All Railway Gazette International articles in February 1997
All articles published this month.
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News
1997 marks milestones for Øresund link
INTRO: Construction of the fixed road and rail link across the Baltic between Denmark and Sweden is well on course for opening in 2000.Chris Jackson took a look at progress TRACKLAYING is getting under way on the Danish approaches to the Øresund fixed link, which is due to provide road ...
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Akita shinkansen opens next month
JR EAST will launch direct shinkansen services on March 22 between Tokyo and Akita. Marketed as Komachi, they will be formed of Series E3 trainsets (RG 10.95 p663) running over the Tohoku shinkansen as far as Morioka and then on the regauged Tazawako line from Morioka to Omagari and Akita.Of ...
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News
First phase of TGV Est approved
FRENCH Prime Minister Alain Juppé announced on December 23 that construction of the first phase of the long-planned TGV Est project will start in 1998. With the declaration of public utility agreed in May 1996, the way is now clear for SNCF to proceed with detailed design and land acquisitions.Although ...
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News
Channel Tunnel Rail Link gets Royal Assent
ON December 18 the Act authorising construction of the 108 km Channel Tunnel Rail Link to St Pancras in London received Royal Assent. London & Continental Railways, which won the concession to finance and build CTRL in February 1996, is now free to acquire land, undertake detailed design, and prepare ...
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News
Storebaelt reverts to ballasted track
INTRO: Although slab track was originally to have been laid in the Storebaelt tunnel, failure to optimise the choice of track with the diameter of the tunnel at the design stage led to a compromise using ballasted trackBYLINE: Palle ReenbergProject Manager, TrackDSB Banetechnik StorebaeltDANISH STATE Railways was appointed by A/S ...
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News
Quality initiatives bear fruit
On December 23 Jean Boutanquoi, Director of SNCF’s Ile-de-France commuter business, presented the first results of quality initiatives introduced last June after a survey of customer opinion. They are focused on personal safety, punctuality, passenger information and ticket retailing.At the end of December, the first 170 of 240 extra personnel ...
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News
Infrastructure maintenance becomes big business
INTRO: By contracting out every aspect of infrastructure installation, renewal and maintenance, Railtrack has given British companies a head start in exploiting a market worth US$30bn a year - if other operators follow suitBYLINE: David Fison MA CEng FICE,Managing Director of Balfour Beatty Rail Ltd, told Richard Hope why buying ...
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News
Connex Express launches Brighton belles
SEVEN Class 319 EMUs owned by Rolling Stock Company Porterbrook Leasing underwent repainting and refurbishment for the Connex Express service due to be launched on the London - Brighton route on January 27. Connex South Central, the CGEA subsidiary which won Great Britain’s Network SouthCentral passenger franchise in April, chose ...
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Storebaelt link promises network benefits
THE LONG-awaited fixed link across Denmark’s Great Belt is on course to carry its first revenue-earning train on April 1. When the road and rail link between the islands of Zealand and Fünen was authorised in 1987, it was scheduled to open for rail services on September 15 1993 and ...
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Best practice must cross the frontiers
THERE CAN be few better ways of implementing international best practice than by giving senior management hands-on experience of rail operations in different countries. With Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp now running rail freight in the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Great Britain, that is precisely what WC President Ed Burkhardt ...
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Jena branches open
Secretary for Transport Johannes Nitsch and Thuringen Economics & Infrastructure Minister Franz Schuster opened light rail routes serving the expanding suburb of Lobeda in Jena on December 16. A new line branches from north-south trunk route 1 into a housing area just north of Line 1’s Winzerla terminus and runs ...
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News
In Brief
n On December 20 Conrail’s board of directors voted to reject Norfolk Southern’s hostile all-cash bid for the business, after it had been raised to US$10·5bn to match CSX’s improved cash and stock offer of US$9·35bn. Conrail shareholders were due to vote on January 17 on a proposal to ...
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News
Sud-Est TGVs brought up-to-date
PASSENGERS on France’s Paris Sud-Est line are enjoying more space and a revised seating layout on the route’s TGV fleet. The first three sets refurbished by SNCF’s Bischheim works entered service at the end of last year, and the mid-life overhaul of a further 14 is due to be completed ...
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Italians buy open procurement
AS PART of a three-year strategic plan announced last year, Chief Executive of Italian State Railways Giancarlo Cimoli is planning to change the way FS treats its suppliers. Head of procurement Mauro Moretti says standard contracts will be agreed, and the fragmentary approach to purchase of spares will give way ...
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'This is not privatisation, it is a change to make the railway more competitive'
January 1 saw the hiving off of Danish State Railways' infrastructure business to form the new authority Banestyrelsen. Chris Jackson spoke to DSB Director General Henrik Hassenkam about the restructuring
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News
NSB chooses clamp locks
NORWEGIAN State Railways has chosen electro-hydraulic Clamp Lock point machines from Smith Industries Hydraulics Co for installation at Drammen near Oslo. NSB’s design demands meant that the original design used in Britain was enhanced by protection against harsh climatic conditions and addition of multiple secondary drives and detection, built into ...
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Siemens wins first Combino order
POTSDAM Transport (ViP) ordered a fleet of 48 modular Combino trams from Siemens Verkehrstechnik on December 12. They will be delivered in annual batches of four between 1998 and 2009. The Potsdam version is 30·5m long and 2·3m wide, with 74 seats and room for 110 standees at ...
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News
Management concessioned
On January 1 a joint venture of SNC-Lavalin and Gesproex Inc took over maintenance and operation of the Deux-Montagnes and Rigaud commuter lines from the Montreal Urban Community Transport Commission. The city’s Agence Métropolitaine de Transport, which oversees the two commuter lines, announced award of a three-year contract to SNC-Gesproex ...
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News
Madrid lets contracts
THREE contracts signed on December 20 and 31 brought the length of new metro construction let by the Madrid regional government in 1996 to 31·5 km. A Pts9bn contract to extend Line 1 from Miguel Hern
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News
Spiked copper could halt theft
Spoornet is developing techniques for reducing theft of copper cabling, in particular overhead line equipment on electrified routes. Conventional techniques, such as surveillance equipment and security patrols, were ruled out as prohibitively expensive to protect the 9000route-km electrified network.Instead, OHLE engineers have investigated ways of reducing the scrap value of ...