Main line rail industry news – Page 1345
-
News
INTELLIGENCE
Australia: A container terminal and balloon loop have been commissioned at Mt Isa as part of a joint project between QR, Mt Isa City Council and Mt Isa Mines, which is making more use of containers to move export minerals to Townsville.QR carried 131million tonnes of freight in the year ...
-
News
Highlights from InnoTrans 2000
OVER 800 exhibitors crammed six halls of Berlin’s trade fair grounds on September 12-15 at InnoTrans. Outside, on 2 km of track laid between the halls and in sidings beyond, around 50 items of rolling stock, some of which had been kept under wraps for unveiling at the show, drew ...
-
News
Istanbul opens heavy metro
THE FIRST 8 km stage of Istanbul’s north-south heavy metro line was officially inaugurated on September 16. Linking Taksim and 4. Levent, the line has four intermediate stations, and a design capacity of 70000 passengers/h in each direction. Construction of the line started began in 1992, and installation of electrical ...
-
News
Madrid network to top 300 km
PROPOSALS to build a further 68 km of metro lines in the Spanish capital, taking the network to over 300route-km, were unveiled by the Consorcio de Transportes de Madrid at the end of August. The strategic plan for 2003-10 focuses mainly on the northern and eastern parts of the city.Together ...
-
News
RER C extended
ON AUGUST 28 French National Railways inaugurated a 9 km extension of Paris RER Line C from Montigny-Beauchamp to Pontoise, with intermediate stations at Pierrelaye and St-Ouen l’Aum
-
News
Pankow links open
SEPTEMBER 16 saw the inauguration of the long-planned Berlin U-Bahn extension to Pankow, where an interchange with the S-Bahn has been provided. The eastern end of Line U2 had been closed beyond Senefelderplatz since July 10 to allow the connection of the 390m extension from Vinetastrasse. Completion of the DM105m ...
-
News
Dublin metro ring study
IRISH Minister for Public Enterprise Mary O’Rourke has approved in principle the development of a heavy metro in Dublin, augmenting the light rail route already under construction. The intention is to develop the network through a public private partnership, for which legislation is to be introduced next year. The government ...
-
News
Wave of openings in France
THREE FRENCH cities inaugurated new light rail and metro lines within a week. First was Nantes, where Semitan opened two routes on August 28. Line 1 was extended west from Bellevue to François Mitterrand, and the first stage of Line 3 began revenue service from H
-
News
Sevilla revival
PUBLIC consultations have begun for the construction of a four-line metro network in the Spanish city of Sevilla. Promoter of the 47 km network is Metro de Sevilla, a joint venture company formed by the city administration and the Andalucia regional government. An environmental impact study costing Pts346m has been ...
-
News
DART goes west
DALLAS Area Rapid Transit extended its Trinity Express commuter rail service from 16 to 43 km on September 18. Four new stations have been opened at West Irving, CentrePort, Hurst/Bell and Richland Hills. Services run hourly from Dallas as far as CentrePort, where a shuttle bus connects to Dallas/Fort Worth ...
-
News
Asturias triangle
VISITING Gijón in August, Spanish Minister of Development Francisco Álvarez Cascos, Renfe President Miguel Corsini and his Feve counterpart Eugenio Damboriena unveiled plans for a regional and commuter network designated Metrotrén de Asturias.Designed to reduce road congestion in the triangle linking Gijón, Oviedo and Avilés, the scheme envisages closer integration ...
-
News
City News in Brief
Guangzhou Metro Corp has ordered 26 six-car trains for Line 2, which is due to open in 2003-04. To be built by a joint venture of Adtranz and Changchun Car Co, they will use the Adtranz Movia modular design, with aluminium bodies and 1·5 kV DC IGBT inverter drives. Under ...
-
News
Better productivity would help
REPEATED cries from German Railway Chairman Hartmut Mehdorn about the poverty of his company have brought a favourable response from Transport Minister Reinhard Klimmt. Speaking at the opening of the InnoTrans exhibition on September 12 in Berlin, Klimmt confirmed that he would be allocating additional investment funding to DB worth ...
-
News
A warning and an opportunity
THE political jungle is inhabited by a species of parrot that squawks ’safety is paramount’ at the slightest hint of rail safety being compromised. The bird was unaccountably silent in September, when an unexpected relaxation of employment rules meant train drivers in charge of freight trains carrying dangerous chemicals, inflammable ...
-
News
Overwhelmed by passengers
QUESTIONS have been asked in the Dutch parliament about the widespread failure of NS Reizigers to meet comfort standards laid down in its 1995 service contract with the government. These require 85% of passengers travelling for more than 5min in the commuting peak to have a seat. But at the ...
-
News
Expertise and experience are vital
YET ANOTHER public inquiry, this time into automatic train protection (but still with m’learned friends present in strength), opened in London on September 18. Chaired jointly by Lord Cullen and Professor Uff, who respectively held inquiries into the Ladbroke Grove (1999) and Southall (1997) collisions, it provides the third opportunity ...
-
News
Gauge conversion returns
JUST over a quarter of a century ago, we raised editorial eyebrows about the decision by General Gowon of Nigeria to convert the national rail network from 1067 to 1435mm gauge. The plans went the way of many similar proposals, but the idea has now been resurrected. Information Minister Prof ...
-
News
PEOPLE
Pascal Tomasso and Jacques Damas have joined Eurostar Group to fill two new Executive Director positions, respectively Sales & Marketing and Operations. Maurits Kalff has been appointed Director of Customer Services, in place of Edward Bell.Head of SNCF’s Marseille region Pierre Izard has been appointed Director of Human Resources at ...
-
News
Climbing the stairs
THIS YEAR’S edition of our annual supplement Metro Report included a cautionary tale about Line 3 of the Manila light rail network. Traffic was well below expectations because, to save construction costs, the design had been pared to the bone, with access to most of the elevated platforms only by ...
-
News
Market October 2000
Brazil: Carajás Railway has ordered 550 ore hopper wagons of 130 tonne capacity from local builder Amsted Maxion. China: Huanghua port has ordered two tandem wagon tipplers for export coal from Germany's Krupp Fördertechnik. Germany: DB has signed a letter of intent with Adtranz to buy a further 24 Class ...