Main line rail industry news – Page 1384
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Pilbara lines in a tangle
Confirmation on June 15 that Rio Tinto and BHP are negotiating a joint venture to merge their iron ore operations in Western Australia has introduced a new dimension to the increasingly bitter dispute with North Ltd over access to Rio Tinto’s Hamersley Iron Railway. The news followed a May 27 ...
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Corridor upgrade cuts transit times
Murray Hughes travelled in a PKP inspection saloon to view improvement works on the E20 corridor between Warszawa and Poznan
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Consolidated designs to serve high-speed partnerships
INTRO: The race to develop new high-speed trains is slowing down, as railways in Europe and the Far East concentrate on management and service quality. Gordon Pettitt reviews the market, and suggests that international management consortia may offer the best way for rail to present an attractive and cost-effective alternative ...
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CD in search of commercial freedom
INTRO: General Manager Dalibor Zeleny is convinced that he could turn Czech Railways into a viable business. But this will only happen if CD is given political freedom as a joint stock company. Murray Hughes reports from PrahaBYLINE: Dalibor Zeleny General Manager Czech Railways GIVEN THE cries of doom that ...
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ZSR struggles with the yoke of independence
INTRO: Neglect is taking its toll on Slovak Republic Railways, as Murray Hughes found in Bratislava. General Director Andrej Egyed believes KS3·5bn a year needs to be spent to regain lost ground, with corridors for transit freight taking priority for investmentBYLINE: Andrej Egyed General Director Slovak Republic Railways LEAVING Bratislava ...
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Siemens tries MoMo concept
SIEMENS Verkehrstechnik has signed a co-operation agreement with FA Porsche for the development of a design-led production concept to build modular metro vehicles. The MoMo concept has been under development for the last 18 months, starting with the technical features and then moving on to interior fittings and image.According to ...
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Alstom’s first year success
PRESENTING Alstom’s first annual accounts following flotation last June, Chairman & CEO Pierre Bilger told his board of directors on May 25 that the year to March 31 1999 had been ’a year of solid results’. He highlighted the ’benefits of Alstom’s focus on the high-margin segments of its ...
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Express Rail Link brings the train to the plane
Construction of a 57 km electrified route between Kuala Lumpur International Airport and the city centre is now under way. Under a 30-year concession awarded to the private sector, express and commuter services are due to begin operating in 2002
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Virgin bus links
ON MAY 27 Britain’s Virgin Trains and Stagecoach Holdings unveiled a package of feeder buses and through ticketing schemes, due to start with the timetable change on May 30. The RailLink initiative has been developed to honour a commitment made to the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising when Stagecoach acquired ...
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Building the 21st Century Talgo
INTRO: With nearly 50 years of operating experience, Patentes Talgo is now developing the Talgo XXI trainset, featuring diesel or electric power cars with gauge-changing capability. The latest Series 7 cars will also form the basis of a high-speed train aimed at the Spanish marketBYLINE: Francisco de LorenzoChief Executive OfficerPatentes ...
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Signatur strives to make Norway smaller
INTRO: Later this year Norwegian State Railways will put into service the first of 16 tilting trains on routes from Oslo to the north, south and west of the country. Cutting journey times by around 1h on four long-distance corridors, they will help improve NSB’s competitive edge over buses, cars ...
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Adtranz gets two years to move into profit
UNVEILING a full-size mock-up of the Innovia peoplemover at the City Transport exhibition in Toronto (right), Adtranz President & CEO Rolf Eckrodt confirmed on May 24 that the company was relying on its modular product platform strategy to return the business to profit within the next two years.Officially known as ...
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VDEI show highlights
HELD in Wien on June 2, the 44th Permanent Way Convention of the Association of German Railway Engineers was staged in conjunction with a three-day exhibition of track maintenance machinery and other permanent way technology. Opened by Deputy General Manger of Austrian Federal Railways Dipl-Ing Helmut Hainitz, the show occupied ...
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Test track to serve northern France
CEREMONIES were held on May 21 to mark the laying of the final section of track on a rolling stock test circuit at Petite F
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Publications
Schriftenreihe für Verkehr und Bahntechnik. Band 1. Feste Fahrbahn The first of a series of VDEI handbooks, this 156-page softback looks at all aspects of slab, grass and embedded track. Liberally illustrated with monochrome pictures and diagrams, it covers general construction methods and techniques, and the application of slab track ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Argentina: Following government approval, Industrias Metalúrgicas Pescarmona SA has sold its 70·5% stake in the Mesopot
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PEOPLE
Swiss Federal Railways’ Infrastructure Director Pierre-Alain Urech has joined the board of DB Netz AG. Anna Ottavianelli of FS has been named Secretary-General of the Community of European Railways, replacing Trevor Halvorsen. Carl-Henrik Lundstrøm of DSB been appointed to the newly created position of Deputy Secretary-General.As part of the latest ...
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MPI and WAB to merge
US railway equipment suppliers MotivePower Industries and Westinghouse Air Brake Company announced on June 3 that they had signed a definitive agreement to merge. Subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, the ’merger of equals’ is expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year. WAB shareholders will receive ...
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Putting Málaga on the AVE map
SPAIN: The Ministry of Development has published details of the proposed extension of the standard gauge AVE route from Córdoba to Málaga. When complete, the line will allow AVE sets to reach the Mediterranean city from Madrid in 2h 21min compared with the 4h 10min now offered by gauge-convertible Talgo ...
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Darwin deal
CONTRACTORS are to be selected over the next few months for construction of the 1420 km rail link between Alice Springs and Darwin, following the announcement on June 6 of a preferred bidder for the A$1·2bn build-own-operate concession. Australia’s federal government, together with South Australia and Northern Territory, selected Asia-Pacific ...