All Railway Gazette International articles in March 1999
All articles published this month.
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News
Taiwan tendering starts
THIS MONTH is due to see the start of pre-construction works for the 345 km Taipei - Kaohsiung high speed line, paving the way for civil engineering to begin in earnest at the end of May. During January BOT concessionaire Taiwan High Speed Rail Consortium issued tender documents for the ...
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News
Sidetrack
Play on, play onIN A BID to brighten up some of its stations, which our correspondent describes as ’architecturally challenging’, and improve passengers’ perceptions of security, Rotterdam metro has decided to introduce live music. Rules on busking are to be eased, and itinerant musicians will be encouraged to come and ...
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News
Publications
Jane’s World Railways 1998-99Edited by Ken HarrisThe 792-page 40th edition of this annual marks a major change in the format, with the introductory pages followed by the railway entries before the manufacturers’ listings. Railways are listed alphabetically by country, each with a descriptive text, sometimes supported by monochrome maps, pictures ...
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News
More TENs in prospect
IN THE VIEW of Thomas Barrett, Adviser in the Directorate for Lending Operations at the European Investment Bank, Europe’s railways have done well in loans or grants from the EIB in the last 10 years. Speaking at AiC Worldwide’s EuroRail Congress in Paris on January 26 (p141), Barrett noted that ...
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Pointers
Look for Polish State Railways to sign the formal contract with Fiat for the supply of up to 16 tilting inter-city trains. Following discussions on the proportion of local content, the final negotiations now centre on financing for the order valued at US$200m.A private consortium including Morrison Knudsen, Traylors and ...
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News
PEOPLE
Adtranz board shuffleFollowing the conformation of Rolf Eckrodt as President & CEO of Adtranz, the following board member responsibilities have been announced (p141). Christer Badholm heads the new Mass Transit division and Jürgen Lochmann the Main Line Rail division. Joachim Gaissert, previously responsible for Manufacturing & Technology, takes responsibility for ...
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News
Passenger PORTFOLIO
In Briefn On February 2 work began on a TGV station to serve the Futuroscope technology theme park near Poitiers; the Fr167m station should open early in 2000.n On January 1 the NS stake in train catering company Railtender was acquired by Albron. Railtender has launched an image revamp for ...
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News
NEWS
British engineering contractor John Laing Group is to acquire a controlling interest in M40 Trains, which operates the Chiltern Railways franchise linking London, Aylesbury and Birmingham. Subject to approval by the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising, Laing will buy the 23% stake owned by venture capitalist 3I, and another 35% ...
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News
NEWS
Spanish National Railways is to invest Pts68·9bn during 1999, including Pts17bn for new and refurbished passenger rolling stock, principally for its Main Line, Suburban and Regional business units. Of the Pts26·8bn earmarked for infrastructure projects, Pts17·8 is to be spent on upgrading main lines and suburban networks.
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News
NEWS
China’s Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Research Institute has ordered traction equipment from Adtranz Switzerland for 10 new generation passenger locos to be built in 2000-01. The streamlined locos rated at 4·8MW will operate on the Guangzhou - Shenzhen quasi-high-speed line.Spain’s Valencia regional government has unveiled a programme costed at Pts14bn that ...
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News
Product News
By this summer, a Sitrail ir track-to-train CCTV system developed by Siemens Industrial Projects & Systems should be in operation on all 106 new trains supplied to London Underground’s Northern line by Alstom. Platform-mounted digital video cameras transmit pictures via radiating tube transmitting antennae mounted along the length of each ...
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News
Melbourne shortlist
NINE consortia lodged indicative bids in January for the five rail-based passenger operations being franchised by Victoria’s state government. British bus and rail operators such as Stagecoach, National Express and FirstGroup are well represented, and a shortlist of final bidders was due last month. Largest of the operators set up ...
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News
Market orientation
ELECTED as Chairman of the Union of European Railway Industries in Brussels on February 16, Rolf Eckrodt confirmed that he planned to continue the strategy of his predecessor Kaare Vagner in making Unife more market oriented. In this he will be backed up by new General Manager Drewin Nieuwenhuis.Eckrodt identified ...
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Market
Argentina: COMSAT Mobile Communications of the USA has been awarded a contract worth up to US$500000 a year by Ferrocarril Belgrano Cargas (RG 2.99 p66), to provide mobile satellite communications for train dispatching and control. By April this year 89 locomotives will be equipped to receive movement orders from FBC’s ...
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News
Letters
Maunsell tooSir - Whilst we were delighted to see your article on the København Metro (RG 1.99 p35), we were disappointed that you did not acknowledge the important role that Maunsell Ltd has played as principal designer to Comet, the civil works contractor, in the design and construct contract. The ...
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News
TBM launched
CEREMONIES were held in Bangkok on February 5, when Thai Prime Minister Chuan commissioned the first tunnel boring machine for the northern section of the Blue line metro. According to the Mass Rapid Transit Authority, work on the 11 km northern section from Rama IX Road to Bang Sue is ...
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News
Konkan Ro-Ro
INDIA’s Konkan Railway Corp announced in January that it was to launch a piggyback service to carry lorries between Kolard, south of Mumbai, and Suratkal near Mangalore. The 700 km trip is expected to take around 20h, compared to three days for a road journey on the congested coastal highway.KRC ...
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Intelligence
Metros Australia: The federal government is to provide A$65m towards the construction of Brisbane's revised light rail project, also supported by the state government and the city council (RG 2.99 p71). Canada: Edmonton city council has amended its 20-year transport plan to include an LRT extension from the ...
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News
INTELLIGENCE
CAPTION: British civil engineering contractor Balfour Beatty Rail Engineering announced at the beginning of February that it had completed the first phase of track renewal at London’s Euston terminus under a £100m remodelling contract which forms part of Railtrack’s £2bn West Coast main line upgrading
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News
INTELLIGENCE
FinanceChina: Hong Kong’s MTR Corp has raised HK$1bn through a fixed rate note issue, split into equal tranches of four-year notes with a coupon of 7·28% per annum and five-year notes at 7·43%. A further US$750m has been provided by a 10-year global bond issue.Europe: Eurotunnel has completed the refinancing ...