Main line rail industry news – Page 1323
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News
Tyne & Wear Metro shares tracks to Sunderland
Britain's light rail revival was spearheaded by Tyne & Wear Metro in 1980; Richard Hope reports on another key milestone scheduled for January 13 2002 when light rail operation over the Railtrack network is scheduled to begin
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NewsNET construction in full swing
The Nottingham Express Transit light rail line is taking shape after 10 years of planning. The first trams to be fully funded under Britain's Private Finance Initiative are expected to carry 11 million passengers a year from 2003
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Alp lines on a roll
BOTH SWISS Federal Railways and Austrian Federal Railways reported strong growth in freight business last year. Transit traffic between Italy and other EU countries is booming, and total tonnage carried by ÖBB was up by nearly 9% at 84·7 million, with intermodal traffic increasing by 17%. Around 300000 lorries were ...
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Finance
China: The Export-Import Bank has negotiated a ´11·6bn loan for the Shuoxian - Huanghua heavy-haul coal line. The money will allow the autonomous Shenhua (Group) Co Ltd to purchase 20 high-power locos and 3000 coal wagons.From June 1 the Hang Seng Index includes Mass Transit Railway Corp. MTR has the ...
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Passenger News in Brief
British inter-city operator Great North Eastern Railway is to hire out its first class lounges at major stations for use as city centre meeting rooms. GNER has also launched a range of Bistro meals, which will be served in its restaurant cars on off-peak trains.Work has begun to modernise the ...
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Industry in Brief
The Swiss-based European arm of US wagon builder Trinity Industries has acquired Slovakian manufacturer Wagonmarket. Frantisek Stup
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Adtranz takeover completed
BOMBARDIER completed its acquisition of DaimlerChrysler Rail Systems GmbH (Adtranz) on May 1, following the approval by the European Commission’s competition authorities (RG 5.01 p349) of the sale and purchase agreement with DaimlerChrysler AG announced last August. The purchase was completed for a cash consideration of C$1·1bn (k790m), subject ...
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Submerged monorail proposed for Stonehenge
UK: Appointed to design a new visitor centre at the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, Melbourne-based architects Denton Corker Marshall suggested building 'a submerged monorail' in a trench to carry visitors around the stone age monument. The suggestion drew cries of derision from residents of Sydney, who have been blessed ...
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Products in Brief
Interfleet Technology has developed a portable monitoring and analysis unit for electrically operated carriage doors. The unit detects abnormal operation to allow fault prediction, prevention and trend analysis.The PowerPlan energy consumption and demand modelling software developed by VST Comreco Rail has been extended to include the effects of adding trackside ...
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Embedded rail on test
Trials have been carried out by München University with a novel design of embedded rail system developed by Balfour Beatty Rail Projects. An initial batch of rail has been rolled, but a firm commitment to full-scale field trials has yet to be signed.The Type 14072 rail weighs 74 kg/m and ...
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ATEC to start work in October
CONSTRUCTION of an inland rail corridor between Melbourne and Brisbane is set to get under way in October. The A$1·4bn Australian Inland Rail Expressway is intended to form the first phase of the ambitious Australian Transport & Energy Corridor linking the east coast cities with Darwin. The line is primarily ...
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Kiley takes charge of PPP as preferred bidders are named
BRITAIN’s Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced on May 4 that Commissioner of Transport for London Bob Kiley would be taking over as Chairman of London Transport from May 8, with responsibility for negotiating final contracts under the government’s Public-Private Partnership package. The LT board selected two consortia on May ...
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Metros
France: With fares income up 3·5% at Fr15·7bn, RATP has reported a profit of Fr143m for 2000, up from Fr27m in 1999. A new record of 2·6billion passengers were carried in 2000 across all modes, with metro traffic up 4·8%, RER 5·1% and light rail 10·3%.Toulouse transport authority SMTC signed ...
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Market
Australia: The Northern Territory government has called tenders for construction of a A$30m intermodal terminal at Darwin’s East Arm port, including a rail link to the Alice - Darwin line (p386).Bangladesh: Trelleborg Industrial is supplying rubber chevron springs for use on 700 freight wagon bogies.Brazil: MRS Logística took delivery last ...
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Connex launches 375s at last
CAPTION: British Transport Minister Keith Hill (left of inset) and Connex Managing Director Olivier Brousse (right) were among the dignitaries present at London Victoria on April 30 to welcome the first scheduled service into the capital worked by Class 375 EMUs (RG 6.00 p351). Adtranz is supplying a total of ...
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Traffic management software
ADTRANZ Signal A/S of Denmark has completed the development of its Ebicos TMS traffic management software. Already sold to railways in Sweden, Portugal, India and Australia, a test version of the software is due to be up and running in Sweden this month.Adtranz Signal has invested €25m in developing Ebicos ...
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Uninterrupted signalling supply
CHLORIDE Power Protection has developed an uninterruptable power supply for signalling that uses a 25 kV traction supply and the electricity grid to remove the need for a diesel generator back up.Railtrack is currently reviewing the performance of a first installation, under test near Crewe on Britain’s West Coast Main ...
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Integrated smart ticketing
CUBIC Transportation Systems is to install smart card fare collection equipment on 14 Baltimore metro stations and 957 buses under a US$21·9m contract awarded by Maryland MTA on April 18. The equipment is compatible with that already in use on the Washington metro. A second contract will cover Baltimore’s light ...
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Sidetrack
A fragrant blastEUROSTAR passengers will enjoy an enhanced ambience following the award of a contract to fit air fresheners in the toilet compartments. Tonbridge-based Initial Healthcare was given the task of designing a system that met stringent Channel Tunnel safety regulations, which prohibited the use of aerosols, batteries or any ...
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Analytical software
NETHERLANDS Railways’ passenger business NS Reizigers has started using iTM1 software from Applix to analyse passenger traffic data. The software is being used for four principal functions: project administration; passenger flow analysis; punctuality; and sales forecasting.iTM1 allows users to manipulate information on punctuality, traffic volumes, passenger responsiveness and backgrounds, ticket ...