Main line rail industry news – Page 1257
-
News
SIFER arrives in Lille
SIFER 2003 is being held at the Grand Palais exhibition centre at Lille from March 25 to 27. This will be the third SIFER event. The last took place in Paris in March 2001 and attracted exhibitors from 17 countries across Europe. Visitors from a total of 40 countries attended, ...
-
News
Pioneer region pursues TER development
INTRO: Nord-Pas de Calais is one of the 20 regions of mainland France that assumed powers on January 1 last year to specify and fund local TER services. Although it has been working with SNCF for 25 years, the new structure and moves to open up the national network are ...
-
News
Braking research centre
BECORIT has invested in a brake materials research and development facility at Recklinghausen in Germany. A purpose-built test hall accommodates three full-scale and two small-scale dynamometer test machines. Recent projects include working with ERRI to introduce a low-friction composition block material as an alternative to cast iron for freight applications. ...
-
News
Contractor takeover
DUTCH firm Koninklijke Volker Wessels Stevin NV has signed a letter of intent to acquire the rail infrastructure activities of German contractor Koehne Gleisbau. Based in Oberhausen, Koehne Gleisbau is active in the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary and Estonia. It has around 900 employees and a turnover of €125m. Operational management ...
-
News
Derailment detectors fitted to Swiss tank wagons
BYLINE: Silvan WeissProduct Co-ordination Manager, Central Europe, Esso Schweiz GmbHAFTER two potentially catastrophic derailments involving tank wagons in the mid-1990s, one at Affoltern near Zürich and the other in Lausanne, Swiss Federal Railways, the Swiss oil industry and the private-sector tank wagon owners resolved that similar incidents should not occur ...
-
News
Smart card deal
US operator WMATA has selected ERG Transit Systems and Northrop Grumman Information Technology to install and operate the SmarTrip¨ smart card fare collection system, which will cover 17 metro, rail and bus networks in Washington DC, Maryland and northern Virginia, subject to approval by Maryland Transit Administration. The $20m contract ...
-
News
PEOPLE
Michael Ward has been named Chairman & CEO of CSX Corp in place of John Snow, who resigned to become US Secretary of the Treasury (RG 1.03 p19). Ward was previously President of CSX Transportation.Alex Hynes has been appointed Senior Economist at the UK’s Office of the Rail Regulator. He ...
-
News
PUBLICATIONS
Le Grand Livre du TGVby Claude Soulié and Jean TricoireThis French-language 350-page hardback about France’s high speed lines and the trains that run on them is informative and comprehensive. Starting with the world speed records of 1955 and trials in the early 1970s using the gas turbine powered TGV001, the ...
-
News
VIAFast to cut journey times
CANADIAN Transport Minister David Collenette suggested in January that VIA Rail could be operating high speed passenger services between Montréal, Ottawa and Toronto within five years. He believes Ottawa - Montréal journey times could be cut to 75min and Ottawa - Toronto to 2h 15min.Last year Collenette requested proposals from ...
-
News
Bowker trims UK spending
EMPHASISING the need to ’get a grip’ on runaway infrastructure maintenance and train operating costs in the short term to underpin ’a long-term vision’, Chairman & Chief Executive of the UK’s Strategic Rail Authority Richard Bowker unveiled his second Strategic Plan on January 30. He described it as ’a stepping ...
-
News
Phosphate link
WORK IS expected to start shortly on the 22·5 km branch from Jordan’s Aqaba Railway to the phosphate mines at El Shediyah. ARC Director-General Abdullah Khawaldeh said on February 5 the line would be funded by the government at an approximate cost of US$15m.Khawaldeh predicted that the two existing mines ...
-
News
Ferronor for sale
RAILAMERICA announced on January 29 that it is looking to sell its 55% stake in Ferronor of Chile, as part of an ongoing US$100m asset rationalisation programme. Credit Lyonnais Securities (USA) Inc was due to issue an ’offering memorandum’ at the end of February.RailAmerica acquired its stake at privatisation in ...
-
News
UK research group founded
FEBRUARY 25 sees the formal launch in London of a new centre for railway research. Rail Research UK is being set up by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council to provide a ’one-stop shop of knowledge’ encompassing 12 research groups from seven universities. It will work alongside the rail ...
-
News
Reform bill clears hurdle
RUSSIA’s railways are finally set for three stages of restructuring after the fourth bill in the reform package was passed by the Federation Council on February 12. The bill covered property ownership issues, and the Council had rejected it on December 27 after finding that there were too many omissions ...
-
News
INTELLIGENCE
Australia: Seven people died and 15 were seriously injured when the 06.24 CityRail EMU from Sydney to Port Kembla derailed at 07.14 on January 31 near Waterfall. The first of four double-deck Tangara cars was severely damaged when the unit slewed around and struck a sandstone rock face. Nothing was ...
-
News
Madrid - Lleida ready to go
SPANISH National Railways has finalised its commercial strategy for the opening of the Madrid - Barcelona high speed line as far as Lleida. It will be operated with two AVE trainsets and 12 Talgo Altaria loco-hauled sets running at up to 200 km/h until ERTMS signalling is commissioned. Before the ...
-
News
Sevilla circle revived
SPANISH Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos has unveiled a €112·4m programme to create a circular suburban route in Sevilla, building on earlier proposals developed by Renfe (RG 7.97 p434). The €57·3m infrastructure component of the Metrotrén Sevilla scheme includes €4·5m to build a 765m double-track electrified spur between the main line ...
-
News
Cargo terminal saves space
RAIL Cargo Austria is testing advanced loading and sorting technology at an intermodal terminal at Wien-Nordwestbahnhof. Developed in partnership with ABC Consulting, Intermodal Corridor Network, Künz, Palfiger, Porr and seibersdorfer research, the pilot installation can handle all types of container in current use, as well as swap bodies, up to ...
-
News
Somport study
SPAIN’s Ministry of Development has awarded AEPO a contract worth €809911 to study the technical feasibility of reopening the 7·9 km Somport tunnel under the Pyrenees, closed to rail traffic since 1970. To be completed within 20 months, the study will also consider the remodelling required at Canfranc to ...
-
News
Rail-Tech Europe 2003
WE ARE delighted to be supporting the Rail-Tech Europe 2003 event being staged in Utrecht on April 1-3. Organised by Europoint, Rail-Tech Europe 2003 will be held in the Royal Dutch Jaarbeurs with a three-day exhibition and a technical congress themed on noise, vibration and the environment. Day 1 of ...