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.
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).
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.
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.
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.

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.