Non-Subscriber Extract
Executive Overview: World Railways
By Ken Harris
5 November 2008
In a period that saw no let-up in high-speed rail developments worldwide, France again made the headlines in 2008 with the February rollout of ALSTOM's 360 km/h AGV (Automotrice à Grande Vitesse) 'Pégase' demonstrator. The new train departs significantly from existing TGVs and their derivatives in the adoption of distributed power rather a power cars-plus-trailers configuration, although the articulation that has proved highly successful is retained. ALSTOM's concept for AGV is for standard formations of seven, 11 and 14 cars formed of combinations of three-car 'triplette' modules carrying traction equipment and single key cars incorporating auxiliaries. Rated at 6,000 kW, the seven-car prototype is designed to take current from all four main European supply systems and is ERTMS-equipped.
Even before AGV was unveiled, ALSTOM had secured its first order for the new train - a EUR650 million contract for 25 11-car sets for Italian open access operator Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), together with an option on 10 more sets. ALSTOM is also to provide fleet maintenance for 30 years. Established in 2006, NTV plans to run services from December 2011 on Italy's high-speed/high-capacity (AV/AC) network in competition with FS Trenitalia, aiming to carry 10 million passengers annually once full operating capacity is achieved.
The NTV order will provide strong support for any bid by ALSTOM for the future SNCF orders which will be needed both to equip planned expansion of the LGV network and to replace its oldest TGV sets. The French government confirmed its intention to continuing development of the network with an announcement in 2008 that it was sanctioning construction of 2,000 km of lines by 2020, to be followed by a further 2,500 km after that. The list of new lines includes the Nîmes/Montpellier bypass, LGV Bretagne-Pays de la Loire, the second phase of LGV Est from Baudrecourt to Strasbourg and Tours-Bordeaux. Meanwhile, work continues on construction of the section linking Perpignan and Figueras, Spain, which is due to open in February 2009, and on the eastern branch of LGV Rhin-Rhône, due for completion in 2011.
AGV is also the likely rolling stock candidate for possible open access international services by Air France-KLM, which confirmed in 2008 that it was considering replacing some short-haul flights with high-speed rail services. The company said it was in discussion with Veolia Transport concerning their possible operation, citing Paris to Amsterdam, Brussels, London and Germany as routes being studied. The move is a reaction to the EU's Third Railway Package, which provides for liberalisation of international rail passenger services from 2010.
ALSTOM also secured orders for TGV Duplex double-deck trainsets from two countries undertaking construction of their first high-speed lines. As a member if the Veloxia consortium, the company is to supply eight Duplexes for services on the 710 km Buenos Aires-Rosario-Córdoba line in Argentina and 18 for the 200 km Tangier-Kénitra line in Morocco, the first section of the Tangier-Casablanca high-speed route that is eventually intended to form part of a 1,500 km network.
TGV-derived trainsets have also been mooted for the planned Euro-Carex high-speed air cargo network linking Paris's Roissy-CDG Airport with Amsterdam, Liège/Cologne, Lille/London and Lyons. In July 2008 the partners forming Euro-Carex, which include Air France KLM Cargo, Aéroports de Paris, La Poste, FedEx and Worldwide Flight Services, confirmed their intention to launch services in March 2012. A proposed second phase would connect additional destinations in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Siemens claimed its share of the high-speed limelight in 2008 with its Velaro trainsets. In February the 630 km line linking Madrid Atocha and Barcelona Sants was finally commissioned throughout at a cost of EUR10 billion. Class S103 Velaro E trainsets now link the two cities in just over two and a half hours.
In China, the first Class CRH3 Velaro trainsets entered service on the newly completed 117 km Beijing-Tianjin line, just one small section of the country's massive programme of high-speed line construction. Sixty of the eight-car Class CRH3 trains are being supplied under a 2005 EUR1.3 billion technology transfer agreement that sees Siemens building three sets in Germany, with the rest manufactured in China at the CNR Tangshan plant.
Siemens' Velaro RUS for Russian Railways (RZD) also made its debut, with part of the first of eight trains displayed at the InnoTrans 2008 exhibition in Berlin. With deliveries due for completion in 2010, the 10-car trains are initially destined for 250 km/h services on the Moscow-St Peterburg route but eventually will also be deployed between the capital and Nizhny Novgorod. They are designed for later upgrading for 300 km/h operation.
Elsewhere in Europe, Italy's 182 km Milan-Bologna AV/AC line was expected to be commissioned in December 2008, followed a year later by the 78.5 km section from Bologna to Florence. The 39 km Novara-Turin section should also be opened in 2009 to complete the high-speed line from Milan. In Spain, work was in progress on the Barcelona-Figueres-Perpignan section that will eventually connect with France's planned LGV Languedoc-Roussillon, and on the Madrid-Cuenca-Valencia line, due to be commissioned in 2010. Construction was also underway in 2008 on the first section of the high-speed line between Madrid and the border with Portugal via Extremadura. Tendering for a 40-year PPP concession to construct the Portuguese portion from Lisbon to the border was initiated in 2008.Germany's high-speed route between Berlin and Munich, a combination of new and upgraded infrastructure, is a long-term project unlikely to see completion before 2017, when the journey time between the two cities should be cut to less than 4 hours. The same date has been quoted for completion of the 85 km Neubaustrecke between Frankfurt and Mannheim. The project to build a maglev link between Munich and its airport was scrapped in 2008.
Limited operations over part of the Netherlands' HSL-Zuid using Class 186 electric locomotives and hauled stock were expected to start in October 2008, but May 2009 at least seemed the earliest likely date for a commencement of services using the much-delayed V250 Albatros trainsets from Ansaldobreda.
In Sweden, national rail infrastructure authority Banverket has recommended construction of two high-speed lines as a means of coping with increasing traffic on classic routes that are set to become saturated. Together the Gotalandsbanan (Stockholm-Gothenberg) and the Europabanan (Stockholm-Malmo) would entail the construction of 246 km of new lines.
Outside Europe, Brazil has emerged as one of the latest countries to look to high-speed rail as a means of meeting the growing demand for sustainable intercity travel, with a Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo link the subject of feasibility studies and thought likely to go ahead. South Korea continues its construction programme, with the Taegu-Kyongju-Pusan and Osong-Mokpo lines due for commissioning in 2010 and 2017 respectively. But it is in the US where one of the most ambitious projects is poised to get the green light. A referendum in California in late 2008 was to seek voters' approval for an eventual 1,100 km high-speed rail network linking many of the state's major cities, from Sacramento in the north to San Diego in the south. Leading the project is the California High Speed Rail Authority, which puts a price tag of around USD40 billion on the scheme.