Rail conquers the Alps

Railway Gazette International | June 2015 29
Analysis INTELLIGENCE
between the Belgian port and Le Havre.
From September, B Logistics hopes to
introduce a further route to serve destinations
in Sweden, operated in partnership
with Green Cargo.
Giving customers a realistic, consistent
and deliverable timetable is essential
for Green Xpress to grow volumes to a
sustainable level, B Logistics believes.
As a result, it is investing heavily in advanced
back-office systems and decision
support tools. On the operational side
these include online diagnostic support
to accelerate pre-departure checks, and
sleep sensors to monitor driver alertness.
Customers will be offered an online
portal for fast quotes, booking and
payment, while the Cargoweb online
portal and smartphone app will give
them rapid access to real-time tracking
and arrival time information for their
shipment. n
SWITZERLAND
Tunnel
preparations
With just 12 months to go until the
Gotthard Base Tunnel is due to be
handed over by project promoter Alp-
Transit Gotthard AG, Swiss Federal
Railways announced on April 30 a programme
to modify rolling stock and undertake
training for around 3 900 staff in
time for the start of operations with the
timetable change on December 11 2016.
The rolling stock changes are needed
to improve fire safety and to install
ETCS Level 2 cab signalling. According
to SBB, the Alstom-built ETR
610 Pendolino trainsets used for international
services over the Gotthard
corridor were equipped by the manufacturer
before delivery. However, the
older trains do not meet the technical
specifications for operation through
the world’s longest rail tunnel, notably
regarding fire protection, the ability to
keep running in the event of a fire and
pressure sealing. To bring them up to
the required standards, fire alarm systems
and sensors will be installed, along
with fire-resistant doors between the
vehicles and foam extinguishers. At the
same time, SBB is to install new airconditioning
equipment to improve the
level of comfort for both passengers and
train crew.
Retrofitting will be required for 18
ICN tilting trainsets, 13 Class Re 460
electric locomotives and 119 inter-city
coaches used by the passenger business,
plus 179 main line and 15 shunting
locomotives for SBB Cargo. The work
will be undertaken at SBB’s workshops
in Bellinzona, Biel, Yverdon-les-Bains
and Olten, and is due to be completed
by mid-2016.
Over the next 18 months SBB must
also complete infrastructure modifications
at locations between Brunnen and
Castione in conjunction with the introduction
of ETCS Level 2, and commission
two electronic interlockings at
Altdorf and Pollegio. New maintenance
and intervention centres are being developed
at Erstfeld and Biasca, where
around 300 staff will be based to undertake
maintenance and troubleshooting
in the base tunnel.
SBB sees the opening of the Gotthard
Base Tunnel as ‘the most important
milestone’ in the upgrading of the
north-south transalpine corridor, but
says the full benefits will not be realised
until the Ceneri Base Tunnel is completed
in 2019, paving the way for the
carriage of 4 m high loads from 2020.
Between now and then, it says, another
25 projects must be implemented to
upgrade the access routes from Basel in
the north and Chiasso in the south.
H On May 7 intermodal operators’ association
UIRR warned that upgrading
of the Lötschberg and Gotthard corridors
could have ‘an undesirable impact’
on international transit traffic unless
Ready to go.
B Logistics’ Green
Xpress network
already connects
Belgium with
destinations in
France, Germany,
Switzerland and
Slovakia.
207
locos
TO BE RETROFITTED
BY SBB WITH
ETCS LEVEL 2
FOR OPERATION
THROUGH THE
GOTTHARD
BASE TUNNEL
proposed changes to the commercial
conditions were revised. According to
a study commissioned from TransCare,
‘the enhanced operating efficiency’ offered
by faster speeds and lower energy
consumption ‘will be more than offset’
by the phasing out of financial support
for intermodal traffic and a revised track
access charging regime.
Warning that these ‘alarming’ findings
could see traffic diverting eastwards
to the Brenner route, UIRR
called on Swiss decision-makers ‘to
implement the necessary adjustments
to make the new high-performance rail
infrastructure commercially competitive’.
Director-General Ralf-Charley
Schultze said UIRR had been calling
for the upgrading of strategic European
rail infrastructure to facilitate modal
shift to more environmentally-friendly
transport, but ‘this can only work if the
new infrastructure is available under
competitive commercial conditions’. n
NETHERLANDS
Limburg lost
Meeting on April 29, Limburg Provincial
Council decided to cancel the 15-
year concession under which NS and
its Qbuzz subsidiary were to operate
regional passenger services in the Limburg
region in 2016-31 through a new
business unit, Abellio Limburg.
The contract had been awarded on
February 10 following an international
competition (RG 3.15 p11), but on
March 28 NS admitted that it had discovered
‘serious irregularities’ in its bid
process. Following an internal compliance
audit, the national passenger operator
brought in lawyers De Brauw
Blackstone Westbroek to undertake an
independent review.
According to NS, the Qbuzz bid team
had received ‘unauthorised confidential
information’ from a former employee of
incumbent operator Veolia Transport
Limburg, who had been hired through
an intermediary despite being subject to
a non-competition clause. However, it
had not been established whether this
had a material impact on the outcome
of the tender.
‘Shocked’ by the results of the investigation,
NS apologised to the province.
Two directors of Qbuzz and Abellio
Nederlands were suspended. The former
Qbuzz general manager, who had
been acting as a consultant since retiring,
had his contract terminated, as did
the Veolia employee, who had been due
to take up a full-time post on May 1.
NS said it was considering whether to
take disciplinary action against other
employees.