Main line rail industry news – Page 1428
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Athens orders AC fleet
A GREEK-GERMAN consortium has been selected to supply 40 AC-motored EMUs for the Athens metro in time for the 2004 Olympic Games. Athens-Piraeus Electric Railways has awarded a DM300m contract to the consortium of Hellenic Shipyards, Adtranz and Siemens Verkehrstechnik. First deliveries are due in December 1999, with the last ...
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Safe and secure bridge access
THE Caretaker enclosure system developed by Designer Composites Technology has been designed to provide secure, permanent access to bridge undersides for inspection and maintenance. Fitted to road bridges over Railtrack routes at Bromley South and near the western entrance to the Severn Tunnel, the Caretaker enclosures remove the need for ...
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Ankara upgrade
TURKISH Minister of Transport & Communications Necdet Menzir announced on February 3 that tenders would be called shortly for a US$237m upgrading of TCDD’s main line between Ankara and Haydarpasa, cutting the journey time to 4h. He said this would be more immediate and cost-effective than completing the high-speed line ...
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Railcars rejected
A RATHER different tale involves a contract for 16 diesel railcars for Finnish State Railways. The contract was won by GEC Alsthom Transporte of Spain, which duly shipped the first car to Helsinki for evaluation and tests. It turned out to be too heavy, although we are told that performance ...
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Seattle makes a start
CENTRAL Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority has awarded a $23m contract for conceptual and preliminary engineering for Seattle’s planned Link light rail network (RG 1.98 p33). This will connect the communities of Seattle, Tukwila and SeaTac airport, with a separate route joining central Tacoma with Tacoma Dome commuter rail station. ...
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Private finance for high-speed link
THE French parliament has ratified a treaty signed with the Spanish government covering the construction of a high-speed line between Figueres and Perpignan. This includes an 8·2 km tunnel under the Pyrenees at Le Perthus, which is to be built with private finance; the tunnel concessionaire will charge users a ...
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Ottawa backs light rail
TRAMS could be running in the Canadian capital before the millennium, if a fast-track plan adopted in January goes ahead. The regional government’s transportation committee unanimously backed the proposals to develop an initial network by December 1999. The project has also been endorsed by 11 of the city’s 19 regional ...
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CN to reach the Gulf
CANADIAN National announced on February 10 that it had agreed a US$2·4bn merger with US railroad Illinois Central, in a move to create ’a seamless north-south network from all major markets in Canada through Chicago and Detroit to the Gulf of Mexico.’ CN President & CEO Paul Tellier said the ...
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Karachi MTP revived
GROUNDBREAKING ceremonies for Karachi’s long-planned light rail line are scheduled for August 14, according to Sindh senior minister Dr Farooq Sattar. He told the provincial assembly on January 2 that the Memorandum of Understanding for a 30-year BOT concession signed with a Canadian/Turkish consortium in January 1996 had been reactivated ...
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Next shinkansen corridors picked
JAPAN’s state owned JR Construction Corp announced on February 3 that it had selected routes for shinkansen extensions to Nagasaki and Sapporo (below). This paves the way for the start of environmental assessment, but construction is not envisaged for some years.The Nagasaki line will leave the Kyushu Shinkansen to Kagoshima ...
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Subte transfer
ARGENTINIAN President Carlos Menem has instructed Transport Secretary Armando Carnosa to transfer responsibility for the 20-year Subte metro operating concession to the city government. Detailed negotiations began on January 13, and by January 19 the federal government was understood to have accepted the city’s main demand - that 380m pesos ...
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JLE delayed
LONDON Underground confirmed on February 9 that the start of public services on the £2·1bn Jubilee line extension from Green Park to Stratford would be postponed to ’the spring of 1999’. LU Managing Director Dennis Tunnicliffe said the delay resulted from problems with the moving-block signalling designed to achieve a ...
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Olympic S-Bahn revived
BERLIN S-Bahn trains returned to the city’s famous Olympiastadion station on January 16, with the reinstatement of a further 4·8 km section of the network disused since 1980. The Westkreuz - Pichelsberg line serves the Charlottenburg quarter in the northwest of the city, with intermediate stations at Eichkamp, Heerstra§e and ...
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African venture moves closer
NEXT MONTH is due to see the formal launch of Trans-Africa Railway Corp, an international venture to operate rail freight services from Johannesburg to the countries of central and East Africa (RG 2.98 p82). Among TARC shareholders are Spoornet of South Africa and its joint venture concessionaire Comozar which includes ...
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Atlanta picks Breda cars
ON FEBRUARY 4 Italian rolling stock supplier Breda Costruzione Ferroviarie announced that it had won its largest ever international contract, to supply rolling stock for the Atlanta metro. The US$257m deal brokered by its US arm Breda Transportation Inc covers the provision of 100 new vehicles and the supply and ...
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IR independence
THE GOVERNMENT of Israel has introduced legislation to transfer control of the country’s railways from the Port Authority to a separate state-owned company. Intended to give the railways more independence and management flexibility, the move announced last year will efectively see IR revert to its pre-1988 status. Director-General A Uzani ...
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Third concession imminent
THE CONCESSION to operate Mexico’s 1479 km Southeast Railway, linking Mexico City with the ports of Veracruz and Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf of Mexico, was due to go out to tender last month. The government announced on January 30 that two consortia had already expressed interest in the last of ...
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Traffic surge and debt relief boost SNCF prospects
INTRO: After several years in the doldrums, French National Railways is starting to improve its financial performance. Increasing traffic during 1997 has boosted the balance sheet, and the transfer of historic debt to RFF has relieved the interest burden. Jean-Paul Masse looks at the story behind the figuresON JANUARY 8 ...
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Reform package authorised
MEETING on January 29, the Cabinet of the Russian Federation government headed by Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin formally approved the package of structural reforms for the Russian Railways network (RG 2.98 p83). However, with the agreement of the Minister of Railways Nikolai Aksyonenko, a timescale has only been agreed for ...
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Spending boost
NORFOLK Southern is to invest $903m on capital projects this year, compared to $781m in 1997. Of this, $149m will go towards the proposed Conrail acquisition. Major programmes include $279m for rail, sleepers, ballast and bridge replacement, up 4% from 1997, and $237m for rolling stock including 116 six-axle diesel ...