Main line rail industry news – Page 1222
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News
Chinese plan border rail link
PROPOSALS to develop a 1380 km rail corridor paralleling the border with North Korea were unveiled by the Chinese government at the beginning of February. To be built over 15 years, the line is expected to revitalise primary industries in the run-down northeast of the country and open up another ...
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More UK franchises extended
ON February 13 the UK’s Strategic Rail Authority announced that it had agreed terms for two-year extensions of three more passenger train operating franchises, taking them to March 31 2006. SRA has signed a deal with National Express Group covering the Wessex Trains franchise and the Great Northern section of ...
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Renfe restructures
IN PREPARATION for the separation of operating and infrastructure functions under legislation passed last year (RG 12.03 p756), the Spanish National Railways board approved on January 27 the restructuring of its freight activities.The Freight and Intermodal business units are being merged into a single Freight unit that will form part ...
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Algerian upgrading takes off
ALGERIA: Five contracts to assist with modernisation of the Algerian rail network were announced at the end of January. SNTF has provisionally awarded a €88m contract to an Alstom-led consortium for electrification of three suburban lines radiating from Alger by the end of 2007. Three substations will power the 25 ...
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BV investment funds approved
BANVERKET Director-General Bo Bylund has welcomed the go-ahead for a 12-year rail investment programme following government approval of a national infrastructure package on February 19. According to Sweden’s Infrastructure Minister Ulrica Messing, the SKr373bn package provides SKr107·7bn for investment in the rail network and SKr38bn for maintenance and operating support.One ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Austria: Voestalpine’s logistics and transport subsidiary LogServ is to increase the amount of business it handles by rail as an open access operator. It has six locomotives and around 400 wagons available which will increasingly be used for cross-border traffic.A Salzburg court has acquitted 16 people charged in connection with ...
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Basque Y tenders
ON FEBRUARY 13 the Spanish cabinet gave its approval for GIF to call tenders for three contracts to design and undertake civil works on the first eight of the 15 sections of the Y-shaped high speed network that will connect Bilbao, Vitoria, San Sebasti
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Short of a billion
HERE’S a little anecdote to add to our story on rebuilding the railways of Iraq on p160. Back in the 1980s Korea Overseas Construction, a consortium of Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Namkwang Construction, was assigned the job of building the 242 km line between Haditha and Kirkuk in northern ...
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Hanoi plans elevated suburban
DEVELOPMENT of a high-capacity cross-city suburban railway in Hanoi could be completed by 2010, DSVN confirmed last month, following approval of pre-feasibility studies by the Vietnamese government. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai also indicated that the government would fund between 50% and 60% of the estimated 9200bn dong cost. The ...
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Le Mans to join French tram club
MARCH 15 is the closing date for tenders to built a 15 km light rail network in the French city of Le Mans, at an estimated cost of €290m. Alstom, Siemens, Bombardier and Stadler have already prequalified, and a group led by Semaly and Thales has been selected as project ...
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Melbourne signs ’stability’ pact
VICTORIA state Premier Steve Bracks announced on February 19 that the government had signed five-year ’partnership agreements’ with Yarra Trams and Connex for the operation of tram and suburban train services in Melbourne, which he believed would deliver ’stability and improved services to customers’.The deal is intended to resolve a ...
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Pajares base tunnel started
SPANISH Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos joined First Deputy Prime Minister Rodrigo Rato on February 11 to mark the start of work on the 25 km base tunnel under the Pajares pass on Renfe’s León - Oviedo route. Last year GIF awarded four separate tunnelling contracts worth a total of €1·38bn ...
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Tram West is go
CONSTRUCTION of a 7·4 km western extension to the Bern tram network is expected to begin shortly, following the award of a concession for the project by the Swiss government in mid-January. Städtichen Verkehrsbetriebe Bern expects to complete Tram West by 2007. The line will start from a junction with ...
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Tenerife starts work
ON FEBRUARY 12 Metropolitano de Tenerife SA announced the award of civil works contracts for the 12·3 km light rail route that will connect Santa Cruz with La Laguna (RG 1.03 p10). MTSA Vice-President Víctor Pérez said that the project was entering ’a decisive phase’, with €91·8m of contracts awarded ...
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High speed line costs too high
A report published by Britain’s Commission for Integrated Transport on February 8 makes ’a persuasive case’ for ’a fresh look now at the future role for high speed rail.’ CfIT’s remit is to advise on transport policy, and the Chairman Professor David Begg urged government to start looking seriously at ...
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Line 3 upgrade
LAST MONTH Madrid Metro was due to call tenders for work to increase capacity at five stations on Line 3, including the lengthening of platforms to 90m, installation of lifts and the construction of new ticket halls. Tendering for the second phase of the €120m programme, comprising a further five ...
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Fire prevention
WHILE overnight trains in some parts of Europe are being withdrawn or cut back, our correspondent in Germany reports that overnight travel there is undergoing something of a revival. This is remarkable given the onslaught of low-cost airlines and the widespread use of high speed trains on daytime journeys.Passengers on ...
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Facing up to terrorist dangers
WHEN a bomb exploded on a crowded Moscow metro train on February 6, killing around 40 people and injuring many more, the International Union of Public Transport was quick to point out that ’the metro is the world’s safest transport mode’. UITP highlighted an increase in terrorist attacks on public ...
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Projects relaunched
TURKEY’S Ministry of Transport has drawn up a revised strategy designed to ensure that many long-planned but stalled rail projects can move off the drawing board. No less than 13 schemes could benefit from this initiative which would see around US$15bn invested by 2020.The projects include the 260 km line ...
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High speed southeast
ON JANUARY 30 the Spanish cabinet gave its approval for tenders to be called for civil works on nine sections of high speed line connecting Madrid with Valencia and Albacete. They cover a total of 125·5 km and are expected to cost €350·3m in all. Six consecutive sections run for ...