Features & Analysis – Page 52
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Global changes at YSD and Rafna
REVENUE at Global Railway Industries Ltd for the year to December 31 2004 was C$34·7m, up 34% from 2003. This includes C$4·8m from Youngtown, Ohio, based YSD Industries Inc, which was purchased in April 2004. Restructuring of YSD continued into the first quarter of 2005, with an anticipated loss ...
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CroBIT provides a European data platform
Development of an international information platform will allow all parties involved in cross-border rail freight operations to share data Eckhard KuhlaEkonsult GmbH, Germany THE DEMAND for international freight movement in Europe is growing apace - except in the rail mode. There are many reasons for this, but a key element ...
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Freight reform tops the agenda
With passenger traffic growing steadily, long-term profitability at SNCF will depend on the restructuring of its freight business which reaches a crucial stage in 2005. Robert Preston spoke to SNCF Executive Vice-President Guillaume Pepy in Paris FRENCH NATIONAL Railways Executive Vice-President Guillaume Pepy expects to be able to report 'a ...
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SNCF sets service level on TGV Est
ON FEBRUARY 2 SNCF announced details of services planned over the TGV Est Européen line when it opens on June 15 2007. In contrast to other French high speed lines where there has been a gradual build-up, TGV Est Europ‚en will offer frequent services from day one with 85% of ...
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Cross-city tunnel holds the key to Leipzig S-Bahn project
After many years of delay, the long-planned cross-city tunnel in Leipzig is finally under construction. The 4·3 km twin bores serving four stations will be used by S-Bahn and regional express services. Ralf Roman Rossberg reports It has been a long wait. But now, after more than a century of ...
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Joetsu Shinkansen fully restored after earthquake damage
THROUGH services between Tokyo and Niigata on JR East's Joetsu Shinkansen resumed on December 28, more than two months after a train travelling at around 200km/h was derailed by an earthquake (RG 12.04 p826). JR East has now released further details of what happened and the measures it has taken ...
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Ballast shoulders
Sir - The article 'Alliances deliver on performance and cost' (RG 6.04 p353) regarding the maintenance of standard gauge trunk lines in Australia mentions five critical elements of the track structure which must be harmonised to ensure predictable behaviour of the track. It is stated that the ballast 'must not ...
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ERTMS:The view from Brussels
In the final months of 2004 there was frantic activity as the European Commission strove to make progress towards the roll-out of ERTMS. Interest centred on Chapter 7 of the TSI on conventional railway lines, which covers the migration process from conventional signalling and train control systems to ETCS. According ...
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Integral ballast recycling contributes to sustainable development
Development of ballast cleaning machines with integral recycling of used ballast is helping to reduce the cost of disposal, and is becoming an important tool in the track maintenance business as legislation on waste disposal takes effect Rudolf Becker and Patrick Vierlinger Plasser & Theurer, Export von Bahnbaumaschinen Gesellschaft mbH ...
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High-Output Ballast Cleaner
The first of two High-Output Ballast Cleaning Systems being supplied by Plasser & Theurer to UK infrastructure company Network Rail is due to enter service this month, with the second to be delivered in the summer of 2005. Both machines will be operated by First Swietelsky under a two-year contract ...
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Infrastructure management
Managing the infrastructure of Europe's railways faces fresh challenges as a new Transport Commissioner takes office and the nascent European Railway Agency begins to exert influence across the enlarged European Union. Jean-Marie Bertrand, President of the European Rail Infrastructure Managers' Association, outlines the task ahead to Murray Hughes, warning that ...
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Cost cutting and state control are back
Impending legislation will change the structure of Britain's railways, abolish the Strategic Rail Authority and give Network Rail the responsibility for delivering better performance. ANOTHER CHAPTER is being written in the history of Britain's railways. The heady days of new projects are all but forgotten as the industry comes ...
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Dutch vow not to slip up again
MANY railways suffer from slippery rails in the autumn, and Netherlands Railways is no exception. During a storm over the weekend of October 27-28 2002 NS was hit exceptionally badly, and rolling stock availability fell in the following weeks as many wheelsets had been damaged. A predictable public outcry ensued, ...
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Pre-assembled turnouts cut installation times
TURNOUTS for the Betuwe Route are being supplied by BWG of Germany, working with its Dutch sister company WBN Wisselbouw. In 2000 WBN Wisselbouw supplied the turnouts used below the hump to the sorting sidings in the marshalling yard at Kijfhoek south of Rotterdam; now it isproviding 60 ...
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Halting market share decline is biggest challenge in Eastern Europe
WITH ACCESSION to the European Union top of the agenda in Eastern Europe, delegates to Terrapinn's Central & East European Rail 2003 summit in Budapest on November 27-29 were warned not to make the same mistakes as railways in Western Europe. Jean-Arnold Vinois, Head of the Railway Transport & Interoperability ...
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Understanding of RCF advances
THERE IS now a far greater understanding of rolling contact fatigue in the UK than there was on October 17 2000 when the Hatfield derailment occurred. In part this is due to the Wheel-Rail Interface System Authority, set up in 2001 to co-ordinate the response to RCF by a shattered ...
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Exposing the real infrastructure cost drivers
Why are life-cycle infrastructure costs five times lower in the USA than in the Netherlands, but are 50% to 200% higher in Japan and Hong Kong? Jan Swier* shows how these huge cost differences can be explained, allowing them to be predicted more accurately OVER THE LAST 10 years, Netherlands ...
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Moving people, moving cities
Cities and regions can only be sustainable if they have dynamic and efficient public transport, but at the same time public transport can only be dynamic and efficient if it is fully integrated with urban policies, argues Hans Rat
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V150: Entente discordiale
ONE organisation seemed determined not to be impressed by the French speed record of 574·8 km/h attained by the V150 trainset on April 3. Not only that, but it actively set out to discredit the achievement in the UK media. The following briefing note was sent out to British journalists ...
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It's now or never for ERTMS roll-out
Intended to provide a single signalling and train control system across the continent, the European Rail Traffic Management System promises to increase the competitiveness and dynamism of the railway sector, bringing both cost savings and safety improvements. As such, it forms a key component of the European Union's strategy for ...