
In May, the head of the EIB Regional Representation for the Western Balkans, Dubravka Negre, said the EIB plans to invest EUR 36 million this year in the overhaul of the railway between Nis, in eastern Serbia and Dimitrovgrad, at the border with Bulgaria. The investment will be co-financed with the proceeds of a EUR 30 million grant from the European Union which will be channelled through EIB. Last year, the Serbian government estimated the total investment needed for the reconstruction of the Nis-Dimitrovgrad railway at EUR 195 million.

Poland’s rail infrastructure manager, PKP PLK, selected Budimex to upgrade two sections of Line 7, which links Warsaw and Dorohusk with the Ukrainian border. The two contracts are worth a total of PLN 986 million (EUR 233 million).
The modernisation of the first section, which is 51.7 km long, runs from Pilawa to Dęblin is scheduled to be completed in 22 months. Budimex will install new rails and overhead power lines, create a control system and build or upgrade 38 structures, including bridges, overpasses, underpasses, tunnels and sewers. It will also build new platforms that are adapted to persons with reduced mobility, and buildings for rail traffic management and track maintenance.
For the Otwock – Pilawa section, which is 30 km long, Ferrovial Agroman is participating in this contract alongside Budimex. The two companies will upgrade 74 km of track and modernize the stations in Otwock, Celestynów and Pilawa. They will also build 18 platforms, 87 sidings and two signalling posts, upgrade 22 structures (bridges, passes and tunnels) and 12 level crossings and modernize the electrical system, overhead lines and water and sewer infrastructure. Work is expected to be completed in 2020.

Hungarian regional operator GYSEV Zrt. and Stadler signed a contract for the delivery of 10 four-car FLIRT type electric multiple units for regional operation. The first vehicles are expected to start
service in 2018 in Western Hungary.

With the current and earlier orders GYSEV will possess a flee consisting of altogether 20 state-of-the-art FLIRT units. GYSEV Zrt. issued an open public procurement for 10 low-floor electric multiple units in April this year. Manufacturers could apply until June, the winner of the procurement was Stadler Consortium formed by Stadler Polska Sp. z o.o. and Stadler Bussnang AG, the Polish and Swiss subsidiaries of the group. According to the delivery contract, the first train will be delivered in March 2018 while the last one is due to arrive until January 2019. Between 2013 and 2015 the railway operator purchased already 10 EMUs from Stadler within the frames of two separate public procurements, which means that with this order GYSEV expands its fleet to a total number of 20 FLIRT trains. The existing fleet is currently operating on the Sopron-Szombathely-Szentgotthárd, Sopron-Győr and the Szombathely-Rajka lines. Continue reading →

Philipp Koiser was born in 1980 in Austria. After graduating from the Business Academy in Vienna, he started his railway career at ÖBB Infrastruktur Betrieb AG (now ÖBB Infrastruktur AG) in 2006. After a first year as a station master, he was Key Account Manager at Network Access from 2007 until 2014. Besides coordinating national and international paths he was involved in two projects: ‘Euro 2008’ (planning of timetables and related measures during the European Football Championship 2008) and ‘Liberalisation of passenger traffic’.

In 2014 he became RNE’s Sales and Timetabling Manager and chairman of the RNE Sales & Timetabling Working Group, which develops and implements international processes in line with RNE objectives. Having brought several projects to a successful conclusion, he currently leads the ‘Redesign of the international timetabling process’ (TTR), whose ambition is to reform international timetabling jointly with FTE (Forum Train Europe) and with the support of ERFA (European Rail Freight Association).

Mr. Koiser will hold a presentation at the Freight and Logistics Forum during the second day of the event.

Nexans brings energy to life through an extensive range of cables and cabling solutions that deliver increased performance for its customers worldwide. Nexans’ teams are committed to a partnership approach that supports customers in four main business areas: Power transmission and distribution (submarine and land), Energy resources (Oil & Gas, Mining and Renewables), Transportation (Road, Rail, Air, Sea) and Building (Commercial, Residential and Data Centers). Nexans’ strategy is founded on continuous innovation in products, solutions and services, employee development, customer training and the introduction of safe, low -environmental- impact industrial processes.

In 2013, Nexans became the first cable player to create a Foundation to introduce sustained initiatives for access to energy for disadvantaged communities worldwide.

It has an industrial presence in 40 countries and commercial activities worldwide, employing close to 26,000 people and generating sales in 2015 of 6.2 billion euros. Nexans is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris, compartment A.

On behalf of Nexans, Susana Camara, Global Product Manager for the products installed in the Railways Infrastructure, dealing with all type of cables & accessories installed in the railways network infrastructure, will hold a presentation during the second day of the event.

Mr Ralf-Charley Schultze will attend the Railway PRO Investment Summit 2016 as speaker. Before going to Austria, he was responsible for five years for the freight department of the Swiss railways (SBB Cargo), for the combined traffic, the automotive business and the partner management. In this time, he had the opportunity to practice liberalisation and to experience so called coopetition. 10 years in different logistics and forwarding companies in Europe gave him a solid logistics background and enabled him understanding, organizing and implementing logistic processes, meeting the real needs of the market. During the last five years he was director for multimodal logistics within the GEFCO group, responsible for the development of multimodal business all over Europe, with a strong focus on Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia. Currently, Mr. Ralf-Charley Schultze is President of the UIRR, the international union for road-rail combined transport in Brussels.

Mr Schultze will hold a presentation at the Freight and Logistics Forum during the second day of the event.