3/2002

Pendolinos for Czech Railways - to be registered as Class 680 - are one of the orders, currently realized in the ALSTOM Ferroviaria facilities at Savigliano. With these units ČD will join not only the family of tilting technology users but also the high speed vehicles’ owners at last. The story of ČD Class 680, based on the initial in 1995 closed agreement, was accompanied by bad luck since the beginning. Briefly, it was hit by still rising delay caused by manufacturing and existence problems of ČKD Dopravní systémy, which culminated in January 2001, when this company was filled for bankruptcy. Already in January 2000, the Initial agreement’s Clause No 6 was closed, on basis of which Fiat Ferroviaria took over both the bond for delivery of the seven-car triple-voltage tilting trains and the leading post in the ČKD – MSV – Siemens – Fiat Ferroviaria consortium, which was initially awarded this contract.

Subsequent to its procurement of Class 152 units, DB Cargo signed the contract in August 1999 to exercise the option for one hundredClass 189 locomotives. These Siemens-built locomotives are designed as multisystem vehicles for European crossborder traffic and have a top speed of 140 km/h.

Since we brought the last series reports on the Taurus family, another interesting innovations involving the type have appeared, this time in the Siemens Dispolok pool. The locomotives in their characteristic yellow-grey livery for the first time crossed the frontiers of Germany, with the first Dispolok Taurus making its home in Austria.

Thursday 27 June 2002 was an important chapter in the story of liberalising the European rail freight market. This chapter was written by IKEA Rail, which started regular traffic of its train connection Älmhult - Duisburg. As the pioneer in this business, the company had to face many troubles, time and time again, but everything was fulfilled in the end and other possible followers can see, that it is really possible. IKEA Rail AB was established in the spring of 2001 as a subsidiary of the well known Swedish furniture producer, with Christer Beijbom appointed as its Managing Director. The first step towards the operation of its' own trains was undertaken in Helsingborg on 29 June 2001, when IKEA Rail signed an agreement with the rail infrastructure administrations of Germany (DB Netz), Denmark (Banestyrelsen) and Sweden (Banverket).

On 14 June 2002 the SBB Class 482 (see R 2/02, p. 24 - 25) was formally unveiled in Zürich. Said Daniel Nordmann, the head of SBB Cargo, "It was not only the roll-out of ten new freight locomotives, it was the roll-out of a new era of SBB Cargo!". The reason being that the Class 482 will enable crossborder haulage on the German/Swiss route Köln - Basel - Erstfeld (- Chiasso) without changing locomotive's in Basel. It will enable SBB Cargo to strengthen its position on the international railway market on this north-south axis. For this purpose SBB Cargo based, together with its German trade partner HGK (Häfen- und Güterverkehr Köln) joint sister company Swiss Rail Cargo Köln (SRC Köln) at the end of June 2002. Up to the end of 2002 SRC Köln plan to unveil up to 10 pairs on the "Rhein axis ", i. e. Basel - Köln (eventually Basel - Mannheim/Mannheim - Köln), operated in Open Access regime. Commenting further, Nordmann said "It will further develop recent excellent co-operation with DB".

One of the first appearances during this year’s Czech Raildays was the low-floor tram, branded as TRIO and ordered by Dopravní podnik Ostrava. In the year 2001 a new tram producer has arisen in the Czech Republic. DPO INEKON is a joint company founded by Dopravní podnik Ostrava (DPO, the City transport authority of Ostrava) and INEKON GROUP. After INEKON decided to change its partner for business in tram manufacturing, the new model commenced development. It represents further development of the Astra type, which INEKON designed together with ŠKODA DOPRAVNÍ TECHNIKA during the period they worked together. Compared with Astra, the TRIO design sees not only the external view changed.

During the night of 26/27 April 2002, the testing operation of FSS (Führerstand-Signalisierung) on the 32 km long Zofingen - Sempach section (Olten - Luzern line, a part of the Gotthard transit axle Basel - Chiasso) was unveiled. This system, which shows signals directly on a display in the driver’s cab, is based on ERTMS/ETCS level 2 operation. This step followed a long time of preparation work, nearly two years later than initially planned. The delay was caused firstly by a change of business structure by the supplier - the system was ordered from Adtranz, which was later purchased by Bombardier. Together also subsuppliers were changing, with problems regarding interfaces between particular components.

With this headline, which was underlined with a red number "1" symbol in many appearances, one of the most important events for DB in last few years was celebrated on 25 July 2002. More than one decade of design works and 6,5 years of construction works culminated in the long-awaited moment - the high speed line Köln - Frankfurt ("NBS Rhein - Main") was officially unveiled for regular traffic. Now, the passengers can take advantage of this fast connection, which can save them the advertised one hour.