All Railway Gazette International articles in April 2004
All articles published this month.
-
News
Skoda success
SKODA Dopravní Technika has reported its best financial results since 1989. Sales during 2003 totalled KC2bn, and profits were up 25%on 2002 to KC150m. The refurbishment of 25 five-car 81-71M trains for Praha metro Line A accounted for around 40% of the business, and a further six sets will be ...
-
News
Sidetrack
Prison foodAN UNCONVENTIONAL funding source is helping the construction of the railway from Tsumeb in Namibia northwards to the Angolan border. The Ministry of Prisons & Correctional Services has donated two head of cattle and 200 pork carcasses from the Oluno Rehabilitation Centre, as well as 600 loaves of bread, ...
-
News
Warszawa S-Bahn
POLAND’s Institute for Railway Development has unveiled proposals for a three-line suburban network in the capital, using PKP’s cross-city corridor between the stations at Warszawa Zachodnia (west) and Warszawa Wschodnia (east).Line A would run from Pruszków to Falenica, Line B from Purszków to Sulejówek and Line C from Okecie Airport ...
-
News
RZD spending up
RUSSIAN Railways needs to spend 1300bn roubles on renovation and upgrading by 2010, the RZD Board was told on March 4 at a meeting to review progress with the second phase of the reform process. It will invest 351bn in the 2004-05 financial year.According to RZD President Gennadi Fadeyev, rail ...
-
News
Wagon orders up
ACCORDINGto Railway Supply Institute data a total of 32184 new wagons were delivered in North America during 2003, up from 17714 in 2002.Last year’s figures included around 8900 flat wagons, 7000 boxcars, 6600 aluminium gondolas, 6500 tanks and 3200 aluminium hoppers. New orders rose from 28475 in 2002 to 47249 ...
-
News
Ukraine orders PESA railbuses
POLISH company PESA has been awarded a contract worth €87·5m to supply 70 Partner diesel railbuses to Ukrainian Railways by the end of 2008. As well as 64 vehicles for passenger services, the order includes six inspection cars. Weighing around 50 tonnes each, the 160 km/h railbuses are based on ...
-
News
Open-access oil
POLISH oil company PKN Orlen has been awarded a licence to operate its own freight trains on the national rail network. The company plans to run trains between its production and distribution plants. Orlen is the latest operator to announce open-access freight services in Poland, following Chem Trans Logistic and ...
-
News
Nord refurbished
March 16 saw the formal opening of the refurbished Eurostar terminal at Paris Nord station. Located on a mezzanine level above the main SNCF concourse, the terminal has improved access, renovated ticketing and check-in areas, a refurbished lounge for business class passengers, a range of shops and retail outlets, plus ...
-
News
Metros
Australia:The two-year A$30m Tram To It project has been launched in Melbourne to reduce tram journey times and increase reliability by giving Yarra Trams priority at road junctions and improving traffic management.Bangladesh:Contech Ltd has proposed a 45 km underground link from Saidabad to Gabtoli in Dhaka at a cost of ...
-
News
Market
Australia:Rail Infrastructure Corp of New South Wales has ordered a Desec Tracklayer turnout laying machine for use with turnout panel transport wagons from a local supplier.Air Radiators is to supply Cummins Engine Co with 76 cooling systems worth A$5m for use on V’locity DMUs being built by Bombardier for Victoria ...
-
News
River Line opens for service
through Burlington County to the Amtrak/NJ Transit station at Trenton. A 2·4 km extension in the state capital to the State House is planned.The River Line is operated by a fleet of 20 Stadler-Bombardier GTW2/6 diesel railcars. Revenue service began on March 14, with twin-unit operation to handle over 10000 ...
-
News
Learning lessons from tilting trains
DB's failure to meet promised performance improvements where tilting trains were introduced led inevitably to strong media criticism. Murray Hughes finds that many of the difficulties can be blamed on too much innovation pushed through too quickly
-
News
Short line law
THE ROMANIAN government has approved legislation paving the way for independent operators to run parts of the national rail network as short lines.The regulations designate 118 sections of secondary line as ’non-interoperable’, but they will remain state property and will be leased rather than sold. Local operating, maintenance and safety ...
-
News
Simulation on show at ITEC
TRAINING, education and simulation are the themes of the ITEC exhibition, being held at London’s ExCeL centre on April 20-22, and incorporating the sixth Rail Transport Training Conference on April 21.Running a railway requires staff in control centres, workshops and on-board trains to function harmoniously, and training is one of ...
-
News
Kirchner unveils national investment plan
PRESIDENT Néstor Kirchner has unveiled a National Railway Investment Plan that would see 300m pesos spent on Argentina’s railways this year, under a programme continuing until 2007 that is expected to attract some US$500m of private investment. Launching the plan in Buenos Aires, Kirchner said that major spending was required ...
-
News
Toll to sell NZ infrastructure
TRANZ RAIL shareholders voted at the company's Annual General Meeting on March 9 to approve plans to return ownership of the New Zealand rail network to the national government. With Toll Holdings controlling 84% of the company, the motion was passed in just 3min. Under an agreement reached last December, ...
-
News
NorthRail funded
WORK is expected to get underway shortly on the first phase of NorthRail, following the signing of a funding deal on February 26. The US$400m loan agreement was signed by the Philippine government's Finance Secretary Juanita Amatong and the President of the Import Bank of China, Yang Zilin. Approved by ...
-
News
Power supply upgrade highlights the pitfalls of fragmentation
INTRO: Work is now in progress at over 200 sites across southeast England to upgrade the 750V DC power supply for EMUs being introduced by three operators, but many vehicles are likely to remain in store beyond the deadline for withdrawal of older stock. Roger Ford explains how this mismatch ...
-
News
SRA flexes its strategic muscle
’WE ARE DOING exactly what we said about strategic planning’, insisted Strategic Rail Authority Chairman Richard Bowker on March 3, unveiling the first of a series of Route Utilisation Strategies to be published over the next year. These are intended to get the maximum use out of the UK rail ...
-
News
Fight for survival
AT THE annual general meeting in May 2003, an attempt by the Paris-based Eurotunnel Shareholders Action Group (Adacte) to seize control of the Channel Tunnel operator failed. Despite the antics of their eccentric leader Nicolas Miguet - who was fined €10000 on February 17 for publishing ’remarks systematically filled with ...