All Railway Gazette International articles in July 1999
All articles published this month.
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News
Nanjing Line 1 started
CONSTRUCTION work has finally started on the first line of the long-planned metro for the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing. The 16·8 km Line 1 will run north-south across the city centre, and is costed at 5·4bn yuan.Proposals for the metro were approved by the National Planning Commitee in mid-1994 ...
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News
Bahn 2000 tunnel
CEREMONIES were held at Gorgier-St Aubin on May 27 to mark completion of Swiss Federal Railways’ latest Bahn 2000 upgrading project. The 2250m long Sauges tunnel is the longest of four for the double-tracking of 10·5 km between Neuchatel and Yverdon. SBB Infrastructure Director Pierre-Alain Urech told the guests that ...
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News
Ticket offices to go by 2010
IN THE FACE of protest from consumer organisations and staff, NS Reizigers has postponed to 2010 the closing of staffed ticket offices across its network. Under a programme costed at 50m guilders, NS had hoped to replace these offices by 2003 with ticket vending machines, redeploying staff to assist passengers ...
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News
Building the 21st Century Talgo
INTRO: With nearly 50 years of operating experience, Patentes Talgo is now developing the Talgo XXI trainset, featuring diesel or electric power cars with gauge-changing capability. The latest Series 7 cars will also form the basis of a high-speed train aimed at the Spanish marketBYLINE: Francisco de LorenzoChief Executive OfficerPatentes ...
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News
Valencia Line 5
THE Valencia regional government has awarded the Iberinsa consultancy a Pts300m contract to undertake project development for the proposed Line 5 of the city’s metro network. With 2·5 km in tunnel and the remainder running as light rail on the surface, this 4·7 km route would connect Alameda on Line ...
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News
Active suspension trials head research objectives
THIS MONTH should see Alstom and French National Railways conclude a programme of trials with a TGV modified to demonstrate that ride comfort can be significantly improved in the 300 to 350 km/h speed range. Four cars of a TGV Réseau set have been fitted with a form of active ...
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News
Adtranz gets two years to move into profit
UNVEILING a full-size mock-up of the Innovia peoplemover at the City Transport exhibition in Toronto (right), Adtranz President & CEO Rolf Eckrodt confirmed on May 24 that the company was relying on its modular product platform strategy to return the business to profit within the next two years.Officially known as ...
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News
DLR ticketing agreement
On June 9 Schlumberger announced that it had been selected to supply a new ticketing network for London’s Docklands Light Railway, following the rapid growth in patronage over the past seven years. The package includes 92 new vending machines at 36 stations, linked to a Windows NT-based central management system ...
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News
Alstom’s first year success
PRESENTING Alstom’s first annual accounts following flotation last June, Chairman & CEO Pierre Bilger told his board of directors on May 25 that the year to March 31 1999 had been ’a year of solid results’. He highlighted the ’benefits of Alstom’s focus on the high-margin segments of its ...
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News
SNCF tests Aquazole
French National Railways has begun trials of Aquazole, developed by ELF Antar France to reduce diesel emissions. The fuel is being used by Class 8000 and 63500 shunting locomotives based at La Villette depot outside Paris Est, where local residents have complained about high levels of atmospheric pollution.Aquazole is an ...
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News
Bay Area signs smart card deal
THE LARGEST smart-card fare collection contract yet awarded in North America was signed by San Francisco’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission on May 27. The 10-year turnkey agreement with Motorola’s Worldwide Smartcard Solutions Division and the ERG Group provides for the installation of a smart card ticketing system that may eventually cover ...
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News
Putting Málaga on the AVE map
SPAIN: The Ministry of Development has published details of the proposed extension of the standard gauge AVE route from Córdoba to Málaga. When complete, the line will allow AVE sets to reach the Mediterranean city from Madrid in 2h 21min compared with the 4h 10min now offered by gauge-convertible Talgo ...
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News
BDZ wires head south
BULGARIAN State Railways’ main line from Sofia to the Greek border at Kulata is to be electrified at 25 kV 50Hz by the middle of 2001. During May the Ministry of Regional Development awarded a contract worth 35m euros to a consortium of Adtranz and Glavbolgarstroy for the wiring of ...
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News
New Belgrano operators sought
The Argentinian province of Salta invited expressions of interest by July 5 for operating freight and passenger services on the northern section of the Belgrano Railway. Under an agreement with the federal government, Salta and the eight other provinces of the Greater North Region have the right to contract third ...
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News
Belt conversion
MOSCOW’S Freight Belt railway is to be converted to a dedicated commuter line by 2005, creating a high-capacity orbital link around the suburbs which will relieve the existing metro of cross-city traffic. A fleet of new electric multiple-units is to be supplied by the Demikhovo EMU plant.Details of the conversion ...
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News
Short line boost
THE US government has approved a $1bn loan guarantee programme to improve safety and boost efficiency on over 650 short line and regional railways. Details of the Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing Programme were unveiled by Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater on May 19.To be managed by the Federal Railroad ...
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News
News in Brief
Tel Aviv mass transit promoter NTA Ltd has appointed DeLeuw Cather to undertake preliminary design of its 18 km first line between Petah Tikwa, Tel Aviv and Bat Yam. The route is to be designed as a pre-metro light rail line suitable for conversion to heavy metro in future, but ...
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News
Express Rail Link brings the train to the plane
Construction of a 57 km electrified route between Kuala Lumpur International Airport and the city centre is now under way. Under a 30-year concession awarded to the private sector, express and commuter services are due to begin operating in 2002
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News
Prestige brings smart cards to London
Passengers on London's metro and bus network are expected to begin using contactless smart cards in August 2002. Robert Preston spoke to London Transport Project Manager Chris Oulds and TranSys consortium Marketing Director Victoria Pender about the 17-year Prestige integrated revenue collection contract