All Railway Gazette International articles in March 2002 – Page 3
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News
Finance
Azerbaijan: The state budget has allocated 40bn manats for the procurement of 25 to 30 carriages for the Baku metro.Belgium: SNCB subsidiary ABX Logistics is expected to receive a €250m cash injection this year. With the aim of moving into profit from 2003, restructuring is likely to include the sale ...
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Stockholm expansion plan
Greater Stockholm County Council’s Transport Planning Committee unveiled a 15-year programme of urban rail and road investment proposals on January 19. The so-called Dennis Packet is costed at around SKr100bn, but the final shape of the financing package is not likely to be settled until after the national elections in ...
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Eurostar trims
Business results for the year ended December 31 2001, published on January 31, showed that Eurostar traffic had fallen year-on-year for the first time since services through the Channel Tunnel began in 1994. Passenger journey volumes fell 3% to 7·5 million, and Eurostar Group sales revenue was €669·7m, down 0·7% ...
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TGV Est works get underway
ON JANUARY 28 French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot joined RFF President Claude Martinand, SNCF President Louis Gallois and Luxembourg’s Transport Minister Henri Grethen to mark the start of civil works on the first phase of TGV Est européen, 300 km of high speed line running from Vaires-sur-Marne east of Paris ...
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News
O'Rourke launches Dublin PPP
IRELAND'S Minister for Public Enterprise Mary O'Rourke announced on January 16 that the government had given the formal go-ahead for Phase 1 of the Dublin metro (RG 10.01 p629). The Rail Procurement Agency is to seek expressions of interest for a concession to finance, design, build and operate the network. ...
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News
Training interoperable drivers
DECADES must pass before use of ERTMS becomes universal, even within the present EU borders. During a transition that will span a working lifetime, drivers of international trains such as Thalys and Eurostar therefore need higher levels of professional competence to cope with different signalling systems, operating rules and languages. ...
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News
Drawbar gear
RAIL operators using North American standard couplers have the choice of two new DrawGuard drawgear springs introduced by Miner Enterprises for drawbar-connected wagons.The lightweight all-steel DrawGuard FS is designed for heavy duty applications, with a double-coil spring enclosed in a high-strength steel housing, The 150 kg unit has a maximum ...
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News
Korea launches domestically-built high speed train
THIS MONTH is due to see the start of test running with a domestically-built high speed train in South Korea. The Ministry of Construction & Transport announced on March 13 that South Korea had become the fourth nation in the world to build a trainset capable of running at over ...
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News
Sniffer dog goes to pot
MILLIE, a black Labrador dog employed by the US Customs Service to sniff out illegal drugs, was taken for a ride on San Francisco’s BART trains recently. The aim was to demonstrate how the service’s working dogs interact with passengers in a friendly and passive manner.Things then took an unexpected ...
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News
Trenitalia updates visual displays
ITALIAN STATE Railways’ operating business Trenitalia has launched a programme to update its station information displays, in conjunction with Ansaldo. This uses a new design of video monitor developed for FS by CA&G Elettronica, the Vicenza-based subsidiary of Global Display Solutions. GDS was formed last year through the merger of ...
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News
DEMU order
ROLLING stock leasing company HSBC Rail confirmed on February 14 that it is to buy 127 diesel-electric multiple-unit vehicles from Bombardier. They will be leased by UK operator Midland Main Line, under a two-year franchise extension to 2008. Capital value is £154m, and the spares and maintenance provision for the ...
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News
Deicing fluid sticks to rail
MIDWEST Industrial Supply Inc is supplying anti-icing fluid for third rail electrified railways. Using ’smart fluid’ technology licensed from NASA, the anti-ice treatment is sprayed or poured onto the rail, where it forms a thin film, before the onset of freezing conditions.The fluid prevents ice bonding to metal, and is ...
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News
Interlocking deal
PARIS Transport Authority awarded a €7m contract to Alcatel Transport Automation Solutions on January 31 to install new electronic interlockings across the metro and RER networks. The first Series 6271 LockTrac/PIPC installation, which uses a PC platform and software-based data preparation, is due to replace relay interlockings on RATP Line ...
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German Railway telecom deal
GERMAN telephone operator Arcor AG & Co sold Telematik, its railway-specific telecommunications business, to Deutsche Bahn AG for €1·15bn on January 24. Arcor’s former parent Mannesmann AG had purchased Telematik from DB in 1996.An agreement is expected to be concluded by April 1 for the creation of a joint venture ...
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News
Mexican merger deal
PROPOSALS to bring two of Mexico’s three principal rail concessionaires under common ownership were announced on January 25. The plan is to transfer all the shares in Ferrocarril del Sureste to a subsidiary of the mining company Grupo México, known as Infraestructura y Transportes México. FerroSur is currently controlled by ...
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Curitiba funding
JAPAN BANK for International Co-operation is to provide a loan of US$274·6m to fund construction of a 13 km surface metro route in Curitiba, capital of the state of Paran
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News
CPTM keeps growing
S??O PAULO state governor Geraldo Alckmin and Transport Secretary Jurandir Fernandes (below) joined CPTM President Oliver Salles de Lima and other officials on March 8 for a test run on metro Line 5 from Capão Redondo to Vila das Belezas. The 9·6 km route from Capão Redondo to Largo Treze ...
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Screen display controls
NET Display Systems has developed Public Area Display System, a software package for controlling passenger information displays connected by LAN or internet. The computers can operate arrival and departure information, paging and emergency data, and display multimedia advertising. Plasma screens can display text, pictures and complex video presentations. PADS can ...
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News
Connex grows in Germany
A NEW open access freight operator emerged in Germany on January 24, when Connex Cargo Logistics GmbH unveiled one of its three Bombardier-built Class 185 electric locos at Osnabrück. The 140 km/h dual-system locos are being leased from Porterbrook, and will be operated in co-operation with NordWestCargo, a joint venture ...