Main line rail industry news – Page 1219
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News
River Line opens for service
through Burlington County to the Amtrak/NJ Transit station at Trenton. A 2·4 km extension in the state capital to the State House is planned.The River Line is operated by a fleet of 20 Stadler-Bombardier GTW2/6 diesel railcars. Revenue service began on March 14, with twin-unit operation to handle over 10000 ...
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TTC promised C$1bn
AS PART of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Toronto’s first subway line on March 30, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty were due to announce a C$1bn package to fund renovation of the network over the next five years. The province’s share was approved ...
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NorthRail funded
WORK is expected to get underway shortly on the first phase of NorthRail, following the signing of a funding deal on February 26. The US$400m loan agreement was signed by the Philippine government's Finance Secretary Juanita Amatong and the President of the Import Bank of China, Yang Zilin. Approved by ...
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Delhi Metro extends Line 1
MARCH 31 is due to see the start of revenue service on the third section of Delhi Metro Line 1, following energisation of the overhead line for test running on March 8. At the same time, the number of trains in operation will be increased from seven to 16, allowing ...
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Combinos withdrawn
URBAN operators in Potsdam and Basel withdrew their fleets of Combino trams on March 12-13, after Siemens Transportation Systems confirmed that bodyshell problems were emerging at high mileages. On March 1 Siemens revealed that high torsion forces in the articulations of cars with longer bogie centres were damaging the bolted ...
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Ukraine orders PESA railbuses
POLISH company PESA has been awarded a contract worth €87·5m to supply 70 Partner diesel railbuses to Ukrainian Railways by the end of 2008. As well as 64 vehicles for passenger services, the order includes six inspection cars. Weighing around 50 tonnes each, the 160 km/h railbuses are based on ...
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Border rail link
MARKING the start of high speed construction between Barcelona and the French border, Spanish Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos visited works between Sils and Riudellots on March 9, where Sacyr and Scrinser are executing a €24·1m contract to build 7·3 km of alignment within 19 months.Elsewhere between Barcelona and Girona, contracts ...
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Fight for survival
AT THE annual general meeting in May 2003, an attempt by the Paris-based Eurotunnel Shareholders Action Group (Adacte) to seize control of the Channel Tunnel operator failed. Despite the antics of their eccentric leader Nicolas Miguet - who was fined €10000 on February 17 for publishing ’remarks systematically filled with ...
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Bombardier to axe seven plants
PRESIDENT & Chief Executive Officer Paul Tellier announced a reduction of 6600 jobs in rail manufacturing on March 17 after Bombardier Transportation recorded ’disappointing financial results’ in the last quarter of the year to January 31 2004. The cuts will be achieved by closing seven production sites in five countries ...
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ICC rules in favour of Eurotrain
ON MARCH 15 the New York-based International Chamber of Commerce ruled that Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp should pay Eurotrain, a grouping formed by Siemens of Germany and Alstom of France, US$73m in compensation for breach of contract. The dispute arose in December 1999 (RG 3.00 p149) when THSRC ...
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Nord refurbished
March 16 saw the formal opening of the refurbished Eurostar terminal at Paris Nord station. Located on a mezzanine level above the main SNCF concourse, the terminal has improved access, renovated ticketing and check-in areas, a refurbished lounge for business class passengers, a range of shops and retail outlets, plus ...
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Commission presses on with competition policy
TWO MORE STEPS were taken last month in the European Commission’s drive to introduce more competition on Europe’s national railway networks. On March 3 the Commission published its Third Railway Package, and on March 17 the Council and Parliament reached agreement at a ’conciliation meeting’ (RG 3.04 p121) on the ...
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High speed overhead conductor
INTENSIVE testing of a pilot section of overhead conductor bar installed instead of a conventional contact wire was undertaken in Austria during February. Approval has now been received for ÖBB trains to run under the bar at speeds of up to 200 km/h, and 250 km/h trials are planned for ...
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Kinetic energy storage wins acceptance
The ability of KESS to support line voltage, regenerate braking energy and provide uninterrupted supplies at stations has now been demonstrated on urban railways in London, New York, Lyon and Tokyo
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Darling launches light rail NET
SECRETARY of State for Transport Alistair Darling and the Lord Mayor of Nottingham Brent Charlesworth joined the ceremonies on March 8 to mark the completion of the UK's latest light rail network. Revenue services on Nottingham Express Transit Line 1 began at 06.00 the following morning. The 14 km ...
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Beijing metro accords
CONSTRUCTION of a fourth heavy metro line in Beijing is to be undertaken by a private-sector consortium including Hong Kong MTRCorp, which recently signed a concession in Shenzhen (RG 2.04 p65). The Chairman of Beijing Capital Group Liu Xiaoguang revealed on March 4 that the company had reached an agreement ...
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INSIDE INDUSTRY
Siemens closes Carson factorySIEMENS Transportation Systems ceased production at its Carson, California, light rail vehicle bodyshell plant on January 15, after completing work on 17 SD600 low-floor cars for Portland’s TriMet. The plant equipment was auctioned on January 21, and the leased site returned to the owners. The Carson factory ...
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Open access operator warns
of monopoly riskRail4chem President Matthias Roth warned at EuroRail that the open access freight business was not yet attractive for investors. Claiming that his company had 50% of Germany’s private freight market, with the rest shared by less than a dozen other firms, he said 90% of the rail freight ...