All Railway Gazette International articles in April 1998
All articles published this month.
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News
EIB to fund Line 4
THE HUNGARIAN government has reached agreement with Budapest City Council over guarantees for investment in the capital’s fourth metro line. Under a deal with the city council last year, the government will raise 60% of the Ecu514m cost of the 7·3 km line, and the city the rest (RG 10.97 ...
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News
EMD’s first 6000hp locos enter revenue service
INTRO: Union Pacific is putting into revenue service the first of a fleet of 6000hp SD90MAC locomotives designed and built by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division. Trials at the AAR test centre in Pueblo showed that a single loco fitted with EMD’s novel four-stroke H-engine could handle an 11400 tonne train ...
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News
Adtranz unveils modular range
ON MARCH 16 Adtranz launched a new business strategy based on seven ’Modular Product Platforms’: Innovia - peoplemovers; Incentro - light rail vehicles; Movia - metros; Itino - regional multiple-units; Crusaris - inter-city multiple-units; Octeon electric locos; and Blue Tiger diesel locos. While these will initially complement rather than replace ...
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News
Adtranz Portugal broadens the product base
Production of carshells and finished passenger vehicles in stainless steel is widely recognised as the speciality of the former Sorefame plant at Amadora on the western edge of Lisboa. Recent contracts obtained by what is now Adtranz Portugal point towards the development of a broader product base, with orders obtained ...
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News
All Greek to Siemens
REFLECTING progress made with electrification at 25 kV 50Hz of its 503 km Athens - Thessaloniki trunk line, Hellenic Railways Organisation has placed orders worth DM600m with Siemens of Germany for a fleet of main-line electric rolling stock. Announced on March 10, the contracts are for 20 five-car inter-city EMUs, ...
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News
Focused approach keeps Renfe on target
INTRO: To beat their financial targets for 1997, the eight operating business units of Spanish National Railways placed key emphasis on sales, applied rigorous cost control and made maximum use of resourcesTHE EIGHT business units forming the Operations Directorate of Spanish National Railways were particularly successful in meeting the commercial ...
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News
Midland Metro car arrives on home ground
ONE HOUR’S SUNSHINE on an otherwise bleak February 19 in the heart of Britain’s industrial Black Country marked the official roll-out of the first tram for Midland Metro’s light rail Line 1. Linking Birmingham Snow Hill with West Bromwich, Wednesbury, Bilston and Wolverhampton, the line is due to open in ...
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News
WestRail design awarded
KOWLOON-CANTON Railway Corp announced on March 2 that it had awarded five civil engineering design contracts for the WestRail link between Kowloon and Tuen Mun. These will take the design of WestRail through to the start of construction by the end of this year.Maunsell Consultants Asia will design two stations ...
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News
Czech branches back on the block
After five years of debate, plans to sell over one-third of the CD network go back to parliament later this month
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News
Milwaukee backs Metra
WISCONSIN state officials are backing proposals to extend the Chicago - Kenosha Metra commuter rail service to Milwaukee, using 53 km of existing freight line. Funding is now being sought for a detailed investigation, following a preliminary feasibility study which estimated the capital cost at about US$140m and annual subsidies ...
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News
Sokol bids called
WORK is under way on a 5ha site next to the present station in St Petersburg to build a terminal for the planned high speed line to Moscow being promoted by the Russian High Speed Railway Shareholding Co, RAO VSM. While the company still does not have enough secure finance ...
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News
Virgin picks Bombardier to build CrossCountry fleet
ON MARCH 3 Britain’s Virgin Rail Group announced in London that it had picked Bombardier Transportation as preferred bidder to supply rolling stock for its CrossCountry franchise. The company has a letter of intent for an £858m contract combining tilting diesel units and loco-hauled push-pull sets with a maintenance package ...
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News
Order bonanza rolls on
GERMAN Railway is taking up more options for locomotives and regional tilting trains.Most significant is a decision to exercise an option with Adtranz for 400 main line electric locos of Class 145. The main customer will be DB Cargo with 300 units; some of these may be built as two ...
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News
Bosporus tunnel project launched
TURKEY: Construction of a fixed link between the European and Asian parts of the Turkish rail network could get under way next year, according to Transport Minister Necdet Menzir. He was speaking at a seminar organised by the State Planning Office on February 23 to unveil the latest proposals to ...
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News
Jorritsma plans to break up NS
NETHERLANDS Railways faces the prospect of having to surrender half its passenger services to rival operators from 2010 under proposals to introduce competition to the Dutch rail network drawn up by Transport Minister Annemarie Jorritsma. A discussion paper proposing a phased programme to dismantle much of NS was presented to ...
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News
Bridge link funded
THE BANGLADESH government has signed a 40-year concessional loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank providing US$110m towards construction of a 99 km rail link from Jamtoli to Joydebpur, via the new Jamuna river bridge, which is due to open for road traffic later this year.Tenders for construction of a ...
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News
Products In Brief
Cattron has added a speed control feature to its MP96 line of portable radio remote control systems, allowing train speed and bulk handling equipment to be controlled by one person during loading. An axle impulse device installed on the locomotive allows speed to be calculated in 0·05 km/h increments.Cam-Tech (UK) ...
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News
Thalys traffic builds
Thalys recorded its five millionth passenger on February 20, and reported sharp increases in traffic levels. In the first six weeks of 1998 the service carried half a million passengers, a 72% increase on the same period last year. This was largely due to faster journey times resulting from the ...
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Russia builds passenger motive power
INTRO: When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Russia was left with no factories producing multiple-units or passenger locos within its borders; now home-grown designs are emerging BYLINE: Dr Tech Sc V A MatyushinDeputy Director-GeneralCentral Scientific Railway Research InstituteTHE RAILWAYS of the former USSR were going through an exceptionally ...