All Railway Gazette International articles in April 2000
All articles published this month.
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News
VIA volte-face
HAVING considered privatisation of VIA Rail Canada, the federal government may now be prepared to ensure its survival in the public sector, and, to boot, stabilise its precarious financial position. Transport Minister David Collenette has apparently convinced his cabinet colleagues of the merits of using a healthy pre-election budget surplus ...
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Sidetrack
Training cats and dogsFebruary saw another railway first, when Eurotunnel carried a small party of dogs and cats from France into Britain, heralding the dismantling of Britain’s pet quarantine laws. Introduced a century ago to prevent rabies spreading from mainland Europe, the regulations looked increasingly anachronistic as cases of la ...
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Virgin Voyagers to roll this summer
TAKING shape at Bombardier Transportation's BN plant in Brugge are the first of 352 DEMU cars for Virgin Rail's Cross-Country franchise in Britain. The first unit is on course to roll out in June, just 18 months after the £1060m contract was placed (RG 4.99 p223). The 34 four-car non-tilting ...
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Publications
Save the CityThis video from the International of Public Transport argues that ’without mobility, a city is no longer a city’. Aimed at increasing awareness of the role of public transport amongst decision makers and opinion formers, it highlights examples of good practice in land use and transport planning from ...
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Re-franchising progress
CHIEF EXECUTIVE of Britain’s Shadow Strategic Rail Authority Mike Grant announced on March 14 the six shortlisted bidders to negotiate for the first three replacement franchises. Both incumbents have been selected for the two London commuter franchises. Connex will be competing with Thameslink franchisee GOVIA for Network South Central, while ...
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News
PEOPLE
Netherlands Railways Chairman Rob den Besten is to step down in August. He will be succeeded by NS Reizigers Director General Hans Huisinga.Amongst recent Russian Railways appointments, Yevgeni M Plokhov succeeds A S Levchenko as President of the Kuyibishev Railway and Alexander S Bogatyryov becomes President of the North Caucasian ...
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Shanghai orders
LAST MONTH, Shanghai’s public-private metro development consortium Jiushi ordered a fleet of 152 metro cars to operate the city’s Xinming ’light rail’ line, which runs 14 km southwest from the Line 1 terminus at Xin Zhuang to Ming Hang (RG 1.99 p29). They will be built to Alstom’s modular Metropolis ...
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Seoul openings
METRO CONSTRUCTION is forging ahead in the South Korean capital, with 57 km to open this year. Announcing the start of operations on the 9 km Son Su - Shin Pung section of Line 7, with eight stations, on February 29, Seoul Subway Construction Corp confirmed the schedule for ...
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News
TINA opportunity must be taken
AS THE European Union prepares to welcome new members from eastern Europe, transport politicians are taking stock of progress in existing member states and attempting to assess the needs of tomorrow’s community. At the Pan-European Railway Conference staged by the International Union of Railways, the Community of European Railways and ...
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Metros
Estonia: Tallinn city government is seeking separation of commuter rail operator AS Elektriraudtee from national railway Eesti Raudtee. The aim is to merge the city’s electric railways with the tramways operated by Trammi-ja trollibussikoondis and sell them to the private sector as a single entity.Germany: München airport authorities are proposing ...
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Market
Albania: HSH is negotiating with Czech companies for supply of spare parts to put back into service the bulk of the main line fleet of 62 Type T669.1 Co-Cos supplied by CKD Praha in 1968-70.Australia: Alstom Engines’ Paxman Division is to supply 21 diesel engines to SRANSW for repowering its ...
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Lausanne metro rebuild
ON MARCH 6, the Swiss canton of Vaud confirmed that it had chosen Alstom to supply new rolling stock and train control systems for the Lausanne metro, which is to be rebuilt and extended by 2005. The former Lausanne - Ouchy funicular, subsequently converted to a steel-wheeled rack railway, is ...
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Kyiv prototype
CZECH rolling stock supplier Skoda Dopravní technika has won a contract to supply a prototype five-car metro trainset to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, in conjunction with the Russian firm Vagonmash St Petersburg. The unit is due to be delivered in November, after which Kyiv Metro expects to order a series ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Argentina: Looking to broaden its traffic base beyond bulk commodities, Belgrano Railway (RG 1.00 p12) has introduced Buenos Aires - Salta container services. The company also has a stake in the consortium holding the concession to operate the port of Santa Fe.In addition to the purchase of new locomotives for ...
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Information Systems
Signs that talkTo improve the provision of information to visually-impaired passengers, Vultron International has developed the Talking Information System which converts a text message in English into synthesised speech using recently-developed software. A control box with an integral processor receives ASCII text data from the PC-based host system, and translates ...
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Industry News
Europe: Brown & Root Services has signed a memorandum of understanding with Holland Railconsult BV, to pursue jointly rail projects in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region and share technical knowledge and resources.Germany: Siemens AG has reported that all groups moved into profit in the first quarter of its 1999-2000 financial ...
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News
Guadarrama tunnels let
SPANISH high speed construction authority GIF has awarded three contracts worth a total of Pts114·6bn, covering most of the tunnelling and tracklaying work on the Soto del Real - Segovia section of the 175 km Madrid - Valladolid high-speed line. Between Soto del Real and Segovia, twin bores each 25 ...
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Freight Victoria spreads its wings
WITH EFFECT from March 1, Rail America’s Australian rail freight franchisee Freight Victoria has been renamed Freight Australia. The change reflects an expanding sphere of operations, with the start of a second contract operation in New South Wales at the end of February. Freight Australia has deployed two locos and ...