Main line rail industry news – Page 1208
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Making the business case to cut rolling contact fatigue
INTRO: The cost to Britain’s national railway of damage from rolling contact fatigue has been conservatively estimated at £250m a year, and measures to limit RCF crack formation could cut that by 55%. Andy Doherty, who chairs the newly-established Vehicle/Track System Interface Committee, explains how co-operation between rail industry players ...
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Intelligence
Argentina: Metropolitano ran its first commercial electric service on the 6·6 km Temperley - Claypole section of the Roca network on May 18. With this section completed at a cost of 12m pesos, Claypole - Florencio Varela forms the next stage of the electrification programme. Austria: The carriage of mail ...
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Tempi valley cut-off completed
JANUARY 28 marked the completion of a further section of Hellenic Railways’ ongoing upgrading of its Athens - Thessaloniki main line, with the opening of a 38·8 km double-track cut-off between Evangelismos and Leptokaria, replacing the attractive but sinuous route alongside the Pineios River through the Tempi gorge.Construction of the ...
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Vibration resilience
THEextension of Line 3 from Ethniki Amyna to Plakentia runs through a densely-populated area, and some sections of the tunnels were bored beneath residential buildings or other structures. An elastically-supported trackform was specified to help minimise ground-borne vibrations.Attiko Metro awarded the trackwork contract to Stedef and Sateba, specifying the use ...
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Invitation to an international debate
INTRO: Two-day Dialogue-Forum at the InnoTrans Convention 2004 One of the major factors behind the success of InnoTrans in Berlin is the way it combines a trade fair with a high-quality supporting programme and product presentation in the static track displays.The InnoTrans Convention will once again group a number of ...
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Athens gears up to face Olympic challenge
Unprecedented levels of investment are being poured into four separate urban rail networks as the Greek capital prepares to host the 28th Olympiad next month. Artemis Klonos reports
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Policy divide clouds the future of European freight
POLICYMAKERS, operators and shippers met in Ljubljana at the end of May to debate the future of rail freight in Europe. The occasion was a seminar organised by the International Railway Congress Association entitled Rail Freight Business in a New Century (p399). The event saw important policy differences emerge in ...
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ARTC prepares to spend $A1·3bn
As forecast in RG 6.04 p317, Australia’s Federal Government published a White Paper on June 4 promising A$11·8bn for land transport spending over the next five years. On the same day, Australian Rail Track Corp signed a 60-year lease under which it takes over management of lines in New South ...
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FirstGroup gets ScotRail franchise
ON JUNE 11 the UK Strategic Rail Authority announced that FirstGroup had been selected as preferred bidder to operate the new ScotRail franchise. The current franchise has been held by National Express Group since March 31 1997 and expires on October 17. The new franchise will run for seven years, ...
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Double-deck prototype
FINNISH rolling stock builder Talgo Oy has decided to build a four-car prototype to demonstrate its innovative Talgo 22 double-deck EMU design. The move increases the total investment in the development project to around €8m, partially funded by the Finnish National Technology Agency (Teknes).Proposed two years ago for the Zürich ...
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SLRA to be abolished
SRI LANKAN Transport Minister Felix Perera announced at the end of May that the newly-elected government had decided to abolish the Sri Lanka Railway Authority set up by the previous administration and transfer its powers back to a revitalised Railways Department.Although the legislation creating SLRA was approved in 1993, the ...
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North-South link accord
THIS MONTH is due to see the publication of proposals for a joint venture which will finance and build a 511 km railway along Iran's Caspian Sea coast, as part of the North-South rail corridor being promoted by Russian Railways. The scheme is being developed by a working group set ...
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Wiring tenders
JULY 4 has been set as the deadline for proposals to electrify 300 route-km of the Israel Railways network; a request for information was published by Israel Railways at the beginning of June. This followed a call by former transport minister Avigdor Liebermann on May 31 for Prime Minister Ariel ...
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DSVN to be split
VIETNAM RAILWAYS is to be split into separate infrastructure management and train operating companies under legislation which was introduced to the country’s National Assembly last month.Transport Minister Dao Dinh Binh said on June 8 that the move was ’aimed at ensuring equal treatment for all economic sectors’. The Railways Bill ...
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NewsHSL Zuid shuttle trains ordered
EUROPE: On May 24 the Dutch High Speed Alliance and Belgian National Railways signed a contract with AnsaldoBreda for supply of 12 eight-car high speed trains, with options for up to 14 more. To be delivered in April 2006, the units will enter service a year later, replacing the existing ...
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Toll takes back passenger trains
NEW ZEALAND rail operator Tranz Rail (renamed Toll NZ with effect from June 8) has agreed to buy back control of the country’s inter-city passenger business Tranz Scenic. The move follows an announcement by Toll Managing Director Paul Little that the company had ’changed its mind’ on passenger operations, and ...
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Tracklaying deal
CONSTRUCTION of the rail link from Tsumeb to the Namibia/Angola border at Oshikango reached another milestone on June 10, when President Sam Nujoma and Works, Transport & Communications Minister Moses Amweelo laid the first rails in a ceremony at Tsumeb.The ceremony followed the awarding of a N$92m contract by TransNamib ...
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Siemens prepares to expand in Praha
ON JUNE 9 Czech Minister for the Environment Libor Ambrozek opened a new paint shop at the former CKD rolling stock assembly plant in Zlicin in the western suburbs of Praha. Purchased by Siemens for around KC700m, the factory became the property of Siemens Kolejova Vozidia, which opened for business ...
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Trams may return to Hanoi
FRENCH consultancy Systra has started work on a feasibility study for a 14 km east-west light rail line in Hanoi, more than a decade after the Vienamese capital abandoned its last traditional tram route.Under a contract awarded by the People’s Committee of the City of Hanoi, the study is due ...