Features & Analysis – Page 45
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Electro-diesel loco offers flexible traction
Spanish rolling stock builder CAF has developed its Bitrac dual-mode locomotive for the domestic market
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Demonstrating the power of hydrogen
A pan-European consortium aims to demonstrate a hydrogen fuel cell powered passenger train in Denmark during 2010
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UP relies on Reliability Teams
UNION PACIFIC has learned that reporting a bad-order locomotive can be relatively easy. However, finding and fixing the problem efficiently and getting the loco back on the road can be another matter. To this end, the railroad has formed Reliability Teams at each of its 13 major locomotive repair shops ...
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DMU Eco-Mode fuels savings at TPE
TRANSPENNINE EXPRESS and Siemens Transportation Systems are extending their Eco-Mode programme, which was launched in July to improve the environmental credentials of the UK train operating company's 51-strong fleet of Class 185 Desiro DMUs. Eco-Mode focuses on reducing fuel consumption by encouraging drivers to adopt more efficient driving techniques, analysing ...
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Should taxpayers fund private sidings?
More than half of the rail freight traffic in many European countries originates at private sidings. Infrastructure is expensive, but grant programmes in Switzerland, Austria and Germany have proved a cost-effective use of public money
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Germany's contrasting approaches to competitive tendering
Regional passenger services across Germany have increasingly been put out to competitive tender in recent years. The approach to market liberalisation varies from region to region, as case studies in Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein illustrate. Nevertheless, the process appears to be benefiting both the regional authorities and the passenger alike
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Competition drives rail freight renaissance
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
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North - South upgrade will boost rail's market share
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
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NewsTaiwan's high speed line takes off
A celebration on October 24 marked the formal completion of the high speed line between Taipei and Kaohsiung. THSRC Chairman Nita Ing talks to Chris Jackson about the challenges of transforming the company from a builder to an operator and paying off the US$16bn cost of the world's biggest BOT ...
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An international partnership
THE TAIWAN high speed line has been a truly international project, according to THSRC Chief Executive Dr Ou Chin-Der. Over the past decade engineers, contractors and consultants of more than 40 nationalities were involved in the design, construction and commissioning of the railway. 'We have enjoyed more than a contractual ...
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Rail industry moves into top gear
Passenger and freight operations in Australia are undergoing massive revitalisation, with billions of dollars in public and private funding being invested in new and upgraded lines and rolling stock
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Durchmesserlinie will give Zürich an east-west axis
Construction work began on September 20 on the 9·6 km link between Oerlikon and Altstetten that will see a further set of through platforms created beneath Zürich's increasingly-congested central station
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Monster machine masters multiple functions
The RPM-RS-900 track renewal machine handles formation renewal, reballasting and tamping in a single pass with the option of recycling used ballast
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Busy railways need faster and smarter equipment
THIS SUMMER, lineside residents around the Austrian city of Linz could have been woken by the strange sight of a blue and silver inspection vehicle trundling by, festooned with floodlights and cameras, as well as a host of advanced measurement systems. The twin-unit Track Geometry Car 4 spent a week ...
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NewsRailjet to take off next year
Austrian Federal Railways is preparing to take delivery of the first of 67 push-pull railjet trainsets able to run at 230 km/h
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Berlin to München in under 4 h
Funding has been secured to ensure completion of upgraded or new high speed lines all the way from Berlin to München. Ralf Roman Rossberg reports
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Leipzig tunnelling progresses
THE PROJECT to build a cross-city tunnel between Leipzig's Hauptbahnhof and Bayerischer Bahnhof serving two intermediate stations is on course for completion in 2011. Work continues to drive two bores over a distance of 1·4 km under the city centre using shield tunnelling (RG 2.05 p93). On June 19, the ...
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Centralised metro control assists incident response
Ian WoodroofeTransportation Systems, Thales GUANGZHOU is the fast-growing transport, industrial, financial and trade capital of southern China, and is currently constructing two extensions to its metro network. With the city's increasingly global profile, potential threats also rise. The operations control centre for Guangzhou Metro Corp's Line 4 is a ...
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NewsSBB: Meyer has three mountains to climb
Surging passenger and freight traffic are putting pressure on the Swiss Federal Railways network, but funding for infrastructure enhancement is constrained. SBB Chief Executive Andreas Meyer tells Chris Jackson how he plans to tackle these issues and address continuing losses in the freight sector