Main line rail industry news – Page 1421
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Underground split could cost £1bn
AN EXTRAORDINARY conflict of evidence emerged when a committee of MPs questioned Managing Director of London Underground Denis Tunnicliffe and ex-Chairman of London Transport Peter Ford - sacked by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott on April 17 (p376).Tunnicliffe was asked on April 29 for LU’s reaction to the ’public-private partnership’ ...
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IC/IR98 boost
Passsenger services in Belgium increased by 8% with the start of the summer timetable on May 24. Introduction of I11 loco-hauled coaches and AM96 EMUs has allowed SNCB to restructure several inter-city and inter-regional routes.Dual-system AM96 units have expanded cross-border routes from Lille, with regular-interval services to Oostende, Antwerpen and ...
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JFK rail link to go ahead
NOTICE TO PROCEED with design, and construction of a fully automated light metro serving New York’s John F Kennedy International was issued by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey on May 5. The Board of Commissioners had selected the AirRail Transit Consortium of Skanska USA, Bombardier Transit ...
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Options confirmed
ON April 29 Dallas Area Rapid Transit confirmed that it would take up its option for an extra 21 LRVs from Kinki Sharyo USA at a cost of $60m. The option was included in an order for 34 cars placed last year (RG 12.97 p835), and will bring the DART ...
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Swiss S-Bahnen expand
THE SUMMER timetable change on May 24 sees the expansion of S-Bahn services in the Swiss capital Bern. Two new cross city routes are being added to the two already operational. Services are run by a joint venture of SBB, BLS, Regionalverkehr Mittelland and the Sensetalbahn, with a common fares ...
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SARCC starts EMU renewal
MAY 14 was the closing date for prequalification bids to supply new EMU trainsets to South African Rail Commuter Corp. Formal tender invitations are due to be issued on June 23 for a fleet of five 12-car trains to be introduced on the Johannesburg - Soweto line in mid-2001. Managing ...
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CAF scoops DC order
WASHINGTON Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has selected a consortium of CAF and US defence contractor AAI Corp to build 100 new cars for the Washington DC metro network. The $212m contract will bring the MetroRail fleet to 864 cars; the original 298 cars were built by Rohr Industries and the ...
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Konstal to build Warszawa cars
ON APRIL 21, GEC Alsthom confirmed that it had won a 479m zloty contract to supply EMUs to operate the 11 km northern extension of Warszawa metro Line 1, which is due to be completed between Politechnika and the steelworks at Mlociny in 2004. The metro was expected to inaugurate ...
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Transpatagónico study
A DECREE published by the Argentinian government on March 25 gave the Canarail consultancy 90 days to complete a feasibility study for the ambitious Transpatagónico railway from Choele Choel and San Antonio del Este to Punta Loyola, with a ferry link to Tierra del Fuego. The government would then have ...
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Europeans try heavy haul techniques
MORE North American technology developed for heavy haul freight is migrating across the Atlantic. French National Railways and German Railway are expected to call tenders imminently for pilot ECP braking projects that could see two trains equipped and operating later this year or during 1999.Meanwhile, experiments are going ahead in ...
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GEC Alsthom scoops West Coast signalling
Railtrack’s Commercial Director, Richard Middleton, named GEC Alsthom on May 15 as preferred bidder for a contract to develop, test and install on the West Coast main line transmission-based signalling conforming to Level 3 of the European Train Control System. He expected a contract worth ’between £0·5bn and £1bn’ to ...
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Private metro plan
A PRIVATE-SECTOR consortium has put forward plans for construction of a four-line metro in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo. Backed by commercial property developers, the group hopes to negotiate a concession from the municipal administration by mid-2000 to build and operate the network.According to Metro Montevideo Director-General Manuel Carballal, construction of ...
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Briztram bidding
THE QUEENSLAND government has invited expressions of interest for a concession to finance, design, build, operate and maintain a light rail network in Brisbane, costed at A$230m. Bids are due by June 16.The government confirmed in May that it had selected a preferred route for the 14 km initial line. ...
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Swiss ’ready to start’ on Gotthard base tunnel
ON MAY 8 Swiss Federal Railways issued a statement saying that ’the Gotthard base tunnel is ready for construction to begin’. Four days later it announced the founding of AlpTransit Gotthard AG with start-up capital of SFr5m to plan and build the 57 km tunnel.Both announcements followed the conclusion of ...
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Integral slips
CZECH railwaymen looking forward to running 200 km/h tilting trains between Berlin, Praha and Wien may have to wait a little longer. CKD Praha announced last month that delivery of the prototype Class 680 Integral had slipped by another nine months to April 15 next year.When the contract for 10 ...
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New lines in the west
DESPITE the economic meltdown in South East Asia, the Hamersley Iron Railway set a new record by moving close to 60 million tonnes of ore for shipment from the port of Dampier last year. Iron ore sales were 20% up on 1996, resulting in what HIR’s owner Rio Tinto called ...
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Pointers
nIndia’s Ministry of Railways is drawing up a 10-year programme to install automatic train protection on the IR main line network at an anticipated cost of Rs70bn. A decision between conventional signalling and satellite train location is expected shortly.nSouth African power generator Eskom is considering the feasibility of building two ...
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Imperial Express heads east
From May 3 tourists will be able to travel in luxury between Praha and Budapest with the inaugural run of a land cruise programme by the Imperial Railway Co. Sleeping cars from the Hungarian Presidential train have been married to a pair of Wagons-Lits Dining Cars to form a luxury ...
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Contact wire tracking by laser
PLASSER & Theurer has supplied a contact wire measuring system to Austrian Federal Railways that uses laser scanning technology to determine the position of the wire with an accuracy of