Main line rail industry news – Page 1246
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News
Tsukuba Express close to ultimate electric braking system
INTRO: From autumn 2005, Tsukuba Science City will be directly linked to Akihabara station in the centre of Tokyo by a 58 km radial line now being built through the Greater Tokyo area. The opportunity to get even closer to ’pure’ regenerative braking is being seized, reserving friction brakes for ...
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NewsRailbuses exploit Polish regional potential
HIGH operating costs and short, obsolete locomotive-hauled trains are features of many of the local and regional lines which form an important part of Poland's rail network. In an effort to reduce expenditure PKP announced plans to withdraw over 1000 services, but in March the threat of widespread strikes brought ...
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Researchers on the track of wheel-rail interaction
INTRO: A better understanding of the many phenomena which have their roots in the small contact patch between wheel and rail offers a huge potential for savings, in terms of maintenance, reliability, safety and environmental costsBYLINE: Dr Anders Ekberg, Dr Elena Kabo, Dr Jens Nielsen and Dr Jonas RingsbergCharmec*THIS MONTH ...
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Passenger News in Brief
On June 6 Connex will introduce another German inter-regional route, with the launch of daily through services from K
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Battery upgrade
TURKISH State Railways is replacing the on-board pocket plate batteries fitted to 26 of its E43000 electric locomotives with SRM 105P cells from Saft. These offer 105Ah capacity, and are installed on the locomotives in 13 six-cell stainless steel crates and one four-cell crate. The SRM cell design uses sintered ...
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RCF still an issue in infrastructure policies
TWO RECENT conferences in London put the spotlight on the importance of effective inspection and management of infrastructure. Debate in this field continues to be dominated by the need to deal with the complex problem of rolling contact fatigue - now a serious issue in a number of European countries, ...
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Singapore adopts resilient rail fixing
OPPORTUNITIES for track maintenance on mass transit railways can be limited, and high passenger volumes make any disruption to services extremely costly. For these situations Pandrol has developed its Double Fastclip rail fastening. This has been installed on Singapore’s North East Line, which is expected to open this month (MR03 ...
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Czech wagon builders consolidate
TRINITY Rail GmbH, a European subsidiary of US firm Trinity Rail Group, has announced it is to end production of wagons at the Thrall Vagónka Studénka workshops in the Czech Republic. Blaming ’weaker than anticipated demand’, Trinity Rail GmbH President Chris Schmalbruch said wagon building would be consolidated at Trinity’s ...
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Tranz Rail restructures to face the future
INTRO: New Zealand’s Tranz Rail has lived through two difficult years, but Managing Director Michael Beard believes that a focused reorganisation can turn the business round. The degree of success may depend on changes in the government’s transport policyDURING THE last two years Tranz Rail has withstood stock market uncertainty ...
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Industry News in Brief
Alstom Transport announced on May 6 that it had acquired the rights to the Innorail surface-contact power supply technology developed for the Bordeaux light rail network by SPIE Industries.CAF has reported a pre-tax profit of €12·6m for 2002, up 1% from 2001, with turnover up 1·1% at €392·5m. The rolling ...
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Restyling TGV
SNCF has selected a consortium of MBD Design, seat manufacturer Compin and fashion house Christian Lacroix to develop new interiors for a refurbishment programme that will treat 183 TGV Atlantique and Réseau trainsets by 2008. Interiors proposed by three bidders had been installed in one TGV which visited 40 towns ...
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Tellier targets profit growth
INTRO: Four months after taking over as President of Bombardier Inc, Paul Tellier outlines his objectives to Chris Jackson’OUR AIM is to be the low-cost, high-quality producer, and we will move in that direction over the next few years. Even if we don’t grow our revenues, I am determined to ...
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Ficas bodyshells lift metro capacity
ON MAY 5 Bombardier Transportation unveiled a car body assembly technique which uses thinner and smoother vehicle sidewalls to increase passenger capacity by up to 10%, reports Geoff Hadwick. Speaking at the UITP World Congress in Madrid, Bombardier Transportation President & Chief Operating Officer Pierre Lortie announced that a ...
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Restructuring progresses
SEPARATION of infrastructure company Rete Ferroviaria Italiana from the Ferrovie dello Stato group, previously planned for this year, has been postponed to 2004 as the government has yet to decide how to proceed. One option is a change of ownership of RFI through a sale of shares in FS. At ...
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Govia signs at South Central
ON MAY 12 the UK Strategic Rail Authority signed its second replacement franchise, under which the Govia joint venture of Go-Ahead and Keolis will operate the South Central network for up to seven years. The operation was due to be rebranded as Southern Railway when the franchise took effect on ...
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Corridor start
WORK IS to begin this summer on the long-planned rail freight relief corridor through northeast France. The region of Lorraine has approved funding for its 35% stake in the €26·8m project, which will be matched by 50% from the government and 15% from RFF. The 150 km line between Longuyon ...
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Airport services
GERMAN Railway inter-city trains are due to start serving Leipzig-Halle Airport on June 30, coinciding with the inauguration of the airport’s new Central Terminal. On the main line between Leipzig, Grübers and Halle (Saale), the station opened on December 15 last year. It has been connected to the city centre ...
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Indian private line opened
VISITING the state of Gujarat on May 11, India’s Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani inaugurated a 271 km broad-gauge line in Saurashtra region, which is being built as a public-private partnership. Due to be completed next year at a cost of Rs3·7bn, the line from Surendranagar to the new ...
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Alacant contract
SPANISH regional railway operator FGV ordered nine articulated LRVs from Alstom in April, at a cost of €46m. Intended to operate tram-train services in the resort of Alacant (RG 5.02 p232), they will be assembled at Alstom’s Valencia plant, using electrical equipment supplied from Charleroi. Deliveries are due to run ...