All Railway Gazette International articles in August 2000 – Page 2

  • News

    EC takes the lead in safety regulation

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    The European Commission has determined that common regulation of safety and standards is to be a crucial element in its drive to create a single market in rail transport. A draft Directive on Rail Safety is expected this year, which will have the explicit objectives of promoting open access and ...

  • News

    Internet will drive next generation of PIS

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: On-board passenger information systems are becoming an essential rather than an optional extra, but design needs to be driven by customer expectations, rather than an operator’s wish list. Advanced technology is helping to lower running costs and drive up revenues, making the equipment self-financingINTER-CITY passengers could be benefiting from ...

  • News

    Dieter

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    Many a remote station has odd wagons in the weeds at the back of the yard, but weeds in the wagons are rather rarer. As part of the Lausanne Garden 2000 festival, Swiss Federal Railways has created a ’rolling garden’ with wagons full of flowers, fruit and vegetables. Dieter hopes ...

  • News

    Development focus turns west

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: China’s Ministry of Railways has unveiled a 15-year strategic plan for development of the national network, which will form the basis of the 10th five-year plan now being drawn up for 2001-05. Continued investment will see the upgrading of existing lines and large-scale expansion in the west and southwestCONSTRUCTION ...

  • News

    The Desiro family keeps growing

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    THE FIRST Desiro EMU for Slovenian Railways has begun trials at the Wildenrath test centre of Siemens Transportation Systems. Deliveries to SZ are expected to start next month, with a total of 30 Desiros being built by Siemens and TVT of Slovenia for service on the 85 km Koper - ...

  • News

    Railcar deal

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    THE NETHERLANDS government has allocated 31m guilders for upgrading the rural branch from Zutphen to Winterswijk and Doetinchem, ready for the introduction of lightweight railcars next year. The route was one of 33 unprofitable NS lines identified for transfer to regional operation. It became the responsibility of the province of ...

  • News

    Cutting noise and smoothing the ride

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    Commercial demands for a better ride and political pressure to reduce lineside noise present engineers with fresh challenges in bogie design

  • News

    Remote crossing monitoring

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    New South Wales rail infrastructure authority Railway Services Agency has introduced remote monitoring of equipment at isolated level crossings around the network, using digital cellular technology provided by Call Direct Cellular Solutions.Providing two-way communication and allowing the collection of real-time information, the Remote Monitoring Unit was originally developed to allow ...

  • News

    Montreal management contract

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    Sir - We were interested to read your article on Montreal’s commuter rail expansion (MR 00 p43). Unfortunately, the comment that ’AMT subsidiary Gesproex specifies service levels on various routes...’ does not represent the correct position.In 1992, AMT awarded a contract to a joint venture known as SLIG, comprising SNC-Lavalin, ...

  • News

    SA concessions

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    AFTER four years of debate, South Africa’s Transport Minister Dullah Omar announced on June 20 that the government was ready to start concessioning the operation of rail services administered by South Africa Rail Commuter Corp. A pilot project covering the East Rand network will be launched by the end of ...

  • News

    LA completes Red line

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    THE FINAL 10·1 km of the Los Angeles Red line heavy metro from Hollywood & Vine to North Hollywood was dedicated on June 23, ending a troubled project that has taken 13 years to complete (MR 99 p15). During the ceremonies at North Hollywood, Mayor Richard Riordan described the occasion ...

  • News

    Vote foreshadows more competition

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    AMONG THOSE who have vowed to force Europe’s national railways to face up to the calls for competition are a determined core of politicians who understand that the decline in rail freight’s market share to just 14% of tonne-km must be reversed. Another tiny step was taken on July 5 ...

  • News

    MTR in company

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    HONG KONG metro operator MTR Corp has been restructured as a limited company - MTR Corporation Ltd - with effect from June 30, paving the way for the government’s planned sale of a minority shareholding later this year. MTR’s Standard & Poor’s rating outlook was revised from ’developing’ ...

  • News

    Interoperability moves closer

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    AT ITS ANNUAL meeting in Paris on June 30, the Union of European Railway Supply Industry Associations (Unife) signed a formal accord with the International Union of Railways (UIC) and the Community of European Railways (CER) to establish a permanent secretariat for the European Association for Railway Interoperability (AEIF). Since ...

  • News

    Polish Citadis rolls out

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    THE FIRST of 17 steel-bodied Citadis 100 low-floor trams for the Polish city of Katowice was rolled out at Alstom’s Konstal plant on June 30 (above). The cars are destined to operate PKT’s 20 km route from Katowice to Bytom via Chorzów, which is being upgraded to light rail standards ...

  • News

    Wien chosen as MoMo test site

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: A 1 km test track in Wien is being used to trial the second generation of cars for the city’s expanding U-Bahn. Ralf Roman Rossberg reports that they also the first trains to be built using the modular principles in the Siemens MoMo conceptWHEN WIEN launched U-Bahn services between ...

  • News

    Chinese Railways develops traction to meet market needs

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: The latest diesel and electric locomotives developed in China for high speed and heavy haul service offer dramatic advances in performance over earlier designsBYLINE: Kang XiongAssistant Vice President, China Academy of Railway SciencesIN THE LAST decade Chinese Railways has made considerable efforts to develop its own motive power. Both ...

  • News

    Swiss tilt at catering innovation

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    JULY 6 saw the introduction of restaurant cars on Swiss Federal Railways’ tilting ICN trains between Lausanne, Biel, Zürich and St Gallen. Each unit includes a wheelchair-accessible restaurant car, operated by Mitropa Suisse SA. The vehicle has a 23-seat dining section, kitchen and buffet, decked out in ’warm and friendly ...

  • News

    Car-carrier comeback

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    WORK began on construction of the southern section of the 57 km Gotthard base tunnel on July 10 with a ceremonial blast at the Bodio worksite, where a 1·2 km access shaft will take tunnellers to the alignment of the main bore. The base tunnel will not open until 2012, ...

  • News

    Melbourne - Brisbane study

    2000-08-01T10:00:00Z

    AUSTRALIAN Transport Minister John Anderson announced on July 15 that he had approved an A$5m feasibility study into the construction of a 1800 km high-capacity rail freight link between Melbourne and Brisbane. Promoted by the private sector, the Australian Transport & Energy Corridor is costed at A$1·4bn; Macquarie Bank announced ...