Main line rail industry news – Page 1440
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News
Sidetrack
GNER bluesBritain’s East Coast Main Line fleet has again proved vulnerable to heat, some years after a spate of cooling failures on the IC125 high-speed diesel train power cars. With much of Britain basking in unusually high summer temperatures, franchisee Great North Eastern Railway was struggling to keep its electric ...
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ET2000 TT tests the limits of innovation
INTRO: Deutsche Waggonbau AG has built a speculative prototype of this innovative low-floor articulated electric trainset with individual powered axles for German regional servicesIN RESPONSE to a request from German Railway for innovative trains to update regional services, Deutsche Waggonbau has built an experimental two-car articulated unit packed with innovative ...
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Letters
Speed in South KoreaSir - With reference to your Comment item ’TGV Bypass’ in RG 9.97 p557, I should like to point out that the Korean High Speed Rail Authority (KHRC) has had 350 km/h as its criteria for infrastructure design since the very beginning.While South Korea’s technology transfer programme ...
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News travels fast on ICE
GERMAN RAILWAY’S news service for passengers on ICE trains (RG 9.97 p580) makes use of modern com-munications technology to print a newspaper on board the train. Known as ICE-press, the newspaper is produced in conjunction with the publishers of Der Spiegel.Text is sent by the publisher over a radio data ...
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DB boosts security
IN AN attempt to tackle the problem of graffiti and vandalism affecting trains and stations in parts of Germany, DB is installing video cameras and other security equipment at Dortmund, Essen, Düsseldorf and K
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People
As part of a general restructuring, Austrian Federal Railways announced its new management board on September 17. Dipl-Ing Dr Helmut Draxler remains Director-General, with Dipl-Ing Helmut Hainitz as sole Deputy Director-General. Dipl-Ing Fritz Proksch becomes Director of Management Services, being joined on the board by Mag Anton Hoser as Director ...
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ICE4 could have 3·3m wide bodies
GERMAN ENGINEERS are preparing to test the five-car ICE-S train (RG 8.97 p500) at up to 440 km/h on a section of the Hannover - Berlin high speed line before it opens next year. The trials are intended to validate the design concepts of the ICE3 (RG 6.97 p373), 50 ...
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Tough times lie ahead
THERE was a time ’when we could have fun with the engineers’, mused Adtranz President & Chief Executive Officer Kaare Vagner on September 10. Not any more. With railways forcing down rolling stock prices and higher profits at the top of the Adtranz agenda, the CEO’s strategy means attacking the ...
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Summit takes note of real needs
AUSTRALIAN transport ministers convened in Melbourne on September 10 for the Australian Transport Council’s Rail Summit. The ostensible reason for the meeting was to discuss which line should be built to Darwin (p697) - expressions of interest for the Alice Springs proposal close on November 30. In practice, thanks to ...
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Clampdown on UP
FOUR people died in June when two Union Pacific freights collided head-on in ’dark territory’ near Devine, Texas. Had it been an isolated incident, it would have been dismissed as a rare but spectacular smash. But this year UP has been struck by an unusual series of accidents, prompting the ...
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World Speed Survey 1997
Japan's railways have wrested back the record JAPAN's railways have wrested back the record for the world's fastest scheduled passenger trains, which they first won in 1965 but lost to France in 1983 following the launch of TGV services between Paris and Lyon. According to a survey in ...
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Industry
Great Britain: Westcode Inc and Sabre Rail Services Ltd have formed Westcode (UK) Ltd as a joint venture to produce air-conditioning and automatic doors.On August 8 GATX Capital Corp and Lombard North Central plc set up GL Railease Ltd as a joint venture offering lease financing to the privatised domestic ...
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First British 200 km/h DMUs
ON JULY 29 regional passenger franchisee North Western Trains announced that it was to buy a fleet of 70 diesel multiple-unit vehicles from GEC Alsthom Metro-Cammell for £64m, with an option for a further 50. Financing and ownership arrangements have yet to be settled. The fleet will be formed in ...
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Funding starts Randstad Rail
NETHERLANDS Transport Minister Annemarie Jorritsma-Lebink has allocated 65m guilders for work on the first stage of the ambitious Randstad Rail strategy to integrate public transport in the belt between Rotterdam and Den Haag. This is one of five pilot projects for new light rail networks in the Netherlands. The province ...
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West Rail moves ahead
KOWLOON - CANTON Railway Corp invited expressions of interest on August 12 for detailed design work on the 30·5 km first phase of the WestRail commuter link between Kowloon and Tuen Mun. Consultants have been invited to prequalify for five packages, covering the Yuen Long, Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan and ...
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Thames orders real-time information
Thames Trains has awarded a £5·4m contract to Racal-BRT to install, manage and maintain a real-time passenger information system at 72 stations on its network, which links London Paddington, Reading, Oxford, Worcester and Gatwick Airport. Information from train describers, timetable and train reporting systems will be supplied automatically to all ...
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First segment floated out
A KEY MILESTONE in the construction of the Øresund fixed link between København and Malm
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Railcard sales drive
BRITAIN’S Association of Train Operating Companies, representing all 25 passenger franchises, has targeted young and ’young elderly’ travellers in its year-long drive to add 200000 more people to the 2 million holders of railcards granting up to one-third discount on many tickets. Sales of railcards, valid for 12 months, and ...
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ÖBB to renew electric fleet
AUSTRIAN Federal Railways has ordered a fleet of 230 km/h electric locomotives from Siemens, following a fiercely contested bidding race with Adtranz. According to Director-General Dipl-Ing Dr Helmut Draxler, final bids were received on July 24 and the ÖBB Board approved the deal on July 29.The Sch3bn contract covers supply ...
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Underground relies on private finance
NEXT MONTH Britain’s Department of the Environment, Transport & Regions is due to receive a report from accountants Price Waterhouse giving ’financial advice on a range of possible options for public-private partnerships for the London Underground’. The review was ordered by the new Labour government in June, and when the ...