Latest news – Page 1394
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News
Birmingham New Street station rebuild funded
UK: Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly announced on February 12 that the Birmingham Gateway project to reconstruct the city's New Street station had obtained the funding needed to proceed. Work is planned to start in 2009 for completion by 2014. The Department for Transport will contribute £288m; another £100m will come ...
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Indian Railways invests
INDIA: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh officiated at a ceremony in Jhabua on February 8 to lay the foundation stone for two new railways serving the western part of Madhya Pradesh. Joined by the state's Governor Balram Jakhar and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Prime Minister inaugurated work on ...
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NewsScotland: ‘We are more hands-on’
Devolution of power from the UK to the Scottish Government has enabled Scotland to formulate its own transport strategy. Andrew Grantham asked Chief Executive of Transport Scotland Malcolm Reed about the future direction of Scotland’s railways
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NewsHeavy haul developments
AUSTRALIA: Fortescue Metals subsidiary The Pilbara Infrastructure has lodged an application with Australia's National Competition Council seeking access to Rio Tinto's Robe River heavy haul line. TPI is seeking to operate trains over 210 km of track between Mesa J and Cape Lambert, with a view to enabling third parties ...
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Cork commuter reinstatement
IRELAND: Transport Minister Noel Dempsey officially launched works to reinstate the disued Glounthaune - Midleton line on February 14. A DMU service to Cork will be introduced in early 2009, running half-hourly in the peaks and hourly off-peak as part of a €130m investment in the city's commuter services under ...
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Cajon Pass: From double to triple-track
A massive capacity expansion project on BNSF’s busy Cajon Pass line is due to be completed by the end of this year. David Lustig reports from California
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Dulles deal halted
USA: Federal funding is unlikely to be forthcoming for the 18·7 km first stage of the Washington Metro extension towards Dulles International Airport. Federal Transit Administrator James Simpson insisted there are 'an extraordinarily large set of challenges' that would exclude the project from receiving $900m in federal grants. FTA had ...
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'Mixed train' approach can lift wagonload profitability
As Europe's traditional trainload traffic becomes less profitable, railways are keen to exploit ways of making wagonload operations more efficient. Combining wagonload and trainload traffic in 'mixed trains' can be an attractive option, as Sweden's Green Cargo has found
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NewsCzech passenger reform
CZECH REPUBLIC: On January 9 the government approved in principle the Ministry of Transport's plans to hive off the passenger division of Czech Railways as a wholly-owned subsidiary company. The Ministry will complete detailed studies by the end of October, and the restructuring is to be completed by the end ...
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New Chairman at CD
Petr Zaluda has been appointed Chairman & General Manager of Czech Railways (CD). He replaces Josef Bazala, who recently became Chairman & General Manager of CD Cargo (RG 1.08 p17). Educated in Brno, Petr Zaluda studied management, marketing and information technology at the University of Utrecht and Sheffield Business School ...
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BC proposes Vancouver transport plan
CANADA: The Premier of British Columbia Gordon Campbell announced a C$14bn transport plan which includes new metro, light rail and bus rapid transit lines on January 14. The biggest project is a 12 km SkyTrain light metro line running parallel to congested Broadway, bisecting central Vancouver to the University of ...
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NewsWraps come off the AGV
Built by Alstom on a speculative basis, the seven-car AGV demonstrator was unveiled to French President Nicolas Sarkozy on February 5. Murray Hughes reports from La Rochelle
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Helping business-led railways to share best practice
If there is one thing that we have learned during the past 20-year maelstrom of railway reform, restructuring, liberalisation, concessioning and privatisation, it is that today's railway managers need to keep a firm focus on the commercial aspects of their business. For operators such as the Class I railroads of ...
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Try, try again
GEORGIA: Despite, or perhaps because of, parliamentary elections in May, the government has embarked on another attempt to privatise Georgian Railways. Bids were invited by January 25, although no structure or timetable had been set for the process. Last year the Caucasian republic tried handing a 99-year concession to UK-based ...
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Denver places $184m order
USA: Siemens announced its largest-ever US light rail vehicle contract on February 5, a $184m deal to supply 55 SD160 high-floor cars to Denver's Regional Transportation District. RTD has previously ordered a total of 95 LRVs from Siemens. The initial seven vehicles from an option for 34 SD160 cars are ...
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NewsBergen car order
NORWAY: The city of Bergen has signed a previously-announced €35m contract ordering 12 Variobahn trams from Stadler Pankow, with an option for a further 20. Closure of the deal was confirmed on January 29 by Stadler, which will be responsible for maintaining the cars for eight years. Top speed will ...
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NewsLegendary task of painting the Forth Bridge to end
UK: Painting the Forth Bridge has become a British proverb, a task so big that it can never be finished; by the time you have reached one end, it is time to start re-painting the other again. Never strictly true - painting has always been prioritised ...
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Dieter - March 2008
DENMARK: The Transport for London board reported several 'overindulged and overcarried passengers' on London's Docklands Light Railway over the last New Year holiday, but a potential solution to this inconvenience has been found in Denmark. In an effort to reduce the number of København Metro passengers who fall asleep ...
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NewsIndependence day inauguration of Santo Domingo metro
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: President Leonel Fernández joined representatives of the government and local businesses to ride a ceremonial 'first train' on the Santo Domingo Metro on February 27. After his independence day address to the national assembly, President Fernández walked to Centro de los Héroes metro station to board one of ...
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Sell-off squad soldiers on
GERMANY: The coalition government in Berlin appears determined to make one final effort to sell off part of the national railway before the forthcoming 2009 general election. Previous attempts to privatise Deutsche Bahn AG have collapsed in the face of political opposition focused mainly on the possibility of the national ...