Main line rail industry news – Page 1452
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News
Railtrack reshapes Thameslink 2000
With a £600m upgrade of the north - south link through London underpinned by contractual agreements, Richard Hope asked Chris Jago, Director of Railtrack's Southern Zone, how the project is taking shape
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Bursa LRT bidders shortlisted
CONSTRUCTION of the long-planned 55 km light rail network in the Turkish city of Bursa moved a step closer in November, when the Municipality shortlisted five consortia to build and equip the 20·6 km initial stage. The five are:
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Frontiers frustrate parcels giant
Which single company provides US railways with the most revenue? According to Bob Longenecker, Vice President Transportation, it is United Parcels Service at $500m a year. He assured the Intermodal 96 conference in London on December 5 that ’UPS is a customer of every American railroad’; while this is hyperbole ...
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More time, more money
GIANCARLO Cimoli, who assumed the chief executive’s mantle at Italian State Railways after the arrest of Antonio Lorenzo Necci last September, is getting to grips with the complex world of railway politics. Necci had set up an array of subsidiary companies that dabbled in all kinds of peripheral activities, but ...
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TFM wins Noreste concession
ON DECEMBER 5 the Mexican government accepted a US$1·4bn bid from Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana for the 50 year concession to operate the Ferrocarril del Noreste (RG 12.96 p805). TFM will also pay 0·5% of net operating income in each of the first 15 years and 1·5% for the remainder. There ...
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Short line sales accelerate
Canada’s two Class I railways are pushing ahead with line sales under the terms of the Canada Transport Act.Canadian National set off a major controversy on November 15 when it announced the sale of 1300 km in northern Manitoba to Colorado-based OmniTrax. The network comprises a main route from CN ...
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AN to be sold by June
WITHIN the next six months Australia’s federal government intends to sell most of Australian National to the private sector, along with its 45% equity stake in National Rail Corp. Only the interstate trunk routes will remain in public ownership, to be managed under an open access regime by a ’national ...
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Intelligence
CAPTION: JR Central and Japan’s Railway Technical Research Institute tested the experimental MLX01 maglev vehicle on its guideway in Yamanashi prefecture for the first time on December 2. The three vehicles were hauled from their depot to the test control centre about 7 km along the 18·4 km guideway by ...
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Letters
Turbos fasterSir - The two articles dealing with Amtrak’s efforts to increase passenger train speeds in the Northeast Corridor (RG 11.96 pp721-28) contained several statements deserving further clarification. I was a personal friend of the late Alan R Cripe, acknowledged as one of the foremost rail equipment designers in the ...
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Market
Brazil: GEC Alsthom, CAF and Adtranz are to supply 30 commuter trains for São Paulo under a US$205m contract due to be signed last month; manufacture of six of the four-car EMUs will be carried out locally, with Adtranz responsible for traction equipment.Sécheron has won a contract to supply its ...
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People
Mr Amos Uzani has been named General Manager of Israel Railways. A lawyer, he moves from the Ports Authority, where he was Deputy Manager, Personnel.Mr Jerry Davis, President of Union Pacific Railroad has been elected Chairman of the Association of American Railroads; he will succeed Mr John W Snow of ...
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Intelligence
Australia: SRANSW opened the 1·6 km Cumberland line between Harris Park and Merrylands on November 2. The ’Y-Link’ curve west of Granville cost A$80m, and carries CityRail trains from Campbelltown to Parramatta and Blacktown.Queensland Rail and Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express Ltd have set up a joint venture to run a luxury tourist train ...
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Swedes to revive Zambia Railways
ZAMBIA’S Ministry of Transport & Communications announced on November 22 that agreement had been reached for Swedish consultants to take over the management of Zambia Railways for two years, in order to rescue the struggling company and allow bulk freight including export copper traffic to be switched back from road ...
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Barcelona agrees transport authority
ON NOVEMBER 4 the Catalan regional government, Ministry of Development, Barcelona council and local transport operator EMT signed an agreement to create a new metropolitan transport authority for the greater Barcelona area. When new legislation is in place, Autoridad del Transporte Metropolitano will be responsible for investment; the current contract ...
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Finance
Argentina: The World Bank is to provide US$150bn to replace 30 level crossings within the Buenos Aires city limits with road underpasses.Czech Republic: CD secured DM200m in state-guaranteed credit from Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau on November 25 for modernisation of the Breclav - Petrovice u Karviné line, and a further ECU200m ...
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Pointers
n Look for the Swiss government to authorise a further tranche of funds for the NEAT base tunnel works; SFr645m was requested on November 25.n Indian Railways is to invite international tenders shortly for the supply of advanced technology track maintenance machinery. n Watch for development in the United ...
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SNCF ups agents’ commission
January 1 saw an agreement between French National Railways and the national travel agents’ association SNAV come into force, with the immediate effect of increasing commission paid to agents by 0·4%. In an effort to boost sales of rail tickets, an identical rise is scheduled for January 1 1998, when ...
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Franchising starts on the final lap
ONE YEAR AGO we were writing about a legal battle delaying the award of the first of 25 franchises to run passenger services on Britain’s rail network. At the time we were deeply sceptical about the private sector’s willingness to enter the rail business. Yet, as we have chronicled in ...