Main line rail industry news – Page 1237
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News
West Coast Route Modernisation still faces tough choices
Richard Hope outlines the huge effort required since January 2002 to rescue critical elements of a project whose estimated cost has multiplied six-fold since delivery of 225 km/h operation with tilting trains was promised back in 1998
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Green Kid is a smaller Goat
GREEN Kid is the latest hybrid shunting locomotive developed by RailPower Technologies. Smaller than the firm’s Green Goat (RG 11.01 p786), Green Kid is designed for operation in grain terminals, ports and other industrial sites where the duty cycle is less harsh than the busy shunting yards Green Goat is ...
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Amtrak reform bill goes to Congress
INTRO: Julian Wolinsky reports on the latest developments in the saga of the US long-distance passenger trainOn August 5 the US administration presented its Passenger Rail Reform Bill to Congress, proposing the breaking up of Amtrak and privatisation of some parts, together with the devolving of control and financial responsibility ...
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Industry in Brief
UVZ & AVR has begun constructing a rolling stock assembly works at Ahtme in northeast Estonia. The first two assembly lines will be installed in November, and the Russian-Estonian joint stock company expects to employ up to 400 people to produce up to 3000 passenger carriages and tank wagons per ...
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Speed record foreshadows opening of UK's first high speed line
On July 30 a Eurostar trainset streaked through Kent on Section 1 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link to set a UK rail speed record of 334·7 km/h. Murray Hughes rode the record-breaker
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NewsTurning coal and containers into profit
Since moving into the private sector in 1996, Freightliner has reshaped its intermodal business and expanded into coal and other bulk cargo. Murray Hughes talked to Chief Executive Alan Galley
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News
Cost control tops the agenda as refranchising moves ahead
INTRO: With the complex relationships of the privatised rail industry driving costs and subsidies to record levels, politicians are asking whether Britain still needs its railways. Murray Hughes looks at recent developmentsTEN YEARS have passed since the Railways Act 1993, the legislation passed by John Major’s Conservative government that brought ...
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PUBLICATIONS
Trans-Canada Rail Guideby Melissa Graham’If we cannot export the scenery, we shall have to import the tourists’, said the General Manager of Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885. The surviving trans-Canadian train services remain popular tourist attractions, and no other mode of travel so well conveys a sense of the country’s ...
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News
Pendeltåg X60 EMU takes shape
Harry Hondius MSc reports from Salzgitter NOW UNDER construction at the Alstom LHB plant in Salzgitter are the first cars for a fleet of innovative articulated low-floor cars to operate Pendeltåg suburban services in Stockholm. Ordered last year by Storstockholms Lokaltrafik AB, they are derived from the Lirex experimental multiple-unit ...
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On-board internet
UK inter-city train operator GNER announced on August 11 that it is preparing a business case to install broadband internet access on its trains. Subject to the outcome of a pilot project between King’s Cross and Scotland for three months starting in mid-September, GNER plans to fit the equipment to ...
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News
West Rail sets new standards in LINESIDE noise control
INTRO: Detailed design of trains, track and structures on Hong Kong’s West Rail line has achieved an unprecedented reduction in lineside noise and vibration. Development and implementation of a multi-plenum system has been key to the control of under-car noise, notably from the wheel/rail interfaceBYLINE: Alan Crockett and John Carlisle ...
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PEOPLE
Aurangzeb Khan (left) has become General Manager of Pakistan Railways on the retirement of Iqbal Samad Khan. Gulrez Hasmey has become Chief Commercial Manager, Freight, succeeding Nazir Ahmad who was appointed Additional General Manager Freight on the retirement of Mian Abdul Qayyum. Muhammad Aslam has been appointed Chief Personnel Officer, ...
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Intelligent pantograph on trial
INTRO: Ralf Roman Rossberg reports on tests with an actively-controlled pantograph GERMAN Railway and Bombardier have developed an actively-controlled pantograph to permit operation at higher speeds without costly alterations to overhead line equipment. The single-arm ASP design is also expected to reduce contact noise by 10dB(A) and to halve wear ...
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Preparations for InnoTrans 2004 are already well advanced
INTRO: Letter from InnoTransInnoTrans 2004 looks set to repeat the success of previous years. With 12 months still to go before this event starts on September 21 2004, Messe Berlin has already received a record number of applications. The amount of display space that has been reserved is almost equivalent ...
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News
Puigcerdà upgrade
TENDERS are to be called for track and overhead line equipment renewal works on the 17·8 km Borgonyà - Ripoll section of Renfe’s Barcelona - Puigcerdà route, within a budget of €18·3m. Expected to take 22 months to complete, work will include drainage improvements, relaying with long-welded UIC54 rail on ...
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RZD reforms move ahead
ON OCTOBER 1 Russian Railways will begin life as a joint stock company, OAO RZD, marking the start of the second phase of the railway reform programme. The company will remain 100% state-owned, according to Vice-Minister of Railways Anna Belova.Reviewing progress with the reform programme on July 25, Mrs Belova ...
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Authority will revive SLR
PLANS FOR a comprehensive revival of Sri Lanka’s rail network were announced by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesignhe on August 11. Consultants are to be appointed to look at improving the management structure, whilst Indian engineers will start on urgent repairs, he said. The Prime Minister also hopes to see services ...
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Alpine plan cleared
PLANS TO introduce rolling motorway services over the 175 km Fréjus corridor between Aiton-Bourganeuf in France and Orbassano in Italy have been cleared by the European Commission. On August 4 the EC confirmed that it had given the go-ahead for the formation of Autoroute Ferroviaire Alpine, a 50:50 joint venture ...
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Angolan restoration
LAST MONTH was due to see the start of work on rehabilitating Angola’s 1067mm gauge Caminhos de Ferro do Luanda. This runs eastwards for 424 km from the Atlantic coast to Malanje, with a southern branch to Dondo. In recent years trains have only been running between Luanda and Dondo.Transport ...
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Zambia concession signed
A FORMAL agreement for the operation of passenger services on the Zambian Railways network was signed by Finance & National Planning Minister Ng’andu Magande and representatives of New Limpopo Bridge Projects Investments (Pty Ltd) on August 9. The deal follows signing of the terms for the freight concession in February ...