Main line rail industry news – Page 1301
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News
Innovators study rail freight potential
FIVE YEARS AGO rail freight in the Netherlands was almost dead. NS had a market share of less than 2%, and journey lengths in the small country were far shorter than conventional wisdom dictated as the practical minimum. So it was of little surprise when the newly-commercialised NS decided to ...
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ÖBB tries plug-and-play pointwork
INTRO: Railways are seeking to use turnouts that can be installed quickly and that require little or no maintenance. Austrian Federal Railways has found that the Hydrostar design with its associated Hydrolink control and IS-2000 monitoring meets these objectivesBYLINE: Ing Friedrich Papacek Head of Design & Construction, Signal Technology ...
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VIA’s eastern renaissance
CANADIAN Transport Minister David Collenette joined VIA Rail Chairman Jean Pelletier in Toronto on November 16 to unveil the first of 21 General Electric P42-9DC diesel locos being bought for C$80m. The 177 km/h P42s will replace VIA’s last seven LRC power cars, and allow expansion of services in the ...
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Letters
December front coverSir - I should like to correct the caption to the front cover photograph printed on the Contents page of your December edition. Matisa’s Palas track geometry measuring system uses fixed points along the track, and does not need any GPS and fixed beacons. The measuring precision of ...
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Managing the critical wheel/rail interface
INTRO: Research into the root causes of the Hatfield derailment indicates that the interaction between wear and rolling contact fatigue is the key issue in managing the wheel/rail interface for optimum lifeBYLINE: Ajay Kapoor, Felix Schmid and David Fletcher *OVER THE PAST 20 years, substantial progress has been made in ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Australia: The deadline for bids to purchase National Rail and FreightCorp has been extended to mid-January; Competition & Consumer Commissioner John Martin said on December 12 that the three bidders are Lang/Toll, ARG and Freight Australia (RG 11.01 p729).Upgrading and relocation of the Gladstone - Monto line in Queensland is ...
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Loco support deal
GENERAL MOTORS-EMD has signed an agreement with Häfen & Güterverkehr Köln AG to provide support services to operators using JT42CWR (Series 66) diesel locomotives in mainland Europe. According to GM-EMD’s Director of Maintenance Services in Europe, Jim Lindsay, the partnership ’will harness GM-EMD’s international technical expertise and HGK’s local knowledge’.GM-EMD ...
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DB joins the 300 km/h club
INTRO: Trial running at up to 330 km/h starts this month on German Railway’s Neubaustrecke between Köln and FrankfurtTHIS MONTH should see a specially-equipped ICE3 trainset begin test running along almost the whole length of German Railway’s first Neubaustrecke designed for commercial service at 300 km/h. Under construction since December ...
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Railtrack invests in grinding capability
INTRO: Advice from international consultants following the Hatfield derailment has led Railtrack to move from corrective grinding to a preventative regime. A partnership contract will be awarded for the management and operation of an expanded fleet of high-capacity rail grinders BYLINE: Richard MiddletonTechnical DirectorRailtrack plcTHIS MONTH Railtrack expects to take ...
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PEOPLE
SNCB Chief Executive Officer Etienne Schouppe has been appointed Chairman of the International Union of Railways for 2002-03. DB’s Hartmut Mehdorn, East Japan Railway’s Masatake Matsuda and Marton Kukeley of MÁV have been elected as UIC Vice-Chairmen.A former head of Union Railways and Costain, John Armitt was named Chief Executive ...
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Passenger in Brief
On December 15 Chicago commuter rail operator Metra activated GPS equipment developed by GeoFocus on 261 carriages. The $11m project provides dispatchers with the exact location and speed of each train. The GPS equipment is also used to drive automated on-train announcements. Metra hopes to expand the system to drive ...
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Aid train reaches Afghanistan
UZBEKISTAN Railways diesel locomotives began operating into Afghanistan on December 9, following the reopening of the Friendship Bridge across the Amudarya river near Termez. Built by the Soviet Union during the 1980s, the line into Afghanistan has been out of use for the past five years.The victory of Northern Alliance ...
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IR centralises control
ON DECEMBER 2 Israel Railways called tenders for the construction and fitting out of a Network Management & Traffic Control Centre at Hof Ha-Carmel station near Haifa. The NMC will take over supervision and management of the entire rail network, whilst the TCC will assume direct control of operations on ...
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JR companies go commercial
THE THREE Japan Railways Group companies operating on Honshu became fully-fledged commercial companies on December 1, when a law change approved by the Diet on June 15 came into force (RG 7.01 p446). The law frees JR East, JR Central and JR West from many state controls, giving them the ...
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Interlockings live
SPANISH National Railways inaugurated a new signalling installation in Andalucia on November 30. Five electronic interlockings control a 50 km single-track section of the Córdoba - M
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Sidetrack
Benguela birthdayONE HUNDRED years ago, in 1902, a British company was awarded a concession to build and operate a railway from the coast at Lobito Bay in Portuguese West Africa through the province of Angola. Construction started in 1903, but it took until 1931 before the Benguela Railway reached the ...
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ERRAC launched
THE EUROPEAN Rail Research Advisory Council was launched on November 26 at the 5th World Congress on Railway Research in Köln. Philippe Busquin, the European Commissioner responsible for research, said ERRAC would have representatives from the Commission, EU member states, and major stakeholders in the rail industry. These include manufacturers, ...
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TRC concession tender
JANUARY 16 is the deadline for prequalification bids for a 25-year concession to operate the Tanzania Railways Corp network. The Presidential Parastatal Sector Reform Commission issued an initial invitation to tender on December 7, with further details available at www.psrctz.com. According to PSRC Executive Chairman John C Rubambe, prequalified consortia ...
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SLR re-engining
SRI LANKA Railways put into service at the beginning of December the first of four refurbished diesel locos which are being rebuilt with Caterpillar 3516 engines at a cost of around Rs45m each. The Hitachi-built Class M5 locos are being rebuilt by Caterpillar’s local agent United Tractor & Equipment Ltd ...