Main line rail industry news – Page 1410
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News
Joint venture to refurbish Riga station
REFURBISHMENT work is getting under way on the Central Railway Terminal in the Latvian capital Riga. The project is being undertaken by a Latvian-Norwegian joint venture at a cost understood to exceed US$6m.At the end of last year LDZ awarded a 10-year concession to the Varner Hakon Invest joint venture ...
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Railway closure error recognised
JAMAICA’S government in 1992 suspended all rail services on its 147 year old network. At the time only 206 of the 330 route-km was in use, and that was suffering badly from neglect and lack of maintenance. Inevitably, this was the cue for vandals to damage or destroy many of ...
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Forcing open access
SHORTLY before Europe’s environment and transport ministers convened in Chester in April, the European Commission issued a discussion document on open access. The latest proposals emanating from Brussels envisage that Europe’s railways must offer 5% of the rail freight market to new entrants, with this proportion rising in stages over ...
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Patience exhausted
BACK in 1992 Norwegian State Railways placed a NKr300m order for a small fleet of Type Di6 diesel locomotives from Krupp-MAK and Siemens for delivery in 1994-95. They arrived in Norway two years behind schedule.Since then the locos have had a chequered history, and at one stage they were returned ...
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Ground vibration boom
RAILWAY-generated ground vibrations can cause significant disturbance for residents of nearby buildings. As speeds rise, the intensity of vibrations generated by trains generally inceases. Recent theoretical investigations of ground vibrations from high-speed trains undertaken at Nottingham Trent University have contributed to a better understanding of why this should be. Researchers ...
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INTELLIGENCE
CAPTION: On May 1 Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajapayee formally ’dedicated’ the 760 km Konkan Railway in a ceremony at Ratnagiri (above). The line was opened to traffic on January 26 (RG 3.98 p138), but the ceremony could not be held until after the country’s general election. Konkan Railway ...
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INTELLIGENCE
CAPTION: Using the last of 14 IC125 high-speed trains refurbished for Midland Main Line, Adtranz (UK) ran a commemorative special on April 30 to mark the retirement of Chief Executive Stig Svärd - who was presented with a souvenir by MML Managing Director Nick Brown (left).First privately-ordered rolling stock off ...
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Concession renegotiated
TRENES de Buenos Aires became the first suburban operator to renegotiate its concession on April 16, when the Argentinian cabinet approved a 20-year extension to the contract ending in 2005. Although requiring approval from the parliamentary privatisation committee, the deal commits TBA to investing US$2·2bn in the Mitre and Sarmiento ...
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PadVIEW watches brakes
ARRAYS of video cameras installed below track next to carriage washers are monitoring disc brake pad wear on Kowloon - Canton Railway’s fleet of EMUs. In addition to the two KCR installations, Silverlink has one at its Bletchley depot in Great Britain.Computer analysis of the video image determines the thickness ...
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Chinese agenda
HUGE EFFORTS are being made this month to knit together a complex patchwork of finance deals and partnerships that would allow the US$17bn build-operate-and-transfer deal for the 345 km Taipei - Kaohsiung high speed line to go ahead. If it does, Taiwan High Speed Rail Consortium will be launched on ...
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CD trials AC coaches
CAPTION: SGP and MSV Studénka have delivered nine of these Ampz first-class coaches to Czech Railways for test running. The 200 km/h pressure-sealed and air-conditioned vehicles were ordered in 1995 for Kc398m (RG 10.95 p621), along with 26 second-class cars; all will be in service in IC and EC trains ...
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Metros
Austria: Wiener Lokalbahnen has ordered six three-section T2500 LRVs from BWS for Sch157m. Electrical equipment for the LRVs, due to enter service in September 2000, will be supplied by Adtranz, ELIN EBG and Siemens.Belarus: Insond of Austria is to participate in building the Rakauskaya - Kountsaushchyna section of the Minsk ...
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Marketplace
Brazil: São Paulo Metro has called tenders for a rail grinder.Chile: EFE has purchased an additional five Class 440 EMUs from RENFE of Spain at a cost of Pts1·4bn, for delivery by the end of this year.Czech Republic: Liberec Transport Authority has ordered six RT6S low-floor trams from CKD Praha ...
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Miami airport rail link opens
Tri-Rail opened a commuter rail station at Miami International Airport on April 27, following its dedication by US Transportation Secretary Rodney E Slater on April 9. The project cost $18m and included 1·6 km of track linking the existing line to the airport. A 4min ride on a bus shuttle ...
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Sidetrack
INTRO: Convergence achievedWHILE Europeans wrestle with impending monetary union, the railway supply industry appears to have already met convergence criteria. GEC Alsthom - soon to become just ’Alstom’ - and Siemens are co-operating on the Eurotrain project (p411). However, Dieter suggests a way that the gauge-changing Talgo might be incorporated ...
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LETTERS
INTRO: Infrafer’s businessSir - We would like to point out some important corrections to the article on Algeria by Dr Kadi Abdelsselam in Rail Business Report 1998.The article states that Infrafer is a subsidiary of the Algerian Railways (SNTF). While Infrafer was originally spun off from the SNTF in August ...
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Point heater monitors
BOWARD Computer Services has supplied a telemetry system to Railtrack to monitor point heaters between London and Birmingham on the West Coast main line. A total of 74 Mitsubishi programmable logic controllers, controlling 60 point heating systems and 14 standby generators, report to a central monitoring computer in Birmingham which ...
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Passenger numbers increase in North America
VIA RAIL Canada’s annual report, released on April 22, revealed increased ridership and reduced government subsidy for 1997. Passenger revenue increased to C$179m, 7% higher than in 1996, while government funding fell to C$229m, of which C$196m was for operating expenses; operating subsidy should drop further to C$178m this year.Amtrak’s ...
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FRA revises emergency rules
ON APRIL 29 the US Federal Railroad Administration released an Emergency Preparedness Final Rule, requiring all passenger operators to develop emergency response plans to minimise risks following an accident.Employees must receive special training including use of onboard emergency equipment and instruction on liaising with police and fire departments along their ...