All Railway Gazette International articles in March 2002 – Page 4
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News
Spoornet wins ZR concession
SOUTH AFRICAN rail operator Spoornet has been awarded the 25-year concession to manage and operate Zambia Railways. Spoornet International was one of four prequalified bidders shortlisted for the concession, in a consortium with Canarail and New Limpopo Bridge Investments (RG 2.02 p62). The official date for the handover has been ...
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Maputo concession
SPOORNET Chief Executive Zandile Jakavula visited Mozambique in January to sign a memorandum of agreement for the long-awaited concession to operate the 90 km railway from Maputo from the South African border at Machava, east of Komatipoort. The concession will be held by the newly-formed Ressano Garcia Railway Company, which ...
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News
Super Voyager completes tilt trials in France
A Virgin Trains Class 221 tilting trainset was put through a stiff programme of trials on SNCF's corkscrew line between Brive and Cahors. Murray Hughes reports from the test site
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Rail recovery trains completed
Jarvis Rail has completed three Rail Recovery/Delivery Trains at its York workshops. They are to be used to retrieve and deliver rail in a £12m, five-year contract with Railtrack’s National Logistics Unit. Fitted with eight electric 1·25 tonne cranes operated by a single remote control unit, each train can handle ...
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News
Comparison processes are robust, but subjective
In its value for money review, Ernst & Young found the processes adopted by London Underground to have been ’robust’ and in overall terms ’appropriate’. But the PPP contract structure ’does not allow the presentation of an indisputable quantified assessment of value of money’, due to its 30-year term with ...
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News
Spain moves closer to reform
THE SEPARATION of infrastructure from operations as required by European Union directives will be implemented in Spain by the end of 2003, according to Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos. This year, the government aims to reach agreement with the unions on how to proceed, and with other political parties on what ...
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News
Specialist Citadis lift
MAINTENANCE depots in Montpellier and Orléans have been equipped with vehicle lifts and bogie transfer tables developed by SEFAC Industries specifically for use with Alstom’s Citadis modular family of light rail vehicles.The mobile column lift is able to raise the articulated trams as complete units. The standard design uses 12 ...
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Trans-Siberian upgrades for a new century
BYLINE: Boris LukovDeputy General Secretary,International Co-ordinating Council on Trans-Siberian TransportationIN JULY 2001, celebrations were held at the Kremlin palace in Moscow to mark the centenary of the legendary Trans-Siberian Main Line. Running for 9988 km from the capital’s Yaroslavl station to the Pacific port of Vladivostok, the world’s longest railway ...
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Third sector casualties
A CHANGE in the law two years ago that was intended to promote competition has resulted in a rising number of closures among Japan’s ’third sector’ railways. One reason is that passenger service can now be abandoned without getting permission from local government. Another is that many lines taken over ...
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News
Car carriers fit tighter gauge
BRITISH intermodal operator Freightliner has introduced a new design of car-carrying flat wagon, known as Autoflat. To be operated by Autoliner, the automotive arm of Freightliner Heavy Haul Ltd, the vehicles are designed to handle the increasing height and width of domestic road vehicles within the restricted UK loading gauge. ...
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California dumps maglev
NOTWITHSTANDING the Perils of Amtrak playing to full houses in Congress (p109), the California High Speed Rail Authority is steadily whittling down alignment options for a high speed network linking Sacramento and San Francisco Bay with Los Angeles and San Diego. State Governor Gray Davies continues to support the planning ...
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News
DM&E buys I&M Rail Link
A MONTH after receiving federal approval to expand its operations into the lucrative coal fields of Wyoming (RG 3.02 p113), the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad announced on February 21 that it had agreed to purchase I&M Rail Link, more than doubling the size of its network.I&MRL was spun off ...
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News
Passenger News in Brief
Passengers on some Amtrak Northeast Corridor, Hiawatha and Californian services can access the internet from carriages equipped with Compaq Pocket PCs and wireless modems.Connex has launched a free SMS service providing Stockholm commuters with Roslagsbanan train running information.A six-month public trial of TransLink multi-modal smart card ticketing in the San ...
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News
Products in Brief
Titgemeyer UK has developed two high performance rail screws. Designed for use with BR1 and PAN8 baseplates, the CAMR16000 and CAMR1601 timber screws have undergone five years of trials, and received Railtrack approval. Spare spike holes are used, and existing spikes do not have to be removed. Union Pacific Railroad ...
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Industry News in Brief
Shares in steel producer Arcelor, formed through the merger of Aceralia of Spain with Arbed of Luxembourg and Usinor of France, were due to begin trading on the Paris stock exchange on February 18 at an opening price of €13·63. Arcelor shares are also to be listed on the Brussels, ...
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Toledo branch
SPANISH high speed construction authority GIF has called tenders for the design of civil works for a 25·7 km branch off the Madrid - Sevilla route to Toledo. Two contracts totalling €4m will be let, the first comprising the 10·5 km from a flying junction with the existing line at ...
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News
KTM port branch opens
MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad joined the ceremonies on January 21 to inaugurate a new freight branch in the south of the country. The 31·5 km link to the container port of Tanjung Pelepas leaves the KTM main line at Skudai, north of Johor Baru.The line was built by ...
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Cross-border freight boost
BUILDING on an earlier agreement to work towards a doubling of rail freight between France and Germany within five years (RG 10.01 p655), the two state railways have now agreed an initial package of measures designed to remove obstacles that impede the movement of cross-border freight. At a meeting in ...
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Intermodal boost
SHIFTING the equivalent of the annual increase in road freight to other modes is the goal of the Marco Polo programme outlined by the European Commission on February 4. It aims to improve services and logistics in rail, short-sea and inland waterways freight so as to attract an additional 12 ...
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Brazil’s big three
A NEW HOLDING company controlling the Ferroban, Ferronorte and Novoeste railways in Brazil was unveiled on March 4, after the owners of the former Fepasa São Paulo state network reached agreement on dividing Ferroban following two years of negotiations. Headed by Nelson Bastos, Brasil Ferrovias is controlled by the Ferronorte ...