All Railway Gazette International articles in December 2008
All articles published this month.
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NewsTülomsas to assemble GE PowerHaul locomotives
TURKEY: On December 30 GE Transportation and Tülomsas announced a partnership agreement under which the Turkish firm will assemble PowerHaul locomotives for the European, Middle Eastern and North African markets from 2011. ‘We're investing in Turkey because of its strategic proximity to the customers we wish to serve and ...
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NewsMumbai monorail contract
INDIA: Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority has awarded a contract worth Rs24·6bn to Scomi Engineering of Malaysia and consortium partner Larsen & Toubro to design and build an elevated monorail line in the city. Expected to take 30 months to complete, the 19·5 km Sutra straddle monorail is expected to ...
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NewsLu seizes a rare opportunity
CHINA: ‘The situation translates into a rare opportunity for rail’, said Deputy Minister of Railways Lu Dongfu on November 28, welcoming the news that the government plans to spend 700bn yuan on railway construction in 2009-10 in order to create or safeguard up to six million jobs. ‘Upgrading railway infrastructure ...
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NewsSarkozy backs Paris expansion
FRANCE: Paris metro operator RATP will invest an additional €450m in 2009, as part of a spending package to stimulate the French economy announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy on December 4. Much of the money will go on refurbishment and expansion of the rolling stock fleet, station renovations and modernisation ...
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NewsCables encircle the globe
NEXANS: Rolling stock manufacturers are increasingly shifting responsibility to their sub-suppliers. Dietmar Steinbach of cable specialist Nexans told Andrew Grantham that consistency and product development are vital to a successful relationship.
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NewsPiraeus extension retendered
GREECE: Expressions of interest are due by January 30 for a €515m contract to extend Athens metro Line 3 to Piraeus. Following a decision by the Minister of Town Planning, Environment & Public Works, Attiko Metro cancelled its earlier EU tender and issued a new call for bids on November ...
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NewsAmbitious GCC rail plans start to firm up
MIDDLE EAST: Development of a 1 940 route-km rail network linking the six member states of the Gulf Co-operation Council is moving closer to fruition, with a feasibility study to be completed by March. At a meeting of finance and economics ministers held in Dubai on November ...
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NewsNetwork expansion is in full swing
IRAN: Railway development is continuing apace, the intention being to provide rail connections between all major cities as soon as possible. The ultimate objective is to double the size of the current 8 300 route-km network, reports David Brice.
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NewsCoal Master Plan drives capacity investment
CAPACITY: With expenditure of A$1·3bn in the next financial year, infrastructure manager QR Network is delivering the largest capital investment programme in its history, but planning assessments suggest that much more capacity will be needed to meet projected demand in the next five years.
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NewsEurotunnel seeks safety changes
EUROPE: Three months after the devastating fire on September 11 that burned out every lorry on a shuttle train in the Channel Tunnel, we were able to inspect on December 10 the full extent of the damage to 610 m of the concrete lining as repairs continue around the clock. ...
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NewsMadrid plans another €5bn suburban spend
SPAIN: Development Minister Magdalena Álvarez has presented the cabinet with an €5bn investment programme for the Madrid suburban network in 2008-15, which would see 115 km of new routes constructed and capacity increased by quadrupling a further 66 km. The programme envisages the construction of five new interchanges and 24 ...
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Tests to cease on Emsland guideway
GERMANY: ‘This is not the end of the Transrapid maglev technology’, affirmed Transrapid International on April 2 last year after the proposed 37 km maglev line linking München city centre with the airport was abandoned (RG 5.08 p290). The words returned to haunt the company on December 10 when ...
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No-poaching accord
AFRICA: A framework agreement ‘to help contain the unregulated movement of technical staff’ between railways in different countries is being drawn up by the Southern Africa Railways Association, in a move to prevent skill shortages from crippling their members’ operations. The move was announced following by a SARA committee meeting ...
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Reaching out to young talent
UK: We have remarked before about skills shortages in the rail sector, with operators and suppliers from Australia to Europe and North America voicing concerns about the age profile of their technicians and the lack of suitable recruits. This is particularly marked where productivity improvements in the 1980s and ...
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NewsDijon and Brest agree joint order
FRANCE: The cities of Dijon and Brest signed an agreement on November 27 covering the joint purchase of 53 trams at an estimated cost of €120m. Tenders are due to be issued to prospective suppliers by the end of 2008, with bid submission set for May and contract award expected ...
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NewsRed Line to proceed
THAILAND: An 8·7bn baht contract for construction of the first phase of the Red Line in suburban Bangkok was signed on December 12. State Railway of Thailand has finalised the agreement for a 15·3 km line from Taling Chan to Bang Sue with the Unique-Chun Wo joint venture of ...
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NewsA fair market needs regulation
EUROPE: An EU study of progress with railway liberalisation was presented in Brussels on November 7, as part of a process to recast the legislation in the First Railway Package. But the weighting of the responses risks understating the need for further change, warn Monika Heiming and Jan Möllmann.
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NewsRemodelled network off to a shaky start
FRANCE: This month SNCF relaunches its troubled wagonload business with shuttle trains linking three main hubs and 30 yards. Laurent Charlier reports.