By 2021-12-23T16:47:00+00:00 GERMANY: Groupe Keolis has reached agreement to sell its German rail operating business to Team Treuhand GmbH with effect from December 31 Team Treuhand is a subsidiary of the Noerr legal group which specialises in corporate acquisitions restructuring and insolvency advisory services Keolis has been active in the German market since 1999 It currently runs four groups of regional services in Nordrhein-Westfalen under contract to Zweckverband Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr and the Dutch province of Overijssel the four concessions comprise 15 routes totalling 1 000 route-km and carry around 40 million passengers per year The operating contract for the Maas-Rhein-Lippe-Netz which includes cross-border services into the Netherlands as does the contract for the Ostwestfalen-Lippe-Netz Eurobahn is contracted to operate the four routes forming the Hellweg-Netz until 2030 and the Teutoburger Wald-Netz until 2032 the German operations have been losing money for some years and in mid-2020 the group’s International CEO Bernard Tabary pointed out that the deficit was ‘too high’ the group decided to ‘refocus its strategic priorities’ Following 18 months of ‘constructive dialogue’ Keolis revealed in early October that it had reached a preliminary agreement with the three public transport authorities to transfer ownership of Keolis Deutschland to a new shareholder by the end of 2021 ‘leading to the group’s withdrawal from railway activity in Germany’ A formal agreement with the three authorities was signed on December 15 enabling Keolis to make ‘certain contractual adjustments’ that would facilitate the sale Team Treuhand will become sole shareholder in the German business From January 1 2022 the four networks will be operated under the brand of Eurobahn GmbH & Co KG with the existing management team and 900 employees transferring to the new owner this will ensure continuity of service for passengers ‘with no change for people travelling’ GERMANY: Westfalen-Lippe transport authority NWL has directly awarded Eurobahn a three-year extension to its contract to operate Ostwestfalen-Lippe Nord diesel-worked passenger services The contract started on December 2013 and was due to run to December 2025 It has been extended so that the next tendered contract .. NETHERLANDS: The province of Gelderland has selected Keolis Nederland to operate Valleilijn services between Amersfoort and Ede-Wageningen via Barneveld for 13 years from the December 2023 timetable change The line is currently operated by Transdev subsidiary Connexxion using a fleet of five Protos EMUs supplied by .. KEOLIS: Public transport operating group Keolis has issued its inaugural sustainability-linked Schuldschein a private placement with a margin adjustment mechanism linked to environmental KPIs include the proportion of employees in subsidiaries covered by environmental management system certification; reducing greenhouse gas emissions; increasing .. Site powered by Webvision Cloud Keolis has commenced operation of an extensive regional rail network comprising five lines and 52 stations The 27 Stadler FLIRT trains circulating on  the network are expected to cover 5.3 million kilometres per year This contract includes a cross-border connection between Germany and the Netherlands The trains will offer passengers exceptional levels of comfort and safety This new milestone reinforces Keolis’ presence in Germany and builds on its experience in regional train management already gained in the Netherlands has commenced operation of the Teutoburger-Wald- Network in the North Rhine Westphalia region in western Germany The 15-year contract was awarded in 2015 with Zweckverband Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe and Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen in Germany and with Provincie Overijssel in the Netherlands Its 27 trains are expected to cover a distance of 5.3 million kilometers per year one of the five lines will extend into the Netherlands The TWN will operate with 27 FLIRT trains manufactured by Stadler with 19 existing trains refurbished to meet the high comfort and security standards required by Keolis and eight new trains to be added to the fleet The new trainsets are composed of five cars and can carry up to 532 passengers The overall comfort of the 19 trains has been enhanced through careful refurbishment Each of the 27 trains can accommodate 24 bicycles and features enlarged entrances facilitating easier passenger boarding and alighting The trains are equipped with state-of-the-art ticketing machines Largest private operator in North Rhine Westphalia Keolis will open two other networks in the next couple of years one in December 2018 (extension Hellwegnetz) and another in 2019 (new rail contract for S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr) The company will grow from 600 employees in December 2017 to 900 by December 2019 wind energy may not be as eco-friendly as the environmentalists let on Not only are they 24/7 bird-killing machines they are also now piling up in landfills because they cannot be recycled “The municipal landfill in Casper, Wyoming, is the final resting place of 870 blades whose days making renewable energy have come to end. The severed fragments look like bleached whale bones nestled against one another,” reports Bloomberg Green Even the disposing of a turbine blade expels tremendous energy being that they have to be hauled away and must be sawed through with “a diamond-encrusted industrial saw to create three pieces small enough to be strapped to a tractor-trailer.” “Tens of thousands of aging blades are coming down from steel towers around the world and most have nowhere to go but landfills,” continued Bloomberg about 8,000 will be removed in each of the next four years which has been dealing with the problem longer has about 3,800 coming down annually through at least 2022 It’s going to get worse: Most were built more than a decade ago when installations were less than a fifth of what they are now.” The blades were built to “withstand hurricane-force winds” and cannot be “crushed, recycled, or repurposed.” In places that lack the land-space to hold such waste, the search for alternative materials is now underway. Bob Cappadona, the North American chief operating officer for Veolia Environnement SA said the wind turbines will be in those landfills “forever.” The last thing we want to do is create even more environmental challenges.” One solution has been provided by the European Union which burns some windmill blades in kilns that “create cement or in power plants.” The drawback however: “their energy content is weak and uneven and the burning fiberglass emits pollutants.” “We came up with some crazy ideas,” continued Cappadona “We want to make it a sustainable business Global Fiberglass Solutions has developed at least one method of pressing the blades into “pellets and fiberboards to be used for flooring and walls.” The company’s Chief Executive Officer Don Lilly told Bloomberg they are now able to “process 99.9% of a blade and handle about 6,000 to 7,000 blades a year per plant.” Though there indeed might be a solution the windmill landfill problem, the death of birds is another story. According to Audubon, wind turbines “kill an estimated 140,000 to 328,000 birds each year in North America making it the most threatening form of green energy.” “One of the most notorious wind farms—Altamont Pass Wind Farm in northern California—is a lesson in how poor siting can hurt birds. The farm, which straddles a windswept mountain pass, is also in the midst of a major avian migration route, and has been responsible for tens of thousands of birds’ deaths since its inception in the 1960s.” Though companies have implemented some methods to curtail the bird deaths such as radar systems to detect incoming flocks none of them have exactly been proven and do not account for individual birds Your information could be the missing piece to an important story Submit your tip today and make a difference Ursache noch nicht bekannt – 150.000 Euro Schaden 07:01 Uhr Foto: PrivatNach Angaben von Betreiber Westfalen-Wind handelt es sich bei Anlage um einen Prototypen der Firma »Enercon« der 1996 direkt an der Bundesstraße 64 errichtet worden ist Wie Unternehmenssprecher Daniel Saage mitteilt sollte die Windkraftanlage ohnehin Anfang April nach 20 Jahren abgebaut  und in das firmeneigene  Museum der Firma »Enercon« gebracht werden Warum der gesamte Kopf der Anlage abgebrochen ist Techniker wollen die völlig zerstörte Gondel jetzt mit Kränen bergen und mit einem Tieflader abtransportieren