Main line rail industry news – Page 1211
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News
Transfer accord
CHINA National Machinery Import & Export Corp has proposed a technology transfer and US$50m credit agreement to supply Sri Lanka Railways with stainless steel passenger carriages.The Chinese company would initially supply completed vehicles under the proposals, which were put to Minister for Transport, Highways & Aviation Tilak Marapana in April. ...
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Fire safety boost
CHENNAI’S Integral Coach Factory has completed three prototype passenger coaches which have been designed to offer better fire resistance than existing Indian Railways rolling stock.An initial prototype was developed by Karpurthala Rail Coach Factory, following a fatal fire at Godhra in 2002. Indian Railways had decided that all new passenger ...
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Radar sleeper tests
GROUND-penetrating radar and ultrasonic testing are being combined to allow non-destructive testing firm Aperio to assess the condition of concrete sleepers. The radar can rapidly provide a detailed picture of the extent of any erosion on the underside of the sleepers on a graduated scale. The slower ultrasonic testing is ...
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Smart ticketing
ASCOM is to supply ticketing equipment for use across regional rail, light metro and local bus services in Rennes.The French city will launch an integrated multimodal ticketing scheme in mid-2005, with contactless smart cards replacing the existing paper tickets on services forming part of the local transport network. A single ...
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Products in Brief
Bombardier has bought a world-wide licence to use Prover iLock, which provides a mathematical proof of the safety of a proposed interlocking and supports the analysis of the effects of two or more simultaneous hardware failures.Prover Technology Inc, USAReader Enquiry Number: 147The Case CX135 excavator forms the basis for Crawlerrail, ...
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On the move
THIS MONTH Scott Wilson will combine its three London offices into larger premises at Greencoat House, bringing together its transport, planning, building services, mechanical & electrical and business consultancy arms under one roof.The consultancy firm currently has most of its work within the UK, but is expanding overseas and expects ...
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Pointers
The Netherlands government has invited proposals for the long-planned Zuiderzee line. To be built with private-sector funding as a maglev or high speed line, the 180 km route is intended to halve the present 2h 30min Amsterdam - Groningen journey time.A consortium of six Japanese firms - Hitachi, Kawasaki Heavy ...
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A luta continua!
Despite financing delays and setbacks caused by cyclones and famine, a multinational concessionaire is starting to make progress with the renovation and operation of the Nacala Corridor linking Mozambique and Malawi
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Alliances deliver on performance and cost
INTRO: Australian Rail Track Corporation relies on contractors to maintain the standard gauge trunk lines linking major cities. By switching to alliances that set target costs and share risks between client and contractor, ARTC has more than halved its average maintenance bill to A$8500/track-km a year despite rising tonnageBYLINE: Malcolm ...
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UK brings infrastructure maintenance back in-house
INTRO: When Railtrack contracted out maintenance of its network in 1995 a 30% cost reduction was expected, but by 2003-04 it was 50% higher in real terms. Network Rail Deputy Chief Executive Iain Coucher explained to Richard Hope what went wrong, and why Railtrack’s successor decided that employing its own ...
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NewsPrivate operators start to compete in the Polish freight market
Poland was the largest of the countries to join the European Union on May 1, and the possibility of the huge rail freight business being privatised attracted much interest. Privatisation is off the agenda for the moment, but Marek Rabsztyn and Jan Raczynski find that more than 20 new operators ...
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Relaying train nears completion
INTRO: Matisa of Switzerland is putting the finishing touches to a P95UK track relaying train for Network Rail designed to work within the UK’s restrictive loading gaugeNEARING completion at Crissier near Lausanne in Switzerland is a giant track relaying train destined for Network Rail. Nearly 140m long, the P95UK consists ...
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Double-deck DMU
SOUTH Florida Regional Transportation Authority has ordered a two-car double-deck diesel multiple-unit from Colorado Railcar for $6·9m.The move follows trials on Tri-Rail’s Miami - Fort Lauderdale - West Palm Beach service using Colorado Railcar’s prototype single-deck DMU car, as part of a demonstration tour of the USA. The authority has ...
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PEOPLE
Elio Catania was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer of Italian state railway company FS Holding SpA on May 18. Formerly head of IBM in Italy, he succeeds Giancarlo Cimoli who has been appointed President & CEO of state-owned airline Alitalia. Elio Marco Staderini, Luciano Canepa,Stefano Zaninelli and Roberto Ulissi ...
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Flash-butt welder enters service
COSTFER’s Plasser & Theurer APT600 which entered service during April represents the state of the art in mobile flash-butt rail welding technology.Flash-butt welding permits the precise alignment of rails and a consistently reproducible join quality, as well as permitting a high level of automation. In contrast to aluminothermic techniques, it ...
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Spotlight on cross-border traffic
INTRO: Third East European & Asian Rail Summit at InnoTrans 2004 As part of the InnoTrans Convention, the third East European & Asian Rail Summit will be held on September 20-22. EEARS is specifically tailored towards the interests of railways in Central and Eastern Europe and in Asia. Alongside the ...
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Heathrow Connect close to takeoff
TAKING SHAPE at the Siemens works in Krefeld-Uerdingen is a small build of grey EMU cars with orange doors. Quite distinct from the rows of ICE3 and ICE-T cars and ET423 and 425 EMUs for German Railway and VT642 diesel railcars for Romania, they show a marked family resemblance to ...
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Alstom rescue package agreed
EUROPEAN Competition Commissioner Mario Monti confirmed on May 17 that he had ’the basis of an agreement’ with French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on the refinancing and restructuring of Alstom, and that ’this should be finalised by the end of the week’.Alstom’s existing government guarantees backing €3·8bn of emergency bank ...
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Security tops enlargement issues
ON APRIL 22 the European Parliament approved the proposals in the so-called Second Railway Package (RG 3.04 p121) for further liberalisation of the rail businesses. The legislation also paves the way for establishment of the European Railway Agency in Valenciennes, for which a board will be appointed this summer.All this ...
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QR heads south
APRIL 28 saw the arrival of Queensland Rail’s maiden Brisbane - Melbourne open-access interstate train at CRT Group’s Altona terminal in the Victoria state capital. The East Coast Intermodal Service is run by QR’s standard-gauge subsidiary Interail in conjunction with CRT.On hand to greet the train were CRT Group Executive ...