All Railway Gazette International articles in February 1997 – Page 2

  • News

    West Rail priority is now Hong Kong domestic traffic

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    Hong Kong’s Executive Council approved a decision on December 10 to build the domestic passenger component of the West Rail scheme (RG 7.96 p418) and submit proposals for new links with China for further study. Under the revised schedule, the new line from West Kowloon to Yuen Long would open ...

  • News

    Diesel venture

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    INDONESIAN President Soharto joined ceremonies at Jakarta to mark completion of the first General Electric diesel locos to be built in Java. Three U20Cs assembled at Madiun (above) by joint venture company PT GE Lokindo were delivered on December 17.The joint venture between GE and Badan Pengelola Industri Strategis is ...

  • News

    Turkey develops electrified routes

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    INTRO: A five-year plan of electrification and resignalling will see over 2000route-km energised by 2001THOUGH economic difficulties have dogged new line construction in Turkey, upgrading existing routes and new rolling stock has received financial backing. Around US$120m a year will be invested, while a restructured management pursues greater productivity (panel).Electrification ...

  • News

    Seven slab track designs on test

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    INTRO: German Railway will pick the design of ballastless track for its 330 km/h K

  • News

    Fed-up feds demand end to subway shambles

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    CONTROVERSY has never been far from the Red line metro in Los Angeles. Tunnel collapses, frequent delays and rows with contractors have all attracted attention. Things went from bad to worse in Decem-ber, and when LA Metropolitan Transit Authority CEO Joseph Drew announced his resignation, it was a sure sign ...

  • News

    Shinkansen decisions postponed

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    Battle has raged since Japan’s general election last October over funding the next round of shinkansen construction, now that the mini-shinkansen from Morioka to Akita is about to open (p72), and work on the Hokuriku line as far as Nagano enters the final year of fitting out and commissioning. Members ...

  • News

    Debts of winter

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    THOUSANDS of passengers were stranded in TGVs and other trains when a freak wave of icy weather paralysed rail services across the south of France last month. One typical story related a nightmare TGV trip from Paris to Nice that took 31h; staff at one stage abandoned the train for ...

  • News

    TNT-Toll deal threatens NRC

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    DECEMBER’S announcement that TNT and Toll Holdings were forming a consortium to exploit Australia’s nascent open access regime by operating freight trains between major cities means that National Rail Corporation could follow Australian National into what amounts to liquidation (RG 1.97 p8). Conceivably, the joint TNT-Toll operation could become so ...

  • News

    Spiked copper could halt theft

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Madrid lets contracts

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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

  • News

    Management concessioned

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Siemens wins first Combino order

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    NSB chooses clamp locks

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    'This is not privatisation, it is a change to make the railway more competitive'

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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

  • News

    Italians buy open procurement

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Sud-Est TGVs brought up-to-date

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    In Brief

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Jena branches open

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Best practice must cross the frontiers

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Storebaelt link promises network benefits

    1997-02-01T11:00:00Z

    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 ...