Main line rail industry news – Page 1414
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Metros
Argentina: The Soldati group is planning to develop leisure attractions including cinemas, theme bars and amusements for children at stations along its 15 km Tren de la Costa light rail route, linking Maipu and Delta in the Buenos Aires suburbs. The company has confirmed that it is considering the sale ...
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Tunnel link bidders told to keep trying
LONDON & Continental Railways has been given until May 29 to come up with a satisfactory proposal for building the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott told Parliament on March 27 that he was extending the March 31 deadline (RG 4.98 p207) by two months.LCR and ...
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Investment surge tackles the backlog
INTRO: The railway laboratory is four years old. In the time since Railtrack was set up, Britain’s railway network has been split up, sold off, and in some cases recombined. The hiatus in investment which threatened to kill the indigenous supply industry has given way to a flood of orders ...
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Marketplace
Canada: Quebec North Shore & Labrador Railway Co has ordered 11 C44-9W diesel locomotives from General Electric.Egypt: Alexandria Passenger Transport Authority has called tenders for 15 LRVs with asynchronous drives and IGBT inverters. Each 65 to 70% low-floor vehicle with three sections must accommodate 60 seated and 140 standing passengers.Egyptian ...
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Station hotel revival plan
Railodge has unveiled plans to provide dedicated hotel, restaurant and business facilities at key stations in Britain. The concept is based on the success of budget hotels for motorists, but will be enhanced by railway theming. Railodges will be designed to make use of existing buildings as part of refurbishment ...
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Building the Nafta Railway
INTRO: Kansas City Southern has moved from a 2750 km regional carrier to a 16000 km international network, ideally placed to tap the expanding opportunities generated by the North American Free Trade Agreement BYLINE: Michael R HavertyPresident & Chief Executive OfficerKansas City Southern RailwaySIGNING OF the North American Free Trade ...
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Adtranz launches off-the-shelf strategy
INTRO: Joachim Gaissert, Executive Vice President of Adtranz, discusses with Murray Hughes the implications of his company’s move to a sales and production policy based on ’modular product platforms’COMING from the car and trucking giant Mercedes-Benz, Joachim Gaissert ’did not use trains’. He does now, and is as critical as ...
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Connex consolidates after performance wobbles
INTRO: Antoine Hurel, Chief Executive of Connex Rail, part of the French-owned CGEA group, briefed Murray Hughes on progress with the group’s two British franchisesMANAGING two large franchises that are mainly dependent on London commuting was always going to be a challenge. Connex Rail Chief Executive Antoine Hurel looks back ...
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Steady workload at Brush
ON MARCH 16 British intermodal operator Freightliner Ltd presented its first Class 57 diesel locomotive at Brush Traction’s Falcon works in Loughborough, lowering an American engine into a Class 47 now undergoing conversion. Brush has a contract to rebuild six Class 47s which it delivered to British Rail 30 years ...
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Strasbourg hosts Rail 21
INTRO: The Fifth International Railway Congress organised by the Union of European Railway Engineer Associations and the French Railways Engineers & Executives Association is taking place at the Palais de la Musique et des Congrès in Strasbourg from May 19 to 22Rail 21 is to examine innovation, technology and perspectives ...
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Freeways expose the freight barriers
INTRO: Although Terffs exist on paper and trains have operated since January, genuine customers bringing new business to rail are in short supply. Richard Hope explains what is going on and where it might all be leadingTRANSPORT Commissioner Neil Kinnock has made the transfer of freight from road to rail ...
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Plasser to roll-out multi-purpose ballast machine
Shortly to roll out of one of Plasser & Theurer’s Linz factories is the first AFKM automatic track control unit. Designed for use behind a ballast train, it integrates ballast ploughs, a ballast storage hopper and a dynamic stabiliser in a single machine. Plasser estimates that the AFKM will achieve ...
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DB plans night train revival
GERMAN Railway’s long distance passenger business has charged its DB Autozug GmbH subsidiary with developing night services so that they run at a profit.Autozug’s main responsibility until now has been to develop Germany’s motorail services, for which it is refurbishing couchettes and sleeping cars (RG 4.98 p232). Karl-Dietrich Reemtsema, Head ...
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Development line strategy
THREE NEW RAILWAYS totalling around 1300 km may be built to open up the potentially prosperous interior of northeast Peru, between the Andes Cordillera and Brazil’s Amazon basin. A multi-sector committee has been formed under the chairmanship of the prime minister to look at the practicality of building the lines ...
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SBB to adopt ETCS Level 2
SWISS FEDERAL Railways has awarded the first contract for transmission-based signalling equipment to the standards set out in the European Rail Traffic Management System. Under a contract awarded to Adtranz Signal at the beginning of April, ECTS equipment is to be installed on 32 km of the Olten - Luzern ...
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Wires head north
RUSSIA’S Northern Railway is pushing ahead with 25 kV 50Hz electrification of its Vologda - Archangelsk line, under a project started two years ago. Following energisation of the 90 km from Konosha to Nyandoma in November (RG 12.97 p837), work has switched to the 120 km Nyandoma - Plesetsk section. ...
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Izmir electrification bids
TURKISH State Railways was due to call tenders last month for the electrification of 79 route-km of double-track lines radiating from the port of Izmir, at a cost of around US$35m. Bids are expected to be opened in July or August. TCDD is looking to award a turnkey contract for ...
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BHP picks ECP brakes
BHP Iron Ore is to start installing electronically-controlled air brakes on 240 wagons for its Mount Newman mineral railway in Western Australia, using radio to transmit braking signals along the train. It has selected EPx Direct Braking equipment and TrainTalk radio technology from GE Harris Railway Electronics of Florida. ...
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New Minister of Railways boosts Chinese investment
JUST 10 days after taking over as China’s Minister of Railways on March 18, Fu Zhihuan announced at a conference in Beijing that rail investment would be stepped up by 30% this year from 34·9bn to 45bn yuan. Spending on construction and upgrading over the next five years will be ...