Main line rail industry news – Page 1250
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Evolutionary development offers steady rise in machine output
Nearly every machine emerging from the Linz works of Plasser & Theurer is built to an individual specification. This makes it easy to incorporate improvements whenever they are developed
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AAR makes the case for rail
INTRO: Following deregulation, North America’s freight railways have continued to enjoy impressive market share, but challenges remain as the industry strives to make the best use of emerging technology and tap new sources of capital funding. Murray Hughes put the questions to Ed Hamberger, President & Chief Executive Officer of ...
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Suburban vision faces cost hike
INTRO: In recent years commuter rail has become a favoured way of tackling road congestion in the USA. But costs are rising and federal funding is getting harder to obtain, reports Julian WolinskyOUTWARD sprawl of US cities shows no signs of abating, despite the best efforts of planners to redirect ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Canada: Work is to begin this month on a C$4m station at St Basile le Grand on AMT’s Montréal - Mont St Hilaire line. It is expected to open in September.France: On April 1 Secretary of State for Transport Dominique Bussereau formally opened the Dijon-Bourgogne intermodal terminal which was first ...
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Consultants flourish in strong market
INTRO: Rail businesses offering engineering services and management advice are holding up well, despite an economic downturn in many countriesHong Kong-based Mott Connell, jointly owned by Mott MacDonald and the Connell Wagner Group of Australia, has been appointed lead consultant for design package SDC100 on KCRC’s Sha Tin - Central ...
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Slinger speeds relaying on double track
INTRO: Richard Hope reports on a cheap and simple developmentAN ECONOMICAL way of mechanising the renewal of track by lifting sections up to 270m long straight out of the ballast has been devised by Jarvis, which currently owns and operates around 55% of all on-track plant in the UK.Jarvis commissioned ...
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JR Freight tests intermodal EMU
NOW UNDERGOING trials in Japan is a lightweight freight electric multiple-unit. Developed by JR Freight, the M250 is intended to compete against road haulage for high-value freight moving between Tokyo and Osaka. If successful, the train will join JR Freight’s loco-hauled container trains on the 1067mm gauge conventional Tokaido main ...
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Linx signs broadband deal
FROM JUNE 1 Nordic inter-city operator Linx AB will offer broadband internet access in First and Business class on all X2000 trainsets operating Stockholm - Oslo and G
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UITP to debate ’the ultimate challenge’
AROUND 2000 delegates are expected to attend the 55th World Congress of the International Union of Public Transport, being held in Madrid on May 4-9. Theme of the event is ’The Challenge of Integration: Turning Multimodality into Seamless Mobility’. UITP Secretary-General Hans Rat says ’the integration of transport services is ...
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Wind tunnel
EUROTUNNEL has signed an agreement with two firms planning to build a wind farm on land at its French terminal. If planning permission is obtained, five 2MW turbines will be erected at Coquelles by Canadian energy company Boralex and Innovent, a French company specialising in the design and management of ...
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CTA sets its wish list
SIX MAJOR projects figure in Chicago Transit Authority’s application to the US Congress for New Start funding under the six-year reauthorisation of the TEA-21 programme. There is strong political backing for the proposals, some of which are already at the planning stage; they have a $4·4bn price tag.Four extensions to ...
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Federal funds GO
TORONTO’s GO Transit is to get its first federal funding since inception in 1966 in a deal agreed on March 26. The federal government will contribute C$435m to a five-year C$1·2bn capacity-expansion project which will bring additional peak-hour trains and all-day service to several routes. The federal money must be ...
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Metronet consortium completes PPP deal
ON APRIL 4 the Metronet consortium of WS Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Bombardier, Seeboard and Thames Water achieved financial close on its two contracts for the London Underground Public-Private Partnership. Over the following weekend, 2585 LU staff at Infraco BCV and 2510 at Infraco SSL transferred to the private sector firms ...
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Paris projects roll forward
ON APRIL 5 a public enquiry closed for the first section of a planned orbital tram route round the south of Paris. Running for 7·9 km between Pont de Garigliano and Porte d’Ivry, the €185·2m line is due to be completed by 2006. Known as the Tramway Maréchaux Sud because ...
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Hayate sets Joetsu record
A JR EAST Hayate E2-1000 trainset has achieved a new Japanese speed record for a production train of 362 km/h. A series of night-time trials on the Joetsu Shinkansen culminated on April 6 when 360 km/h was sustained on several occasions, beating the previous record of 345 km/h for a ...
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More Minuettos on order
TRENITALIA has ordered a further 100 three-car Minuetto trainsets in a follow-on order with Alstom, which is already building 37 units. Valued at €315m, the latest batch comprises 49 electric and 51 diesel-powered versions, and brings the total number of sets on order to 137 (70 electric, 67 diesel).Destined to ...
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RZD’s date with destiny
RUSSIAN railway reform reaches a key stage on May 18, when new laws come into force paving the way for creation of Russian Railways as a public company. RZD should be operational as a public company before the end of this year. Announcing the date on April 8, head of ...
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IR plans funded
ASIAN Development Bank has approved funding for a further tranche of projects in Indian Railways’ Golden Quadrilateral upgrading programme for the lines linking Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Mumbai. Newly approved are: third tracks between Ghaziabad and Aligarh (Rs23·8bn) and between Kurdaand Barang (Rs13·3bn), doubling of Raichal - Guntakal (Rs13·6bn) and ...
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Basel boost
MEETING in Basel in March 20, the chief executives of national railways in France, Germany and Switzerland resolved to launch a programme to raise the capacity of rail routes in and around the city. Because of rising transit freight traffic, the forthcoming completion of the two Swiss base tunnels, ambitious ...
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UK franchise bidding hots up
SERCOGroup announced on April 23 that it had been selected as preferred bidder for a 25-year concession to run the Merseyrail Electrics suburban network in the UK, in a joint venture with NS subsidiary NedRailways (RG 4.03 p222). The £3·6bn contract is due to start on July 20, when responsibility ...