All Railway Gazette International articles in August 2001 – Page 3

  • News

    PR seeks concessionaires

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    THE PAKISTAN government has ruled that there is no question of full privatisation of the country’s 7791 km network, but private concessionaires have been invited to run passenger trains on selected routes. Initial response has been mixed, with some companies reluctant to bid for fear that they would face unfair ...

  • News

    Cool comfort comes to the Paris metro

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    PARIS Transport Authority has awarded a contract worth €695m to a consortium of Alstom, Bombardier and Technicatome for 161 five-car MF2000 steel-wheeled metro trainsets. The order follows a long evaluation process - bids originally had to be submitted to RATP in April 1998.The order will replace about half the MF67 ...

  • News

    Shinkansen comes to York

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    THE FIRST Japanese Shinkansen carriage to be exhibited outside Japan was unveiled at Britain’s National Railway Museum in York by His Excellency The Ambassador of Japan Sadayuki Hayashi on July 12.Built in 1976, Series 0 car number 22-141 was withdrawn in 2000 after travelling over 10 million km. It was ...

  • News

    Funding collapse ends long-term investment hopes

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    THE RESPECTED Institute of Economic Affairs must have been aghast. Its June 26 conference on The Future of UK Rail was intended to celebrate the first anniversary of a 10-year funding package that would see £63bn of public cash and private capital pour into Britain’s privatised railway, leading to 50% ...

  • News

    Cleaning venture

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    FROM October 1 Norway’s medium-distance trains are to be cleaned by a new company, NSB Trafikservice AS. This is a joint venture between Norwegian State Railways and cleaning services provider ISS Norway. This is part of the ISS services group, which also has contracts with London Underground and several British ...

  • News

    Catalan trams

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    BARCELONA’s Autoritat del Transport Metropolità has approved plans for two more light rail lines, serving the eastern suburbs. With a total of 31 stops, the two lines will cost around Pts30bn. One will connect Gorg de Badalona with Barcelona Nord. The second will link the Renfe station at Sant Adrià ...

  • News

    Smart cards to be standardised

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    THE ASSOCIATION of German Transport Undertakings is to draw up a set of standards for smart card ticketing. VDV members and industry partners will develop the technical and security specifications for future cards.Companies will use the specifications to simplify the use of smart cards across different networks, and to encourage ...

  • News

    Integrated smart card

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    SMART cards can be recharged and account histories accessed over the internet using Nextfare Web Services, from Cubic Transportation Systems.Launched at the Card Tech conference in Las Vegas earlier this year, the software suite allows transit operators to offer customers a range of fare options and reward programmes. Multiple operators ...

  • News

    Line A car deal

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    ONJULY 4 the Comune di Roma selected CAF of Spain to supply a fleet of 33 six-car trains to boost capacity on metro Line A. The €231m deal includes an option for a further 12 sets, and provision for a five-year maintenance agreement. Delivery of the first train to Metro.Ro ...

  • News

    Intermodal faces capacity constraints

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    EFFORTS to surmount obstacles to international freight crossing Europe’s rail frontiers are making headway at last, though it would be premature to claim that the tide has turned against road competition. UIC reports that European freight tonne-km was 7% higher in 2000 than in 1999, with the international component up ...

  • News

    Reshaping the passenger business

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    LAST YEAR CFR Calatori accounted for 54% of all domestic passenger-km, with the rest split between road and air. Chairman & CEO Valentin Bota describes the loss of traffic between 1990 and 1996 as ’serious’, but says the decline has now slowed, ’following the upturn in the national economy’. During ...

  • News

    October Railway speeds up business class

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    RUSSIA’S PLANS for high-speed train services took a step forward on June 11, when the Nevsky Express was launched between Moscow and St Petersburg. Formed from 12 of the 18 air-conditioned business class cars built at Tver for 200 km/h operation, the train is hauled by a refurbished CS-200 electric ...

  • News

    QR’s Tilt Train wins the business

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    SO SUCCESSFUL have Queensland Railways’ 1067mm gauge tilting trains been that airlines flying betwen Brisbane and Rockhampton have found they have a strong competitor. Queensland Transport Minister Steve Bredhauer said last month that rail patronage on the 639 km route had risen by 66% since the trains were introduced in ...

  • News

    Industry in Brief

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    On July 2 Westinghouse Signals Ltd changed its name to Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd to reflect its new and wider product range.Patentes Talgo SA recorded a turnover of €182m in 2000, up 62·8% from the previous year. EBITDA was €17·6m, with 51% of group revenue coming from manufacturing and 38% ...

  • News

    Straits bridges

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    WE REPORTED last month that Russian Railways’ plans for construction of a link to the island of Sakhalin were firming up. Head of the Sakhalin Department of Transport & Communications V Romanov confirmed last month that a bridge rather than a tunnel will be built, crossing the Tatar Strait between ...

  • News

    BHP breaks its own ’heaviest train’ record

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    ON JUNE 21 BHP Iron Ore set a new world record by running the longest and heaviest freight train, between Yandi mine and Port Hedland in the Pilbara region of Western Australia (below). The run was the latest manifestation of BHPIO’s ongoing programme of leading-edge research. Vice-President Mike Darby said ...

  • News

    Work begins on Tibet line

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    CEREMONIES were held in Lhasa and Golmud on June 29 to mark the start of work on the 1118 km Qinghai - Tibet railway (RG 5.01 p319). The two cities were decorated with bunting, flags and balloons for the ceremonies, with auspicious Tibetan designs displayed prominently. Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji ...

  • News

    The wave crests as the big four become three

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    Bombardier's purchase of Adtranz represents the largest industry acquisition to date and may just be the last, as results finally start to improve at the major suppliers. Andrew F Saxe of Accenture presents his annual review of the rolling stock supply industry

  • News

    Freight fights back

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    ALTHOUGH the rail freight sector was hit hardest by Romania’s economic changes, CFR Marfa has now started the long climb back. In 2000 it handled 13·6% more traffic than the low point in 1999. This represented 19·7% of the national freight tonnage lifted and 41% by tonne-km.Director General Vasile Tulbure ...

  • News

    BA to build three more lines

    2001-08-01T10:00:00Z

    THE Buenos Aires city council has approved plans for three more metro routes totalling 22 km. Bringing a metro station within 400m of some 2 million residents or 70% of the city’s total population, Lines F, G and I are likely to be taken forward as build-operate-transfer projects. The aim ...