All Railway Gazette International articles in February 2004

All articles published this month.

  • News

    Sidetrack

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    200 years oldFEBRUARY 21 marks the 200th anniversary of the first journey of a steam locomotive running on rails. Richard Trevithick’s 7 tonne machine hauled five wagons, 10 tonnes of iron and 70 passengers for about 15 km on a tramway at the Pen Y Darren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil ...

  • News

    Pointers

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    Nigerian Minister of State for Transport Alhaji Mohammed Musahas has held discussions with China Civil Engineering Construction Co in Beijing over extending a Ccecc contract for technical assistance with refurbishment of the NRC network to include the management of rail operations.Russian Railways President Gennadi Fadeyev has agreed with Siemens Transportation ...

  • News

    Metros

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    Canada:Toronto Transit Commission has signed a C$7·9m contract for integrated software from IFS Applications to replace five maintenance and support systems.China:Coronet Rail Ltd has won an order to supply fishplates worth £100000 for the 3·5 km Yam O - Penny’s Bay light metro feeder line in Hong Kong.France:RATP has placed ...

  • News

    Mumbai metro plan revived

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    MAHARASHTRA’S Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde announced on January 10 that the regional government had approved plans to build the first phase of a heavy metro network in Mumbai over the next five years. He said Delhi Metro Rail Corp had been asked to prepare a detailed project report for an ...

  • News

    Market

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    China:Nokia and Shanghai Railway Communication Equipment Factory are to supply a Tetra digital radio network to Ningqi Railway Co for use from June on the Nanjing - Qidong line now under construction.France:SNCF is planning to order 60 electric locomotives from Alstom to haul push-pull services in Ile-de-France. They will be ...

  • News

    Pacific National looks north

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    AUSTRALIAN interstate freight operator Pacific National has ordered 13 narrow-gauge diesel locos from EDI Rail, as part of its strategy to breach Queensland Rail’s 1067mm gauge stronghold (RG 1.04 p16). Due for delivery in February 2005, the PN class locos will be similar to QR’s 4000 class locos which were ...

  • News

    Upgrading loan

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    RECONSTRUCTION of Venezuela’s 244 km Western rail network is expected to get underway this year, following the signing of a loan agreement to fund the work. The Ministry of Finance announced on December 16 that Finance Minister Tobias Nóbrega had signed an 11-year credit agreement with the Vice-President of China’s ...

  • News

    Laval in trouble

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    MONTREAL has been building a three-station extension of its Orange metro line since spring 2002. Running from Henri Bourassa station to Laval, the extension may not see revenue service even after completion in 2006 as the metro’s existing control centre has insufficient capacity.Officials at the Société de Transport de Montréal ...

  • News

    Iran’s next metro makes progress

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    INTRO: Iran’s principal steel city has ambitious plans to develop an urban rail networkCONSTRUCTION is forging ahead on the initial section of the metro network in Esfahan, around 325 km south of the Iranian capital Tehran. Plans for the network were drawn up in the 1990s, and a start has ...

  • News

    Raffarin sets infrastructure priorities

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    INTRO: Rail forms an important part of the French government’s infrastructure programme for the next 20 years. Projects to be taken forward include eight high speed schemes, and a new agency is to be created to fund infrastructure investment. Robert Preston reportsCHAIRING a meeting of the inter-ministerial planning and development ...

  • News

    Wagon hunting

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    HUNTING, the severe low-frequency lateral acceleration of a vehicle caused by wheel and rail wear, speed and track condition, can increase the risk of derailment, as well as damage a wagon’s payload. The RHD-2000 sensor has been developed to identify vehicles which are badly affected by hunting, allowing remedial action ...

  • News

    Houston LRT opens

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    OVER 15000 passengers rode Houston's 12 km Main Street light rail line in the 4h following the official dedication ceremonies on January 1, which also marked the 25th anniversary of the MTA. The first car was driven through a banner at the Fannin South Park & Ride terminal by former ...

  • News

    Upgrade on hold

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    ON DECEMBER 17 Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi announced that the 14·5bn ringgit project to double track and electrify KTMB’s north-south trunk line had been postponed. The plan called for upgrading of the 339 km from Ipoh northwards to Padang Besar on the Thai border and the 297 ...

  • News

    Not guaranteed

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    STRIKE action by France’s railway unions on January 21 threw into sharp focus the long-running debate over who controls what happens on the national network. While the dispute is ostensibly about the paucity of this year’s 1% pay rise, it is also a protest against government plans to introduce minimum ...

  • News

    High speed network grows

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    FASTEST journey times between Madrid and Logroño were cut by 1h 15min on January 19 when Renfe introduced Altaria services to the route. Talgo cars are hauled at up to 200 km/h on the high speed line between Madrid Atocha and Plasencia de Jalón near Zaragoza, where they ...

  • News

    Nanjing grows

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    CONSTRUCTION of metro Line 2 in the Chinese city of Nanjing began on December 28, at the site of Xiangxinyu station. The 21·6 km line is due to open in 2009, at a cost of 9bn yuan. Running from Xishang Bridge to Maqun via Jiangdongmen, Suiximen and Mingu-gong, it will ...

  • News

    Planning Freight Railways

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    Edited by Nigel G Harris and Felix SchmidtThe editors of this handbook set out to bring together in a single volume the key material needed by railfreight practitioners, policymakers and transport students, as well as companies which are considering sending freight by rail for the first time.The 246 pages contain ...

  • News

    France tests high speed Wi-Fi

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    FOR A six-month experimental period Wi-Fi access is being made available to passengers on trains operating at up to 300 km/h between Paris, Bordeaux and Pau. The trial was launched in November by Clic TGV, a joint venture of 11 transport and telecoms firms and content providers.A total of 15 ...

  • News

    Finance

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    Australia:The Queensland government has announced A$184m of funding to double-track the 7 km Ormeau - Coomera section of the Gold Coast line used by QR Citytrain, and extend the dual gauge by 9·5 km from Salisbury to Kuraby. A further A$63m has been allocated for additional trainsets.China:Asian Development Bank has ...

  • News

    Ferrovías invests

    2004-02-01T11:00:00Z

    SPEAKING AT the Emepa workshops in Chascomús on December 30 before invited guests including President Néstor Kirchner and Transport Secretary Ricardo Jaime, Ferrovías President Gabriel Romero announced a programme of station and rolling stock refurbishment for the Belgrano Norte commuter concession in Buenos Aires.Work to modernise 22 stations on the ...