Main line rail industry news – Page 1431
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News
Two in race for high-speed concession
INTRO: Next month is due to see the selection of a preferred bidder for a build-operate-transfer concession to build Taiwan’s long-planned Taipei - Kaohsiung high speed line. The government hopes to have the 340 km route open by 2003BYLINE: Dr Ching-Lung LiaoDirector General, Bureau of Taiwan High Speed RailWITH A ...
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World Speed Survey: Shinkansen regains speed honours as French cut back
In his biennial survey of the world's fastest timetabled start-to-stop trains, Dr Colin Taylor finds that Japan has regained the Number 1 spot it first won in 1965. Despite losing the lead, France continues to accelerate, with its best timings now well over 250 km/h
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Manufacturers must share the risk
INTRO: Higher power-to-weight ratios, tilting, and distributed power have become dominant features of orders for high speed trains over the last two years. But with railways facing growing commercial pressures, Gordon Pettitt obe fcit finds that manufacturers must take on more of the risk in delivering rolling stock to a ...
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Milano - Bologna will complete Italy’s north-south TAV corridor
INTRO: Formal authority has been granted for construction to start next year on the Milano - Bologna high speed line. This will form the last section of a high speed route which will transform rail travel in Italy’s primary north-south corridorBYLINE: Roberto RenonManaging DirectorTAV SpACONSTRUCTION work is due to start ...
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NewsPointers
Netherlands Railways' subsidiary NS Cargo is planning to launch next year an international network of services to Frankfurt-am-Main, Zürich, Basel, Paris and Milano for 'just-in-time' air freight traffic. Wheeled containers would speed loading and unloading. The British government is considering a partial privatisation of London Underground to raise funds for ...
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Budapest to build Line 4
PREQUALIFICATION bids were called at the end of August for preliminary engineering work on the long-planned fourth metro line in the Hungarian capital. Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky later confirmed that the municipality had decided to push ahead with the project, which is now costed at HF95bn.Following earlier attempts to build ...
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Policy vacuum clouds a bright future
INTRO: A unique opportunity to restructure Australia’s fragmented and neglected rail network into a profitable industry providing cost-effective, reliable and safe transport will be lost if the federal and state governments fail to create the right framework for private investmentBYLINE: John KirkDirectorAustralasian Railway AssociationTHERE IS A HIGH level of optimism ...
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Rail takes lion's share of TEN funding
WELL OVER half of the Ecu352m allocated by the European Commission under the Trans-European Networks funding programme for 1997 is being spent on rail projects. Analysis of the Ecu352m made available for 125 schemes, as notified to 14 of the 15 EU governments by Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock on July ...
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Decision-makers seek a real financial return
INTRO: IRCA Secretary-General Antoine Martens briefed Murray Hughes on the aims of the XXVIIth IRCA-UIC Congress in MarrakechINTRO: XXVIIth IRCA-UIC Congress, Marrakech, October 6-10WHEN THE world’s most senior railway executives gather in the Moroccan city of Marrakech this month they bear a heavy responsibility. Railways everywhere are undergoing the most ...
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Publications
Jane’s Urban Transport Systems 1997-98Five ex-Soviet cities and Bamako, Mali, are the new city entries in the 16th edition of this illustrated annual. There are 12 industry sections featuring numerous additional companies, but there have also been many deletions. Detailed coverage of the bewildering variety of complete vehicles, components and ...
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Three groups take on AN remains
Winning bidders for the three main elements of Australian National offered for sale to the private sector were announced on August 28 by Federal Minister for Transport & Regional Development John Sharp.Combined gross value of the successful bids is A$95·4m, but Sharp said the government could have raised A$30m more ...
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More trains to beat the jams
NETHERLANDS Railways has announced plans to run additional fast passenger services from summer 1998 on routes where parallel roads are subject to acute traffic congestion. Within the Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Den Haag conurbation known as the Randstad, six to seven extra trains will operate each hour, giving a basic ...
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Sidetrack
GNER bluesBritain’s East Coast Main Line fleet has again proved vulnerable to heat, some years after a spate of cooling failures on the IC125 high-speed diesel train power cars. With much of Britain basking in unusually high summer temperatures, franchisee Great North Eastern Railway was struggling to keep its electric ...
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ET2000 TT tests the limits of innovation
INTRO: Deutsche Waggonbau AG has built a speculative prototype of this innovative low-floor articulated electric trainset with individual powered axles for German regional servicesIN RESPONSE to a request from German Railway for innovative trains to update regional services, Deutsche Waggonbau has built an experimental two-car articulated unit packed with innovative ...
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Letters
Speed in South KoreaSir - With reference to your Comment item ’TGV Bypass’ in RG 9.97 p557, I should like to point out that the Korean High Speed Rail Authority (KHRC) has had 350 km/h as its criteria for infrastructure design since the very beginning.While South Korea’s technology transfer programme ...
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News
News travels fast on ICE
GERMAN RAILWAY’S news service for passengers on ICE trains (RG 9.97 p580) makes use of modern com-munications technology to print a newspaper on board the train. Known as ICE-press, the newspaper is produced in conjunction with the publishers of Der Spiegel.Text is sent by the publisher over a radio data ...
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DB boosts security
IN AN attempt to tackle the problem of graffiti and vandalism affecting trains and stations in parts of Germany, DB is installing video cameras and other security equipment at Dortmund, Essen, Düsseldorf and K
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People
As part of a general restructuring, Austrian Federal Railways announced its new management board on September 17. Dipl-Ing Dr Helmut Draxler remains Director-General, with Dipl-Ing Helmut Hainitz as sole Deputy Director-General. Dipl-Ing Fritz Proksch becomes Director of Management Services, being joined on the board by Mag Anton Hoser as Director ...
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ICE4 could have 3·3m wide bodies
GERMAN ENGINEERS are preparing to test the five-car ICE-S train (RG 8.97 p500) at up to 440 km/h on a section of the Hannover - Berlin high speed line before it opens next year. The trials are intended to validate the design concepts of the ICE3 (RG 6.97 p373), 50 ...
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Tough times lie ahead
THERE was a time ’when we could have fun with the engineers’, mused Adtranz President & Chief Executive Officer Kaare Vagner on September 10. Not any more. With railways forcing down rolling stock prices and higher profits at the top of the Adtranz agenda, the CEO’s strategy means attacking the ...