Main line rail industry news – Page 1399
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Passenger PORTFOLIO
In Briefn On February 2 work began on a TGV station to serve the Futuroscope technology theme park near Poitiers; the Fr167m station should open early in 2000.n On January 1 the NS stake in train catering company Railtender was acquired by Albron. Railtender has launched an image revamp for ...
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Lufthansa’s TGV connection
SNCF and Lufthansa have implemented an accord which provides TGV feeder services to Lufthansa flights from Paris Charles-de-Gaulle. This enlarges the extent of air-rail co-operation from joint marketing or frequent flyer packages (RG 2.99 p85) to integrated ticketing. From February 1 passengers have been able to purchase a single ticket ...
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Paris ticketing roll-out begins
Schlumberger has begun deployment of a new design of ticket-issuing terminal across all RATP’s stations. A pilot installation of 40 machines at key stations on the Paris Métro has proved successful, and so Schlumberger has begun installation at all other stations; when complete, there will be over 1000 machines in ...
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Product News
By this summer, a Sitrail ir track-to-train CCTV system developed by Siemens Industrial Projects & Systems should be in operation on all 106 new trains supplied to London Underground’s Northern line by Alstom. Platform-mounted digital video cameras transmit pictures via radiating tube transmitting antennae mounted along the length of each ...
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Publications
Jane’s World Railways 1998-99Edited by Ken HarrisThe 792-page 40th edition of this annual marks a major change in the format, with the introductory pages followed by the railway entries before the manufacturers’ listings. Railways are listed alphabetically by country, each with a descriptive text, sometimes supported by monochrome maps, pictures ...
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Sidetrack
Play on, play onIN A BID to brighten up some of its stations, which our correspondent describes as ’architecturally challenging’, and improve passengers’ perceptions of security, Rotterdam metro has decided to introduce live music. Rules on busking are to be eased, and itinerant musicians will be encouraged to come and ...
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25 kV on moving bridges
WITH AMTRAK’s Northeast Corridor electrification between New Haven and Boston due to come into service later this year, teams from Balfour Beatty Construction Inc and its joint venture partner Mass Electric Construction Co are currently finishing the installation of the 25 kV catenary. They faced a major challenge in wiring ...
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Thessaloniki metro concession
GREECE: On February 5 the Greek Ministry for Environment, Physical Planning & Public Works signed a build-operate-transfer concession for the construction of a 9·4 km automated mini-metro in the city of Thessaloniki. The 20-year concession has been awarded to an international consortium led by French civil engineering group Bouygues SA ...
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Deregulation changes the face of Canadian railroading
Since the Canada Transportation Act came into force in 1996, the country's rail industry has undergone a dramatic transformation, with modernisation and restructuring at the two big national operators matched by a mushrooming of small and medium-sized feeder railways
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Freight mergers herald the end of Europe’s national railway structures
INTRO: DB Cargo Director Dr Eberhard Sinnecker has a vision of European rail freight where multinational competing networks are fed by short lines in a pattern that mirrors the US railroads. Murray Hughes met Sinnecker in Mainz and found him determined to sweep away the national structures that he believes ...
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Frustration boils over at Intermodal 98
INTRO: Shippers vented their anger in Rotterdam at foot-dragging by state railways over open access, cost reductions and priority for freight. Yet Richard Hope found many convinced that Europe has the potential to match intermodal volumes hauled in North America’WE ARE experiencing a deterioration in service levels as the cost ...
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‘We need competition - and co-operation too’
INTRO: Ed Smulders, Director of NS Cargo, tells Richard Hope how profitable rail companies can capture a much bigger share of Europe’s growing international freight marketBYLINE: Ed SmuldersDirectorNS Cargo IN THIS DECADE, the outlook for rail freight in the Netherlands has been transformed. Once virtually written off as hopelessly uncompetitive ...
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Setting the freight agenda
INTRO: Charged with breaking even in 2000, Fret SNCF is looking to master costs and boost receipts whilst increasing capacity and improving reliability. Freight Director Armand Toubol outlined his strategy to Robert PrestonOver the last three years SNCF freight traffic has been on an upward trend, rising from 46·5bn tonne-km ...
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Votes clear the way ahead
BYLINE: Moritz LeuenbergerSwiss Federal Minister for Environment, Transport, Energy & CommunicationsHISTORIC national referendums in September and November 1998 have set the direction which rail infrastructure development will take in the next century. Over the next two decades SFr30·5bn will be spent on major rail projects. This puts the proportion invested ...
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High-speed network starts to grow
INTRO: Financing and construction of the Belgian high-speed network has had to evolve to meet changing circumstances. But work is now under way on almost every element in the jigsaw, with completion of the northern and eastern branches envisaged by 2005BYLINE: Ir Johan MeynsChief ExecutiveTUC Rail SAALL ACROSS THE rolling ...
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Axe falls on FOX
JEB BUSH, son of former US President George, took office as governor in Florida on January 5. One of his first actions was to dash the plans to build a 515 km high-speed line linking Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Saying ’we have to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money’, ...
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Saboteurs arrested
TORNADO jets and army helicopters patrolling main lines were among the more drastic measures taken in Germany before Christmas in a short-lived but deadly serious battle to prevent saboteurs derailing trains if a DM10m ransom were not paid. German Railway was first alerted by telephone calls to its Frankfurt headquarters ...
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Compete and integrate
BIDS close on March 1 for a concession to operate Singapore’s Northeast metro line. Before rushing off to Singapore, bear in mind that tenders have only been invited from local companies Trans-Island Bus Services and Singapore Bus Service. The winner will also be asked to run the Sengkang and Punggol ...
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End of year blues
ON JANUARY 13 French National Railways revealed that passenger traffic had responded well to the range of service enhancements and fares initiatives it had introduced last year. Long-distance business (measured in passenger-km) was up by 5·3%, with the figure for all passenger traffic up 4·4%. SNCF’s aim this year is ...