Main line rail industry news – Page 1333
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News
Tunnel scraping mechanised
REPAIRand cleaning of tunnel linings has been simplified by the development of a range of rail-mounted tunnel scraping machines by Italian mining equipment supplier Costruzione Macchine Marconi.The FGF 75 and FGF 110 rail tunnel scraping machines are carried on a bogie well frame, with a power pack above one bogie ...
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Stock orders promised
PAUL Blumenthal, Head of Swiss Federal Railways’ Passenger Division, has confirmed that SBB plans to place several major orders for rolling stock in the next few years. Speaking at the unveiling of a refurbished MkIV coach in Olten, Blumenthal outlined SBB’s procurement plans for passenger rolling stock.A decision will be ...
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Alstom spreads its wings
AS PLANNED at the time of its June 1998 flotation, Alstom has become independent, with the sale of most of the residual stakes held by former owners Marconi and Alcatel. The two groups succeeded in placing the majority of their 24% stakes in Alstom with institutional and private ...
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Letters
Transatlantic tram terminologySir - The article ’Trolley launch’ (RG 1.01 p10) regarding the extension of San Diego’s light rail system may cause people to wonder why Americans call trams ’trolleys’.The word originated in New Jersey when the early Asbury Park system was electrified. The Daft system of overhead was chosen, ...
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Cross channel market gains
Eurostar Group has reported strong year-on-year growth for the full year of 2000. During the period sales revenue across the Eurostar business increased by 12% to £439m, up from £393m in 1999 (excluding exchange rate movements). Sales volumes increased by 9%. The corresponding figures for 1999 were a 6% increase ...
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Sidetrack
Wedding with a differencePakistan Railways has rehabilitated one of its Hitachi-built Master railcars, dating from the 1960s, as a special train for charter to wedding parties. The Shadi (Marriage) train can accommodate up to 150 guests and comes complete with on-board kitchen facilities. Fares are 20 to 25% higher than ...
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$30bn bonanza proposal
TRUE TO their promise made during the waning days of the last Congress, Amtrak supporters introduced a revised bill on January 31 that would provide about $12bn over the next 10 years for development of inter-city passenger services. The bill submitted in the Senate with strong bi-partisan support would allow ...
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Metros
Argentina: Suburban operator Trenes de Buenos Aires has refurbished San Isidro station on the Retiro - Tigre route for 1·5m pesos. Vicente López, La Lucila, Martínez and Olivos will follow.Czech Republic: Praha metro Line A is to be extended 1 km from Skalka to Hostivar, using an existing depot access ...
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Finance
Spain: The Ministry of Development has allocated Pts4·4bn this year for removing or upgrading level crossings, in addition to Pts4·5bn to be provided by Renfe and FEVE. At the end of 2000 there were 3849 level crossings still in use.Sudan: The Chinese government has agreed to lend US$22m to fund ...
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Market
China: Bombardier Sifang Power Transportation Ltd (RG 4.00 p242) has awarded Temoinsa of Spain a Pts3·5bn contract to supply interiors for 300 inter-city coaches. Temoinsa has recently invested Pts100m in establishing a facility at Qingdao with a Chinese partner.Leighton Contractors (Asia) has won a HK$907m contract to extend KCR’s Tuen ...
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London station implodes
Demolition firm Greenspoon Bros imploded the old station tower block building at London, Ontario, on February 4. Two days earlier, VIA Rail Canada had unveiled its final plans for a new station, which is due to open in time for the Canada Summer Games. The passenger operator is investing C$6·4m ...
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Thalys traffic up
FRANCO-Belgian high-speed operator Thalys International reported on February 1 a 10% increase in patronage in 2000 compared to 1999. Traffic reached 5·5 million passenger journeys, with revenue jumping 20·5% to 265m euros. The principal Paris - Brussels route, which handles just over half of all Thalys traffic, recorded an increase ...
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Samjota Express runs on
Delegations from India and Pakistan have agreed to continue running the bi-weekly Samjota Express between Lahore and Amritsar for another three years. Indian Railway Board member S Bhandari and Abdul Qayyum of Pakistan Railways signed a new agreement in January after a review of the level of rail services between ...
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Help Point trial
On January 4 Transport for London began trials of an Emergency Help Point at Addington Village bus/Tramlink interchange. A two-way audio-visual ISDN link between passengers and a 24 h control centre allows passengers to see and hear the controller. When an alarm is pressed, the CCTV captures four still frames; ...
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Motorail services revised
DB AutoZug is to offer users of its motorail service a money- back guarantee. The trains are being equipped with refurbished sleeping cars, with new bogies, quieter disk brakes and air-conditioning, and if facilities on the refurbished trains are not functioning or unavailable, passengers can claim a travel voucher.When the ...
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Pointers
n Queensland Competition Authority has recommended ending QR’s virtual monopoly of coal haulage within the state, and the introduction of access prices for private sector companies wanting to compete. The report claims opening up the network to competition could cause costs to fall by up to 30%, creating an ...
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Seven Nozomis an hour to challenge the airlines
INTRO: Faced with growing competition from deregulated airlines, JR Central plans to run seven ultra-fast Nozomi trains every hour between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka. JR Central President Yoshiyuki Kasai revealed his strategy to Murray Hughes in NagoyaAFTER many years of continuous growth, traffic volume on the Tokaido Shinkansen peaked in the ...
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Hikari Rail Star starts to reverse fall in market share
INTRO: Shojiro Nan-ya, President of West Japan Railway, believes that the latest design of Shinkansen rolling stock is winning back traffic lost to air. Murray Hughes met him in JapanALTHOUGH immensely successful, Japan’s Shinkansen is not invincible. Both JR Central’s Tokaido Shinkansen and the Sanyo Shinkansen between Shin-Osaka and Fukuoka ...
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Government prepares to privatise national network
INTRO: Taiwan’s Minister of Transport & Communications Mrs Chu-Lan Yeh envisages that a privatised national railway will one day complement the role of high speed line operator Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation. Murray Hughes interviewed her in TaipeiHughes: You have a very unusual situation in Taiwan in that a private ...