8 May 2008
Prague’s aging T3 tram fleet is slowly being rebuilt, replaced or retired. Some enterprising member of Prague’s city hall looks to have landed a deal that will give a new lease of life to 20 of the trams on the streets of Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital. The first twenty reconditioned trams will give Prague 800,000 USD to spend, in return North Korea gets a reliable work horse to add to it’s existing fleet of Skoda trams.
28 Apr 2008
It will be revealed this summer and undergo extensive testing before going into service. This is Czech Railways’ new Euro-Loco the 109E. Designed to run on any rail system within Czech Republic and neighbouring countries, this built from scratch loco from Skoda will probably end up being bought by other countries too. Its good to see that Skoda are being given a chance to build and develop new locos rather than just buying “off the shelf” (just wish Czechs would keep their breweries Czech owned too).
8 Apr 2008
What does the UEFA EURO 2008 football tournament have to do with railways? How else do the fans and football teams get around the two countries. Austrian State Railways (OBB) have painted 17 class 1116 locomotives (these locos have been recorded doing 357 km/h) in the national colours of the teams taking part in the tourament. OBB is playing a major part in the logistics, at least on the Austrian side, so these locos are helping to publicise OBB’s part in the organisation as well as pushing the event nationwide - at least for those who notice the new paint jobs.
If nothing else the locos look good and I hope that they remain in these colours for some time to come. On the OBB website you can even find out where in the country the locomotives currently are, and where they should be. The site has plenty of images, like the one above, as well as information about the services available during the tournament.
2 Apr 2008
The Docklands Light Railway will receive new, three car units in time for the Olympics in 2012. The first of these units was unveiled in London by the mayor. There should be a 50% increase in capacity by 2010, with an expansion to the system currently being undertaken.
I guess this is one of those benefits in having the Olympics, you should get a better transport system. At least they have given themselves a two year period to get the capacity and network upgrades working.
2 Apr 2008
No word on when the official unveiling or announcement will take place, however, a sketch of the new Skoda tram T15 has been released to illustrate how it should look. Prague has already ordered 250 units, and the emphasis seems to be that it is Czech designed and built. The current T14 trams was designed by Porsche and built by Skoda, whilst distinctive it is not proving to be as popular as had been hoped. Well I like it, although the interior was not arranged well and better use could have been made of the seating arrangements and design.
*Update* ABC Prague has an article covering the exterior and internal artwork - ABC Prague
Looks like Skoda.cz is also letting the public vote on the interior 
31 Mar 2008
Some of these decaying EMUs (Electric Multiple Unit) have been repainted/re-branded; other than the fact that there are not enough of the double deckers to completely replace the old stock, some of these units are being re-built rather than being scrapped en-masse. These units are nothing more than bone shakers that have been in the (long) process of being phased out; they were quite radical for the time and still have a certain 60’s design flair to them. I have been trying to get a photo for some time of the re-spray, they do look good and probably the ride has been changed as a part of the re-build. A more graceful retirement.14 Mar 2008
It would be unfair to say that all of Czech Railways coaches should be condemned since that would cast the net far too wide. It would be fair to say that the majority of coaches should be condemned, however, and if you believe the news items they soon will be.
Interestingly I have noticed that they are making huge efforts to ‘tart’ up their loco fleets, by this I mean a new paint job and generally keeping the locos clean. Talking of which, Czech Railways has split its Cargo division out into a separate entity. The upshot of this is a new logo (you just about make out the logo on the side of the loco above - click to enlarge), and a new paint job matching the branding scheme. Must admit the new colours make the locos really stand out and are better than the all-reds of DB and OBB.
I found an article showing off the new CD Cargo logo
14 Mar 2008
My guess is that this is a way to convince governments to build high-speed rail networks, talk in terms they understand on the basis that they are vote winners. Think of the political mud that can be slung if you refuse to invest in regions in order to safe-guard the future.
The engineering firm Atkins published a report that suggests a huge overall gain can be achieved by building a high-speed network all over the UK. One quote that caught my attention is this from Network Rail...
‘The challenge is to look at the developing and changing demographics, and demand along particular corridors, and see what fits best. High-speed travel is likely to be one of a multitude of ultimate solutions. As we develop our plans to build a bigger, better railway over the next few years, we will look at this in more detail.’
In other words we don’t like the idea of non-government organizations putting there nose where it is not welcome. Its back to using helicopters again then.
4 Mar 2008
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, in the UK, is urging a substantial shift to using rail as the major form of transport in the UK.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) says changes are needed to government policies on transport pricing, energy and town planning. A train journey can produce about one tenth of the carbon emissions generated if the same trip is made by air. The report’s authors say substantial investment in the railways is needed.
As with anything from the UK and railways, we will have to wait a long time to see.
21 Feb 2008
The high speed line between Madrid and Spain has started public operation. A distance of around 550 km, reaching speeds of 300 km/h, and taking around 2 hours 30 minutes, Spanish rail operator Renfe is the latest country (well, the second accoridng to my knowledge) that is using the German ICE 103 system to make the high speed journey.
I found the video, below and in Spanish, detailing the first day of the journey.
 | flierfy on Molasses-speed rail |
 | david on Molasses-speed rail |
| flierfy on Molasses-speed rail |
| david on Molasses-speed rail |
| flierfy on Molasses-speed rail |
