Main line rail industry news – Page 1376
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News
Line 5 heads São Paulo expansion
TENDERS were due to be submitted on September 16 for two tracklaying contracts on São Paulo metro Line 5 between Capão Redondo and Largo Treze. The contracts cover 9·5 km of ballastless double-track and 4 km of ballasted track for the maintenance depot and stabling sidings. Bids for M&E installations ...
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Line 8 to Barajas
SEPTEMBER 8 saw the formal inauguration of the final 1·9 km of Madrid metro Line 8 from Barajas airport to Pueblo de Barajas. Costing Pts4bn, this short addition completes the city’s 1995-99 metro expansion programme. Line 8 now runs between Pueblo de Barajas and Mar de Cristal, where passengers must ...
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Subte car order placed
BUENOS AIRES metro concessionaire Metrovías has ordered 16 five-car EMUs from Alstom Transport to re-equip Line A between Plaza de Mayo and Primera Junta. The deal is valued at 186m euros, and the first deliveries are due 18 months after the contract has been signed.The stainless steel cars are to ...
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Marmaray loan agreement signed
TURKEY: Minister of State Recep Onal and Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura signed a loan agreement in Ankara on August 19 releasing the first US$117m tranche of funding for the cross-Bosporus rail link. This follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed on March 26 under which Japan's Overseas Economic Co-operation ...
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Tri-Rail doubling funded
FLORIDA commuter operator Tri-Rail has put together a $220m funding package which will enable it to complete the double-tracking of its 114 km Miami - Palm Beach route two years earlier than planned. CSX Transportation, which owns the line, has offered Tri-Rail a $55m interest-free loan, which will be combined ...
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Kolkata extends
FOUR YEARS after the completion of India’s first heavy metro line, work has begun on an extension of the Kolkata Metro. Prime Minister A B Vajpayee joined the ceremonies to mark the start of construction of the 8·4 km southern extension from Tollyganj to Garia. The project is costed at ...
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Rio governor backs metro
ANTHONY GAROTINHO, Governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, has approved a funding package for a short extension of metro Line 1 in the city’s Copacabana district. The deal clears the way for concessionaire Opportrans to start work on the 760m extension from the present Cardeal Arco Verde terminus ...
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TRAX ready to open early
UTAH TRANSIT Authority is to celebrate the opening of its 24 km TRAX light rail line between Salt Lake City and suburban Sandy on December 4; revenue service will start two days later. The board of directors voted on August 25 to open the line four months early.The $312m line ...
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La Rochelle LRT
ON August 30 Alstom Transport signed an agreement with the town of La Rochelle, the région of Poitou-Charentes and the Conseil Général of Charente-Maritime to build an experimental light rail line in the streets of the Atlantic port.The 1·6 km line will run from the Alstom plant at Aytré (p630) ...
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F Market goes fishing
ON SEPTEMBER 7 San Francisco Municipal Railway received approval from the city’s Public Transportation Commission to operate tram services along the Embarcadero waterfront from Market Street to Fisherman’s Wharf. Construction of the route is virtually complete, and test running will start this month.The $140m extension is expected to open ...
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Acela delayed
just as we publish our latest World Speed Survey (p659), which finds that the USA is one of only two countries where train performance has worsened in the last decade, comes news that the launch of 240 km/h Acela Express services on the Northeast Corridor will be delayed. On September ...
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railwaygazette.com
OVER the past 21/2 years we have been developing our web information service at www.railgaz.co.uk. Gratifyingly, we have recorded a steady growth in visits, with thousands of professionals from all sectors of the rail industry registering to use the site. In order to provide an even better service to our ...
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Pointers
n Australia’s Speedrail consortium hopes to sign Heads of Agreement with the federal and New South Wales state governments by the end of this year for the A$3·7bn Sydney - Canberra high-speed line, so that construction can start during 2000.n The Transport Ministers of Bulgaria and Macedonia have agreed to ...
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Lovers' labours lost
ON SEPTEMBER 14 Lovers Rail Director Mr Kienhorst announced that the Amsterdam - Haarlem Optio service would be discontinued with immediate effect. Criticising the lack of regulation for access to the Dutch network, Kienhorst also blamed Netherlands Railways for failing to co-operate by refusing to accept Lovers Rail tickets. Local ...
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Sir Alastair sets ground rules
RENEGOTIATION of passenger franchises awarded three years ago by Britain’s last Conservative government has been on the agenda since Labour came to power in May 1997, but only now are firm ground rules emerging. They were spelled out in two speeches on September 15 and 17 by Sir Alastair Morton, ...
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Single track maglev
JUST BEFORE he left the post of Transport Minister in the German government (p626), Heinz Münterfering ruled that the Hamburg - Berlin Transrapid maglev project was to be built initially using a single track (RG 6.99 p346), with provision made for vehicles to pass - presumably a reference to a ...
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World Speed Survey 1999
Quantity not quality as high-speed operators mark time The closing years of the 20th century have seen a consolidation in high-speed train performance, with more trains in the top categories but no services faster than in 1997. In our regular biennial survey of the fastest timetabled point-to-point journeys, Dr Colin ...
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Still in court
ON JULY 29 the Taiwanese High Court awarded NT$1·1bn to Matra Transport International as compensation for its work on Taipei’s troubled Mucha metro line. This should have been welcome news to the French supplier, which has been battling with Taipei City Council’s Department of Rapid Transit Systems for ...
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Safety costs mount
A record fine for a health and safety offence of £1·5m was imposed on Great Western Trains in July by Mr Justice Scott-Baker for not preventing the collision at Southall in West London on September 19 1997. Seven passengers died when a diesel High Speed Train ran through signals at ...