All Railway Gazette International articles in August 2000
All articles published this month.
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News
TV at your table
TO DEMONSTRATE its TrainView passenger entertainment and information system to operators, the Passenger Rail Division of The Network Connection (TNCi) has unveiled a ’simulator’ at its British headquarters in Derby. Furnished with seats supplied by Antolin Loire, the simulator features seatback and table-mounted 8·4in LCD screens. TrainView has been developed ...
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News
Workshops restructured
SWISS Federal Railways has decided not to hive off its workshops to an external supplier, but to reorganise them into service centres to trim SFr100m off the current rolling stock maintenance budget of SFr600m a year by 2005. The programme, dubbed ’Redesign Service Rollmaterial’, will mean cutting the number of ...
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News
PEOPLE
JR East President Masatake Matsuda becomes Chairman in succession to Shuichiro Yamanouchi, who has been appointed President of Japan’s National Space Development Agency. Vice President Mutsutake Otsuka steps up to the Presidency. In a separate move, Chief Rolling Stock Engineer Yoshihiko Sato has joined JR East’s affiliated company Nippon Rolling ...
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News
Pacific revival
THIS MONTH is due to see the start of work on the renovation of Colombia’s Pacific rail network, serving the port of Buenaventura. The work is being done by a consortium of four local engineering firms, with Rites of India. Rites stepped in to replace the Spanish engineering firm Sacyr, ...
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News
Market
Australia: Goninan has been selected to supply nine new Prospector DMUs to Westrail by 2003 at a cost of A$59m. The fleet will comprise one three-car and two two-car 200 km/h sets for Perth - Kalgoorlie and a 150 km/h two-car set for AvonLink services to Northam.Azerbaijan: AZR has called ...
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News
Maghreb metamorphosis
CIVIL WAR has long precluded serious interest by outside parties in the fate of the 4219 km Algerian Railways network. The murderous feuds of the recent past will not be forgotten, but it looks as though opportunities to revitalise what was once a busy and growing railway are at hand. ...
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News
Six in Jerusalem race
THIS MONTH is due to see the shortlisting of between three and five consortia for the build-operate-transfer concession to develop the first of eight light rail lines in Jerusalem (MR00 p36). These firms will then be required to submit final tenders during September.On June 21 the municipality announced that six ...
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News
Tussle over iron ore
WITH Pacific Rim economies recovering swiftly from the 1998-99 recession, pressure is mounting to open up new sources of iron ore in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Two of these are located at West Angelas and Hope Downs, both 400 km from the sea but within easy reach of ...
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NewsTaskforce reports on Northern Ireland rail options
UK: This month should see an interim report presented to Britain's Department of Regional Development setting out options for the future of Northern Ireland Railways. Drawn up by a taskforce of three civil servants, the report was ordered following an assessment commissioned from A D Little by Translink on ...
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News
intelligence
Australia: The Commonwealth government has appointed Macquarie Bank as financial adviser on the sale of National Rail Corp, with Blake Dawson Waldron providing legal advice. Sparke Helmore and Arthur Anderson are also assisting.Brazil: América Latina Logística has ended the use of 3 kV DC electric traction between Rubião Júnior and ...
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News
Leasing innovations
ON JULY 14 British rolling stock lessor Angel Trains, now owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, announced it was forming a European subsidiary in co-operation with German equipment supplier Vossloh AG. Trading as Locomotion Partners, the new venture will be formed as two companies. London-based Locomotion Capital, 90% owned by ...
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News
Industry News
Australia: ERG Ltd, Telstra and ANZ Banking Group are to form the ECard Pty Ltd joint venture to develop a smart card solution suitable for application across Australia. ERG has also taken a 10% share in card.tec AG, a smart card operating company created by Deutsche Telekom subsidiary DeTeCard Service ...
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News
Schuylkill Valley go-ahead
PLANS to create a 100 km rail corridor linking Philadelphia and Reading were approved by the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority board on June 21, and by the neighbouring Berks Area Reading Transportation Authority board five days later. The decisions pave the way for the start of engineering design, and enable ...
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News
Kyrgyzstan to plug Silk Route gap
INTRO: Completion last December of China’s 1446 km South Xinjiang Railway to Kashi leaves a gap of less than 500 km to be closed in a historic trade route. Richard Hope reports on plans for a national network in the Kyrgyz Republic that will meet this needADDRESSING the Ninth National ...
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News
SSRA redraws franchise map
THE SHAPE of Britain’s privatised rail industry for the next 20 years was unveiled on June 20, when the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority unveiled its proposed franchise map. This would see the 25 Train Operating Companies created for privatisation reduced to 22 (table). According to Executive Director, Franchise Management, Nick ...
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News
Finance
Estonia: Freight operator and infrastructure manager EVR (7.00 p434) reported a profit of 113·1m kroons on a turnover of 1·4bn, up 14% on last year. Infrastructure spending in 1999 totalled 592·6m kroons, mostly on upgrading of the Tallinn - Narva route.France: Franche-Comté has approved funding for the Dijon - Mulhouse ...
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News
Is it time for someone to leave the field?
INTRO: In a year of stabilisation, the question remains whether there should be fewer players in the rolling stock industry to provide a worthwhile investment for shareholders. Reviewing the supply industry over the past 12 months, Andrew F Saxe* wonders if others may follow the lead given by Fiat in ...