All Railway Gazette International articles in December 2007 – Page 3

  • News

    News in Brief

    2007-12-08T06:06:00Z

    Queensland Rail Chief Executive Officer Lance Hockridge officially launched QR National's first Melbourne – Perth container service on November 13. 'QR now offers a full container service from Cairns to Perth via Melbourne', he said, adding that this 'gives customers a third and highly-competitive carrier across the Nullarbor. We are ...

  • News

    Light rail flip-flop

    2007-12-07T10:04:00Z

    IN A MARKED reversal of its policy adopted in June 2005, the board of Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority voted on October 18 to adopt light rail for all five corridors in the city's $1·3bn Metro Solutions expansion programme. It had previously been decided that an all-rail plan would be too ...

  • News

    Safety scares could paralyse freight in the Netherlands

    2007-12-07T06:37:00Z

    BACK IN October there did appear to be some prospect that the Betuwe Route – which was formally 'opened' by Queen Beatrix on June 16 – would at last be carrying freight trains on a regular basis from December 9 (RG 9.07 p536). On November 12 Bombardier's plant in Randers ...

  • News

    High speed heads northwest

    2007-12-06T06:56:00Z

    MEETING ON October 25, the board of the Spanish government's transport infrastructure agency Seitt approved the award of three contracts worth €201·3m in total, covering civil works on 67·1 km of the 91·9 km of high speed line to be built between Olmedo and Zamora. Leaving the Madrid – Valladolid ...

  • News

    Finance News December 2007

    2007-12-06T06:34:00Z

    Australia: The state of Victoria has allocated A$272m to add a further eight trains to a planned order for 10 six-car passenger sets for which tenders were called in July. Delivery is planned for late 2009. Bulgaria: On October 20 Mayor of Sofia Boyko Borissov said that the European Investment ...

  • News

    Competition drives rail freight renaissance

    2007-12-06T06:17:00Z

    The Australian rail freight business has changed dramatically in recent years, driven by pivotal investment and the restructuring of operations and infrastructure management. The introduction of on-rail competition has facilitated the integration of line-haul train operations into wider logistics businesses

  • News

    More light rail for Andalucía

    2007-12-05T10:40:00Z

    AN AGREEMENT signed by Andalucía's Minister for Public Works & Transport Concepción Gutiérrez and Mayor of San Fernando Manuel María de Bernardo on November 15 paved the way for tendering to begin before the end of 2007 for a 24 km tram-train route that will connect San Fernando and Chiclana ...

  • News

    SPV to fund Beijing - Shanghai

    2007-12-05T10:05:00Z

    FACED WITH rapidly increasing estimates for the cost of building the long-planned high speed line between Beijing and Shanghai, the Chinese Ministry of Railways has decided to form a Special Purpose Vehicle to finance the project. Under development for more than 10 years, the 1 318 km line was originally ...

  • News

    World rail market December 2007

    2007-12-05T06:34:00Z

    Africa: Plasser & Theurer has won orders to supply ATP 500-C flash butt welding machines to Oncfm in Morocco and the Transgabonais Railway which carries manganese ore in Gabon. China: Nokia Siemens Networks is to provide GSM-R communications on the 166 km Passenger-Dedicated Line under construction between Hefei and Nanjing ...

  • News

    Argentine tram-train bids in

    2007-12-04T12:00:00Z

    THE GOVERNMENT of the Argentinian province of Mendoza has received a total of seven bids for a contract to undertake civils, track, electrification, signalling and telecommunications work for the first phase of a tram-train network serving the provincial capital (RG 2.07 p60). This would run from for 12 km from ...

  • News

    Network Rail says it needs £5bn more

    2007-12-04T06:33:00Z

    IN ITS Strategic Business Plan published on November 1, Network Rail details the funding it requires to operate, maintain, renew and enhance the UK's national rail infrastructure over the five years commencing April 1 2009. This suggests that there will be a shortfall of £5bn in the public subsidy that ...

  • News

    North - South upgrade will boost rail's market share

    2007-12-04T06:19:00Z

    An extensive upgrade of rail infrastructure in the North - South corridor between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, on course for completion in June 2009, is intended to make rail freight operators more competitive in terms of price, availability and reliability

  • News

    Airport link on the way

    2007-12-03T10:41:00Z

    BUCURESTI Municipal Council approved a feasibility study on October 12 for a metro line to connect Piata Victoriei in the city cenre with Henri Coanda airport at Otopeni. The 15·8 km line will serve 19 stations and include a dedicated depot. All of the stations will be built below ground. ...

  • Go Transit train.
    News

    Bombardier to run GO Transit

    2007-12-03T06:35:00Z

    GREATER TORONTO Transit Authority has awarded Bombardier Transportation a five-year contract to operate GO Transit commuter rail services, valued at C$131·3m. GTTA announced on November 9 that Bombardier's bid had been selected over tenders from SNC-Lavalin and Veolia Transportation Rail. From June 2008 the company will be responsible for providing ...

  • News

    Inter-city overhaul continues as operators change

    2007-12-02T06:36:00Z

    LAST MONTH outgoing InterCity East Coast franchisee GNER expected to return to service the fourth of its 13 diesel High Speed Train sets to be refurbished by Wabtec Rail in Doncaster. The £45m modernisation of the Class 43 power cars and MkIII coaches is being funded by the train's owners ...

  • News

    Pointers December 2007

    2007-12-01T06:18:00Z

    The government of Queensland has begun consultation on the creation of a transit authority to co-ordinate rail, bus and ferry services in the southeast of the Australian state by July 2008. QR's passenger services would be structurally separated from freight operations. A feasibility study is being conducted into a proposed ...

  • News

    Algerian tram contracts placed

    2007-12-01T05:52:00Z

    ENTREPRISE du Métro d'Alger has selected two consortia including Alstom Transport to undertake the turnkey construction of light rail lines in Oran and Constantine. The French supplier announced on November 13 that its share of the contracts totalling €660m was expected to be around €300m. Oran will get an 18 ...