All Railway Gazette International articles in June 2001
All articles published this month.
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News
SWT confirms £1bn train deal
STAGECOACH Holdings announced on April 24 that it was to lease 785 Siemens Desiro UK 750V DC electric multiple-unit cars for its South West Trains franchise (RG 3.01 p161). Options would take the total to 1201 vehicles. Around one-third of the £1bn contract value covers maintenance of the fleet at ...
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News
Pointers June 2001
The New South Wales Rail, Tram & Bus Industry Union has said it will not oppose the privatisation of FreightCorp as long as it is sold with National Rail Corp. Secretary Nick Lewocki said the union is not pro-privatisation, but has to be pragmatic. It hopes to persuade the Commonwealth ...
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News
30 tonnes on the Malmbanan
SWEDISH heavy-haul iron ore operator MTAB held ceremonies on March 7 to mark the start of regular operations with 30 tonne axleloads on the Luleå - Kiruna - Narvik corridor. The opening celebrations also marked the entry into revenue service of MTAB's first new trainset, funded by iron ore mining ...
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News
Connex launches 375s at last
CAPTION: British Transport Minister Keith Hill (left of inset) and Connex Managing Director Olivier Brousse (right) were among the dignitaries present at London Victoria on April 30 to welcome the first scheduled service into the capital worked by Class 375 EMUs (RG 6.00 p351). Adtranz is supplying a total of ...
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News
Open access denied
AN APPLICATION by two operators seeking access to Canadian National’s tracks (RG 4.01 p210) was rejected by the Canadian Transportation Agency on May 3. Hudson Bay Railway, owned by US short line operator Omnitrax, sought authority to collect grain from silos and haul it over 2400 km of CN track ...
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News
Adtranz takeover completed
BOMBARDIER completed its acquisition of DaimlerChrysler Rail Systems GmbH (Adtranz) on May 1, following the approval by the European Commission’s competition authorities (RG 5.01 p349) of the sale and purchase agreement with DaimlerChrysler AG announced last August. The purchase was completed for a cash consideration of C$1·1bn (k790m), subject ...
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News
Cross-London links back on the agenda
BRITAIN’s Strategic Rail Authority and Transport for London have signed an accord to develop two more cross-London rail links. Transport Minister Lord Macdonald said on May 3 that £150m from the government’s 10-year transport plan has been allocated for ’project definition and design development work’. Both arise from the London ...
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News
Estonian agreement
THE LONG-RUNNING saga of Estonia’s rail privatisation moved a step closer to completion on April 30, when the Estonian Privatisation Agency signed a formal agreement with the Baltic Rail Services consortium on the last day allowed under the privatisation legislation. The transaction cannot be concluded because a Tallinn administrative court ...
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News
Airtrain inaugurated
QUEENSLAND’s Premier Peter Beattie and Transport Minister Steve Bredhauer joined celebrations at Brisbane Airport’s Domestic station on May 7 to mark the opening of the state capital’s privately-promoted airport rail link. After an arriving train broke though a banner, the Premier and Airtrain Chairman Martin Kriewaldt unveiled a commemorative plaque.The ...
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News
Alp lines on a roll
BOTH SWISS Federal Railways and Austrian Federal Railways reported strong growth in freight business last year. Transit traffic between Italy and other EU countries is booming, and total tonnage carried by ÖBB was up by nearly 9% at 84·7 million, with intermodal traffic increasing by 17%. Around 300000 lorries were ...
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News
Amtrak signs FEC deal
ON MAY 3 US passenger operator Amtrak announced that it had reached agreement with the Florida East Coast Railway to use the coastal route from Jacksonville to West Palm Beach. This will allow Amtrak to serve eight towns which last saw passenger trains in the mid-1960s, including the resorts of ...
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News
Analytical software
NETHERLANDS Railways’ passenger business NS Reizigers has started using iTM1 software from Applix to analyse passenger traffic data. The software is being used for four principal functions: project administration; passenger flow analysis; punctuality; and sales forecasting.iTM1 allows users to manipulate information on punctuality, traffic volumes, passenger responsiveness and backgrounds, ticket ...
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News
Poles torn apart
JUNE 1 sees Polskie Linie Kolejowe PLK SA set up as a subsidiary company to manage Polish State Railways’ infrastructure, marking a key stage in privatisation of the 22113 route-km Polish network under legislation passed on September 8 2000. Since then, the programme has proceeded steadily, if not quite to ...
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News
Tilting TRDs arrive
SPANISH National Railways has taken delivery of the first three of seven tilting TRD DMUs ordered from CAF in May 1999 for a total of Pts3·7bn. The SIBI tilting system developed by CAF (RG 12.99 p754) is expected to be fully operational by September. Pre-programmed with route characteristics, SIBI uses ...
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News
ATEC to start work in October
CONSTRUCTION of an inland rail corridor between Melbourne and Brisbane is set to get under way in October. The A$1·4bn Australian Inland Rail Expressway is intended to form the first phase of the ambitious Australian Transport & Energy Corridor linking the east coast cities with Darwin. The line is primarily ...
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News
Queensland welcomes IHHA and AusRAIL delegates
BYLINE: Bob ScheuberChief Executive, QROn behalf of QR, I would like to welcome delegates from around the world to the 7th International Heavy Haul Conference and AusRAIL 2001, the biennial business conference of the Australasian Railway Association. Both events are being held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, the ...
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News
Australian dream is close to take-off
WORK was expected to get under way last month on the 1420 km rail link between Alice Springs and Darwin, following the assembly of a financing package for the project on April 20 (RG 5.00 p282). First proposed in 1858, a north-south rail link became a federal commitment in 1911. ...
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NewsTechnology transfer - from heavy haul to passenger and back
With privatisation sweeping the world, passenger carriers are increasingly subject to the same pressures as those affecting freight railways. Heavy haul operators have invested considerable time and effort learning how to run the world's most efficient rail businesses, and their experiences should be of interest to all railway managers, including ...
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News
Control centre back up
Rotterdam metro operator RET has bought a Cummins CS400-5 400 kVA generating set to provide back up power for its metro traffic control centre in the event of a mains failure. Installed in a soundproofed 20ft container, the set comprises a NTA855G4 engine coupled to a Stamford Newage alternator.Microprocessor-based monitoring ...
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News
Kiley takes charge of PPP as preferred bidders are named
BRITAIN’s Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced on May 4 that Commissioner of Transport for London Bob Kiley would be taking over as Chairman of London Transport from May 8, with responsibility for negotiating final contracts under the government’s Public-Private Partnership package. The LT board selected two consortia on May ...