Main line rail industry news – Page 1086
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News
Industry in Brief
Composite component makers Technical Resin Bonders and Amber Composites have been bought by a private equity consortium lead by US entrepreneur Jonathan McQueen, who becomes CEO of the UK-based companies. Composites are increasingly used in rolling stock, offering light weight and high strength. Visiting the Mahilyow Carriage Works in late ...
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Urban rail news in brief - December 2007
Algeria: CNIM has won a contract to supply 23 escalators for eight underground stations being built by Vinci Construction Grands Projets on the 11 km first phase of the Alger Metro. Opening of the line between Haï El Badir, Hamma and Tafourah Grande Poste is planned for 2009. Thales announced ...
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Gulf rail links beckon
ONE REGION that has long harboured ambitions for an international rail network is the Gulf, although there has been little progress to report. With Saudi Arabia forging ahead with its north-south mineral line, east-west Landbridge and Western Railway (RG 8.07 p465), others are keen to join the party. Reports surfaced ...
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NewsGreat Western regional refurbishment underway
UK: Diesel multiple-units operated by First Great Western on west of England regional services are undergoing an £11m refurbishment to bring them up to modern standards of reliability and appearance. During November the operator returned to service the first of 17 Class 150 two-car DMUs to be modernised by Cardiff-based ...
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City News in Brief
An extension of Minsk metro Line 1 was opened on November 7. Totalling 2·7 km, the line serves two stations at Borisovskij Trakt and Uruchije and connects with the existing route at Uskhod. Built at a cost of €170m, the extension serves a number of residential areas in the northeast ...
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Who is getting serious about climate change?
FOUR MONTHS of consultation on an unprecedented scale across France culminated at the end of October in a high-profile summit on the environment. During the event President Nicolas Sarkozy made some remarkable commitments on rail policy. 'We will make a massive investment in transport', proclaimed Sarkozy, who at that time ...
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Germany's contrasting approaches to competitive tendering
Regional passenger services across Germany have increasingly been put out to competitive tender in recent years. The approach to market liberalisation varies from region to region, as case studies in Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein illustrate. Nevertheless, the process appears to be benefiting both the regional authorities and the passenger alike
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Mobile shops to keep wagons moving
GE EQUIPMENT Services, Rail Services is expanding its mobile wagon repair and inspection capabilities with the establishment of bases at Mounds in Illinois and Waycross in Georgia. A facility at La Porte in Texas is already up and running. The company's mobile repair units can travel out to work on ...
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Investment boost for Indonesia
THE INDONESIAN government announced on November 5 that it plans to invest 15·8bn rupiah in modernisation and upgrading of the national rail network, using a mix of public and private funds. According to the Director-General of Rail Transport at the Ministry of Railways, Wendy Aritnang, much of the money will ...
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People in the News - December 2007
Following the merger of Kowloon - Canton Railway and MTR Corp with effect from December 2, Raymond Ch'ien Kuo-fung will be Non-Executive Chairman of the combined company and C K Chow will be Chief Executive Officer. Lincoln Leong is Finance Director, Andrew McCusker becomes Operations Director and Li Yun-tai (formerly ...
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NewsNexans reels out custom cable
MORE THAN 160 km of specialist axle-counter cable was supplied to Balfour Beatty Rail Projects this summer for use in the Trent Valley Four Tracking project on Britain's West Coast Main Line. Linking trackside axle-counters to the central monitoring system, the cable has been laid alongside 29 route-km of track ...
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Indian launch
INVENSYS Rail Group launched its Westinghouse Rail Systems India division at the Expo Rail India exhibition held in New Delhi during October. Charles Page, Acting Sales & Marketing Director from Westinghouse Rail Systems Australia, said the division 'will enable us to significantly enhance our customer and technical support and provide ...
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News in Brief
Queensland Rail Chief Executive Officer Lance Hockridge officially launched QR National's first Melbourne – Perth container service on November 13. 'QR now offers a full container service from Cairns to Perth via Melbourne', he said, adding that this 'gives customers a third and highly-competitive carrier across the Nullarbor. We are ...
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Light rail flip-flop
IN A MARKED reversal of its policy adopted in June 2005, the board of Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority voted on October 18 to adopt light rail for all five corridors in the city's $1·3bn Metro Solutions expansion programme. It had previously been decided that an all-rail plan would be too ...
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Safety scares could paralyse freight in the Netherlands
BACK IN October there did appear to be some prospect that the Betuwe Route – which was formally 'opened' by Queen Beatrix on June 16 – would at last be carrying freight trains on a regular basis from December 9 (RG 9.07 p536). On November 12 Bombardier's plant in Randers ...
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High speed heads northwest
MEETING ON October 25, the board of the Spanish government's transport infrastructure agency Seitt approved the award of three contracts worth €201·3m in total, covering civil works on 67·1 km of the 91·9 km of high speed line to be built between Olmedo and Zamora. Leaving the Madrid – Valladolid ...
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Finance News December 2007
Australia: The state of Victoria has allocated A$272m to add a further eight trains to a planned order for 10 six-car passenger sets for which tenders were called in July. Delivery is planned for late 2009. Bulgaria: On October 20 Mayor of Sofia Boyko Borissov said that the European Investment ...
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Competition drives rail freight renaissance
The Australian rail freight business has changed dramatically in recent years, driven by pivotal investment and the restructuring of operations and infrastructure management. The introduction of on-rail competition has facilitated the integration of line-haul train operations into wider logistics businesses
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More light rail for Andalucía
AN AGREEMENT signed by Andalucía's Minister for Public Works & Transport Concepción Gutiérrez and Mayor of San Fernando Manuel María de Bernardo on November 15 paved the way for tendering to begin before the end of 2007 for a 24 km tram-train route that will connect San Fernando and Chiclana ...
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SPV to fund Beijing - Shanghai
FACED WITH rapidly increasing estimates for the cost of building the long-planned high speed line between Beijing and Shanghai, the Chinese Ministry of Railways has decided to form a Special Purpose Vehicle to finance the project. Under development for more than 10 years, the 1 318 km line was originally ...