Main line rail industry news – Page 1418
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News
German commuters to have many Talents
FORMAL LAUNCH of German Railway’s Class 644 Talent diesel-electric sets took place in Aachen on March 13. Intended for use on S-Bahn routes in the K
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San Diegans to go double-deck
WASTING NO time in spending some of the $2·2bn in capital funding authorised by Congress late last year, Amtrak has awarded a $100m contract to GEC Alsthom Transportation Inc for eight new double-deck trainsets to be used in southern California’s San Diegan corridor. According to Amtrak West President Gil ...
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Thalys traffic builds
Thalys recorded its five millionth passenger on February 20, and reported sharp increases in traffic levels. In the first six weeks of 1998 the service carried half a million passengers, a 72% increase on the same period last year. This was largely due to faster journey times resulting from the ...
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Russia builds passenger motive power
INTRO: When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Russia was left with no factories producing multiple-units or passenger locos within its borders; now home-grown designs are emerging BYLINE: Dr Tech Sc V A MatyushinDeputy Director-GeneralCentral Scientific Railway Research InstituteTHE RAILWAYS of the former USSR were going through an exceptionally ...
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Catering confirms its role
PROVIDING some form of on-board catering in the package that train operators offer to customers is no longer in question. What is open to question is the cost of this service. As railways seek to cut costs, contract catering has become the prime means of delivering on-board food and drink, ...
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EMD’s first 6000hp locos enter revenue service
INTRO: Union Pacific is putting into revenue service the first of a fleet of 6000hp SD90MAC locomotives designed and built by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division. Trials at the AAR test centre in Pueblo showed that a single loco fitted with EMD’s novel four-stroke H-engine could handle an 11400 tonne train ...
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Road and rail to the rescue
NS Safety Services has developed a modular rescue train mounted on a crane-equipped Volvo truck, with the aim of getting hydraulic jacks, cutters and other equipment to accident sites within 15min of being called out. The truck carries three 2·5 tonne units which are lowered onto the track at a ...
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Roman empire still crumbling
RAILWAY PRESIDENTS are frequently political appointments. None more so than in Italy, where Giorgio Crisci has been replaced by Claudio Dematté as President of Italian State Railways. A crisis swept through the 16000 route-km network in February, and rumours abounded of the entire management board resigning. It was not quite ...
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Finance
Czech Republic: The government has approved annual grants of KC500m for CD to renew rolling stock during 1998-2001. France: European Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock announced on February 19 that EU contributions for TGV-Est would be limited to 2% of the total infrastructure cost. The French government had expected the ...
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Frontiers no obstacle to ÖBB’s future fleet
INTRO: Due to be delivered to Austrian Federal Railways from January 2000 is a fleet of up to 400 interoperable main line electrics with the ability to haul passenger trains at up to 230 km/h as well as heavy freightBYLINE: Ing Bernhard BenesProject ManagerClass 1016/1116Austrian Federal RailwaysIN JANUARY 2000 Austrian ...
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CP restructures into business units
INTRO: Following the creation of infrastructure authority Refer, Portuguese Railways has embarked on the task of reorganising its operations as five business units. CP President Dr Crisóstomo Teixeira (right) spoke to Robert Preston in LisboaTHE FIRST business unit to take shape under CP’s new management structure was Freight & Logistics ...
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EWS workhorses will deliver savings
INTRO: The biggest British loco order since steam days is ’no big deal’ in the eyes of Jim Fisk. Andrew Hellawell found out why English Welsh & Scottish Railway’s Engineering Director is so confident about the motive power soon to be arriving in drovesBRITAIN’S road freight industry has had ...
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Adtranz Portugal broadens the product base
Production of carshells and finished passenger vehicles in stainless steel is widely recognised as the speciality of the former Sorefame plant at Amadora on the western edge of Lisboa. Recent contracts obtained by what is now Adtranz Portugal point towards the development of a broader product base, with orders obtained ...
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Kazaks move to market model
’KAZAKSTAN RAILWAYS has overcome the crisis’ declared Transport Minister E Kaliyev on January 29. The minister, who is also Director-General of Kazakstan Temir Zhoby (KTZ), was reviewing the railway’s results during the first year following the merger of the ex-Soviet Alma-Ata, Tselinnaya and West Kazakhstan railways at the end of ...
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Products In Brief
Cattron has added a speed control feature to its MP96 line of portable radio remote control systems, allowing train speed and bulk handling equipment to be controlled by one person during loading. An axle impulse device installed on the locomotive allows speed to be calculated in 0·05 km/h increments.Cam-Tech (UK) ...
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Marketplace
China: CSEE Transport of France has been awarded a HK$150m contract to supply a station management system for MTR Corp. CSEE will act as main contractor in association with KM Luk and MITS Ltd.Fujitsu General Ltd of Japan is supplying 120 Plasma Vision panels for MTR Corp’s Airport Railway in ...
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Mexican sales spur progress
TENDERING for the 50-year concession to operate Mexico’s 1480 km Sureste Railway began on February 18. Connecting Mexico City with the Gulf coast ports of Veracruz and Coatzacoalcos, the line carries almost 9% of the country’s rail freight. The government has set June 11 as the deadline for submitting bids, ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Argentina: The government has insisted that the Unión Ferroviaria trade union finds a foreign partner before taking on a 30-year operating concession for the 1000mm gauge Ferrocarril Belgrano (RG 9.97 p560). The government would grant 40m pesos a year for five years for infrastructure work, but the 10m pesos annual ...
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PEOPLE
Rafael Mosura has been appointed General Manager of Philippine National Railways.Polish Minister of Transport & Maritime Economy Eugeniusz Morawski appointed a new PKP Council on February 6. The President is Wojciech Wardacki, with Janusz Kawecki as Vice President. Other members are Zbigniew Boniuszko, Marek Borecki, Waldemar Chyczewski, Stanislaw Kogut, Kazimierz ...
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Jorritsma plans to break up NS
NETHERLANDS Railways faces the prospect of having to surrender half its passenger services to rival operators from 2010 under proposals to introduce competition to the Dutch rail network drawn up by Transport Minister Annemarie Jorritsma. A discussion paper proposing a phased programme to dismantle much of NS was presented to ...