Main line rail industry news – Page 1120
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News
Bluetooth in Bilbao
RENFE Cercanías de Bilbao has launched a trial Bluetooth service, offering passengers timetable, fares and service disruption information on their mobile phones and PDAs. The service uses J2ME technology to communicate with Bluetooth-enabled devices, allowing passengers to download a guide to RENFE services in the local area, complete with ...
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Dubai auto-couplers
VOITH Scharfenberg is to fit auto-couplers to a fleet of 87 metro cars for Dubai being built by Kinki Sharyo. The couplers will be fitted with shock absorbers to protect the driverless vehicles in a low-speed collision. The couplers, like the vehicles themselves, are being designed to cope with the ...
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Building blocks
Poundfield Products believes its Betabric retaining wall design could reduce the cost of building such structures by as much as 50% on the UK network. Many earth retaining walls were built in the nineteenth century and their structural integrity is a growing cause for concern. Poundfield’s Betabric product allows ...
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Troops take railway towards the border
ERITREA'S government has provided 1 000 soldiers to work on rehabilitation of the 124 km of the 950 mm gauge Eritrean Railway west from Asmara to Agordat. Continuing a further 109 km from Agordat would take the line to Biscia, thereafter to Tessenei and the Sudanese border, ...
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MTR goes shopping
HONG Kong MTR has officially opened its first shopping centre in mainland China. Ginza Shopping Mall stands above Dongzhimen metro station in a prosperous area of Beijing, and will be operated using the ’rail-plus-property’ model which MTR says has proved highly successful in maximising the value of inner-urban sites around ...
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Fret diesels are fruit of Franco-German partnership
The first of a large fleet of diesel-electric locos built by Alstom and Siemens will shortly enter service with SNCF, reports Laurent Charlier
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NewsSlovenian gateway helps revitalise intermodal sector
Supported by the Marco Polo programme, the two-year Singer project is intended to develop new unaccompanied intermodal flows to and from Eastern Europe. Block trains from München, Verona and Budapest converge on a gateway hub at Ljubljana, offering competitive transit times and reducing costs
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NewsHamburger Hochbahn restructures
Hamburger Hochbahn AG is to bring its rail and bus operations together into a single holding company in a bid to accelerate its expansion programme. The firm, which operates a number of regional rail services in partnership across Germany in addition to its Hamburg bus and metro business, hopes ...
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Bratislava commissions expansion studies
A CONSORTIUM of Bratislava-based contractors Dopravoprojekt and Infraprojekt has been appointed by Railways of the Slovak Republic to draw up a KS940m detailed feasibility study for three major investment projects in the capital. Construction bids will be invited shortly for the ambitious 2007-15 expansion programme, which includes upgrading and electrification ...
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NewsWorld railway market is 'robust and attractive'
A study commissioned by UNIFE from Roland Berger Strategy Consultants puts the value of the world railway market at over €100bn a year. Growth is predicted at 1·5% to 2% a year for the next decade.
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NewsADIF plans €23bn spend in 2007-10
SPAIN: On January 26 the cabinet approved the 2007-10 contract programme between the government and ADIF, which will see the infrastructure authority receive a total of €11·9bn from the state. Over this period ADIF is planning to spend a total of €23bn, with the balance to be found from ...
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NewsBDZ separation plan approved
BULGARIA: The cabinet approved a plan to further restructure Bulgarian State Railways on January 18, following the creation of financially independent passenger, freight and traction divisions of the national operator on January 1 (RG 12.06 p764). Transport Minister Peter Mutafchiev plans to create separate telecoms, rolling stock management, maintenance ...
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Napoli metro Line 6 opens
ITALY: Prime Minister Romano Prodi attended an inauguration ceremony for Napoli metro Line 6 on January 11, in advance of the start of passenger services on February 4. A successor to various long-delayed tram and light metro schemes, the 1·9 km first phase of Line 6 runs from Mostra to ...
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Regional franchises benefit from an international perspective
Over the past decade, several state-owned railways from mainland Europe have looked at participating in the UK passenger rail franchising market. So far the only successful entrant has been NedRailways, which runs Merseyrail and Northern Rail in partnership with Serco. Chief Executive Anton Valk explains
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NewsCapacity crunch looms on busy UK network as policy failures bite
Contrasts abound in the complex UK railway business, with high costs militating against network enhancements despite the urgent need to raise capacity
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British franchising policy rewards high bids
LAST NOVEMBER the UK House of Commons Transport Committee published a hard-hitting report about the franchising process for passenger services (RG 12.06 p768), describing the current structure as a 'complex, fragmented and costly muddle'. In terms of cost, the Association of Train Operating Companies estimates that it costs between £3m ...
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NewsCross-London projects languish on the back burner
WHILE the East London Line is finally being rebuilt to provide rapid and frequent services along a corridor linking London's northern and southern suburbs, two major projects to make it simple for rail passengers to travel across London have made spectacularly little progress over the last 15 years. The Thameslink ...
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Finance February 2007
Africa: The Northern Corridor Transit Transport Co-ordination Authority based in Mombasa is to receive US$3m from the African Development Bank and World Bank to prepare an infrastructure master plan for trade and transport in east Africa. A further US$1·5m has been budgeted to establish a Central Corridor agency to manage ...
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NewsQR on course to move freight throughout Australia
A transformation is taking place in Australian rail freight, as Queensland's state-owned railway emerges as the stronger of two major players and Pacific National seeks a new backer under Toll ownership. Richard Hope asked CEO Bob Scheuber where QR is heading now
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Extension takes East London Line from Underground to Overground
Due for completion in June 2010, Phase 1 of the East London Line extension programme will see one of London Underground's shortest routes become part of a new orbital link connecting the main line network north and south of the Thames