Main line rail industry news – Page 1281
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News
China market opens up
BEIJING Mayor Liu Qi announced on June 12 that international firms will be invited to tender for design and construction of future metro lines in the Chinese capital. He anticipates the construction of 150 route-km over the next six years, more than trebling the size of the network.At the same ...
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Lausanne metro closer
LAST MONTH the Swiss canton of Vaud confirmed its backing for a SFr590m reconstruction and extension of the Lausanne metro. This paves the way for the scheme to be put to the voters for approval next year.Plans were drawn up several years ago to convert the existing Lausanne - Ouchy ...
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Light rail is the mode of choice
JUDGING by the turnout at UITP’s 6th light rail conference, the mode is in fine form. Almost 450 delegates from over 30 countries assembled in Nantes on June 12-14 to debate the latest technical, political and operational innovations.Construction continues apace. The Turkish city of Bursa has just opened its first ...
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And so to Nice?
THERE was plenty for SNCF to celebrate last month when TGV Méditerranée reached its first birthday. Since opening on June 10 last year, when the best Paris - Marseille journey time was cut to just 3h (RG 7.01 p449), the line has carried 18million passengers and has increased traffic by ...
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Spanish reform coming
SPEAKING at a conference in Santander last month, Spanish Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos outlined the future shape of the national railway network that the government hopes to have drawn up by the end of this year. Under the new model, public and private operators including Renfe’s existing business units will ...
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Line 4 consortia prequalified
A TOTAL OF 12 consortia have prequalified for turnkey contracts to design and build metro Line 4 in the Brazilian city of São Paulo. The first phase which will run for 12·8 km from Luz to Vila S
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PPP in the dock again
ONCE AGAIN the High Court in London is due to consider the legality of the Public-Private Partnership that is intended to hand over the maintenance of the capital’s metro to the private sector. On June 12 Mayor of London Ken Livingstone announced that Transport for London, which he chairs, had ...
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Embattled ICF tries X.net
ANNOUNCING its 2001 results on June 6, Intercontainer-Interfrigo looked back on a year when traffic fell by over 13%, to 834894 TEU and 942 million TEU-km. Apart from losing two major customers, ICF attributed its poor performance to ’poor quality’, ’disruptions due to accidents and bad weather conditions’ and ’strikes ...
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Amtrak ’near the point of no return’
IMMEDIATELY after taking office as President & CEO of Amtrak in May, David Gunn set about tackling the railway’s precarious financial position. In particular, he warned that Amtrak would have to cease running services in July unless an emergency $200m short-term loan was arranged by the end of June to ...
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Local assembly brings metro benefits
Bombardier Transportation has delivered the first of 18 metro trainsets for service on Line 2 in the Romanian capital
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CFCO concession
NEXT MONTH is due to see the completion of prequalification for a concession to operate the 1115 km Congo-Ocean Railway in the Republic of Congo. On May 13 CPCS Transcom confirmed that 23 groups had expressed interest following publication of prequalification documents in April. These include African, European and North ...
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Tamping by laser alignment
IMPROVED control of rail lifting when tamping pointwork is offered by an automatic laser alignment controller from Plasser & Theurer. A rotating laser transmitter unit is mounted on the lifting and lining measuring car, with the receiver fitted to the additional lifting device. During tamping, data from the laser is ...
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Metro car orders
NEW YORK’S Metropolitan Transportation Authority has exercised a further option with Bombardier for 352 M-7 EMU cars, valued at C$941m. MTA now has a total of 678 M-7s on order for the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North commuter networks. It will shortly commission the first cars of the initial ...
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South African machine ready to grind
SPOORNET’S rails are being reprofiled by two Speno 24-stone grinding machines built under licence in South Africa. Grinaker-LTA subsidiary Lennings Rail Services is using the Speno RR24M-12 and 13 rail profiling machines in the five-year contact with Spoornet. Most components were made locally for assembly and commissioning at the LRS ...
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Level 2 goes live
AT 04.44 on April 27, regional passenger train 5104 from Luzern to Olten became the first timetabled train carrying fare-paying passengers to operate using ETCS Level 2 on Swiss Federal Railways. On the 35 km Level 2 pilot section between Zofingen and Sempach, all trains are now controlled from Olten ...
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Export orders offer prospects
ALTHOUGH turnover among members of the German Railway Industry Association fell from €8·1bn in 2000 to €7·7bn last year, President Dr Dieter Klumpp was able to present an encouraging picture in his annual review on April 17.In an analysis of developments last year, Klumpp drew attention to improved sales of ...
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Products in Brief
Escol Panels is to supply vitreous enamel cladding panels for stations on Kowloon - Canton Railway's West Rail project.Spescom is providing software and equipment to allow Spoornet to record, monitor and archive train movement authorisations given by a variety of radio systems at 40 sites in South Africa.Ecebs is to ...
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Finance
Australia: The 2002-03 federal budget includes A$650000 to fund half the cost of a study into a light rail line serving Queensland’s Gold Coast resorts. The state will provide the remainder. Four consultancies have been shortlisted for a contract to develop the A$200m Southport - Broadbeach proposals by December 2003.Victoria’s ...
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Passenger News in Brief
Finnish State Railways is to introduce a clock-face timetable on its routes from Helsinki to Turku, Tampere and Kouvola and cut journey times with the introduction of more Pendolino services on June 2.Spanish National Railways has formed the NEFSA joint venture with Riofisa to undertake station modernisation and development ...
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Metros
Brazil: TCBR, Vega and Dalcon have been awarded a contract to undertake outline engineering design for a 13 km elevated metro in Curitiba (RG 3.02 p117). The winning bid was R$5·82m.Canada: Montréal’s AMT has unveiled plans for a 6·2 km, six station C$700m extension of the Blue line from Saint ...