All Railway Gazette International articles in December 2010 – Page 3
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NewsThird rail heating on test
UK: More than 16000 m of heating strip has been installed on conductor rails at 42 locations on Network Rail’s third rail DC electrified network in southeast England as part of trial which aims to improve reliability during freezing weather. The heating strips are manufactured by German firm Eltherm, and ...
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NewsMulti-mode wagon body
EUROPE: A further type of body has been developed for the Flex Freight System multi-purpose wagons which were launched last year by leasing firm Wascosa. The 20 ft Type R swap body was developed by Wascosa in conjunction with ExTe, which specialises in transport locks for transporting timber. The profile ...
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NewsTangentielle Nord project launched in Paris
FRANCE: Jean-Paul Huchon, President of Ile de France region and STIF, officially launched work on the first phase of the Tangentielle Nord project between Epinay-sur-Seine and Le Bourget on December 13.Speaking at the ceremony at Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, Jean-Paul Huchon described the project as ‘historic’. ‘It is the biggest railway achievement in ...
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NewsToronto Transit City project in doubt
CANADA: Newly-elected Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford came into office on December 1 and declared that the ambitious C$8·15bn Transit City light rail expansion scheme was ‘over’ and that he would immediately begin pursuing his campaign promise to expand the metro network. Insisting that ‘the war on the car stops ...
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NewsAlstom wins contracts in Panamá and Santo Domingo
LATIN AMERICA: Alstom announced on December 13 that it had won two contracts in Panamá and Santo Domingo worth €300m. The Línea Uno consortium of Odebrecht and FCC recently appointed to build Line 1 of the Panamá metro has selected Alstom to manage the engineering, integration and commissioning of the ...
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NewsInter-city funding convention signed
FRANCE: A convention providing government support for residual and loss-making inter-city services on the conventional network was signed in Paris by Transport Minister Thierry Mariani and SNCF President Guillaume Pepy on December 13. Designated Trains d'Equibre du Territoire, the initiative forms part of a government commitment to support balanced national ...
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NewsNTA to go ahead with Red Line
ISRAEL: Following the collapse of the concession agreement with the MTS consortium to build the long-planned Red Line in Tel Aviv, the government has decided to push ahead with the 22 km light metro using public funds as ‘a project of national significance’.In a joint statement issued on December 12, ...
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NewsWorld rolling stock market December 2010
Australia: QR National has placed an A$35m order with UGL for six standard gauge C44ACi locomotives to support its iron ore haulage activities in Western Australia, along with 227 wagons. Deliveries will begin in the second half of 2011. Rio Tinto has ordered nine GE Evolution locomotives from UGL, ...
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NewsAllegro launch cuts Helsinki - St Petersburg journey times
EUROPE: Helsinki - St Petersburg passenger services were relaunched with the December 12 timetable change, with journey times cut by 2 h to 3½ h following the introduction of Alstom dual-voltage New Pendolino tilting trainsets, infrastructure upgrades to permit running at 220 km/h in Finland and 200 km/h in Russia, ...
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NewsMulhouse tram-train enters service
FRANCE: Tram-train services were inaugurated on a 22 km interurban route between Mulhouse and Thann on December 11, worked by 12 Siemens Avanto vehicles. A third tram route linking Mulhouse and Lutterbach started operation at the same time. Free rides were available between the city centre and Lutterbach during the ...
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NewsTamping accuracy
GERMANY: Amberg Technologies has supplied infrastructure manager DB Netz with a tamping surveying system which combines track position and distance surveying. It is suitable for use on both new installations and during maintenance, and the manufacturer claims it can cut the cost of tamping surveying by up to 70%. ...
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NewsWorld rail market December 2010
Italy: CoFren has ordered a Renk Test System flywheel dynamometer for testing tread and disc brakes at speeds of 500 km/h. Kazakhstan: IBM has won a US$8m contract to provide KTZ with a z10 mainframe computer and two 'disaster proof' data centres. New Zealand: Zonegreen is to supply ...
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NewsNews in Brief
Having agreed to take over ÖBB's 760 mm gauge Mariazellerbahn with effect from December 12, the Land of Niederösterreich has announced plans to invest €60m in new rolling stock. Nine three-car EMUs will arrive from Stadler in 2012, together with four first-class Panorama coaches. The line ...
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NewsONCF orders 14 Duplex high speed trains
MOROCCO: Alstom Transport is to supply national railway ONCF with 14 Duplex high speed trainsets for Tanger – Casablanca services under a contract worth ‘nearly €400m’.The contract, signed in Tanger on December 10, foreshadows the opening of Morocco’s first high speed line between Tanger and Kénitra in December 2015. ...
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NewsCrossrail awards tunnelling contracts
UK: On December 10 Crossrail Ltd awarded tunnelling contracts worth £1·25bn covering 18 km of the 21 km of twin bores required for the cross-London rail link. Contracts covering four sections of tunnel have been provisionally awarded, subject to the mandatory 10-day review period required under European contract law. The ...
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NewsCarbon efficiency must be addressed
SUSTAINABILITY: Despite the impact of railway construction projects in terms of carbon emissions, new lines still offer significant advantages in terms of long-term sustainability where there is sufficient traffic. But the carbon impact of materials and working methods needs to be optimised in the planning of future projects.
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NewsRailway construction launched with a bang
IRAN: President Ahmadinejad attended a ceremony at Konarak in the southeastern province of Sistan va Baluchestan on December 6 where a groundbreaking blast in the colours of the national flag officially launched construction of the Chabahar - Zahedan railway. Work on the 600 km line linking the Gulf of Oman ...
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NewsUrban rail network to underpin Qatar World Cup
QATAR: The successful bid to host the football World Cup in 2022 includes plans to invest US$24bn in transport infrastructure, including high speed rail lines to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and construction of a 340 km public transport network serving Doha and its environs. The proposals are based ...
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NewsHammond puts reform back on the agenda
UK: Efficiency savings worth between £600m and £1bn are achievable by 2018-19 without reducing service quality or network size, according to an interim report examining the cost of operating and maintaining Britain’s railways. Its author, Sir Roy McNulty, is expected to submit his completed Value for Money Review to government ...
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NewsFS and Cube Infrastructure selected to buy Arriva Deutschland
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn's supervisory board formally selected a consortium of Italian state railway Ferrovie dello Stato and investment fund Cube Infrastructure to acquire Arriva's German activities on December 8. The price offered was a decisive factor, according to DB Chairman Dr Rüdiger Grube, but is not being disclosed. Completion ...