TV program heads up May 11(Mon)

[bikkuri bahn]

For forum members in Japan, you may want to tune into the TV Tokyo program "Miraiseiki Jipangu", Monday 10pm. The program topic will be Japanese export trains. The one hour program will be divided into three parts:

1.Thailand- old blue train rolling stock and SL. Bangkok Metro rolling stock built by Jtrec.

2.UK- Class 395 and IEP.

3.USA- DC metro and KHI, New York subway interior design by Japanese.

http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/zipangu/

[bikkuri bahn]

Just a few takeaways from this program-

1. They visited the J-TREC plant in Yokohama.  First public (?) view of the Sustina bodyshells being fabricated for the Bangkok Purple Line. They have a dedicated production line going for this order.  They are almost at the point of a build rate of 1 carbody a day. The roof section is notched at the ends, likely for aircon equipment.  This also is a characteristic of third-rail collection rolling stock, which the purple line is being built as. 

2. The Purple Line will be the first non-Siemens supplied rapid transit line in Bangkok.  I read that Siemens dominating Bangkok's new rapid transit projects up to now was a sore point with Japanese firms, as the funding for infrastructure was coming from Japanese ODA.

3. A panelist, when asked which international HSR projects showed most promise for a win by Japanese firms, mentioned the Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR line, and Bangkok-Chiang Mai HSR.

[bikkuri bahn]

Forgot to add:

4. One panelist opined the best chance for a Japanese rolling stock order in continental Europe will be in Sweden, for the planned true high speed rail line there.

5. Hitachi's Newton Aycliffe plant will have catwalks which will be adjustable to accomodate different rolling stock widths- presumably for future orders for HS2 or continental loading gauge stock.