Main line rail industry news – Page 1203
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News
Going private
WITH NO sign of the capacity crunch easing on Chinese Railways (RG 7.04 p396), the government is looking urgently at measures to accelerate investment as a means of raising capacity.One option being explored is to sanction the use of private capital for railway construction as part of a sweeping reform ...
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Madrid picks Citadis
ON AUGUST 3, Alstom announced that it had been selected to supply 70 Citadis LRVs to operate the planned 31 km light rail network in Madrid. Signing of the €144·6m contract is expected this month. The cars are to be built at the company’s Spanish plant, which assembled the Citadis ...
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Passante route out to tender
NINE COMPANIES have prequalified for a contract to operate the first service through Milano’s Passante cross-city tunnel, which is due to open throughout on December 10 2006. Lombardia region announced on July 23 that it would issue the final invitation to tender shortly.The nine-year contract covers the operation of a ...
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Vuknovo airport service launched
MOSCOW Mayor Yuri Luzhkov joined the celebrations on July 29 to mark the launch of Russian Railways' second dedicated airport rail service in the capital. He was joined at Moscow Kievskaya station by RZD President Gennady Fadeyev, Moscow Railway President Vladimir Starostenko and the Chairman of Vuknovo International Airport's ...
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Links across the Andes
ARGENTINA’s Under-Secretary of Transport Julio Montaña has formally approved tender specifications for the project developed by Tecnicagua to restore the rail link between Mendoza and Los Andes in Chile, expected to cost in excess of US$200m (RG 12.02 p726). Once the scheme has been agreed with Chilean bodies including state ...
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Automated metro contract
THE SOUTH Korean city of Yong-In announced in July that it had awarded a 35-year build-transfer-operate concession for an 18·5 km automated light metro linking the Seoul metro with Yong-In and the Everland theme park (RG 2.02 p66). The 15 station double-track light metro will be built by the Yong-In ...
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Bonds to build London projects
MAYOR of London Ken Livingstone has been authorised by UK Secretary of State Alistair Darling to issue bonds to raise £2·9m for transport projects in the capital.’This ground-breaking agreement means that London, for the first time, has the opportunity to make long-term decisions on planning major capital projects without the ...
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New concession terms proposed
THE PROPOSED TERMS of new contracts for Argentina’s freight concessionaires were due to be considered at a series of three public hearings last month, starting with Ferrosur on August 19. New terms for FEPSA were due to be considered the following day, with a hearing on August 30 examining Nuevo ...
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Virgin may lose both franchises
on August 6 when Strategic Rail Authority Chairman Richard Bowker met Sir Richard Branson and Brian Souter, who head Virgin Group and Stagecoach with 51% and 49% stakes respectively in Virgin Rail Group, he rejected outright VRG’s best and final offer under which its CrossCountry (VCC) franchise could ...
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Tram promoters hit back
The DECISION by the UK government on July 20 to abort three light rail projects at the final bidding stage in Manchester, Leeds and South Hampshire (RG 8.04 p447) has sparked a furious reaction.Chris Mulligan, Director General of Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, spoke of ’enormous resentment’ over the cancellation ...
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Quatre Millions d’Euros - Le Prix de ma Liberté
by Pierre Bilger’Four Million Euros - the Price of my Freedom’ refers to a pay-off that the author, as former President of Alstom, returned to the company after he had left. This ’honour’ payment gave him the freedom to pen his thoughts on the management of France’s leading rolling stock ...
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Dubai metro bidders line up
PLANS to build a two-line automated metro in Dubai (RG 3.04 p164) are set to move forward this month with the announcement of a shortlist of bidders for the civil engineering work. Six groups are reported to have qualified for a shortlist chosen from around 50 bidders. Odebrecht of ...
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Consulting between continents
SINCLAIR Knight Merz acted as principal design consultant for the civil engineering, structure, track and building elements of Dublin’s €675m Luas light rail project, the first line of which was officially opened on June 30.Staff from Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Ireland worked on the scheme, and according to Assistant ...
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Risalpur roll-out
PAKISTAN’S Minister of Railways Ghous Bux Maher visited Risalpur Locomotive Factory on June 11 to attend the roll-out of the first diesel locomotive assembled at the plant under a technology transfer agreement signed with China’s Dalian Locomotive Works in 2001.Pakistan Railways ordered 44 locomotives of 3500hp and 25 locomotives of ...
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Researchers making waves
A TECHNIQUE for faster ultrasonic inspection of rails using low-frequency Rayleigh waves was described in a paper presented to the Railway Engineering conference in London on July 6 (p61).University of Warwick physicists Dr Steve Dixon, Dr Rachel Edwards and John Reed are generating the wide-band Rayleigh waves using pairs of ...
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Reaching heights of safety
ACCESS to the roofs and ends of rolling stock has been improved at Trenitalia’s Foggia and Foligno depots with the installation of Mover 50B self-propelled gantries from Ricci. Mover 50B gives safe access to the full length of a carriage or locomotive, eliminating the need to use ladders to reach ...