All Railway Gazette International articles in January 2002 – Page 6
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News
Industry News in Brief
Global Railway Industries has signed a letter of intent to acquire track component maker G&B Specialties Inc for US$11m.Nortrak has opened a fourth trackwork manufacturing plant at Irondale, Alabama.UK-based suspension components supplier Trelleborg Industrial has started work on the construction of a £10m factory on the outskirts of Leicester. Opening ...
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Passenger in Brief
On December 15 Chicago commuter rail operator Metra activated GPS equipment developed by GeoFocus on 261 carriages. The $11m project provides dispatchers with the exact location and speed of each train. The GPS equipment is also used to drive automated on-train announcements. Metra hopes to expand the system to drive ...
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News
Passenger News in Brief
Swiss Federal Railways is to build a new Customer Contact Centre at Brig to merge the operations of 10 local offices spread across the country. Around 60 staff dealing with telephone enquiries and ticket renewals will transfer this year, increasing to 250 by the completion of the project in 2005.New ...
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News
Geogrids bridge unstable land
A multi-layer geogrid supplied by Huesker is being used to stabilise a high speed junction site at Gröbers between Leipzig and Halle. The junction is located over a disused coal mine, but information on the position of the 30m deep mine tunnels is not available.A 1 km strip of land ...
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Regional reforms could breach SNCF’s monopoly
INTRO: Jean-Paul Masse examines legislative changes in France that empower the regions to fund regional railservices directly and take their own investment decisionsON JANUARY 1 2002 an act will come into force that will change the way regional transport is organised in France. Despite its significance, the act has remained ...
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Olympic branch
SALT LAKE CITY opened the 4 km University extension of its TRAX light rail line on December 15, with a ceremony at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the final stop on the line. The US$118·5m project was completed in just 16 months, earning SLC Rail Constructors a $2m bonus for finishing ahead of ...
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Robotic bogie washing
HONG Kong MTR Corp is using a robotic washing plant installed by McConnell Research Enterprises. The automated machine has removed the need for manual cleaning, a relatively skilled but unpopular task. Different racks can be installed to allow the cleaning of other vehicle components.The plant uses two robots in a ...
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Wisconsin foils Burkhardt bid
HOLDERS of Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp stock failed to rally in sufficient numbers around the flag raised by deposed President & CEO Ed Burkhardt. Propositions that would have seen control of the company pass to Burkhardt’s team were supported by holders of only 32·7% of the equity. However, propositions that ...
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News
Cotton belt TGV
IT’S NICE TO KNOW that President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who was assassinated in Kinshasa in mid-January, was keen to develop his country’s rail network. How else can one interpret an item that appeared in British newspaper The Independent on January 22? The paper’s reporter, interviewing ...
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Beira route concessions
THE MOZAMBIQUE government has approved plans to award concessions by 2004 to restore and operate the two rail corridors forming the country’s Beira network. Renovation of the 590 km Sena line running north from Dondo to Moatize is expected to cost between US$100m and US$300m. CFM will start by upgrading ...
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Richards Bay to use ECP braking
NEXT month should see the board of Transnet in South Africa take a final decision to convert Spoornet’s Richards Bay coal export line to ECP braking. Speaking at WCRR in Köln at the end of November, Dr Dave van der Meulen of Spoornet’s Planning & Technology department said that a ...
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Battery packs
OVER 260 sets of rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries have been supplied by SAFT to provide starting and auxiliary power for Turbostar DMUs. The 24V batteries of 20 SRX1000P cells of 103Ah capacity fit in plastic containers in an integrated stainless steel crate ready for mounting. Developed for starting diesel engines, the ...
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News
Basel Combinos
FEBRUARY 10 is due to see the start of revenue operation with a metre-gauge Combino articulated LRV on Basel tram Line 8. Basler Verkehrsbetriebe took delivery of the first car on December 21, with a small ceremony attended by Basel city President Ralph Lewin and BVB Director Urs Hanselmann. ...
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News
Barcelona spends
Catalunya regional government has allocated €361m to be spent on the Barcelona metro and FGC networks this year, with €100·9m going to the extension of metro Line 5 from Horta to Vall d’Hebron. Work is also due to start in 2002 on the extension of Line 3 from Canyelles to ...
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News
Ballast life and mechanised track maintenance
Sir - The report on activities of the Eurobalt consortium researching hidden secrets in ballasted track (RG 12.00 p813) was most valuable and permitted some insights into the ongoing battle for reducing maintenance needs. I wonder, however, why the biggest progress in the recent past, namely the mechanisation of on-track ...
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News
Verona LRT turnkey awarded
A CONSORTIUM led by Siemens Transportation Systems was selected in mid-November to build and equip the first two routes of a planned three-line light rail network in the northern Italian city of Verona. Italian companies Mazzi and CCC will be responsible for civil engineering and trackwork. Siemens will undertake the ...
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e-express arrives on Westbahn
November 2 saw the introduction of a new catering concept on inter-city services between Wien and Salzburg. Insisting that it is essential for the catering service to ’catch up’ with passenger expectations, ÖBB Executive Board Member Ferdinand Schmidt said the ’e-express’ concept would offer high-quality menus. Passengers can now order ...
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Amtrak boom was a chimera
DESPITE the vote on November 9 by the Amtrak Reform Council to start proceedings that could end up liquidating Amtrak (RG 12.01 p799), such a drastic move now looks unlikely. Within a week of the Council’s action, a group of 21 Republican and Democrat Senators vowed to prevent the annihilation ...
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Alsace invests in rolling stock
On November 24 2000 the Alsace region announced a programme to invest Fr1·3bn in modernising its TER fleet between now and 2006. By then 28 new diesel railcar sets and two-car EMUs will have replaced the current locomotive hauled push-pull trains, mostly dating from the 1960s.The relatively recent RRR stainless ...
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Good Trains for All in five years
DANISH State Railways has launched a five-year programme to expand and upgrade its passenger services, including new rolling stock, routes and stations. Director-General Henrik Hassenkam says the Good Trains for All programme will help DSB win more traffic with comfortable trains and more cost-effective operations. By 2006 DSB will be ...