Freight news – Page 198
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NewsEWS promises Channel Tunnel 'revolution'
EWS announced on November 22 that its Euro Cargo Rail subsidiary will be launching 12 intermodal services through the Channel Tunnel during 2008, connecting 'the key UK economic regions' with terminals in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. The first is due to start at the end of January ...
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NewsMÁV Cargo tender won by RCA-GySEV
HUNGARY'S Ministry of Economy & Transport announced on November 27 that a consortium of Rail Cargo Austria and GySEV had submitted the best bid for the privatisation of MÁV Cargo. The Ministry's statement said negotiations with the winning consortium would start 'as soon as possible, so the contract might ...
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GE enters UK loco market
GE TRANSPORTATION is to develop its first diesel locomotive design for the UK market, following an order for 30 units announced by Freightliner Group Ltd on November 26. Freightliner currently operates a fleet of 127 EMD Class 66 locomotives to haul intermodal and bulk freight in the UK, and ...
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NewsECP brakes go live
USA: Norfolk Southern has operated the first revenue service freight train in the USA to be fitted with electronically-controlled pneumatic brakes. Hauled by a trio of new General Electric locomotives, the train of 115 loaded gondola wagons ran on October 11 from coal mines in southwestern Pennsylvania to Keystone ...
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NewsMaxima locomotive finds a new home
Voith Turbo Lokomotivtechnik and HGK have signed a co-operation agreement to develop a central workshop for the Maxima and Gravita locomotive families, reports Achim Uhlenhut
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NewsQR to expand coal haulage
MAJOR INVESTMENT in Queensland's 1067 mm gauge coal network has been authorised by the state government. QR announced on October 11 that it will spend A$650m on 40 locomotives and 1190 wagons that will be delivered by 2010. QR's Acting CEO Stephen Cantwell said that this first stage of ...
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Four left in MÁV Cargo sale
WHEN the second-round bidding for the sale of MÁV Cargo closed on October 19 it rapidly became clear that only four of the seven contenders who had passed the first round were still in the running. The selection team must now choose between a Slovak consortium called Spedtrans-Slavia Capital, a ...
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NewsEurotunnel acts to recapture freight
WITH through rail freight in the first nine months of 2007 down to just 1·16 million tonnes, Eurotunnel has slashed and simplified its pricing in a bid to avoid the 'complete disappearance' of this traffic, once forecast to reach 10 million tonnes a year. The changes announced on October ...
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NewsHector Rail's growth strategy
A focused business plan and solid financial backing are enabling traction provider Hector Rail to target specific needs in Scandinavia and beyond
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NewsLithuanian Eurorunner diesel loco unveiled
THE FIRST of 34 type ER 20 CF diesel-electric freight locomotives built by Siemens was formally handed over to Lithuanian Railways on October 5. Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas, Minister of Transport & Communications Algirdas Butkevicius and LG Chief executive Stasys Dailydka were joined by Siemens Group President Hans Schabert ...
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Powerful freight locos take shape at Dalian
Under construction at Dalian are the first of 500 Co-Co electric freight locomotives being built under a contract with Bombardier Transportation. Less than two years after a €1·1bn contract was signed in February 2007 (RG 3.07 p131), the first of 500 high power freight locomotives will be delivered for ...
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More mega locos join the Chinese coal traction fleet
The first of 180 eight-axle locomotives with Siemens traction equipment has started test running in China
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Green Goats penned
RAILPOWER Technologies Corp issued a statement on June 1 recalling 59 diesel-battery locos from the GG-series, including Green Kids and generation I, II and III models, and requesting that owners temporarily cease operating them. The action was triggered by a fire in a Green Goat in Texas on May 30. ...
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NewsECP braking to Richards Bay
PLANS have now been confirmed for the phased rollout of ECP braking on Spoornet's Richards Bay heavy haul coal line. Described at the IHHA conference in Kiruna by Marshall Beck of New York Air Brake as 'the first real fleet implementation', the project requires 230 locos and 6 735 wagons ...
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NewsManaging rail degradation on the Malmbanan
An upgrading programme started in 1998 and due to be completed by 2010 is allowing the introduction of heavier axleloads on Sweden's heavy haul iron ore line, permitting gross train weights to be increased to more than 8 000 tonnes. But the transition requires careful management if degradation of the ...
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Yakutsk Railway heads for the Lena
Construction work is pressing ahead on the new line through Russia’s Sakha Republic, which is in on course to reach Yakutsk in 2010
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Grain giant targets cross-border logistics
Several of Brazil’s freight railway concessionaires have flourished since the federal railway network was broken up in 1996. John Kolodziejski looks at progress at two of them
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Electronic brake trials
NORFOLK SOUTHERN and BNSF announced jointly on March 29 that they plan to start revenue service trials later this year using electronically-controlled pneumatic brake systems. The move follows the issuing of an FRA waiver allowing ECP-equipped trainsets to run 5 600 km between inspections, which is twice the distance ...
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Channel Tunnel freight is collapsing
EUROPE: Two of the regular streams of freight traffic through the Channel Tunnel ceased at the beginning of February because the cost of using the Tunnel has increased substantially. Unilog based in Belgium has been forced out of business altogether, while GTS Trasporti in Italy stopped dispatching intermodal trains ...
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Freightliner prepares to compete in Poland
LAST MONTH the first four of seven EMD low-emission Class 66 locomotives ordered by Freightliner PL was delivered to Rotterdam, where they are being modified by NedTrain before entering service on open-access coal services in Poland in the second quarter of this year. UK operator Freightliner is investing ...