Rail News Blogging #21 | 19 comments (19 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

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Over the past week, there have been news about new developments in a number of cases covered in the diary or earlier stories:

In the Netherlands–Belgium cross-border traffic, conventional trains would end again after the resumption of Fyra service on the high-speed line, again leaving smaller cities and low-budget travellers without the rail option. However, The Hague is willing to subsidize The Hague–Brussels services and announced a tender for a two-year franchise. Trains would start running at the timetable change in December 2013.
Europe–Asia connections are to be boosted by the creation of a common legal framework, according to an agreement signed by 37 countries. However, key exceptions are Iran and Turkmenistan. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan is moving forward with its second, 250 km/h Almaty–Astana line by awarding the design&supervision contract to French company Systra.
In my 2011 diary on train control systems, I mentioned that the German government is dragging its feet over an international agreement to install the European train control system ETCS along the entire Amsterdam–Milan corridor, because both main options would be unfavourable: ETCS Level 1 (which uses electromagnets in the track for train–track communication) would reduce capacity on already crowded sections while ETCS Level 2 (which uses wireless communication via the separate GSM-R system) would bring almost no capacity increase on the busy sections but would be very expensive on less busy sections, on which legacy interlockings [systems connecting signals and switches] and ETCS-compatible but old wireless equipment (it was installed in the early years of ETCS development and is too weak for current ETCS L2 uses) would have to be replaced. Now, finally, the obvious compromise has been found: the traffic ministry and the infrastructure branch of German Railways DB agreed to install ETCS L2 on busy sections and ETCS L1 on less busy sections. Of course, financing is still to be agreed upon.