Main line rail industry news – Page 1258
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News
Grant battle resumes
ON FEBRUARY 13 the US Congress passed a bill that included a grant to Amtrak totalling $1·05bn. Amtrak had sought $1·2bn (RG 2.03 p72 ) but said on the following day that this ’should be sufficient to operate the national system for the remainder of the fiscal year which ends ...
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Galicia upgrade
PUBLIC CONSULTATION has begun in Spain on proposals to upgrade the 117 km Ourense - Lugo route for high speed operation, including the construction of four cut-offs that would shorten the distance to 103·3 km at a cost of €364·3m. The Ministry of Development says that the route will be ...
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News
Cutting remarks
AROUND 20 years ago the German Transrapid group demonstrated that a lawn mower could tow one of its maglev vehicles. We were somewhat surprised to learn last month that the same motive power is being considered to help keep Amtrak’s morning Eugene - Portland Cascades service on the rails. Every ...
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Paris looks again at automation
WHEN A HOLE appeared in the grounds of a school in Paris on February 15, it was rapidly established that tunnelling for an extension of Line 14 of the metro was in hand below. Paris metro operator RATP blamed ’a geological accident’ for the collapse, which occurred where a maintenance ...
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Line 2 upgrading
BUDAPEST City Council voted at the end of January in favour of an HF53bn refurbishment of Line 2 over the next four years. The modernisation of the 30-year-old Red line will be partially funded by a 25-year HF30bn EIB loan which was approved in December. According to Mayor Gabor Demszky, ...
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Bush freezes transit budget
ON FEBRUARY 3 US President George W Bush unveiled his proposed budget for the 2003-04 financial year. This freezes the allocation for the Federal Transit Administration at the same $7·2bn as in the 2002-03 budget still making its way through Congress, compared to $6·8bn actually spent in 2001-02. The plan ...
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Bordeaux study
PROPOSALS for the development of rail services around Bordeaux are to be drawn up over the next 12 months, following the award last month of two parallel study contracts to Systra, Erea and Ingerop. The first, awarded by the region of Aquitaine, covers the area west of the city. The ...
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Northwest STAR
CHICAGO commuter rail operator Metra unveiled plans on January 29 to develop an 88·5 km orbital rail corridor from Joliet to Des Plaines and O’Hare airport in the city’s northwestern suburbs over the next 10 to 12 years. The US$1·1bn Suburban Transit Access Route would be worked by diesel multiple-units ...
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NewsPointers March 2003
The government of Uzbekistan has decided to accelerate construction of the Tashguzar - Baysun - Kumkurgan railway serving the southern part of the country, with the aim of completing the work by 2007. Last month Israel's Finance Minister Silvan Shalom designated the construction of a high speed rail link ...
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News
Questions to answer in Taegu
JUST 100 years ago 84 people died at Couronnes on the Paris metro when a fire caused by a short circuit engulfed an eight-car train of wooden-bodied cars. Major metro fires are few and far between, but the inferno that killed at least 125 people in Taegu in South Korea ...
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News
NRZ in deep trouble
ALL SEVEN directors of National Railways of Zimbabwe including the Chairman, Chivarange Chimombe, were dismissed on February 14 when the board was dissolved by the government. Announcing the decision, Transport & Communications Minister Witness Mangwende said NRZ would be administered by the Secretary of Transport & Communications, Colonel (Rtd) Christian ...
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News
China cools its metro rush
WHEN Guangzhou broke ground for its fourth metro line at the end of January (p120), it was a race against time. Barely two days later the construction of new metros in China was put on hold for the second time in a decade. With extensions and new lines underway in ...
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News
DMU to Lao Cai
VIETNAM RAILWAYS began work last month at its Gia Lam works on a metre-gauge diesel trainset. Costing 90bn dong, the unit will have two end power cars enclosing 12 trailer vehicles. It is expected to be completed by the beginning of June, and to enter service on the Hanoi - ...
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News
Circular plan
VISITING Beijing on February 18, a delegation from Pakistan reached agreement for the Chinese to assist with the proposed revitalisation of the Karachi Circular Railway (RG 12.00 p791). Led by Railways Minister Ghous Bukhsh Mahar, the delegation included Sindh provincial Transport Minister Adil Siddique and Planning & Development Minister Syed ...
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News
WTC to become subway hub
RECONSTRUCTION of the subway maze around the World Trade Center site into a co-ordinated transport interchange will get underway next year, for completion by 2007, although the cost is likely to exceed the promised $4·5bn in federal aid. New York Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on February ...
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News
Vinck slashes SNCB budget
IF THE Belgian government had thought that Karel Vinck would be more docile than his predecessor as Managing Director of SNCB, the fired Etienne Schouppe, it may find itself largely mistaken. Against the express wishes of Transport Minister Isabelle Durand, the SNCB board has approved a plan to reduce spending ...
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News
Level 1 gets thumbs down
THE THREAT that Britain might be faced with a legal requirement to spend more than £6bn on installing ERTMS Level 1 or 2 on lines where trains exceed 160 km/h before it is fully developed as a reliable product, and before existing signalling is life-expired, has been lifted. On February ...
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Low-cost airlines
Sir - In RG 10.02 p616 you noted the increasing threat to European and even the British rail system from the onslaught of low-cost aviation. Here are some other factors that need acknowledgment.Railways cost substantial amounts of public money in a way that other modes do not. The high speed ...
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Underground withdraws 700 cars after derailment
COMMUTERS on London Underground’s Central line faced weeks of disruption after a detached traction motor derailed the rear half of an eight-car train approaching Chancery Lane station at 13.53 on January 25. There were only minor injuries as the derailed cars were tightly confined within the 3·57m diameter tunnel, the ...
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Murcia suburban
THE Ministry of Development has unveiled a €552m programme to develop suburban services around the city of Murcia in southeastern Spain, with the aim of increasing rail usage from 4·8 to 9·3 million passenger-journeys a year. Increasing frequencies on Renfe routes to Alacant, Cieza and Aguilas, as well as Feve’s ...