Main line rail industry news – Page 1429
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News
PEOPLE
Michael Blythe and Bruce Baird have been nominated Directors of Australia’s National Rail Corp for three years.James Struthers has been appointed Finance Director for Eurostar (UK). Linda Bohlinger has been named Executive Director of Tri-County Commuter Rail Authority in Florida. She takes over from Jeffrey D Jackson who has become ...
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Underfloor engines
GERMAN RAILWAY has ordered 100 QSK19-R underfloor horizontal engines rated at 750hp from Cummins Engine Co, for a batch of VT612 DMUs being built this year by Adtranz. The 19litre QSK19-9 is the biggest in a range of three new Cummins railcar engines designed to run at 2100 rev/min.AKN Eisenbahn ...
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Tunnel fans
GEC (New Zealand) Ltd has supplied two sets of two-stage JM Aerofoil fans, sound attenuators and backdraft dampers for Tranz Rail’s 8.5 km Otira tunnel, allowing the elimination of electric working across Arthur’s Pass. Extracting exhaust fumes at a rate of 80m3/sec, the sets run in parallel to flush out ...
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Vanguard clamps urban rail noise
LONDON UNDERGROUND was to start trials in mid-December with an experimental low-stiffness track support developed by Pandrol Rail Fastenings Ltd and Ortec GmbH of Germany. The Vanguard fastening is designed to reduce noise and vibration from urban railways.Unveiled by Pandrol at the Railtex exhibition in London on November 11-13, Vanguard ...
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Group standard tampers
Plasser & Theurer has developed the Unimat 08-RT series of tampers to meet Railtrack Group Standard GM/RT 2400, adopted in 1996 for new on-track machines in the British market. The basic models incorporate features previously offered as optional extras, including ALC computerised guidance, soundproofed and heated cabs linked by intercom, ...
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Soil conditioning on the move
In conjunction with Alpine-Westfalia, the Environmental Division of Leonhard Weiss GmbH has developed WARAN, a transportable soil conditioning plant for the reconditioning and consolidation of subgrade. Designed to replace traditional methods such as the construction of sheet pile retaining walls, the 80 tonne WARAN plant is 20.6m long and 4.5m ...
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Amtrak boosts ridership
IN a little over two months following its introduction on July 11, Amtrak’s overnight Boston - Newport News Twilight Shoreliner service recorded a 28% increase in ridership and a 36% increase in revenue on its predecessor, the Boston - Washington DC Night Owl. According to Northeast Corridor President George D ...
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JR East tests smart cards
AT the end of November JR East was due to complete the second phase of a contactless smart card trial which began in May, involving 600 employees using season tickets with stored fare capability. Like the first phase conducted between April and May with 300 employees holding season tickets, the ...
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Suburban rebuild
FRENCH Railways, the Syndicat des Transports Parisiens and the Ile-de-France region are to share the cost of a Fr190m programme to rebuild the suburban section of Paris Nord station. Work to is due to begin after France hosts the football World Cup between June 10 and July 12, and is ...
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QR enters the cruise train market
INTRO: Queensland Railways will launch the Great South Pacific Express in December 1998. Murray Hughes previews a unique addition to the world’s luxury cruise trainsDELEGATES to the AusRail 97 event in Melbourne were treated to a preliminary viewing of Queensland Railways’ spectacularly elegant Great South Pacific Express. Owned and operated ...
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Selective Train Protection
Subject to successful completion of trials, Redifon MEL is to offer the Train Protection & Warning System which has been developed for Railtrack as a cheaper alternative to full automatic train protection. TPWS builds on British Rail’s long-established Automatic Warning System which alerts the driver of a train approaching a ...
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Catering merged
FROM January 1 Wagons-Lits begins a new contract covering the majority of on-train catering for French National Railways. Under the terms of an arrangement agreed last year, Wagons-Lits with its 500 staff takes over the activities of Servair which employed 1300 on SNCF catering.Under previous contracts, train catering cost SNCF ...
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PUBLICATIONS
Conference Papers: ÖVG Convention on Optimising Railway TrackAt this conference in Graz in September 1997 subjects discussed ranged from capacity management and track maintenance strategy on the home railway ÖBB to track inspection and maintenance planning in New York, further development of heavy load switches on Union Pacific, development of ...
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Traincatcher extraordinary
ONE of Railway Gazette International’s regular authors - compiler of our biennial review of World Train Speeds, Dr Colin Taylor - knows a lot about timetables. That is just as well.In April, Dr Taylor and his nephew Ross begin a rail journey of 17611 km from Vila Real in Portugal ...
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Metros
Australia: Queensland is to build a 15 km light rail line from the Royal Brisbane Hospital to the University at St Lucia as a A$200m public-private project . Austria: Wiener Linien has ordered 10 more three-section low-floor cars worth Sch168m from Bombardier Transportation for light metro Line ...
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From economic necessity to financial return
INTRO: The XXVII th session of the International Railway Congress Association is being held in Marrakech on October 6-10, in conjunction with the International Union of Railways. Host railway ONCFM is no stranger to the main theme of the congress, with profitability achieved through restructuring INTRO: XXVIIth IRCA-UIC Congress, Marrakech, ...
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PKP monopoly to end
OPEN ACCESS operators will be able to use the tracks of Polish State Railways from October 14, when PKP’s automatic monopoly of rail traffic is abolished. The legislation to open up the network has been signed by President Aleksander Kwasniewski, as the first stage of a restructuring programme which could ...
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Nagano Shinkansen opens
EAST JAPAN Railway formally inaugurates the first stage of its Nagano Shinkansen between Takasaki and Nagano on October 1, with the launch of Asama super-express services from Tokyo. The 126 km branch diverges from the existing Joetsu Shinkansen, and is designed for operation at up to 260 km/h.The line was ...
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Istanbul orders Caracas cars
ROLLING STOCK for the first stage of the Istanbul heavy metro is to be supplied by GEC Alsthom’s Valenciennes works in northern France. On September 2 the company announced that Istanbul Ulasim ve Ticaret AS had awarded a 7400bn lira contract for an initial build of 32 cars.The vehicles will ...
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Quarry Bay contract awarded
HONG KONG MTR Corp announced on September 4 that it had awarded an HK$1·1bn contract to Nishimatsu Construction for civil engineering work on the Quarry Bay Congestion Relief Works. This includes a 1·75 km extension of the Kwun Tong line westwards to North Point station where there will be cross-platform ...