Main line rail industry news – Page 1349
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Strasbourg grows
THIS MONTH sees the opening of two more light rail lines in Strasbourg, doubling the length of the 12·6 km network. Line B will run from Elsau in the southwest to Hoenheim Nord, intersecting with Line A at Homme de Fer. Line C will share tracks from Elsau to République ...
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Madrid control centre opens
ON JULY 25, the Vice-President and Minister of Public Works for the Madrid regional government Luis Eduardo Cortes formally inaugurated a new control centre for the city’s metro network at Alto de Arenal. Built at a cost of Pts2·5bn, the centre brings together the control of train services, stations, power ...
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Littleton line launched
DENVER RTD inaugurated its 14 km Southwest light rail line from I25/Broadway to Mineral Avenue in the suburb of Littleton on July 14. Parallelling existing BNSF and UP tracks, the route has four intermediate stops at Evans, Englewood, Oxford and Littleton/Downtown. Journey time on the extension is 14min, with services ...
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Siemens wins Maracaibo LRT
A TURNKEY contract to build and equip the first 6·9 km of Maracaibo’s planned light rail network was awarded to Siemens Verkehrstechnik last month. Siemens announced on August 9 that it had won the 155m euros package, which includes the depot, six stations and 12 LRVs.Metro de Maracaibo is planning ...
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Toronto extends
CEREMONIES were held in Toronto on July 21 to mark the extension of the Harbourfront light rail line 509, which now provides a direct link from Union Station to Exhibition Place via Queens Quay. Construction of an 850m connection along Queens Quay between Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street has allowed ...
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Hiawatha cars ordered
ON AUGUST 2 Minneapolis Metropolitan Council selected Bombardier Transportation to manufacture up to 22 cars for the city’s 18·3 km Hiawatha Corridor light rail line. The price for 22 cars is $65m, well below the $80m estimate, but a base option is 18 for $56m - a final decision will ...
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Brasilia to open
COMMERCIAL operations on the Brasilia metro will start in November, Companhia do Metropolitano do Distrito Federal announced on August 15. When construction began in 1991 (DM 92 p32), opening was set for April 21 1994. However, a newly-elected city government suspended work in 1994-96. Test trains are now running on ...
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Slow progress in Mindanao
AMBITIOUS plans to build a complete railway network from scratch on the Philippine island of Mindanao are running into trouble. A report by consultants Louis Berger concedes that the 1436 km network would be a good idea, but says that it would be preferable to build feeder roads from farms ...
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Hoist with their own petard
ONCE AGAIN, Argentine politicians have scored an own goal in their attempts to deal with the reletting of operating concessions on the suburban railways serving Buenos Aires. The issue of being allowed to charge higher fares to pay for badly-needed investment lies at the core of the problem as the ...
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Chinese Railways targets commuters
WHERE once the bicycle reined supreme, private cars and other motorised vehicles are seriously choking the streets of China’s cities. Recognition of the attendant problems of congestion, pollution and poor quality of life has prompted renewed government interest in urban railways, and tentative plans are being drawn up for a ...
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Singapore metro goes public
TRADING in Singapore MRT Corp shares began on July 26, making it the world’s first modern metro operator to be publicly listed. When the offer closed on July 25 there were 110671 applications amounting to 1·08 billion shares for the 209·5 million shares available to the public. The share price ...
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Russians press on with reform
AT THE end of August the Board of Russia’s Ministry of Railways expected to authorise implementation of the second stage of the national railway reform programme. The ’Concept of Structural Reforms of the Russian Railways’ was formally approved by government in 1998 (RG3.98 p138), and this has now been substantially ...
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HSL Zuid contracts signed
ON JULY 16 the Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Public Works & Water Management signed definitive contracts with five consortia for construction of the substructure for HSL Zuid from Amsterdam to the Belgian border. The five groups include Ballast Nedam, Boskalis, HBG, Heijmans, NBM-Amstelland, Van Oord ACZ, Strukton, Dura Vermeer, Volker ...
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More twists in ore tale
ANGLO American’s failure last month to outbid Rio Tinto in its hostile take-over of mining group North appeared to seal the fate of the 342 km railway planned by Robe River Iron Associates to exploit its West Angelas iron ore concession in Western Australia (RG 8.00 p457). However, this interpretation ...
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Mail on rail under threat
IT IS extraordinary that Europe’s railways successfully offer fast, frequent inter-city passenger services, but that several of them cannot provide the speed and reliability needed for mail traffic. Deutsche Post Transport stopped using rail in 1996, and despite a 1998 plan to launch dedicated overnight trains for mail and packages ...
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Rail Business Intelligence
FOUNDED as Rail Privatisation News in March 1995, our fortnightly newsletter Rail Business Intelligence is now widely acknowledged to be the definitive publication covering developments in Britain's privatised rail industry. With the prospect of huge investment over the next 10 years (p541), interest in what is happening on our ...
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Remote crossing monitoring
New South Wales rail infrastructure authority Railway Services Agency has introduced remote monitoring of equipment at isolated level crossings around the network, using digital cellular technology provided by Call Direct Cellular Solutions.Providing two-way communication and allowing the collection of real-time information, the Remote Monitoring Unit was originally developed to allow ...
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Simulator boosts Channel Tunnel safety
A major advance in the way programmed logic and interactive visual displays are used to handle emergencies in the Channel Tunnel was demonstrated on June 15, when Eurotunnel formally opened its Rail Control Centre simulator at the Folkestone terminal. The simulator has been developed as a turnkey project by Alstom ...
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Industry News
Australia: ERG Ltd, Telstra and ANZ Banking Group are to form the ECard Pty Ltd joint venture to develop a smart card solution suitable for application across Australia. ERG has also taken a 10% share in card.tec AG, a smart card operating company created by Deutsche Telekom subsidiary DeTeCard Service ...