Main line rail industry news – Page 1397
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News
BART cars refurbished
ON JANUARY 14, San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit District unveiled the first three of 439 Rohr cars to be remanufactured by Adtranz in Pittsburg, under a $454m contract due to be completed in 2002. Built more than 25 years ago, the cars are being converted from DC to AC ...
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City NEWS
CAPTION: Helsinki Transport has started testing the first of 20 Variotrams ordered from Adtranz and Rautaruukki Oy in July 1996. The bodies were built at Otanmäki, to a design styled by Creadedesign, with trucks from Siegen, six IGBT inverters from Mannheim and 12 x 45 kW traction motors from Wien. ...
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Kaohsiung BOT moves closer
CONSTRUCTION of the long-planned four-line metro in the Taiwanese second city Kaohsiung is set to get under way in 2001, with two routes totalling 42·7 km now expected to open in stages between 2004 and 2007. Kaohsiung has grown rapidly in recent years, and now has over 3 million inhabitants. ...
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Mid-City link to open early
THE MISSING LINK in the Washington DC Green Line is to open on September 18. WMATA announced in January that work on the $643m 4·7 km segment would be completed three months ahead of schedule. With stations at Columbia Heights and Georgia Avenue-Petworth, the mid-city section will finally link ...
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Partnerships to boost income
ON JANUARY 20 Amtrak President & CEO George Warrington announced a series of ’business partnerships’ intended to cut costs and generate extra revenue, as part of a programme to enable the US national passenger operator to break even by 2002. A seven-year contract with airline caterer Dobbs International Services will ...
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News
Virgin Rail signs West Coast train order
On February 9 British inter-city train operator Virgin Rail Group signed the long-awaited Train Service Provision leasing deal for Alstom Transport and Fiat Ferroviaria to design, supply and maintain a fleet of 225 km/h tilting trains to operate its West Coast inter-city franchise. The deal is valued at 1·8bn euros, ...
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Alstom aims to help build a virtuous circle
INTRO: Eight acquisitions in two years have added more expertise to Alstom Transport’s armoury in the battle for domination of the world railway equipment market. Murray Hughes found that Alstom Transport President André Navarri’s philosophy was ’simply growing the business’BYLINE: André NavarriPresidentAlstom Transport PRESIDENT of Alstom Transport André Navarri was ...
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Intelligence
Metros Australia: The federal government is to provide A$65m towards the construction of Brisbane's revised light rail project, also supported by the state government and the city council (RG 2.99 p71). Canada: Edmonton city council has amended its 20-year transport plan to include an LRT extension from the ...
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INTELLIGENCE
CAPTION: British civil engineering contractor Balfour Beatty Rail Engineering announced at the beginning of February that it had completed the first phase of track renewal at London’s Euston terminus under a £100m remodelling contract which forms part of Railtrack’s £2bn West Coast main line upgrading
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Market
Argentina: COMSAT Mobile Communications of the USA has been awarded a contract worth up to US$500000 a year by Ferrocarril Belgrano Cargas (RG 2.99 p66), to provide mobile satellite communications for train dispatching and control. By April this year 89 locomotives will be equipped to receive movement orders from FBC’s ...
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Pointers
Look for Polish State Railways to sign the formal contract with Fiat for the supply of up to 16 tilting inter-city trains. Following discussions on the proportion of local content, the final negotiations now centre on financing for the order valued at US$200m.A private consortium including Morrison Knudsen, Traylors and ...
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INTELLIGENCE
FinanceChina: Hong Kong’s MTR Corp has raised HK$1bn through a fixed rate note issue, split into equal tranches of four-year notes with a coupon of 7·28% per annum and five-year notes at 7·43%. A further US$750m has been provided by a 10-year global bond issue.Europe: Eurotunnel has completed the refinancing ...
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INTELLIGENCE
CAPTION: Metro Rail Transit Corp is pushing ahead with construction work on the first phase of Manila Line 3, which is due to be completed by November this year (Metro Report 98 p49). One of the most distinctive civil engineering structures to be put in place in the last few ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Australia: Australia Southern Railroad has secured long-term contracts from Australian Wheat Board, Australian Barley Board and South Australia Cooperative Bulk Handling, which is to upgrade loading facilities at Bowmans and Gladstone. Trains of up to 50 grain wagons will use the Tailem Bend - Pinnaroo line converted to standard gauge.Austria: ...
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News
Tax cut would cripple interstate rail freight
A proposed tax reform in Australia threatens to wipe out interstate freight hauls below 1000 km. This comes just as private rail freight operators prepare to compete for the modest tonnages available between the five mainland state capitals. Incredibly, economists who proposed the tax change argued that it would level ...
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News
Golden promise and major threat
EXTRA CASH for urban rail projects, diverted from fuel taxes dedicated to road construction, has been proposed by President Clinton for the US fiscal year commencing October 1 1999. He wants Congress to endorse a 14% increase in transit funding to $6·1bn, even more than the $5·8bn projected in last ...
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Letters
Maunsell tooSir - Whilst we were delighted to see your article on the København Metro (RG 1.99 p35), we were disappointed that you did not acknowledge the important role that Maunsell Ltd has played as principal designer to Comet, the civil works contractor, in the design and construct contract. The ...
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NEWS
British engineering contractor John Laing Group is to acquire a controlling interest in M40 Trains, which operates the Chiltern Railways franchise linking London, Aylesbury and Birmingham. Subject to approval by the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising, Laing will buy the 23% stake owned by venture capitalist 3I, and another 35% ...
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News
June 1 is Day 1
ON JANUARY 20, Norfolk Southern and CSX announced that they had set June 1 as the target date to implement their $10bn takeover and breakup of Conrail. The so-called Day 1 had been anticipated last September, but when the two railways took control of Conrail on August 23 there were ...
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Ferroban moves to Campinas
RESTRUCTURING is getting under way at the former São Paulo state railway Fepasa following its transfer to the Ferrovias Bandeirantes SA concessionaire on January 1. Ferroban President José Lindoso de Albuquerque announced on January 24 that the board of directors had decided to move the railway’s headquarters to Campinas, where ...