Main line rail industry news – Page 1424
-
News
OSE orders low-floor cars
HELLENIC Railways Organisation announced on January 6 that it had ordered 29 GTW2/6 low-floor articulated diesel railcars from Adtranz and Stadler AG of Switzerland to modernise and expand the Athens suburban fleet before the city hosts the 2004 Olympic Games.Valued at SFr120m, the order covers 17 metre-gauge units for the ...
-
News
Motorail expansion
GERMAN Railway subsidiary DB AutoZug is to expand its motorail services next summer, with new destinations including Fréjus on the C
-
News
High-speed IDEAs
THE US Transportation Research Board has expanded its Ideas Deserving Exploratory Analysis programme to include high-speed rail. Last month TRB invited proposals for ’innovative technologies and concepts’ for ’cost-effective upgrading of current rail systems for safer, faster, more efficient and reliable, and environmentally sound high speed operations.’Areas being considerered for ...
-
News
Rato ready
METROPOLITANO de Lisboa opened its short extension from Rotunda to Rato on December 26, diverting services from Campo Grande via Entre Campos into the new Rato terminus. On the same day through services between Campo Grande and Pontinha via Areeiro and the city centre were suspended to allow the disconnection ...
-
News
CFM renovation
MOZAMBIQUE Ports & Railways has launched a US$26m programme to renovate its northernmost branch line, running from the Nacala corridor at Cuamba to the town of Lichinga in Niasa province. Work is already under way on refurbishing the transit corridor from the port of Nacala to the Malawi border at ...
-
News
Advertising ambassador
EUROSTAR (UK) Ltd has appointed Sports & Outdoor Media to market sponsorship of its trains, including external and internal branding and complementary promotional opportunities on-board and at terminals. Managing Director Hamish Taylor believes ’high-profile, international organisations’ may be interested in using what Eurostar calls ’the longest billboard in Europe’. Eurostar ...
-
News
Open access freight
ON JANUARY 16 Australian operator Great Northern Rail Services Pty Ltd of Gisborne launched the first fully-independent intrastate train on the tracks of the Victoria state rail network, hauling infrastructure materials from Melbourne to Newport via Tottenham. With a fleet of nine regaugable broad/standard-gauge diesel locos, GNRS has achieved full ...
-
News
Fighter barter
REPORTS surfaced last month that Union Carriage of Nigel in South Africa is among companies shortlisted to supply a fleet of 60 locos for Sweden’s 479 km iron ore route from Luleå to the Norwegian port of Narvik, operated by Malmtrafik i Kiruna AB. The deal could also include around ...
-
News
Airport link bids
FEBRUARY 21 is due to see the selection of a preferred bidder for the concession to build a high-speed rail link between Taipei and Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport, with a contract to be signed by the end of April. Five prequalified consortia presented proposals to the Bureau of Taiwan High ...
-
News
Dallas speed-up
WITH ridership soaring, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board approved on December 10 a financial plan to accelerate the construction of two light rail extensions. The single-track lines to Garland, Richard and Plano will be doubled from the outset and opened in phases as they are ready.Blue line trains should ...
-
News
Helping hand
BOSNIA & Herzegovina Railways (ZBH) has been fortunate to secure from German Railway a fleet of rolling stock to help it restore services to its 1021 route-km war-torn network. Eight diesel locomotives, 28 wagons, a tamper and ballast plough were included in an initial consignment of rolling stock dispatched to ...
-
News
CP launches EMU fleet renewal
PORTUGUESE Railways is planning to call tenders for up to 100 three-car 25 kV 50Hz EMUs. They would operate northern routes currently being electrified, and replace 1957-built EMUs on Lisboa suburban services. CP is also looking at a mid-life interior refurbishment of its 2100 and 2200 series EMUs following the ...
-
News
Products In Brief
Security printer Henry Booth & Company has been awarded a two-year contract to supply ticketing stock on a just-in-time basis to all 25 of Britain’s Train Operating Companies . Over 240million tickets will be supplied each year under a contract negotiated by First Procurement Associates Ltd which brings the number ...
-
News
OPEN trials move to Utrecht
FOLLOWING trials at Rotterdam Blaak, NS Railinfrabeheer is to test the Orientation for Persons via Electronic Navigation (OPEN) system at Utrecht CS. Developed with funding from the EU’s Technological Initiative for the Disabled & Elderly (TIDE) programme, OPEN uses a small device carried by the passenger to receive signals from ...
-
News
Jubilation at inaugural public run
derived from those used on the GEC Alsthom-built Class 465 EMUs. Performance, even in the ’detuned’ state running with old Jubilee trains, was also impressive. Passengers will certainly notice the powerful acceleration and braking when the trains begin operating on the new section of route, where their full performance potential ...
-
News
DB to be restructured
GERMAN Railway’s Supervisory Board has endorsed plans to implement a further stage of restructuring from January 1 1999. Briefing senior managers in December, Chairman Johannes Ludewig said that ’we have not yet reached the halfway point’ in the reform programme, which is likely to occupy 10 years from start to ...
-
News
Buyers will be spoilt for choice
INTRO: Privatisation of Australia’s railways looks set to bound forward this year. Mark Carter of Rail 2000 assesses the pictureANY ASSESSMENT of current railway developments in Australia must conclude that 1998 is shaping up to be the ’year of the privatised railway’. Aspiring railway barons are likely to be spoilt ...
-
News
Intermodal cane lines re-equip
NARROW GAUGE sugar cane railways in Cuba, Indonesia and elsewhere almost always give the impression of being on their last legs. Images abound of antique steam locomotives struggling against the onslaught of the ubiquitous lorry as the run-down networks eke out the last years of a precarious existence. Not so ...
-
News
Adding capacity in QR’s coal corridors
INTRO: With coal from central Queensland in demand from over 30 countries, QR is investing to raise throughput on its busy heavy haul routes linking mines and portsDISCUSSION about the environmental problems caused by burning fossil fuels is not exactly taboo at Queensland Railways’ Coal & Minerals Group, but it’s ...