Main line rail industry news – Page 1309
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News
Railtrack enters administration
ON OCTOBER 7 the operator of Britain’s national railway network entered administration, after the High Court granted a Railway Administration Order at the request of Transport Secretary Stephen Byers. Alan Bloom, Chris Hill, Scott Martin and Mike Rollings of Ernst & Young were appointed ’joint special railway administrators’, charged with ...
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Research centre ready
EAST JAPAN Railway is to open a new technical research & development centre in December, built at a total cost of ´6·6bn. The facility is located at Omiya, 30 km north of Tokyo, on the site of a former training centre which has been moved north to Shirakawa. JR-East will ...
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PEOPLE
PEOPLEMohammad Saeedi Nejad has become head of Iranian Islamic Republic Railways.Priyal de Silva was appointed General Manager of Sri Lanka Railways from October 6. On October 1 Robert Etmans took over as Director of Personnel for DB Cargo, succeeding Birgit Gantz-Rathmann who moves to a similar post at DB’s headquarters ...
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Brave Efforrt collapses
FROM October 1, the OverNight Express that was launched in May 2000 as a mixed passenger and freight operation between Amsterdam and Milano ceased to carry freight. It then became just another sleepers and seats operation, but that too was due to be withdrawn from October 28.Six months ago, ONE ...
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Boldness needed
FURTHER DETAILS are emerging about the Rakesh Mohan committee’s report into restructuring of Indian Railways (RG 9.01 p557). Speaking to The Hindu Business Line, Dr Mohan put much of the blame for IR’s current financial problems on poor investment decisions in the last decade, in particular the gauge conversion programme ...
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Toronto turnround
THREE YEARS ago, the Conservative government in the Province of Ontario dumped financial responsibility for GO Transit on local authorities under a deal that saw it taking on funding of education. It also scrapped subsidies for Toronto Transit Commission. Now it has had second thoughts.The province intends to restore funding ...
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Death of Railtrack clears the way to start again
JACK SHORT, the recently appointed Secretary General of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport, had an important message for delegates to the 28th IRCA-UIC Congress in Wien at the end of September. He said governments must provide a framework for railways that encourages innovation and productivity and that gives ...
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Airline crises benefit inter-city
WITH AIRLINES begging for state funds to stave off bankruptcy as traffic plunged in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the USA, some inter-city rail services are seeing a spectacular surge in business. In Australia, the collapse on September 13 of Air New Zealand subsidiary Ansett - ...
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Byers sees 'a golden opportunity'
UK: Far from showing signs of contrition over the storm and upheaval that his October 7 decision had generated, Secretary of State for Transport Stephen Byers told the House of Commons on October 15 that 'the administration of Railtrack provides us with a golden opportunity to create a railway system ...
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Panama Railway reopens
FREIGHT TRAINS were due to begin running on the Panama Canal Railway in mid-October, following a US$76m reconstruction and conversion to standard gauge. Passenger services resumed in July, using ex-Amtrak locos and coaches. The complete overhaul of the 75·6 km route, including new ballast, sleepers and rails, has taken nearly ...
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CTRL charges too high, says Gallois
SNCF President Louis Gallois asserted last month that high track access charges for using the Channel Tunnel Rail Link 'will make it hard to have a viable Eurostar service' into St Pancras when Section 2 is completed in 2007. He also told the Financial Times that 'we will lose Waterloo' ...
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Finance
China: China International Trust & Investment Corp has provided a 1bn yuan loan to the Shanghai Transrapid project.Iran: Officials confirmed onSeptember 12 that final terms had been agreed for Chinese banks to provide US$100m for a 25 km extension of the Tehran Suburban Railway from Mehrshahr near Karaj to Hashgerd; ...
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Passenger News in Brief:
Chinese Railways announced on September 4 that it was putting into service luxury trainsets on the premier Beijing - Shanghai trains 21/22 by the end of the month, offering eight hard and four soft class sleepers. The soft class cars will have televisions in each compartment, plus toilets, showers and ...
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Reservations computerised
AUSTRALIAN firm OneRail has developed a point-and-click computerised booking system for use by travel agents, marketed as Orion. Originally developed to replace an ageing mainframe legacy system at VIA Rail Canada, Orion is also used by Queensland Rail, State Rail Authority of New South Wales and Orient Express Trains. The ...
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Metros
Australia: Transfield Construction has started work on a 2·2 km extension of Melbourne’s Mont Albert tram line, to Station Street, Box Hill.Egypt: National Authority for Tunnels has awarded the Interinfra consortium of Alstom, Vinci, Spie and Thales a €80m turnkey contract to extend Cairo metro Line 2 for 2·5 km ...
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Industry News in Brief
To support future bids for MBTA ticketing contracts, Cubic Transportation Systems Inc has opened an office in Boston. This complements existing US offices in Washington DC, New York and Chicago.CAF USA Inc has signed a lease for a 5000m2 site within the McClellan Business Park in Sacramento, California, where production ...
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British problems
Sir - Your extensive reports on the situation in Britain (RG 9.01) leave one in no doubt that the method of privatisation chosen for British Rail has been a total disaster. Of course, it is not possible to judge how some other system would have performed, or how BR would ...
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Pointers
n Promoters of the 4500 km, A$10bn Australia Inland Rail Expressway linking Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin expect to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on October 26. This marks the start of construction of a new bridge across the Macintyre River, between Boggabilla, NSW, and Carrington, Queensland.n China’s Ministry of Railways has ...
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Curve lubricants
A high performance lubricant to prevent track and wheel flange wear on curves has been developed by ITW Polymers & Fluids. Rocol Rail Curve Grease contains graphite dispersed in highly refined mineral oil, with a lithium thickener. It is non-flammable, and offers a working temperature range of -10°C to 150°C. ...
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Market
Australia: Alcoa World Alumina has sought expressions of interest for the supply of nine 1067mm gauge locomotives and 283 bauxite, alumina, and caustic soda wagons if it signs a new haulage contract in 2003.Tenders have been called for the relocation of Townsville station inQueensland, and provision of a new access ...