Main line rail industry news – Page 1429
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News
WCML tilting trains closer
BRITISH inter-city operator Virgin Rail announced on February 13 that it had chosen a preferred bidder to supply 225 km/h tilting trains for its West Coast main line between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow. Fiat Ferroviaria and GEC Alsthom will negotiate a £1bn package to provide around 60 seven-car ...
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UP starts the long haul back
SPEAKING in Omaha on January 19, Union Pacific Chairman & CEO Dick Davidson said that operations on his 56000 route-km network were back to near normal apart from the problem-plagued line between Houston and New Orleans. Average train speed during the first week in January improved to 23·5 km/h, the ...
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Turkish bids go in
FINAL bids are due on March 3 for a contract to build the planned 3 km extension of the Istanbul heavy metro from Taksim to Unkapan?µ. Including a bridge across the Golden Horn, the extension is provisionally costed at 36 trillion lire.Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has prequalified nine consortia for the ...
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INTELLIGENCE
CAPTION: Ferrovie Nord Milano has outshopped the first of its refurbished EA750 series EMUs, which are being modified to operate on the cross-city Passante route (RG 1.98 p48). Apart from a new livery, the main change is to provide a switch to transfer the passenger emergency alarm to an audible ...
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Products In Brief
AEA Technology has supplied its accelerometer-based RideMon ride monitoring system to British train operator South West Trains. On-board equipment uses GPS to record the exact location of track giving rise to poor ride quality, and passes the information to a control centre where maps to assist rectification are produced on ...
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Turnout carrier goes to Spain
DESEC has supplied a TL70 tracklayer to infrastructure maintenance contractor TECSA, for track and turnout renewal work on the Renfe network in northern Spain. The TL70’s straddle carrier allows the correct geometry to be maintained when handling turnouts.DESEC Ltd, FinlandReader Enquiry Number 141
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Railtrack to the rescue
AS SOON as it became evident that LCR’s planned flotation in 1998 had little chance of success, discussions with Railtrack began last autumn in an effort to put a rescue package together. The original consortium members saw this as a way of preserving their interest in LCR.On February 12, Railtrack’s ...
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U-Bahn stock
STADTWERKE München has ordered 10 new U-Bahn trainsets for DM170m, to enter service at the end of 2000. The 115m long six-car trains will be fully open-plan inside with wide inter-car gangways for improved security and passenger flows. Consortium leader Siemens will supply the electrical equipment; mechanical parts will come ...
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COURSES
London, Great BritainMarch 23 - April 18 1998Second Railway Infrastructure Engineering & Management Course. Railway Industry Association, 6 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E6JP, Great Britain.Fax: +44 171 821 1640Ångelholm, SwedenContinuous Banverket Railway Training Centre courses on aspects of railway operation and maintenance. Banskolan, S-262 52 ??ngelholm, Sweden.Fax: +46 431-442021
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Tough restructuring starts to pay off
INTRO: Siemens Verkehrstechnik is mid-way through a programme of restructuring and divestments designed to return the business to profitability. Chris Jackson spoke to SVT President Dr Wolfram Martinsen in Sacramento last month ’THERE IS no shortcut or painless way to address the challenges we are facing ... the railway business ...
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Rolling stock investment continues
During 1998 SNCF will spend Fr4·5bn on the purchase of new rolling stock, of which Fr300m will be contributed by the régions towards the cost of regional multiple units.The last seven of the 146 dual-system Sybic Bo-Bo electric locos are due to be delivered from GEC Alsthom’s Belfort works by ...
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Flatter and brighter screen
Ferrograph has entered into a partnership agreement with Fujitsu Electronics to supply plasma flat screen systems in Britain. The standard 21 inch panel has been joined by a 42 inch screen (right), offering a wider choice of configuration.Plasma screens last twice as long as cathode ray tube screens, having a ...
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Smoothing the Northern line ride
UNDER a contract worth over £4m, Metalastik Vibration Control Systems is supplying rubber/metal suspension components for bogies being built by Adtranz at Derby for London Underground’s Northern line trains under construction at GEC Alsthom Metro-Cammell near Birmingham. For the bogies, Metalastik is supplying primary and secondary suspension springs, flexible frame ...
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AAR shake-up announced
RADICAL changes to the organisational structure of the Association of American Railroads were announced by AAR President & CEO M B Oglesby Jr on January 12. The association will be split into three separate entities to provide ’the highest levels of service’ to member railways. The three will cover technical ...
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Heathrow luminaire
Station lighting for the Heathrow Express airport terminal stations due to open in June was specially developed by Crompton Lighting under a £500000 contract. Sophisticated optical design software ensured that the fluorescent platform lighting conformed to the architect’s requirements, giving a pleasant ambience on the platforms and no glare for ...
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Tramway upgrade
POLISH tramway operator PKT of Katowice has awarded a US$53·4m contract to GEC Alsthom and its local subsidiary Konstal for modernisation and re-equipment of its principal route from the city to Bytom (RG 2.98 p122). The project is expected to halve journey times on routes 6 and 41 and boost ...
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Now it’s Rail Gourmet UK
Six months after SAirGroup’s SAirRelations division bought European Rail Catering on June 29 (RG 8.97 p515), the British train catering organisation has been renamed Rail Gourmet UK Ltd. Terry Coyle retains his position as Managing Director, reporting to Edy Fischer, Chairman & CEO of Rail Gourmet Group.Despite already operating in ...
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Atlantic line awarded
COLOMBIA’s rail infrastructure authority Ferrovías finally awarded a 30-year concession at the end of January for the reconstruction and operation of its 1490 km Atlantic line linking Bogot
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Network modelling simplifies infrastructure data management
INTRO: German Railway is currently automating the administration of its network infrastructure data using the DB-GIS geographical information systemGERMANY’s rail network - like others in Europe - is undergoing a fundamental transition from a state-protected monopoly into a competitive market-oriented transport provider. Driven by a political desire to boost rail ...
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Roscos under review
ON FEBRUARY 3 Britain’s Rail Regulator John Swift QC began to examine whether the rolling stock leasing companies, Angel Trains, Forward Trust Rail and Porterbrook, should be subject to tighter controls. Acting at the behest of Transport Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Swift invited responses by March 2 ...