Main line rail industry news – Page 1252
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News
Turbos return
YEARS have passed since we first reported the rebuilding of seven of Amtrak’s gas-turbine powered trainsets originally supplied to the US operator in 1976. At 09.00 on April 14 the first of two rebuilt RTL-III Turboliners pulled out of Albany to begin revenue service trials on CSX tracks in the ...
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Change in the wind
UNDER the tutelage of its ousted Chief Executive Etienne Schouppe, Belgian National Railways remained largely unscathed by the European Commission’s directives aimed at introducing intra-modal competition. Separation of infrastructure and operations was nominal at best, but there are signs that Karel Vinck, appointed as Managing Director last year (RG 8.02 ...
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Fare riposte
NOT BEFORE time, French National Railways has responded to the threat of low-cost airlines creaming off a slice of its inter-city business. From March 31 it introduced a range of low-priced promotional fares marketed as Prem’s, with at least 10000 second class seats a day offered on 500 long-distance services. ...
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Suckers no more
MAY 4 sees a 33% hike in the flat fare on the New York subway, from US$1·50 to $2·00. Despite a wave of protests, Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors voted unanimously in favour of the increase on March 6, along with a 25% increase in commuter rail fares. MTA ...
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Safety prioritised
AROUND 60 % of safety and security problems caused by users of Netherlands Railways are attributed to people without tickets. With a view to tackling this situation, fines for fare dodging are to be increased, and access to platforms at some stations is to be controlled by barriers operated by ...
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Passenger News in Brief
Eurostar has opened a travel centre at London Waterloo International, offering Paris metro tickets, car hire and hotel booking services, as well as tickets to all Eurostar and Eurostar Plus destinations.Amtrak has dropped the Acela Regional brand name with effect from March 17, to reduce passenger confusion with the Acela ...
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Products in Brief
Siegrist-Orel is supplying halogen-free cable markers to Thales Communications for use on TPWS installations in the UK.Saint-Gobain Pipelines is providing ductile iron access covers and steelwork to Carillion for block-paved areas on Nottingham Express Transit. A custom-designed 8m by 4m steel cover has been produced for the tram washing plant.Trelleborg ...
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Finance
Canada: CN has announced a US$400m debt offering of 4·4% 10-year loan notes. The proceeds will repay US$250m of 10-year higher interest notes issued by CN and Illinois Central due on May 15.Ottawa’s O-Train is to receive C$2·2m of city and provincial funding to install welded rails and improve station ...
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News
Refurbished HST unveiled
THE first of 16 High Speed Train sets being refurbished for UK operator Midland Main Line was handed over by David Astill, Managing Director of Maintrain Ltd, to MML Deputy Managing Director Malcolm Brown in Derby on March 5. The £18·7m refurbishment programme is scheduled to finish by mid-2004, with ...
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Pajares base tunnel tender
ON MARCH 5 the Spanish Ministry of Development published the official notice inviting bids for the detailed design and construction of the 25 km twin-bore Pajares base tunnel, which is expected to cost a total of €1·1bn to build. The work has been divided into four lots, with bids for ...
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Sidetrack
No ordinary weedYORK station car park is an unlikely location for botanical discoveries, but Dr Richard Abbott of St Andrews University has discovered a new species of plant there. He first spotted the ’scruffy-looking weed’ on a visit in 1979. On a more recent trip he noticed it had spread, ...
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Restoring rails by friction
THE Welding Institute is working with UK rail safety and standards authority Railway Safety to study the use of friction transformation hardening to repair rails containing shallow surface defects caused by rolling contact fatigue.The concept is related to the friction stir welding technique, which uses friction to generate heat for ...
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Letters
Harbour tunnelSir - Hong Kong’s fourth cross-harbour rail tunnel (RG 3.03 p123) will form part of the Sha Tin to Central line, not the East Kowloon line. The SCL alignment through Kowloon is very similar to MTR Corp’s earlier East Kowloon line proposal, although SCL will now extend through to ...
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Industry News in Brief
Electroputere expects to report a loss of 178·3bn lei on a turnover of 937·1bn lei for 2002. Losses for 2003 are estimated at 50bn lei, on turnover of 1800bn lei. The locomotive and electrical equipment builder is 62·4% owned by the Romanian Privatisation Authority.Following a decision to focus on its ...
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CCTV progress
RAILWAY Safety has commissioned a six-month research project at Kingston University’s Digital Imaging Research Centre into how CCTV is used on Britain’s railways. It will focus on CCTV at stations, level crossings, bridges and depots, and how the British Transport Police makes use of images in its London control room. ...
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Metros
Canada: Montréal Metro is planning to open a C$130m surveillance and control centre in 2005 to improve security.China: COWI is to assist Scott Wilson in preparing a tender design for the 1·7 km immersed tube tunnel which will carry the Sha Tin - Central line under Victoria Harbour in Hong ...
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Pointers
n Queensland Railways is to put its tilting diesel trainsets into service between Brisbane and Cairns on June 15, state Transport Minister Steve Bredhauer announced on March 13. The existing Queenslander and Sunlander services were to be merged with effect from April 1. n An intergovernmental agreement for construction of ...
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Keeping control
ABB has developed a protection and control terminal for 50 and 60Hz power applications, derived from a 162/3 Hz design. Protection, control and monitoring functions are integrated to save space. The REO 517 can be used as a stand-alone multifunction unit, or integrated into an automated substation.ABB, SwedenReader Enquiry Number ...
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Switching data
BERLIN’s Lichterfelde West and Botanischer Garten S-Bahn stations have been equipped with SmartSwitch data network switching nodes from Thales Communications and H