Main line rail industry news – Page 1296
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News
Investment priorities switched
FOLLOWING strong criticism of ambitious investment plans for Russian Railways drawn up by former Minister of Rail Transport Nikolai Aksyonenko, his successor Gennadi Fadeyev has realigned the priorities for improvements to the 86031 km network (p136). The planned fixed link to the island of Sakhalin has been put on a ...
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California dumps maglev
NOTWITHSTANDING the Perils of Amtrak playing to full houses in Congress (p109), the California High Speed Rail Authority is steadily whittling down alignment options for a high speed network linking Sacramento and San Francisco Bay with Los Angeles and San Diego. State Governor Gray Davies continues to support the planning ...
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O'Rourke launches Dublin PPP
IRELAND'S Minister for Public Enterprise Mary O'Rourke announced on January 16 that the government had given the formal go-ahead for Phase 1 of the Dublin metro (RG 10.01 p629). The Rail Procurement Agency is to seek expressions of interest for a concession to finance, design, build and operate the network. ...
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Sunderland ready to open
JANUARY 29 saw the first light rail vehicles reach South Hylton as test running began on Tyne & Wear Metro's 20 km Sunderland Direct extension (RG 7.01 p474). Revenue services are due to start on March 31, and this will be followed by an official opening by HM Queen Elizabeth ...
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Tokyo smart card starts
EAST Japan Railway inaugurated Suica contactless smart cards at 424 stations in greater Tokyo on November 18. The railway developed the smart cards with Sony.Two types are currently available. The first is a season ticket, with a stored value of up to ´10000. The costs of any extra journeys made ...
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Enterprise refurbishment underway
NORTHERN Ireland Railways is refurbishing 14 De Dietrich carriages used on the flagship Belfast - Dublin Enterprise cross-border services. According to NIR Engineering Executive M McGreevy, the vehicles, built in 1997, are being refurbished at a cost of up to £150000 each to ensure a high-quality passenger environment ’before they ...
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Fare Collection in Brief
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is to install a new generation automated fare collection system on its rail network by 2004, replacing the existing token equipment at a cost of $120m.Beijing Metro Corp is to introduce automatic fare collection using ’intelligent’ cards. The current 3 yuan flat rate will be replaced ...
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Products in Brief
EAO has developed a double-sided glass-mountable LED illuminated push button for internal train doors.London Underground has ordered 400 tubs of Wipems disposable biocidal wipes from Chela Ltd. They will be used to remove sticky acidic exudate from cable insulation.Canac is to upgrade Beltpack loco remote control units used by Canadian ...
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Electronic seat reservations
VIRGIN Trains’ Pendolino and Voyager trains are fitted with VMS2000 Electronic Seat Reservation equipment. This automatically retrieves data from the national reservations system and displays it above the seat, removing the need for paper labels.In the past data has had to be manually uploaded to electronic displays. Using a dual-processor ...
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Metro-North to refit EMUs
OVER the next six years about $150m is to be spent refurbishing 241 M-2 EMU cars used on Metro-North Commuter Railroad’s New Haven line. The 25-year-old fleet is in a rundown condition, with 30 to 60 cars sidelined for repairs most weekdays. The overhaul should keep the cars running for ...
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Dual-mode LRVs ordered
REGIONALBAHN Kassel GmbH announced on December 21 that it had ordered 28 dual-system light rail vehicles to work regional services. These will be operated in conjunction with city tram operator Kasseler Verkehrsgesellschaft, enabling through services from electrified and non-electrified local rail routes onto the city centre tram network.Alstom Transport will ...
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Southwest links open
CHINESE Minister of Railways Fu Zhihuan joined ceremonies at Guiyang on December 30 to mark the completion of upgrading work on CR’s Zhuzhou - Liupanshui line. The 1139 km electrified line connecting the industrial heart of Hunan province with the southwestern coalfields of Guizhou province has been double-tracked at a ...
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Dr Yellow UK
RAILTRACK is to invest heavily in automated infrastructure monitoring as part of its new engineering strategy following the Hatfield derailment in October 2000 (RG 12.00 p810). Technical Director Richard Middleton stressed last month that this ’is all about measuring and monitoring and verifying the condition of the infrastructure. We have ...
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Dieter
CAPTION: Midland Metro users literally got the goat in December, when they found one wandering around the platform at West Bromwich. They were even more surprised when the animal ran on board the next tram. While some intrepid passengers sat stroking the goat, the vehicle was driven to the depot, ...
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BDZ tracks open to competitors
REI HOLDINGAD became the first aspiring train operator to announce, on January 2, its intention of competing with Bulgarian State Railways. BZD had been split on the previous day into an infrastructure manager and a train operator, and private companies are now able to apply for a licence to run ...
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Finance
China: Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China are providing 3bn yuan and 2bn yuan loans respectively to the Shanghai Transrapid maglev scheme. Agricultural Bank of China is providing an 8bn yuan credit extension to Shanghai’s Yangpu metro project. Due to open in 2005, the 23 km Line 8 ...
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Metros
Bulgaria: Sofia Tramway is negotiating for an EBRD loan to fund the modernisation of up to 45 trams and purchase of 20 new vehicles.China: Guangzhou Metro Corp has selected Siemens’ optic fibre Open Transport Network for data transmission on Line 2, now under construction.A batch of new light rail cars ...
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Portable ticket issuing
BRITISH inter-city operator Midland Main Line is to begin using SchlumbergerSema’s Avantix Mobile ticket-issuing machine this month. Based on a Pocket PC, 1500 Avantix Mobile units will replace existing portable machines on National Express Group’s nine franchises.Avantix Mobile can print magnetic stripe tickets for use with automatic barrier gates, and ...
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Market
Brazil: Holland Company has supplied a customised TrackStar road-rail track recording vehicle to MRS Logistíca. It is fitted with EH Reeves’s Laserail geometry measuring equipment.Colombia: Steer Davies Gleave has been commissioned to carry out an audit of traffic and revenue forecasts for Atlantic Railway concession holder Fenoco SA.Denmark: Porterbrook Leasing ...
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Low-noise wheel
Unveiled at WCRR was the Syope noise-reducing wheel developed by Lucchini of Italy. Trials have taken place on Italian State Railways with ETR470 and ETR500 high speed trainsets, and the first application on a commercial train will be on the Pendolino units being built for Czech Railways.Sound is damped by ...