Siemens ontrack in Algeria

As member of a consortium of companies, ESTEL RA., a joint venture between Algeria’s national railway operator (SNTF) and Siemens, has been given the order to supply and install signaling and telecommunication systems for the two railway lines to be built from Boughezoul to M’Sila and to Tissemsilt, according to a Siemens release.

The contract volume for Siemens amounts to 132 million euros. The customer is ANESRIF, the Algerian railway agency. Equipped with the European Train Control System ETCS Level 1, 16 electronic interlockings are scheduled for completion before the end of 2014.

The project was part of a five-year plan aimed to economically revitalise the railway sector in Algeria and which envisaged investments of around $20 billion up to 2014, said the release.

The new railway line, running about 290 kilometres through the country’s high plateaus will be equipped with the Trainguard 100 train control system, the Vicos automatic operations control system and electronic interlockings from Siemens Mobility.

Following commissioning of this east-west line and its 16 stations, the Algerian railway operator plans to run trains at a top speed of 160km per hour. The central junction on the line will be the station in the “New Town” called Boughezoul, which is being erected a good 200km south of the capital Algiers.

"New Town" is an Algerian government project and part of the United Nations Environment Programme. Boughezoul is purely a drawing-board city that has been designed to produce minimum carbon dioxide emissions. Its electricity and hot water will be generated by means of solar energy systems, while the architectural structures will be carbon neutral.

The environmental concept adopted by the urban planners focuses on the creation of living space that does not rely on the consumption of fossil resources. It also safeguards the mobility of the inhabitants in all directions and the supply of goods to the new town by means of environmentally compatible passenger and rail freight services.