All Railway Gazette International articles in April 2006
All articles published this month.
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News
Finance April 2006
Africa: The Indian government is donating US$500m towards the US$1·5bn Project Africarail scheme to extend a railway from Benin northwards to Niger, and to link Togo's railways to Burkina Faso. France: The Pays de la Loire region has allocated €66m in its 2006 budget to fund the acquisition of 11 ...
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News
Intelligence April 2006
Australia: Perth-based South Spur group has taken over the operations of Silverton Rail. RTS now runs Silverton's Broken Hill and Parkes depots, and financier Alco has taken on the NSW operator's other assets. Belgium: On March 14 the board of Infrabel approved plans to electrify the 8 km route from ...
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NewsT3 forms a green corridor
Running along the boulevards from Pont du Garigliano to Porte d'Ivry, RATP's third light rail route is expected to bring about a 25% reduction in road traffic while doubling the capacity offered by existing bus services. An extensive tree planting programme aims to create a green corridor along busy streets
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News
ACCC drops action against Toll
TOLL HOLDINGS planned to announce a revised offer for Patrick Corp during the second half of March after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission agreed to drop its opposition to the deal (RG 3.06 p122). This followed commitments by Toll which addressed the ACCC’s concerns about competition.Instrumental in persuading the ...
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News
ERTMS accord
PLANS to roll out ERTMS on the international rail freight corridor between Rotterdam and Genoa moved ahead on March 3 when the transport ministers of the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Italy signed a Letter of Intent during a meeting at Bregenz in Austria. The ministers confirmed their intention to complete ...
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News
Alger starts light rail project
HAVING awarded the E&M works contract for its first heavy metro line in January (RG 3.05 p116), Entreprise du Métro d'Alger has started work on a light rail corridor in the east of the Algerian capital. EMA has selected Systra and RATP Développement for a four-year contract to manage the ...
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News
OHL wins in Algeria
A CONSORTIUM of OHL of Spain and state-owned rail construction company Infrafer has been awarded a €248·3m contract to double-track SNTF’s 95 km Annaba - Ramdane Djamel route. Work to be completed within 39 months includes upgrading of the existing track for 160 km/h operation. OHL holds an 85% stake ...
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News
Overland upgrade announced
VICTORIAN Transport Minister Peter Batchelor announced a A$2·4m refurbishment of the Adelaide - Melbourne Overland on February 28. New seating will be installed and the cafe and lounge cars modernised by early 2007. Joint funding has been agreed with Great Southern Railway and the South Australian government for the work, ...
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News
Atocha to double
ON MARCH 1 Spanish Development Minister Magdalena Álvarez unveiled plans to double the capacity for long-distance traffic at Atocha station in Madrid. By increasing the number of platform tracks from 15 to 33 and further segregating departures from arrivals, it is hoped to increase capacity from 18million to 35million passengers ...
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News
Latest generation ATP
WESTINGHOUSE Rail Systems announced the launch of its latest generation of automatic train protection and automatic train operation systems on February 13. Westran has been developed for use in computer-based train control applications, in particular metros operating high-frequency services. Most of the equipment is carried on the rolling stock, which ...
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News
Milano to build automated metro
A €500m TURNKEY CONTRACT was awarded at the end of February for the first stage of Milano metro Line 5. The fully-automated line will be built by a consortium which includes existing operator ATM, with Alstom Ferroviaria, Astaldi, Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari, AnsaldoBreda and Torno Internazionale. The initial section will ...
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News
Automation gets the most out of mining railway infrastructure
Earlier this year, faster, heavier and fully-automatic trains began running on the El Teniente copper mine's private railway, marking the culmination of a major upgrade to squeeze the maximum daily tonnage out of the infrastructure
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News
Balfour Beatty rail profits down
PROFIT before exceptional items in Balfour Beatty’s Rail Engineering & Services sector fell by 27% to £32m in the year to December 31 2005, affected by Network Rail taking maintenance work in-house during 2004. The fine incurred by Balfour Beatty Rail Infrastructure Services in respect of the Hatfield rail accident ...
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News
World Bank funds MZ split
PLANS to separate the Macedonian rail network into infrastructure and operating companies are due to be authorised by the government this month, in line with legislation approved last year. On February 17 Makedonski Zeleznici signed a loan agreement with the World Bank which will provide US$15m to support the restructuring. ...
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News
Mixed messages puzzle Beijing - Shanghai bidders
LAST MONTH we reported extensively on China’s technology transfer deals which have given the country’s railway industry expertise in heavy haul and high speed EMU technology. So we were not unduly surprised to learn that Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun had said on March 9 that foreign technology was not ...
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NewsBenchmarking identifies good practice in rolling stock maintenance
An international review comparing rolling stock maintenance and performance at passenger operators around the world found a wide variance in cost-efficiency, reliability and availability. An exchange of good practice offers the potential for significant gains in cost and reliability
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News
Peijs ignores MoU on Betuwe Route
CONFUSION has deepened over who will operate and maintain the new freight railway linking the port of Rotterdam to the German network at Emmerich. Contrary to our last report (RG 2.06 p68), no contract has been signed for maintenance and operation of the Betuwe Route.In a statement on February 14, ...
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News
Record investment boosts EFE's passenger business
A stable political and economic climate has enabled Chilean State Railways to undertake its largest-ever three-year investment programme, which involved spending of US$1bn in 2003-05. This included increased capacity on commuter networks and improved long-distance services, as John Kolodziejski reports
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News
Consultancy bought
HALCROW has acquired the remaining 51% interest in Bangkok-based civil engineering consultancy Pyramid Development International Corp.PDI and Halcrow have worked together since the mid-1990s on projects including the Bangkok metro and double tracking for State Railway of Thailand, and in 2002 Halcrow acquired a 49% stake in PDI from Asian ...
