Main line rail industry news – Page 1192
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News
Contactless Taipei
THALES has been selected by Alstom Transport and CTCI Corp to update ticketing on the Taipei metro. The Transport & Energy business will be working with local partners Mitac and ACS on the €40m contract announced towards the end of last year.The metro’s existing ticketing equipment was supplied by Thales ...
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Fares in San Francisco
CUBIC Transportation Systems announced a $3·4m expansion of its fare collection contract with the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District on November 9.Cubic will embed its Tri-Reader smart card readers in BART access gates and ticket vending machines, allowing passengers to use and top-up the TransLink stored value smart ...
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Long-stroke buffers absorb shock
IMPACT speeds of 12 km/h or less will produce a maximum acceleration of 10m/s2 using the 1g buffer from Schwab Verkehrstechnik. Designed to UIC standards, the buffer is designed to be used instead of long-stroke impact absorbers, which can increase the cost of rolling stock by requiring heavy mountings.The buffer ...
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Wagon builders co-operate in China
THE Greenbrier Companies and Zhuzhou Rolling Stock Works announced the signing of two long-term co-operation agreements on December 15. The US company is to use Chinese-made parts in its North American and European wagons, and will identify design and commercial opportunities in China and elsewhere. Greenbrier also plans to examine ...
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Past linked to future
THE CITY of Toulouse has awarded Ascom a contract worth €24m to supply a replacement ticketing system for the VAL metro and local buses, and Norwegian train operator NSB A/S has awarded the company a contract for smart card ticketing at 159 stations. The biggest challenge of the French project ...
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Ticket offices overtaken
VIRGIN Trains passengers’ growing confidence in electronic, online and telephone purchasing means that these methods now account for more than one-third of ticket sales for the company’s West Coast services. Around 16 million passengers used Virgin’s West Coast services in 2004, and combined sales through the operator’s website, call centres ...
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Delay compensation standardised
MINIMUM levels of compensation for passengers delayed during international journeys within the European Union, Switzerland and Norway came into force with the December 12 timetable change. The compensation scheme was drawn up by UIC and CER, and specifies that passengers holding tickets for cross-border journeys costing more than €50 will ...
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Skoda cleared to buy CKD
ON January 4 the Czech Republic’s Office for the Protection of Economic Competition decided to allow Skoda Holding to buy 100% of the shares of CKD Vagónka from 11 Fite Group, owner of the residual CKD Holding businesses. CKD Vagónka, which employs 300 people and has annual sales of KC1·5bn, ...
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Common man goes mobile
MINISTER for Railways Laloo Prasad launched Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corp’s mobile telephone booking service on September 9.Reservations can be made over the telephone using Hindi and English voice-recognition technology developed by Hutchison Essar Telecom. Once registered, users provide their origin and destination stations, the number of passengers, class, ...
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Eastleigh to close
ALSTOM announced in December that it is to close its ex-BR workshops at Eastleigh near Southampton by the end of 2005. The company blamed the closure on excess capacity at its three UK refurbishment plants, caused by falling orders following the delivery of new trains, competition, and uncertainties associated with ...
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Stadler rents plant
STADLER has taken over the Weiden works of Partner für Fahrzeugausstattung GmbH following the signing of a preliminary agreement with the insolvent company’s creditors on December 30.Work at the plant in northeast Bayern had ceased in mid-2004. Stadler is to invest €2m in the site, which will be used to ...
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Stock firms merge
DERBY-based spot hire, fleet management and engineering firm Fragonset Railways and train operating and planning business Merlin Rail announced on December 7 that they were merging to form Fragonset Merlin Railways with immediate effect. FM Rail has a combined turnover of £7m, and an operational fleet of 20 locomotives and ...
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Bearing share sold
TIMKEN South Africa announced on January 5 that the Bokamoso Investments black economic empowerment consortium had acquired a 26% share in Timken Bearing Services South Africa for R38·6m. The transaction is being funded by a loan from First National Bank. Under the agreement, all the assets of Timken South Africa’s ...
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Software agreement
AUTOMATIC fare collection technology supplier Cubic Transportation Systems has signed an agreement to resell CODA e-Finance and CODA-XL accounting software with its Nextfare ticketing equipment. The CODA back-office software can cope with different national accounting practices, languages and currencies. According to Cubic’s Senior Vice-President of Engineering James Karam, ’e-Finance will ...
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Panel laminates
GE ADVANCED Materials is to work with Schneller to produce coach interior components which combine Schneller’s Indura GTform decorative laminates with the Rail-Lite composites made by the Azdel joint venture of GE and PPG Industries.The Indura GTform fluoropolymer laminates will be used in the production of window masks, ceiling panels, ...
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Where the passengers come from
PRIOR to the announcement that Eurostar would transfer all operations from London Waterloo to St Pancras when Section 2 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link opens in 2007, Arthur D Little and FaberMaunsell conducted research into the perceived journey times by public transport to the two stations.FaberMaunsell’s South East Regional ...
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The freight debate
THE GOVERNMENT agency responsible for renegotiating Argentina's freight railway concessions, Uniren, is pushing ahead with the process. A public hearing was due to be held last month to consider the latest proposals for Fepsa, and Uniren also expected to sign letters of understanding with NCA and ALL by the ...
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Trains to Russia
ON DECEMBER 21 an agreement was signed by Russian Railways President Gennady Fadeyev and DG AG Chairman Hartmut Mehdorn to create passenger transport joint venture TransBaltZug.Registered in Kaliningrad, TransBaltZug is 50·5% owned by RZD and 49·5% by German Railway, with both parties having equal decision-making rights. The core business of ...
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Smart ticket sales
BY MARCH station booking offices managed by British train operating company Southern will be equipped with Shere’s Manned Rail Ticketing computer-based ticketing issuing machines. As well as offering a full range of UK tickets, seat reservations, online credit card authorisation and real-time running information, Smart is integrated with the operator’s ...
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Out of the arc
NEXT month Metronet Rail will complete the installation of 30 arc suppression ramps which have been developed to cut the number of track fires in tunnels on three London Underground lines.The ramps are designed to minimise the duration of arcing on the conductor rails at locations where fires have occurred. ...