Main line rail industry news – Page 1220
-
News
Bombardier restructures
A MAJOR shake-up of rail activities was announced by Bombardier Inc President & Chief Executive Paul Tellier on January 29. The position of President & Chief Operating Officer at Bombardier Transportation is to be split into separate roles. A President will be appointed by the end of March, with Tellier ...
-
News
Finance
Germany: DB is to provide €300000 to Berlin Technical University over the next five years to fund continued research into railway technology and operations.Israel: IR is to spend 5m shekels over two years to provide safety fencing at crossings and in areas deemed a high accident risk.Lithuania: An agreement was ...
-
News
Passenger News in Brief
National Express Group’s UK on-line ticket retailer Qjump Ltd has merged with The Trainline. Stagecoach has withdrawn from the project, leaving Virgin Group owning 86% of Trainline Holdings and NEG 14%.Metrorail suburban services from Cape Town were extended to Worcester in February. The 175 km route has a daily return ...
-
News
Pointers
Congolese Minister for Planning Pierre Moussa expects to sign contracts shortly for the privatisation of the 509 km Congo-Ocean Railway between Brazzaville and Pointe Noir. Shortlisted consortia NLPI-Spoornet, Sheltam-Mvela, Rites and Comazar-SNCF International were due to present their final technical bids in January.Look for Mozambique national railway CFM to announce ...
-
News
Galaxie Project opens up France to new operators
Eurotunnel has succeeded where others failed. On February 13, the French government issued its first open access freight operator’s licence to Europorte 2, a Eurotunnel subsidiary. This was an indication that the French government is prepared to back Galaxie Project, details of which were revealed on February 9 when Eurotunnel ...
-
News
Metros
Czech Republic:Skoda DT Plzen is to supply 20 Astra asynchronous low-floor trams worth KC1·3bn to Praha in 2005, for use on the Hlubocepy - Barrandov extension (RG 1.04 p14). There are options for a further 40 vehicles worth up to KC3bn.Denmark:København Metro’s Flintholm station opened on January 24, providing an ...
-
News
Market
Australia:The A$550m Victoria Regional Fast Rail project has selected Thales Communications’ Train Protection & Warning System equipment for installation on 500 km of new and upgraded track radiating from Melbourne by 2005.A Leighton-Kumagai consortium signed the A$324·5m design and build contract for the city section of the A$1·5bn New MetroRail ...
-
News
Power converter
The output from on-board batteries can be converted to a clean 240V AC supply using I-Power’s PT3000, allowing passengers to use portable computers and charge mobile phones at their seats. It can be mounted under seats or below the vehicle.The firm’s 5 kW catering converter occupies the same space as ...
-
News
Instant interline pricing
CANADIAN National Railway and CSX Corp have jointly developed an electronic tool which offers their customers immediate pricing for wagonload shipments.Account managers can use A+B Pricing to combine costs from CSX and CN to obtain a quote for interline traffic between any locations on their networks. The railways expect to ...
-
News
Schedule planning
AMTRAK has begun using TrainPlan software from Vossloh IT to identify scheduling conflicts during its timetable development process. TrainPlan allows Amtrak to use a single national database for all train schedules, helping to ensure data integrity and removing the risks of errors being introduced if information is transferred between databases. ...
-
News
X2000 sets will be refurbished
Swedish national operator SJ AB announced in January that it to refurbish its fleet of 36 X2000 trainsets, at an estimated cost of SKr 500 000. The work had been postponed for financial reasons. The seven sets operated by SJ-NSB joint venture Linx were refurbished last year. To be ...
-
News
Slide-in fixing
BOMBARDIER is using telescopic ball bearing slides in the refurbishment of 270 Mk IV inter-city coaches operated by Great North Eastern Railway (RG 11.03 p698).The vehicles’ pneumatic door control units were originally located in a box within the toilet compartment, which made them difficult to access for maintenance or repair. ...
-
News
Industry News in Brief
Interfleet Technology has acquired safety case and risk management consultancy RSE Management Ltd from GB Railways Group plc, which became part of First Group last year. RSEM was formed in April 2003, and provides auditing, project management and environmental services.All rail-sector companies in the Lloyd’s Register Group, including Lloyd’s Register ...
-
News
Comfort at speed
LAST year Russian Railways carried almost 9million passengers on its Express trains, which are designed to offer a more comfortable environment than other services, including a bar and reclining seats.Introduced on routes 200 km to 350 km long, where the main competition is from buses, Express services contributed a profit ...
-
News
Talking underground
KYIV metro passengers will be able to use mobile telephones at 38 below-ground stations following an agreement for the deployment of GSM-over-IP equipment.Proximus LLC has signed a contract with Kyiv Metro to lease the communications infrastructure and space to install the equipment, which will be subleased to mobile network operators ...
-
News
Products in Brief
Thales has commissioned Infotec to produce next train indicators which comply with strict fire safety regulations for installation at underground and surface stations on WAGN’s Northern City Line in London. The LED-based displays include glass screens, low-smoke paint and have silicon rather than rubber seals.Infotec, UKReader Enquiry Number: 144The Omron ...
-
News
Rebuilding Iraq's ravaged railways
Bechtel is co-ordinating reconstruction on Iraqi Republic Railways, which conflict and lack of maintenance have left in a poor condition. Following a rapid assessment of the infrastructure, work has begun on a major upgrade of the route from Um Qasr to Shouaiba Junction
-
News
Second try to privatise Aqaba phosphate haul
ANOTHER ATTEMPT is to be made to move Aqaba Railway Corp into the private sector. An earlier effort to privatise ARC collapsed after an agreement had been signed for a consortium to take over the line in 1999. There were several reasons for this, according to Eng Laith Dababneh, General ...
-
News
Two transcontinentals forge ahead
INTRO: Two huge railway construction projects that will cut transport costs for highly productive agricultural land are making good progress, now that the Paran
-
News
CPR boosts adhesion with 100% Effective Friction Control
INTRO: Canadian Pacific is introducing electronically-controlled application of liquid friction modifiers to the rail top, which lowers damaging wheel/rail forces and improves adhesion when the rails are wetBYLINE: Michael RoneyGeneral Manager, Track Maintenance Canadian Pacific RailwayCANADIAN PACIFIC Railway operates across Canada and the US Northeast and Midwest through some difficult ...