All Railway Gazette International articles in June 1999
All articles published this month.
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News
Metro Report 1999
SUBSCRIBERS will receive with this issue a copy of Metro Report 1999, our annual snapshot and overview of the latest developments in urban railways worldwide. Articles contributed by chief executives from metro and urban rail operators describe investment plans and programmes in cities ranging from Ankara to Taipei.Also in Metro ...
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Mubarak opens Cairo Line 2 extension
EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak formally inaugurated the third phase of Cairo metro Line 2 at the end of April. The 5 km extension carries the line below the Nile en route to the southwestern suburb of Giza. Starting from the interchange with Line 1 at Sadat, the Line 2 extension ...
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Production VAL208 arrives in Lille
Transpole has taken delivery of the first production VAL208 trainset. Matra Transport International is building 60 two-car sets for the Lille metro (MR98 p42), including the 16 station 12·5 km Line 2 extension from Fort de Mons to Tourcoing Centre, due to open on August 18. Trial running starts on ...
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Stuttgart goes AC motored
THE first of 23 DT8.10 Stadtbahnwagen A articulated LRVs for Stuttgarter Straßenbahn AG was handed over by Adtranz and Siemens on April 16. The air-conditioned all-steel vehicles are a derivative of the standard-gauge design which SSB has been ordering since 1984, and will bring the fleet to 114 cars.The cars ...
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Open access proposal threatens profitable harmony
INTRO: Four years after the amicable separation of Finland’s rail infrastructure administration and restructuring of Finnish State Railways as a profitable commercial company, the government has decided to introduce more competition. Chris Jackson discussed the implications with RHK Director-General Ossi Niemimuukko and VR Group President & CEO Henri Kuitunen ON ...
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Ticino - Malpensa accord
MEETING in Lugano on May 4, representatives of Swiss Federal Railways, Italian State Railways, the Swiss canton of Ticino and the Italian province of Lombardia agreed to develop a cross-border rail link between the Gotthard and Simplon corridors. An international committee has been set up to manage the project and ...
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African concessions at risk
CONCESSIONS to operate three rail corridors radiating from the Mozambique capital Maputo are in jeopardy; CFM’s chief negotiator Miguel Matabel said in April that negotiations had collapsed because the latest offers were ’not good enough’. Last year CFM selected a Spoornet-led consortium to take over the Maputo - Ressano Garcia ...
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Still up in the air
COMPETITION to obtain federal funds towards magnetic levitation projects is hotting up again in the USA. Congress has appropriated initial funding of $12m to kick start three or four schemes, and 10 applications have been sent in so far - not that $12m will go very far. One proposal covers ...
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Kuala Lumpur airport link contract signed
MALAYSIA: Kuala Lumpur airport rail link concessionaire Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd formally awarded on May 6 an Engineering, Procurement & Construction contract for construction of the 57 km line (RG 12.98 p826). The contract was signed by ERLSB Executive Chairman Dato' Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh and representatives of the ...
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Berlin air-rail link plan
At the International Air-Rail Organisation workshop in Berlin on April 27-28, DB unveiled preliminary proposals for an Airport Express shuttle service between the expanded Berlin hub station at Lehrter and Sch
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Alarming rise in rail breaks
BRITAIN’S Health & Safety Executive took the drastic step on April 29 of serving on Railtrack a Prohibition Notice limiting trains in the 7 km tunnel under the Severn estuary to 32 km/h. First Great Western’s inter-city services between London and South Wales were disrupted, along with those of other ...
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Aluminium Trakrat
Group Engineering has unveiled an innovative utility vehicle for track maintenance gangs. Trakrat’s novel design features include lightweight aluminium construction, a bucket seat for the driver and a well-cushioned longitudinal seat for up to six passengers. The high seating position, vibration dampers and triple-disc braking ensure a comfortable ride compared ...
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Auto-local tickets
Schlumberger has completed roll out of 165 ticket vending machines at stations across Denmark. The light-flow-ticket machines allow passengers to use cash, credit cards or electronic purse payment to buy tickets, but have low running costs. DSB is able to manage them remotely using a communications link over the public ...
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Benefits justify higher BHP axleloads
INTRO: Innovative management and a commitment to research have halved the cost of hauling iron ore to Port Hedland in Western Australia in the last five years. A key lever has been less variable loading that sees axleloads now nudging 37 tonnes, with 40 tonnes in prospectBYLINE: Mike Moynan, Alex ...
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Line B contract
NEXT MONTH should see the start of work on a 1·8 km extension of Buenos Aires metro Line B at a cost of 34m pesos. Civil engineering contractor Techint was selected as preferred bidder for the work on April 21 and the contract was signed a week later.The extension from ...
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Back to builder
NORWEGIAN State Railways has finally reached a settlement with Siemens about the ill-fated Type Di6 locomotives which were ordered under a NKR300m contract placed in 1992.The deal provides for Siemens to take back the 11 units delivered to NSB and to reimburse the full price. Further, it is to pay ...
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EPIC runs to Richards Bay
SPOORNET’S Coalink business unit has ordered integrated braking and train controls from Westinghouse Air Brake Co for installation on a test train on the 420 km Ermelo - Richards Bay heavy haul corridor. Four Class7E1 electric locos will be fitted with EPIC electronic air brakes and PowerLink distributed power units, ...
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Bidding extended
VICTORIA’s state government announced in mid-April that the deadline for bids to operate Melbourne’s suburban rail and tram routes would be extended to the end of May. Several bidders had asked for more time to assess the implications of the government’s requirements for extra rolling stock investment on the viability ...
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British operators step up services
Midland Main Line’s high-profile service expansion is just one of a number of major improvements in frequency being rolled out with the summer timetable, beginning on May 30. MML will deploy its Class 170/1 Turbostar DMUs from Adtranz to double its London - Derby/Nottingham service to half-hourly, and add through ...
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Talgo to buy Transtech
On May 12 the Finnish national steel company Rautaruukki announced that it had signed a pre-contract for the sale of its Transtech rolling stock business to Patentes Talgo of Spain. The deal is still subject to final approval by the boards of the two companies.Transtech was formed to build freight ...