All Railway Gazette International articles in April 2005
All articles published this month.
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News
ICE3 hits obstacles en route to Paris
TALKING of flying ballast (left), a cautionary tale emerges from German Railway. In a statement issued on March 3, DB explained for the first time precisely what delayed the start of ICE3 services from K
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News
High speed loco accord
RUSSIA: Plans to order dual-system electric locos for high speed passenger trains were announced by Russian Railways President Gennady Fadeyev on March 2. On the same day RZD and Russian locomotive builder Transmash Holding signed an agreement with Bombardier Transportation covering a pre-series build of 12 EP10 locos. To be ...
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News
Thai double-tracking advances
STATE RAILWAY of Thailand expects to start calling tenders in May for double-tracking of five main lines totalling 757route-km at a cost of US$1·5bn.According to SRT Governor Chitsanti Dhanasobhon, the investment forms part of a programme to improve freight train competitiveness and will see maximum axleloads increased from 15 to ...
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News
Scales tip against Amtrak
AN ATTEMPT in the US Senate to force an amendment to the President’s 2006 budget giving just over $1bn to Amtrak, in addition to the $360m proposed to support Northeast Corridor services (RG 3.05 p115), was voted out on March 16.This darkened the increasingly gloomy outlook for Amtrak, whose Bush-appointed ...
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News
Sishen upgrade deal agreed
SOUTH AFRICAN transport holding group Transnet signed Heads of Agreement last month with mining company Kumba Resources, paving the way for upgrading of the Sishen - Saldanha iron ore line. Announced by Transnet CEO Maria Ramos on March 7, the agreement follows intensive negotiations since August 2004 (RG 3.05 p121). ...
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News
Siemens depots plan ahead
QUEST event simulation software is being used by Siemens to test proposed designs for train maintenance depots for the optimal use of staff and equipment.Dassault Systèmes subsidiary Delmia UK studied what Siemens required from the computer models used to plan activities in its depots. Finnish consultancy Delfoi then implemented the ...
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News
Plan Fret aid package approved
FINANCING arrangements for the restructuring of French National Railways’ loss-making freight business were approved by the European Commission on March 2. The three-year restructuring plan, which includes productivity and performance improvements, is intended to restore Fret SNCF to profitability by the end of 2006 (RG 3.05 p141). It was referred ...
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NewsWhich way to the airport?
Do airports need dedicated express shuttle trains, or should services be aimed at all rail users? Proposed changes to London's Gatwick Express are just one part of an international debate, which is complicated by local politics and geography.
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News
BAA invests in rail so cars don't choke airport growth
A quarter of air passengers already use rail to access London's three major airports. Vernon Murphy, Managing Director of BAA Rail, told Richard Hope that only a high-quality dedicated shuttle to the city combined with an expanding web of multi-purpose trains will entice more travellers out of their cars
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News
Dutch show attracts growing interest
INTRO: The fifth Rail-Tech Europe is being held at the Royal Dutch Jaarbeurs trade fair in Utrecht on April 4 - 7 WITH THREE high-profile new lines under construction and intense debate over the progress of the railway reform process, rail is a hot topic in the Netherlands at present. ...
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Austrian tunnels inch closer
NEW CREDIT guarantees to be issued for infrastructure projects by the European Investment Bank are likely to favour cross-border schemes designed as public-private partnerships such as the Brenner base tunnel.Last month Stefaan de Rynck, a spokesman for European Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot, cited the Brenner base tunnel as one scheme ...
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Ballastless track meets design challenges
APART from a 6 km section close to the Belgian border where ballasted track is used, HSL-Zuid will have ballastless track throughout. On the basis of an evaluation of track types using a direct fastening system as a reference (RG 12.00 p819), Infraspeed BV chose the Rheda 2000¨ design as ...
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News
Barcelona works start
ON MARCH 3 Dragados and Tecsa began work on a €29·3m contract that forms the first part of a €220m programme to increase capacity at Barcelona Sants station in preparation for the arrival of high speed services (RG 9.04 p522). The first phase includes the construction of new through track ...
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News
i-Trans bids for research funding
WITH THE AIM of creating Europe’s leading centre for railway systems, 40 companies and 16 research bodies in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France have come together as i-Trans to bid for government funding under the p
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News
Dubai metro bids opened
A JAPANESE consortium of Mitsubishi, Obayashi and Kajima with Turkish civil engineering group Yapi Merkezi has submitted the lowest bid for the first phase of the Dubai automated light metro network.The final tenders for civil, mechanical and electrical work were opened by the Dubai Municipality’s LRT project office on February ...
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NewsCrossrail bill introduced
A BILL to authorise construction of the east-west Crossrail Line 1 under central London was introduced to Parliament on February 22. Unlike an earlier private bill that failed in May 1994, the new hybrid bill is backed by the government. Transport Secretary Alistair Darling told MPs 'the case for ...
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News
Civils and signals block speed-up on world's fastest line
PRESENTING a report to the Spanish Parliament on difficulties encountered with the Madrid - Lleida section of the Madrid - Barcelona high speed line, Development Minister Magdalena Álvarez said last month that the assessment confirmed 'the impossibility of operating the line with the features for which it was designed and ...
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News
BNDES to take stake in Ferronorte
LAST MONTH Brazilian federal investment bank BNDES was expecting to complete a deal to take a 31% stake in Ferronorte, by converting debt and providing new resources, with the aim of increasing capacity on the soya export corridor between Alto Araguaia and the port of Santos.Under the terms of an ...
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East-west box test
BIDDING to win more freight traffic between China and Europe from ocean shipping, a trial container train was run from Hohhot to Frankfurt last month.Dispatched from the Inner Mongolian city on March 1, the train arrived in Frankfurt-am-Main on March 17 after a 9814 km journey. The westbound train carried ...
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News
Private boxes in prospect
AT THE END of February Indian Minister of Railways Laloo Prasad Yadav published an unashamedly populist budget for IR’s 2005-06 financial year, with no fares increases at all and no rise in freight rates. Freight tariffs are, however, to be heavily simplified, with rates for 4000 different types of traffic ...