Main line rail industry news – Page 1437
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GEC Alsthom to be floated
ALCATEL Alsthom of France and Britain’s GEC announced in December that they had agreed to float their eight-year-old energy and transport joint venture GEC Alsthom during the first half of 1998. Each of the partners will retain 24% of the shares, with the remaining 52% to be listed on the ...
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Wissmann confirms upgrading finance
GERMAN Transport Minister Matthias Wissmann announced on November 17 that his government would provide DM9bn out of the DM11bn total needed to carry out nine upgrading and new line construction projects. Describing the move as an ’investment offensive’, he said that formal agreements had been signed with German Railway.Most expensive ...
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Nanning - Kunming line opens
CHINESE Railways held ceremonies at Xingyi in Guizhou province on December 2 to mark the opening of its electrified line between Nanning and Kunming. Construction of the 898 km trunk line began in 1991, and tracklaying was completed in March (RG 5.97 p271). Traffic on the corridor is initially estimated ...
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PR privatisation ’this year’
PAKISTAN Railways is to be fully privatised by the end of 1998, according to Federal Railways Minister Yaqub Khan Nasar. He said in November that the government had decided that the only solution to PR’s financial problems was ’to restructure rail transport’. Endorsing the proposals of a special committee formed ...
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Régions invest
TRACK RENEWAL work on the night of December 10 marked the start of a Fr293m upgrading of French National Railways’ 34 km Strasbourg - Haguenau route. Alsace région is meeting 57.5% of the cost, and Bas-Rhin département 17%. Speeds will be raised to 160 km/h, and a third track will ...
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Freight freeway opens this month
JANUARY 12 sees the inauguration of the first Trans-European Rail Freight Freeway, linking Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Italy. French National Railways announced on November 26 that the four railways had signed the accord creating the TERFF conforming to European Commission rules (RG 12.97 p829).Linking Antwerpen, Bettembourg, Lyon and the Calabrian ...
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Work starts on Taipei - Kaohsiung
ON DECEMBER 10 the Taiwan High Speed Railway Consortium announced that a formal groundbreaking ceremony for the Taipei - Kaohsiung high speed line would be held on December 30 at Linkhou, about 30 km west of Taipei. The move followed completion of negotiations between the Siemens - GEC Alsthom ...
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Kars - Tbilisi tenders called
INTERNATIONAL BIDS for construction of a 287 km rail link between Turkey and Georgia are due on February 19, paving the way for a start of work on the three-year project later this year. The Georgian Railway Department and Turkish State Railways issued matching calls for tenders on November 17, ...
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PEOPLE
Michael Blythe and Bruce Baird have been nominated Directors of Australia’s National Rail Corp for three years.James Struthers has been appointed Finance Director for Eurostar (UK). Linda Bohlinger has been named Executive Director of Tri-County Commuter Rail Authority in Florida. She takes over from Jeffrey D Jackson who has become ...
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Underfloor engines
GERMAN RAILWAY has ordered 100 QSK19-R underfloor horizontal engines rated at 750hp from Cummins Engine Co, for a batch of VT612 DMUs being built this year by Adtranz. The 19litre QSK19-9 is the biggest in a range of three new Cummins railcar engines designed to run at 2100 rev/min.AKN Eisenbahn ...
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Tunnel fans
GEC (New Zealand) Ltd has supplied two sets of two-stage JM Aerofoil fans, sound attenuators and backdraft dampers for Tranz Rail’s 8.5 km Otira tunnel, allowing the elimination of electric working across Arthur’s Pass. Extracting exhaust fumes at a rate of 80m3/sec, the sets run in parallel to flush out ...
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Vanguard clamps urban rail noise
LONDON UNDERGROUND was to start trials in mid-December with an experimental low-stiffness track support developed by Pandrol Rail Fastenings Ltd and Ortec GmbH of Germany. The Vanguard fastening is designed to reduce noise and vibration from urban railways.Unveiled by Pandrol at the Railtex exhibition in London on November 11-13, Vanguard ...
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Group standard tampers
Plasser & Theurer has developed the Unimat 08-RT series of tampers to meet Railtrack Group Standard GM/RT 2400, adopted in 1996 for new on-track machines in the British market. The basic models incorporate features previously offered as optional extras, including ALC computerised guidance, soundproofed and heated cabs linked by intercom, ...
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Soil conditioning on the move
In conjunction with Alpine-Westfalia, the Environmental Division of Leonhard Weiss GmbH has developed WARAN, a transportable soil conditioning plant for the reconditioning and consolidation of subgrade. Designed to replace traditional methods such as the construction of sheet pile retaining walls, the 80 tonne WARAN plant is 20.6m long and 4.5m ...
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Amtrak boosts ridership
IN a little over two months following its introduction on July 11, Amtrak’s overnight Boston - Newport News Twilight Shoreliner service recorded a 28% increase in ridership and a 36% increase in revenue on its predecessor, the Boston - Washington DC Night Owl. According to Northeast Corridor President George D ...
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JR East tests smart cards
AT the end of November JR East was due to complete the second phase of a contactless smart card trial which began in May, involving 600 employees using season tickets with stored fare capability. Like the first phase conducted between April and May with 300 employees holding season tickets, the ...
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Suburban rebuild
FRENCH Railways, the Syndicat des Transports Parisiens and the Ile-de-France region are to share the cost of a Fr190m programme to rebuild the suburban section of Paris Nord station. Work to is due to begin after France hosts the football World Cup between June 10 and July 12, and is ...
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QR enters the cruise train market
INTRO: Queensland Railways will launch the Great South Pacific Express in December 1998. Murray Hughes previews a unique addition to the world’s luxury cruise trainsDELEGATES to the AusRail 97 event in Melbourne were treated to a preliminary viewing of Queensland Railways’ spectacularly elegant Great South Pacific Express. Owned and operated ...
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Selective Train Protection
Subject to successful completion of trials, Redifon MEL is to offer the Train Protection & Warning System which has been developed for Railtrack as a cheaper alternative to full automatic train protection. TPWS builds on British Rail’s long-established Automatic Warning System which alerts the driver of a train approaching a ...
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Catering merged
FROM January 1 Wagons-Lits begins a new contract covering the majority of on-train catering for French National Railways. Under the terms of an arrangement agreed last year, Wagons-Lits with its 500 staff takes over the activities of Servair which employed 1300 on SNCF catering.Under previous contracts, train catering cost SNCF ...