<span class="" id="parent-fieldname-description"> </span> <h3>New trains needed repairs before use</h3> <p><span class="Apple-style-span">Eighteen trains for Melbourne delivered in the past year had a series of faults that had to be repaired before the trains were put into service, The Age reported this week, quoting union sources.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span"></span>Fourteen of the trains are already running on Melbourne’s network, allowing Metro to devise new timetables and to retire temporarily over summer seven older Hitachi trains that have air conditioning only in the driver’s cabin.</p> <p>French engineering giant Alstom manufactured the latest X’Trapolis trains in Poland and assembled them in Italy at a cost of $14.4m each.</p> <p>However, the head of Alstom’s transport division in Australia, Jean de La Chapelle, told the newspaper the list of issues raised in reports from train drivers to Metro did ”not reflect the status of the trains as they are today”.</p> <p>Metro spokeswoman Geraldine Mitchell said the trains were tested intensively.</p> <p>”Any legitimate faults, such as cracked and scratched windscreens, a pantograph fault, or minor wiring problems are fixed before the commissioning phase continues,” she said. ”No train enters the network until it has passed all safety requirements.”</p> <p>Rail, Tram and Bus Union locomotive division president Terry Sheedy said the quality of the workmanship is progressively deteriorating with each train and each takes longer to prepare for service.</p> <p>The state has ordered another 20 trains from Alstom, each costing $17.1m but they will be assembled in Ballarat.</p> <p>The new trains are the first with digital communications. Metro is upgrading old trains to the modern system.</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>First train runs on Tolls Cambodian venture</strong></h3> <p> <span class="Apple-style-span">The Toll Group is back in the railway freight business with the reopening of a 118-km line between the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh and Touk Meas in Kampot Province.</span></p> <p>Toll Royal Railways 55% owned by Toll and 45% by Cambodias Royal Group has a 30-year concession to run the nations rail system, which is being rebuilt with finance from the Asian Development Bank, Australia, Cambodia, Malaysia and OPEC.</p> <p>The running of the first train last week was a step towards links with the port at Sihanoukville in the south next May and with Thailand in the north by 2014.</p> <p>The rail service will lower freight costs and open up the region to regional and global trade.</p> <p>"It’s going to create jobs it will lead to economic growth it’s going to help Cambodia with its exports by making access to the port more competitive," Australias charge daffaires in Cambodia Fiona Cochaud told Radio Australia.</p> <p>Toll Global Logistics chief executive Wayne Hunt told the Ph<em>om Penh Post</em> that trucking operators had already lowered tariffs in preparation for competition with the rail service.</p> <p>"Bringing rail freight in as an alternative, youll find other transport will bring down their costs," he said. "Traditionally, rail would be 10% to 20% cheaper than truck."</p> <p>Meanwhile, the final project is a railway between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam something both governments say they will do. This would close the gap in the pan-Asian railway and provide rail links between Singapore and Scotland.</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>John Holland in joint bid for Abu Dhabi railway project</strong></h3> <p>Australias John Holland has joined a Leighton Holdings Middle East associate in a new joint venture bidding for the first phase of the United Arab Emirates rail network.</p> <p>It is puttng its experience of railway construction in harsh outback conditions to use with the Advance Rail Group (ARG, formed) with the 45% Leighton-owned Al Habtoor Leighton Group (HLG). </p> <p>Union Railway plans a 1,500 km rail link to connect the UAE with Saudi Arabia in Ghweifat and Oman at Al Ain.</p> <p>The first phase, expected to be completed in 2013, is a 264-km line connecting the Shah natural gas field southwest of Abu Dhabi city with the oil and gas facilities at Habshan and with Ruwais port.</p> <p>Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the state energy producer, plans initially to transport sulphur on the route.</p> <p>Passenger services will be added later.</p> <p>The complete network connecting the seven emirates is expected to be completed in 2017</p> <p>ARG is reported to be looking also at rail network expansion in Turkey and Jordan.</p> <p> </p> <h3>East west loop at Tintinara completed</h3> <p>The lengthening and upgrading of the passing loop at Tintinara  on the east-west rail corridor between Melbourne and Adelaide has been completed.</p> <p>The $5.4m project involved extending the existing loop by 800 metres to cater for 1,500 metre trains as well as installing mainline turnouts and new signalling technology.</p> <p>Federal infrastructure and transport minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) had also received stimulus money to extend and upgrade another six passing loops on the Melbourne-Adelaide line.</p> <p>In less than two years the ARTC has completed two of these projects, with work well advanced on four others, he said.</p> <p>ARTC chief executive David Marchant said the modernisation of the corridor was progressing well, with completion of the seven new longer passing loops expected to further cut transit times, expand the lines capacity and make rail even more competitive.</p> <p>ARTC Services Company delivered the project in partnership with Transfield.</p> <p> </p> <h3><strong>Critics rail at Jolimont track cover-up</strong></h3> <p>A Chicago-inspired vision for Melbournes Federation Square East suggests a cultural precinct and public space over the Jolimont rail yards that connects the citys art and sport institutions.</p> <p>Major Projects Victoria has modelled its urban renewal design on Chicago’s Millennium Park, a big tourist project that covers rail tracks. </p> <p>The new design provides space for performances and exhibitions, as well as better linking the area north of the Yarra River to the Southbank precinct.</p> <p>However, state opposition leader Ted Baillieu dubbed the proposed redevelopment as nothing more than a tiara on top of the car park while entertainer Barry Humphries decried public space as "for bogans walking around, eating and smoking".</p> <p><strong><br /></strong></p>
