Main line rail industry news – Page 1079
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News
AMT orders commuter cars
CANADA: Montréal transport authority AMT has placed a C$386m order with sole bidder Bombardier for 160 double-deck commuter coaches. The base order was for 30 cars with options for 130, but the provincial government exercised all the options immediately. The province is meeting 75% of the cost, and deliveries will ...
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Intelligence February 2008
Austria: ÖBB has unveiled the first of 12 coaches that have been rebuilt as multi-purpose cars with a compartment for disabled passengers; seats in the compartment convert into berths for use on overnight trains. Canada: CN has agreed to purchase the Athabasca Northern Railway serving the oil sands of northern ...
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Selling 5 000 tickets at once
CHINA'S Ministry of Railways is revamping the country's national railway ticketing and seat reservation system using technology from Sybase, the company which supplied a previous generation of ticketing databases in 1996. The upgraded system will be able to handle more than 4½ million ticket sales a day, with 5 000 ...
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News in Brief
US manufacturer MotivePower rolled out its first low-emission genset locomotive at its plant in Boise, Idaho, on January 22. Designated MP21B, the 2 100 hp Bo-Bo demonstrator is powered by three Cummins QSK-19 engines and equipped with Wabtec's Q-Tron QES III microprocessor-based control system. After commissioning on the Idaho Northern ...
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São Paulo metro automates
SIEMENS is leading a consortium that has been selected by MetroQuatro to provide control systems and communications equipment for São Paulo Line 4, which will become the first automated metro in South America. The 12·4 km line from Luz to Vila Sõnia is currently under construction and is due to ...
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NewsHydraulic locomotive orders roll in
VOITH TURBO Lokomotivtechnik of Kiel in north Germany has won several orders for its Maxima and Gravita diesel-hydraulic locomotives. The prototype Maxima has been tested at Velim (RG 11.07 p724) and was due to undergo winter trials in Norway before returning to Germany. The second loco, now nearing completion (rear ...
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DB's next-generation S-Bahn EMUs arrive
The first of 84 low-floor Class ET422 EMUs for the Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn are taking shape at Hennigsdorf and Salzgitter. Harry Hondius reports
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Opportrans renews concession
RIO de Janeiro has renewed the concession for Opportrans to operate the city's metro network for a further 20 years. Financial terms have not been disclosed, but Opportrans has pledged to invest R$950m over the course of the concession to build several new stations and upgrade the existing two-line network, ...
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DVB Bank launches rail fund
'A PROJECT in the European market' was the first transaction announced by the Stephenson Capital rail investment fund which has been established by DVB Bank AG. The fund concentrates primarily on principal investments in rail assets in Europe and North America. Martin Metz, Global Head of the Land Transport division ...
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eBART funding approved
APPROVAL was granted in December for the majority of the funding needed to proceed with the eBART diesel commuter rail line in California. On December 19 Contra Costa Transportation Authority and the Metropolitan Transit Commission separately approved a total of $479m for eBART, which is intended as a quicker and ...
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Industry in Brief
Hyder Consulting has bought transport and water consultancy Voigt Ingenieure, and also SEIB Ingenieur, a consultancy specialising in the rail and road sectors in Germany and Austria. FreightCar America is to cease production at its Johnstown factory in Pennsylvania, which employs 390 people. The wagon manufacturer said Johnstown had higher ...
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NewsAlstom withdraws from IEP
ALSTOM has notified the UK's Department for Transport that it is withdrawing from the Intercity Express Programme to supply the UK's next-generation of inter-city train. 'Alstom follows a specific process in assessing potential business opportunities, based on financial and technical input', a spokesman told Railway Gazette International. 'After a ...
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Urban Rail News in Brief
Construction of a second tram line in the French city of Orléans is to go ahead following signature of a Declaration of Public Utility on January 10. Running east-west, the 11·8 km route with 25 stops will link St Jean de Braye with St Jean de la Ruelle and La ...
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Paris pushes urban freight experiment
French supermarket chain Monoprix has started delivering consumer goods to 27 Parisian supermarkets by rail. Laurent Charlier reports
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Mixed messages on maglev
THE FIRST section of the 550 km Chuo Maglev between Tokyo and Osaka could open in 2025, following an announcement by Central Japan Railway that it is prepar-ed to finance the project completely. JR Central had long argued that the state should fund the infrastructure works. But on December 25 ...
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Market February 2008
Africa: RITES has supplied four 2 300 hp metre-gauge locos built at DLW Varanasi to Senegal and Mali. DLW expects to produce 200 locos in 2008, with 54 for export. Argentina: The federal government has launched tendering for a contract worth up to 7m pesos to restore the 284·8 km ...
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Metros February 2008
Austria: Innsbruck transport operator IVB has exercised an option under a 2005 contract with Bombardier and ELIN for a further 10 Flexity Outlook trams worth €23m. The first of 32 trams now on order will enter service next month, with the last due in late 2009 (RG 11.07 p680). Bulgaria: ...