Murphy Siding wrote: Here's a question from a really ignorant American: Last night, I was talking to my 15 year old son, about currency in Europe. Is the *official* currency of Europe (at least EU nations),the Euro? Or, does each country still conduct business in pounds/francs/marcs/etc...? I was under the impression that Euros were used only for transactions between EU nations?
I don't know that you can call the "Euro" the official currency of the EU, but most of the countries of the Old EU use it. France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Ireland. The UK does not use the Euro. I am not sure about Denmark and Sweden. Of the new EU countries, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, and Bulgaria, only Slovenia uses the Euro. Using the Euro requires that the country keeps its budget in near balance among other requirements. Because of all the requirements and restrictions the UK has chosen not to use the Euro, they prefer to have more economic options.
Denmark and Sweden stayed with their national currencies, the Danisch or Swedish Crown. Cyprus, at least the Greek part of the island, does not use the Euro either. Lithuania wanted to join the Euro-zone, but has to wait because of too high an inflation.
In several countries with weak currencies, especially in the countries that emerged after the split of the former Yougoslavia, the Euro is practically the most widely used currency.
What you were thinking of, Murphy Siding, is the European Currency Unit (ECU), which was indeed only for transactions between countries. There were neither ECU-coins nor banknotes.
Austrian Federal Railways has been critizised for investing to little in new rolling stock. Average age for passenger-coaches and locomotives is 21 years, the news reported today. They had to run intercity-trains with rolling-stock for suburban services. Furthermore, they lease passenger-cars from Romania und Hungary and recently from Switzerland.
Swiss Federal Railways suffered from a shortage of container and trailer-carrying-cars. Shippers complained on how long their loads had to wait.
The Euro is also the currency in Spain, Portugal, Austria, Greece and Luxemburg.
While the agreements which introduced the Euro laid down many conditions with which those nations had to comply, the extent to which they all do is debatable - but this isn't the place.
Nor is it the place to discuss the reasons the UK hasn't adopted the Euro - I will do no more than say they are far more complex and contentious than beaulieu says.
At 19.00 PM CET today the Dutch railnetwork was closed down by Prorail, owner of the tracks, due to the dangerous situation because of a storm racing over our country. This doesn't happen often. Emergency shelter have been opened. Windspeed is 10 Beaufort.
There heve been lots of problems in the center and west of the Netherlands because of the storm, road traffic is also badly hit. Three motorway bridges have been closed due to the fact that trucks turnover. It is almost impossible to get from Rotterdam or Utrecht to the south. Traffic jams reach up to 25 kilometers
Amsterdam Central Station was closed because glass plates came falling down from the big shed onto the tracks and platforms. Utrecht Central Station was also closed early.
Because it was getting dark it became difficult to see fallen trees on the tracks or cables from the catenary that had come down.
I heard that some raillines in the west and northwest of Germany were also closed.
The crew of a containership has been recued southwest from England during this storm. French and British Coastguard have to look on as the ship sinks. I hope you don't have a package coming!
greetings,
Marc Immeker
jeremygharrison wrote: The Euro is also the currency in Spain, Portugal, Austria, Greece and Luxemburg.While the agreements which introduced the Euro laid down many conditions with which those nations had to comply, the extent to which they all do is debatable - but this isn't the place. Nor is it the place to discuss the reasons the UK hasn't adopted the Euro - I will do no more than say they are far more complex and contentious than beaulieu says.
But how we love to debate about the EU and / or the euro! We curse it and yet reape the benefits...
marcimmeker wrote: At 19.00 PM CET today the Dutch railnetwork was closed down by Prorail, owner of the tracks, due to the dangerous situation because of a storm racing over our country. This doesn't happen often. Emergency shelter have been opened. Windspeed is 10 Beaufort. There heve been lots of problems in the center and west of the Netherlands because of the storm, road traffic is also badly hit. Three motorway bridges have been closed due to the fact that trucks turnover. It is almost impossible to get from Rotterdam or Utrecht to the south. Traffic jams reach up to 25 kilometersAmsterdam Central Station was closed because glass plates came falling down from the big shed onto the tracks and platforms. Utrecht Central Station was also closed early.Because it was getting dark it became difficult to see fallen trees on the tracks or cables from the catenary that had come down.I heard that some raillines in the west and northwest of Germany were also closed.The crew of a containership has been recued southwest from England during this storm. French and British Coastguard have to look on as the ship sinks. I hope you don't have a package coming!greetings,Marc Immeker
And around 20.00 PM Germany shut most of its raillines down too because of this storm.
Intercity-Trains in Germany had to stop and stay at the next station. Most local passengers trains and some commuter trains do not run anymore. Thousands of passengers stranded in stations. Nothing was said about freight, but I guess, they don't run either. Tramways in Munich stopped operation, too. Nothing was said about undergrounds.
The children in the state of Bavaria will be happy. No school today afternoon and tomorrow.
Hupac was reported the loading figures for 2006.
2005 2006 change
Regular Transalpine Intermodal 374,993 436,678 +16.4%
Regular Other Intermodal 120,666 154,491 +28.0%
Rolling Highway 23,501 21,319 -9.3%
Total 519,160 612,488 +18.0%
The last three years have seen shipments increase by 55.2%. 2007 will see the 40th Anniversary of the founding of Hupac, Ltd.
The German Statistics Bureau has reported the transportation figures for 2006
Road Transport
3258 million metric tonnes +5.9%
434,000 million metric tonne/km +7.3%
Railfreight
342 million metric tonnes +7.7%
105,500 million metric tonne/km +10.5%
For American readers, German statistics (all European) do not differentiate between Intercity and Intracity Trucking which significantly inflates the truck tonnage. So a truck delivering furnature from the store to your home counts as does a truck delivering building materials to a construction site.
This is the first time in more than 20 years that railfreight growth was greater than road freight.
Railion Nederland (Netherlands) has reported all time record figures for tonnes moved and tonne/kilometers in the Netherlands.
After one day, the German Federal Railways was able to resume operations, which had been stopped due to storm "Kyrill". Most probably, it was the first time since the final months or weeks of WW II that the entire German railway system was shut down.
The new main-station at Berlin - on the site of the former Lehrter Bahnhof - has been damaged by the storm. Authorities do not yet say when it will be open to passengers again.
In eastern Switzerland, the storm turned over a driving and a non-driving trailer of a trainset of the Appenzeller Bahn. The Appenzeller Bahn is a narrow-gauge kind of interurban. The motor-car stayed on the tracks. The two trailers have a weight of only 20 metric tons. The motor-car is of course heavier. No passengers on board, but the engineer suffered minor injuries.
A Regional Passenger Train running from Budapest to Vienna rear-ended a freight train at Szorny, Hungary. The Driver of the passenger train was killed, and the locomotive OeBB 1116 017 was, destroyed. Four Passengers were taken to the hospital with moderate injuries. Hopefully this important line will get ETCS.
There has been a test run with 35 engines in the new Lötschberg-tunnel. It's purpose was to test the computerized signalling system. The server must be able to aminstrate 30 trains simultanously and to automatically stop the 31. train that wants to enter the tunnel. The test took place on sunday and was declared a success, because train number 31 was stopped.
martin.knoepfel wrote: There has been a test run with 35 engines in the new Lötschberg-tunnel. It's purpose was to test the computerized signalling system. The server must be able to aminstrate 30 trains simultanously and to automatically stop the 31. train that wants to enter the tunnel. The test took place on sunday and was declared a success, because train number 31 was stopped.There will be thousands of test-runs until the tunnel will be opened to revenue service gradually from june through the following months to december 07.
There will be thousands of test-runs until the tunnel will be opened to revenue service gradually from june through the following months to december 07.
Remind me, is the Lotschberg (sorry, I can't figure out how to put the ".." over the "o") Tunnel double track with crossovers in the tunnel?
futuremodal wrote: martin.knoepfel wrote: There has been a test run with 35 engines in the new Lötschberg-tunnel. It's purpose was to test the computerized signalling system. The server must be able to aminstrate 30 trains simultanously and to automatically stop the 31. train that wants to enter the tunnel. The test took place on sunday and was declared a success, because train number 31 was stopped.There will be thousands of test-runs until the tunnel will be opened to revenue service gradually from june through the following months to december 07.Remind me, is the Lotschberg (sorry, I can't figure out how to put the ".." over the "o") Tunnel double track with crossovers in the tunnel?
The accepted practice for people using keyboards that can't put an umlaut over a letter is to add an "e" after the letter, as in Loetschberg.
The Loetschberg Tunnel is designed as a pair of single track bores, and will be completed in three stages. The first stage is nearly complete. For now one bore is completed and the second bore is 2/3rds bored out, but only 1/3rd lined and equipped with track. So it is partially 2 MT for now. There are several crossovers connecting the two bores. Stage 2 will see another 1/3rd of the second bore completed. Stage 3 will see the whole of the 2nd bore completed and a connecting wye track built so that southbound trains can turn west towards Lausanne and Geneva. Stage 2 and 3 will be completed as traffic grows. Stage 2 is expected to be needed around 2020, no timetable has been set for Stage 3.
The existing line will remain in use for local traffic, and will be used for Hazmat freights.
marcimmeker wrote:I've admired those huge threads about British railroading or the coffeeshop. So I am going to start one here about European railroading in general. My first question is: was there a (narrow gauge) railroad on the German North Sea island of Helgoland? I found a very short reference to it. It was probably military in origin as the island was a fortress in both world wars. greetings, Marc Immeker
I have finally found some time to upload some pictures of my trip to Helgoland last july.
For those who wonder where it is located: it is in Europe, in the southeastern part of the North Sea, some 70 km's of the German coast. It has been part of Germany since 1890 when they exchanged Zanzibar, of the coast of Tanzania in Africa, for Helgoland which was then a part of Great Britain.
I had the opportunity to fly around the islands but my pictures where not so great as this one.
As you can see it consists of two islands, Helgoland and Düne. Together they are 1.8 km2 large and were connected until 1719 or so. There was a white cliff (limestone) that was quarried away.
The Germans fortified the island and even used narrow gauge for construction and supply.
This is what remains:
pier/breakwater at south harbor
The track falls apart due to the salt water and I was able to take a small piece home.
Under the sands of Düne:
Next time some historical pictures from a cd-rom that I bought at the island museum.
I'm off to bed,
marcimmeker wrote: marcimmeker wrote:I've admired those huge threads about British railroading or the coffeeshop. So I am going to start one here about European railroading in general. My first question is: was there a (narrow gauge) railroad on the German North Sea island of Helgoland? I found a very short reference to it. It was probably military in origin as the island was a fortress in both world wars. greetings, Marc ImmekerI have finally found some time to upload some pictures of my trip to Helgoland last july.For those who wonder where it is located: it is in Europe, in the southeastern part of the North Sea, some 70 km's of the German coast. It has been part of Germany since 1890 when they exchanged Zanzibar, of the coast of Tanzania in Africa, for Helgoland which was then a part of Great Britain.I had the opportunity to fly around the islands but my pictures where not so great as this one.As you can see it consists of two islands, Helgoland and Düne. Together they are 1.8 km2 large and were connected until 1719 or so. There was a white cliff (limestone) that was quarried away.The Germans fortified the island and even used narrow gauge for construction and supply.This is what remains:pier/breakwater at south harborThe track falls apart due to the salt water and I was able to take a small piece home.Under the sands of Düne:Next time some historical pictures from a cd-rom that I bought at the island museum.I'm off to bed,greetings,Marc Immeker
Thanks for posting this, very interesting, looking forward to the rest of your pictures.
On a different subject what is your opinion of the changes that NS is making in their operational patterns and the lost of so many one seat rides, Will the Dutch public accept the idea of making more connections? And what the heck is going on with the Randstadt Tram system? I read that they had to stop operating because of a rash of derailments.
beaulieu wrote: On a different subject what is your opinion of the changes that NS is making in their operational patterns and the lost of so many one seat rides, Will the Dutch public accept the idea of making more connections? And what the heck is going on with the Randstadt Tram system? I read that they had to stop operating because of a rash of derailments.
Well, we have to accept the idea of making more connections as it is done. The old system lasted basically since 1970. Some trains were added, others deleted but the basics remained the same. On the other side, NS frequently research travel patterns so presumably they have some idea of the travel patterns and in all fairness, the Netherlands is a small country with half the population living on less than 20 % of the territory. The trade off there is more trains, for instance, on the Rotterdam - Utrecht run there are now 4 intercities every hour between 7 am and 11 pm with some before and after, before there were 2 intercites and 2 fast trains.
On the edges of the country there are more problems. For instance, if you regularly travel from, say, Deventer (mideast) to Leeuwarden or Groningen (both in the north) than you can wave to the trains departing to those destinations when you arrive at Zwolle. This used to be a good connection with some 5 minutes between trains. Waiting 29 minutes for the next train is garantueed to get you in a bad mood in the morning.
As for Randstadrail? Well, it seems that Murphy has taken up residence in the Hague. Everything that can go wrong seems to go wrong at that end. Randstadrail consists of the former heavy raillines Hofpleinlijn (between Rotterdam Hofplein and The Hague Central Station) and the Zoetermeer stadslijn from the Hague to Zoetermeer. This is a suburban city that was build since the 1960's. It got a heavy rail commuter line in the shape of a pretzel that connected to the Hofpleinlijn. While the Hofpleinlijn has been taken over by RET (local transit operator in Rotterdam) and will be connected to the underground lines, the Zoetermeer line has been taken over by HTM, the transit operator in the Hague. It will use light rail vehicles of the Regio Citadis type from Alstom in France.
Surprisingly, on the former Hofpleinlijn RET has little problems but it currently does not go all the way to the Hague. All problems are on the Hague end, mostly derailments due to faulty construction of switches and curves. Originally the rebuilding from heavy rail to underground / light rail was to been done in 3 months last summer but things are still not ready. You can imagine the complaints, especially since the free bus subsitute service is no longer free...
There is still a heavy rail line from Zoetermeer to the Hague (the Utrecht - Gouda - the Hague line) but it certainly cannot cope with all the travellers from a city of 118.000 inhabitants. According to the latest survey by the municipality of Zoetermeer the replacement bus service is adequate.
More on Zoetermeer and Randstadrail here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoetermeer
And now back to the soccer game Slovenia - Holland.
I came across this video of a test ride on the new Betuweroute line here in the Netherlands. It shows scenes from several areas anf goes from east to west.
Niewsblad Transport is a Dutch transport magazine.
http://www.nieuwsbladtransport.nl/nieuws/id17905-Betuweroute_een_stukje_rijden_naar_het_westen.html
Bearing in mind that this is a North American forum, where passenger train frequency can be measured in days, it may be a little churlish to complain about 29 minute waits!
The remodelling at Den Haag must have been quite drastic. It is some years since I rode the Zoetemeer and Hofplein routes but my recollection is that after leaving Den Haag CS they first headed towards Leiden, and I presume that this route remains.
Simon Reed wrote:Bearing in mind that this is a North American forum, where passenger train frequency can be measured in days, it may be a little churlish to complain about 29 minute waits!The remodelling at Den Haag must have been quite drastic. It is some years since I rode the Zoetemeer and Hofplein routes but my recollection is that after leaving Den Haag CS they first headed towards Leiden, and I presume that this route remains.
Clearer now - thanks Marc.
Zoetemeer always seemed liked a light rail line with heavy rail imposed upon it, especially with the frequency of stations.
It reminded me of the Tyne and Wear Metro here in the UK, which is basically a suburban heavy rail network converted to light rail.
I also take your point about 29 minute waits - I was being a little sarcastic with my previous comment.
As you say, however, NS diligently monitor their passenger flow and provide service accordingly. One must hope that this recast will inconvenience the minimum amount of passengers whilst providing more attractive travel options for the majority.
Casting a timetable on an intensively operated unified system must be a practically impossible task, like building a house of cards.
2006, rail-freight through the Swiss Alps increased by 6,5 % to 25,2 million tons. Strongest increase - 11,6% - is with "unaccompanied combined traffic" (COFC and trailers on well-cars). The so-called rolling highway (or accompanied combined traffic), where the railroad hauls tractors and trailers on cars with smaller wheels, increased by 4,3%. Transalpine freight on the highways decreased a little bit.
The University of St.Gallen - which is focused on business and law - did a research on the cost-efficiency of the combined traffic between the areas of Duisburg and Milano in Western Germany and Northern Italy respectively. Both areas generate large amounts of freight, because they are heavily industrialized.Trains of the "unaccompanied combined traffic" and the rolling highway are both subidized by the tax-payers. 15 % of the cost to operate a train are subsidies. The money comes from gas-taxes and from a tax on heavyweights (i.e. trucks). The necessary subsidies are 5800 Swiss Francs for each train of the rolling highway and 4000 francs for each container or trailer-train.
Trains here in Europe are much shorter than in the US or in CDN. Heaviest train in Switzerland is a daily unit-clay-train from Limburg (Netherlands) to Domodossola (Northern Italy) over Lötschberg-Pass. It has up to 3200 tons. On the northern grade of the Lötschberg with a southbound ruling-grade of 2,6 % between Spiez and Kandersteg, the train is hauled in two sections. For the opposite direction, the train does not need to be split into several sections because the cars return empty.
Finally, something for the railfans. Rail4Chem contracted with owners of two historic electric engines (Ae 4/7) to haul unit-tank-trains in Swiss domestic traffic. The Ae 4/7 have been built in the 1920s and 1930s and have four driving axles in rigid frames (4-8-2).
martin.knoepfel wrote: 2006, rail-freight through the Swiss Alps increased by 6,5 % to 25,2 million tons. Strongest increase - 11,6% - is with "unaccompanied combined traffic" (COFC and trailers on well-cars). The so-called rolling highway (or accompanied combined traffic), where the railroad hauls tractors and trailers on cars with smaller wheels, increased by 4,3%. Transalpine freight on the highways decreased a little bit. The University of St.Gallen - which is focused on business and law - did a research on the cost-efficiency of the combined traffic between the areas of Duisburg and Milano in Western Germany and Northern Italy respectively. Both areas generate large amounts of freight, because they are heavily industrialized.Trains of the "unaccompanied combined traffic" and the rolling highway are both subidized by the tax-payers. 15 % of the cost to operate a train are subsidies. The money comes from gas-taxes and from a tax on heavyweights (i.e. trucks). The necessary subsidies are 5800 Swiss Francs for each train of the rolling highway and 4000 francs for each container or trailer-train. Trains here in Europe are much shorter than in the US or in CDN. Heaviest train in Switzerland is a daily unit-clay-train from Limburg (Netherlands) to Domodossola (Northern Italy) over Lötschberg-Pass. It has up to 3200 tons. On the northern grade of the Lötschberg with a southbound ruling-grade of 2,6 % between Spiez and Kandersteg, the train is hauled in two sections. For the opposite direction, the train does not need to be split into several sections because the cars return empty. Finally, something for the railfans. Rail4Chem contracted with owners of two historic electric engines (Ae 4/7) to haul unit-tank-trains in Swiss domestic traffic. The Ae 4/7 have been built in the 1920s and 1930s and have four driving axles in rigid frames (4-8-2).
If I understand this correctly, if 15% of the cost of operations are from cross-subsidization of road users, then of course the other 85% is produced via railroad user fees?
futuremodal wrote: martin.knoepfel wrote: 2006, rail-freight through the Swiss Alps increased by 6,5 % to 25,2 million tons. Strongest increase - 11,6% - is with "unaccompanied combined traffic" (COFC and trailers on well-cars). The so-called rolling highway (or accompanied combined traffic), where the railroad hauls tractors and trailers on cars with smaller wheels, increased by 4,3%. Transalpine freight on the highways decreased a little bit. The University of St.Gallen - which is focused on business and law - did a research on the cost-efficiency of the combined traffic between the areas of Duisburg and Milano in Western Germany and Northern Italy respectively. Both areas generate large amounts of freight, because they are heavily industrialized.Trains of the "unaccompanied combined traffic" and the rolling highway are both subidized by the tax-payers. 15 % of the cost to operate a train are subsidies. The money comes from gas-taxes and from a tax on heavyweights (i.e. trucks). The necessary subsidies are 5800 Swiss Francs for each train of the rolling highway and 4000 francs for each container or trailer-train. Trains here in Europe are much shorter than in the US or in CDN. Heaviest train in Switzerland is a daily unit-clay-train from Limburg (Netherlands) to Domodossola (Northern Italy) over Lötschberg-Pass. It has up to 3200 tons. On the northern grade of the Lötschberg with a southbound ruling-grade of 2,6 % between Spiez and Kandersteg, the train is hauled in two sections. For the opposite direction, the train does not need to be split into several sections because the cars return empty. Finally, something for the railfans. Rail4Chem contracted with owners of two historic electric engines (Ae 4/7) to haul unit-tank-trains in Swiss domestic traffic. The Ae 4/7 have been built in the 1920s and 1930s and have four driving axles in rigid frames (4-8-2). If I understand this correctly, if 15% of the cost of operations are from cross-subsidization of road users, then of course the other 85% is produced via railroad user fees?
Sort of, but slightly more complicated. Note first that he is refering only to Intermodal trains, "Unaccompanied Combined Transport" refers to standard Intermodal trains carrying containers, swapbodies, or trailers. Rolling Highway is special low-deck flatcars that truck drivers can drive complete semis onto. The Truck Drivers then ride in passenger car while the train is transporting the rig across Switzerland. Presently Switzerland subsidizes both forms of Intermodal. Note how much more money is spent on Rolling Highway versus the regular Intermodal trains. The exact subsidy depends on how far the train operates. The regular Intermodal subsidy is scheduled to be eliminated in 2015 when the Gotthard Base Tunnel was to have been completed as the lesser grades should eliminate the need for helpers over the Alps, lowering the costs to the train operators. There is debate now over what to do about the subsidies as the Gotthard Base Tunnel won't be finished until 2017 or perhaps later. There also has been a subsidy for Domestic Swiss carload freight, but that is being phased out and will finish this year. Surprisingly after a brief dip due to some cutbacks of stations served in early 2006, SBB Cargo finished 2006 with more Domestic tonne-kilometers than in previous years. Switzerland will also partially subsidize the construction of Intermodal terminals in adjacent countries, as long as their main traffic flow is across Switzerland. It is enshrined in their Constitution that the Government must reduce Transalpine truck traffic across Switzerland by 2015, to the level of 1990, about 650,000 truck trips per year.
It's been some time since the last report. Railroads in the Netherlands are still busy, delays all around for freight and a johnny come lately is awakening.
There are still problems with the border crossings between the Netherlands and Germany.
First there where problems at Almelo where the tracks are being lowered. The auxiliary track was constructed on schedule but the safety systems didn't work properly. All passenger service from Amsterdam/The Hague/ Rottedam via Amersfoort-Deventer-Almelo to Hengelo and Enschede was suspended (passengers being bussed to Hengelo) but for international service Amsterdam - Bad Bentheim (borderstation and changeover from 1500V dc to 15000V AC) and onward to Berlin. Some freight was running also.
This weekend one of the 2 tracks between Zevenaar (NL) and Emmerich (D-changeover from 1500V dc to 15000V AC, it is the important Arnhem-Oberhasuen line) is out of action. The local Zevenaar dispatcher was warned on may 12th that the track was taken out. When he asked for how long, the answer was: till may 16th... And no advance warning so no contingency scheduling. Venlo is very busy already so more delays. Railion NL went so far as to send a special bulletin to its customers.
The container terminals in the harbor here in Rotterdam also frequently have problems. Yesterday one of the ECT terminals was out of action. Guess who can tell the customers...
Meanwhile some weeks ago 2 Vossloh MaK type G2000 BB locomotives have been delivered to SNCF Fret for service in the Netherlands and Belgium. The have not yet been allowed to operate in the Netherlands and stand around the Nedtrain workshop here in Rotterdam. They are painted in the same colors as the Rail4chem locos (light green version, that is).
It seems that SNCF is finally getting serious abound open access! They have to as more and more operators get there licenses to run trains in France. Amongst others: the continental European subsidiary of British EWS (Euro Cargo Rail), Seco Rail (French railroad maintenance company), Veolia (part of Vivendi I believe and mostly active in Germany (formerly Connex) and lately also here in the Netherlands). Strangely enough no French electrics are yet scheduled to run through to the Netherlands. Northernmost point for french electrics is the big yard in Antwerp Belgium, almost literally just a stone's throw away from the border with the Netherlands.
June 16th is the big day for the (in)famous Betuweroute. That day queen Beatrix will finally officially open dedicated freight railroad from the harbor at Rotterdam to the border at Zevenaar/Emmerich. The queen will virtually open the line at Baerndrecht station and the first train then will leave Kijfhoek humpyard just to the south. Then she will visit the party on the roof of the new Barendrecht station (Barendrecht has 9 through tracks, 4 domestic passenger, 2 high speed domestic and international passenger and 3 freight tracks). The station is a big concrete and steel box with a new entry on top, 400 parking places and a park.
This link to the German Privatbahnforum, http://www.privatbahnforum.de/read.php?1,92984,92984, shows you modern European diesel locomotives of two types. The orange Seco Rail loco is a Vossloh MaK G1206 (G=Gelenkwellen or hydraulic transmission, 1500 kW MTU diesel, not the usual Caterpillar 3512B), the very light gray loco is a Vossloh Mak G2000 (2240 kW Caterpillar 3516 B-HD) for EWS subsidiary Euro cargo Rail and the aluminium and green colored loco is for ATC, an Italian operator. The SNCF Fret loco's look the same colorwise.
That is it for now.
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