Main line rail industry news – Page 1365
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News
F-Market all at sea
WITH LITTLE fanfare and no speeches from elected officials, San Francisco Municipal Railway’s long-awaited F-Market light rail extension to Fisherman’s Wharf was opened on March 4. Now renamed F-Market & Wharves, the line runs along the waterfront to a loop at Jones & Beach streets. Serving many tourist destinations, the ...
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Seoul openings
METRO CONSTRUCTION is forging ahead in the South Korean capital, with 57 km to open this year. Announcing the start of operations on the 9 km Son Su - Shin Pung section of Line 7, with eight stations, on February 29, Seoul Subway Construction Corp confirmed the schedule for ...
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Croats buy trams
THE MUNICIPALITY of Osijek has selected Konkar KET of Zagreb as preferred bidder to build and equip a 2 km tramway extension serving the southwest of the town. The DM2·6m contract awarded on February 23 covers civil engineering works and installation of 750V DC overhead wiring, plus a 25 kV ...
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Kyiv prototype
CZECH rolling stock supplier Skoda Dopravní technika has won a contract to supply a prototype five-car metro trainset to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, in conjunction with the Russian firm Vagonmash St Petersburg. The unit is due to be delivered in November, after which Kyiv Metro expects to order a series ...
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BBR beacon lights the way in southern Africa
AFRICA: Opening of the Beitbridge - Bulawayo Railway in Zimbabwe on July 15 last year quickly led to appreciation of the benefits of faster transits between Zambia, Zimbabwe and the ports of South Africa. Traffic that had previously rolled through Botswana via Mafikeng and Plumtree rapidly switched to the new ...
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TINA opportunity must be taken
AS THE European Union prepares to welcome new members from eastern Europe, transport politicians are taking stock of progress in existing member states and attempting to assess the needs of tomorrow’s community. At the Pan-European Railway Conference staged by the International Union of Railways, the Community of European Railways and ...
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Tokyo expansion plans
Major expansion has been proposed for the Tokyo commuter network by 2015. Several completely new routes and links have been put forward in a Master Plan submitted to the Ministry of Transport in January (RG 3.00 p138). These include a new route from central Tokyo duplicating the Chuo line as ...
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Virgin Voyagers to roll this summer
UK: Taking shape at Bombardier Transportation’s BN plant at Brugge in Belgium are the first of 352 DEMU cars for Virgin Rail’s Cross-Country franchise in Britain. The first unit is on course to roll out in June, just 18 months after the £1060m contract was placed (RG 4.99 p223). The ...
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Cross-city boost
RECOMMENDATIONS for improving rail services in the Tokyo region were submitted to Japan’s transport ministry on January 27. They include new suburban lines and subway routes and construction of key links to open up more through routes on both suburban railways and the metro network by 2015. Cost of implementing ...
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Portable train weigher
RAPID MEASURMENT of rolling stock at any location is now possible, thanks to the development of a portable train weigher by British based Weighwell Engineering. Light enough to be carried by two people, the unit takes approximately 15 min to install. This makes it suitable for checking wagons being loaded ...
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Peoplemover launcher
Construction of the guideway for the 28 km LRT peoplemover loop in Singapore’s Senkang estate has been simplified by the introduction of two new girder launching platforms. Developed for contractor BBR Construction by Norwegian Rail System, the launching platforms incorporate Enerpac high-pressure hydraulic jacks supplied by Applied Power Asia.The two ...
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Thalys traffic up 5·5%
ACCORDING TO figures released on February 7, Thalys high speed services between France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany carried a total of 4·98million passengers in 1999, up 5·5% on the previous year. Of this traffic, 53% was carried between Paris and Brussels where high speed rail is now the market ...
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GIF lets wiring contracts
SPANISH high speed construction authority GIF has awarded two contracts worth a total of Pts23·8bn to a consortium of Adtranz, Cobra, Semi, Emte and Elecnor, covering the installation of overhead electrification and traction power supply equipment on all but 20 km of the 450 km Madrid - Lleida route. The ...
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Sidetrack
Every cloud...One side effect of the storms which lashed parts of France at Christmas is the large number of fallen trees unexpectedly available for future use as timber. SNCF is providing additional storage space for the windfalls at the 150 or so freight depots regularly handling timber traffic, as well ...
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Manila muddles on
REPORTS from Manila at the end of January suggest that SNC Lavalin may shortly win approval from the government to build the long-planned LRT Line 1 southern extension from Baclaran to Dasmarinas and Cavite. The Canadians had been negotiating for years with the previous administration for the C$600m BOT project, ...
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Metros
Argentina: Studies are under way for putting in tunnel the Liniers - Once section of the Sarmiento network operated by Trenes de Buenos Aires, to eliminate 70 level crossings. The present alignment would then turned over for development.Canada: Three extensions have been proposed to Ottawa’s initial light rail route due ...
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Passenger In Brief
VIA Rail Canada is to introduce The Enterprise, an overnight service between Toronto and Montréal offering both seats and sleeping cars equipped with shower facilities. The company is also offering PRIVA, a group business travel service ranging from private cars to special trains.German Railway has opened lounges for first and ...
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Products In Brief
Following successful trials on the Florida East Coast Railway and BHP Iron Ore’s Mount Newman line, GE Harris Railway Electronics has launched an improved version of its EPx direct braking system. This uses an air-powered smart valve, eliminating the need for individual axle generators and batteries on each wagon. The ...
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Market
Algeria: SNTF is negotiating a US$30m agreement with General Motors EMD for refurbishment and ongoing maintenance of its ageing diesel loco fleet.Australia: Queensland Rail is to install track, electrification and signalling on the 8·5 km Brisbane airport line as sub-contractor to Transfield Construction.A consortium led by Maunsell McIntyre is to ...
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Momentum wins Eurostar catering
ON FEBRUARY 7 Eurostar Group announced that it had awarded a three-year contract to provide onboard catering to Momentum, a new joint venture of Cremonini SpA of Italy (51%) and Granada Food Services of Great Britain (49%). Starting on June 1, the new contract is worth £40m in turnover a ...