Main line rail industry news – Page 1305
-
News
Ethiopia outlines international network
LANDLOCKED Ethiopia has launched plans for new rail links to ports on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, to reduce its dependence on the existing rail corridor to Djibouti. Details of the Railway Development Initiative were announced on January 9 by Transport & Communications Minister Dirrir Mohammed. Two routes are ...
-
News
Silk Road vote
CONSTRUCTION of the proposed rail link between Central Asia and China could get under way by the end of this year, following approval of the project by the Kyrgyzstan parliament in December. This established the line as the country’s top infrastructure priority. A tripartite intergovernmental commission, with representatives from Kyrgystan, ...
-
News
Rawang - Ipoh under way
MALAYSIAN construction firm DRB-Hicom Bhd announced on December 20 that it had started preliminary works for the Rawang - Ipoh electrification project. The company was selected last July to undertake the civil works for double-tracking and realignment; the systems & electrification work is being undertaken by a Mitsui-led consortium (RG ...
-
News
Wisconsin foils Burkhardt bid
HOLDERS of Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp stock failed to rally in sufficient numbers around the flag raised by deposed President & CEO Ed Burkhardt. Propositions that would have seen control of the company pass to Burkhardt’s team were supported by holders of only 32·7% of the equity. However, propositions that ...
-
News
Acela may help the cause of US high speed
THIS MONTH should see the launch of a 2h 28min timing by an Acela Express trainset between New York and Washington DC. Just 2min faster than the introductory schedule of April 2 1969 for the original Metroliner EMUs, the non-stop timing builds on the launch in December of a single ...
-
News
Good Trains for All in five years
DANISH State Railways has launched a five-year programme to expand and upgrade its passenger services, including new rolling stock, routes and stations. Director-General Henrik Hassenkam says the Good Trains for All programme will help DSB win more traffic with comfortable trains and more cost-effective operations. By 2006 DSB will be ...
-
News
Pearl line inaugurated
CEREMONIES were held in Shanghai on December 26 to mark the the start of revenue services on metro Line 3. The 25 km route, known as the Pearl line, runs around the western side of the city centre, connecting Jiang Wan Zhen in the northeast with the main station and ...
-
News
CityRail gets A$273m
NEW SOUTH Wales is to invest an extra A$273m over the next four years to improve the safety and reliability of Sydney’s urban rail network. Announced by NSW Premier John Carr on December 22, the package will be targeted at lines with the greatest increase in passenger numbers and the ...
-
News
Kaohsiung starts at last
ON JANUARY 12 officials in Kaohsiung attended a ceremony to mark the start of work on the city’s long-planned metro network. Mayor Frank Hsieh and Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp Chairman Wang Chung-Yu signed a 36-year concession contract to build and operate the first two lines, totalling 42·7 km, at a ...
-
News
Lyon trams enter service
LAST MONTH saw the start of revenue services on the two light rail lines in the French city of Lyon. Inauguration ceremonies for the 18·7 km network were held on December 18, with Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot participating, but public operation did not begin until January 2.Costing Fr2·6bn, the light ...
-
News
Marina line contract
A CONSORTIUM of Alstom and Singapore Technologies Electronics has been awarded the turnkey contract for supply of electrical and mechanical equipment on the initial section of Singapore’s Marina metro line. The Land Transport Authority hopes to expand the 5·2 km route into a 36 km E-shaped network over nine years, ...
-
News
Córdoba - M
ON DECEMBER 15 the Spanish cabinet gave its approval for tenders to be called for civil works on the first three sections of the 153 km Córdoba - M
-
News
An inspector calls
AFICIONADOS of our Sidetrack column will not have missed the story in our January edition entitled ’Police state’ (RG 1.01 p15). Nor did the British Transport Police.On January 16 we received an aggressive phone call from a senior and somewhat irate police officer who was determined to put his view ...
-
News
Railtrack counts the cost of Hatfield chaos
AS NORMALITY slowly returns to Britain’s railways in the wake of the unprecedented shambles of November and December, Railtrack and the Train Operating Companies are adding up the cost of the disruption. The problems are not over yet, and temporary timetables may last on some routes beyond the Easter deadline ...
-
News
railwaydirectory.net
WE ARE THRILLED to announce this month that Railway Directory, for 106 years our standard reference work for the international railway industry, is now published on the internet. Railway Directory remains an essential guide to the world’s railways and their suppliers, and the web version supersedes the CD-ROM published in ...
-
News
Basel Combinos
FEBRUARY 10 is due to see the start of revenue operation with a metre-gauge Combino articulated LRV on Basel tram Line 8. Basler Verkehrsbetriebe took delivery of the first car on December 21, with a small ceremony attended by Basel city President Ralph Lewin and BVB Director Urs Hanselmann. ...
-
News
Kazakhs to restructure
ON DECEMBER 21 the government of Kazakhstan announced that the central Asian republic’s national rail network is to be restructured by 2003, with the aim of partially privatising the business. KTZ Director General Ablai Myrakhmetov told a meeting in Astana that the railway would be split into four businesses, of ...
-
News
More roubles to be spent
REVIEWING developments on the Russian rail network in 2000, Minister of Railways Nikolai Aksyonenko noted at the annual meeting of the ministry’s board of management on December 26 that RZD carried 1300 million tonnes of freight last year, an increase of 11% over 1999. Given that both motive power and ...
-
News
Cotton belt TGV
IT’S NICE TO KNOW that President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who was assassinated in Kinshasa in mid-January, was keen to develop his country’s rail network. How else can one interpret an item that appeared in British newspaper The Independent on January 22? The paper’s reporter, interviewing ...
-
News
Change mooted in Canada
AN INTERIM REPORT commissioned by Transport Minister David Collenette into competition on Canada’s rail network has ruled out a suggestion that the tracks should be passed to a government-owned corporation. Published on January 10, the report was a response to calls from shippers for more competition, which could include some ...