All Railway Gazette International articles in March 2003 – Page 2
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News
Pioneer region pursues TER development
INTRO: Nord-Pas de Calais is one of the 20 regions of mainland France that assumed powers on January 1 last year to specify and fund local TER services. Although it has been working with SNCF for 25 years, the new structure and moves to open up the national network are ...
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Derailment detectors fitted to Swiss tank wagons
BYLINE: Silvan WeissProduct Co-ordination Manager, Central Europe, Esso Schweiz GmbHAFTER two potentially catastrophic derailments involving tank wagons in the mid-1990s, one at Affoltern near Zürich and the other in Lausanne, Swiss Federal Railways, the Swiss oil industry and the private-sector tank wagon owners resolved that similar incidents should not occur ...
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News
NRZ in deep trouble
ALL SEVEN directors of National Railways of Zimbabwe including the Chairman, Chivarange Chimombe, were dismissed on February 14 when the board was dissolved by the government. Announcing the decision, Transport & Communications Minister Witness Mangwende said NRZ would be administered by the Secretary of Transport & Communications, Colonel (Rtd) Christian ...
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Cutting remarks
AROUND 20 years ago the German Transrapid group demonstrated that a lawn mower could tow one of its maglev vehicles. We were somewhat surprised to learn last month that the same motive power is being considered to help keep Amtrak’s morning Eugene - Portland Cascades service on the rails. Every ...
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VIAFast to cut journey times
CANADIAN Transport Minister David Collenette suggested in January that VIA Rail could be operating high speed passenger services between Montréal, Ottawa and Toronto within five years. He believes Ottawa - Montréal journey times could be cut to 75min and Ottawa - Toronto to 2h 15min.Last year Collenette requested proposals from ...
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UIC study targets infrastructure costs
INTRO: A comparative study of infrastructure costs in Western Europe, North America and East Asia prepared for the UIC reveals that best practice can cut 40% off the average cost. The authors believe that ’vast potential’ exists for further savingsBYLINE: Dr Heiner Bente, Dr Jost Lüking and Oskar Stalder *RAILWAYS ...
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THSRC places last track contracts
TAIWAN High Speed Rail Corp awarded the last two contracts for trackwork on the 346 km high speed line between Taipei and Kaohsiung on January 23. Covering 153·6 km of main line between Panchiao and Changhua on the northern half of the route, Contracts T210 and T220 were both won ...
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Contractor takeover
DUTCH firm Koninklijke Volker Wessels Stevin NV has signed a letter of intent to acquire the rail infrastructure activities of German contractor Koehne Gleisbau. Based in Oberhausen, Koehne Gleisbau is active in the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary and Estonia. It has around 900 employees and a turnover of €125m. Operational management ...
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Competition is coming to the French network
Speaking to Murray Hughes in Paris, Transport Minister Gilles de Robien dismissed the previous government's target of doubling tonne-km hauled by rail by 2010 as 'completely unrealistic'. Whether the advent of open access competition from March 15 will generate more rail freight business remains to be seen, but de Robien ...
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Indian coaches rolled out
ON FEBRUARY 17 Indian Railways’ Rail Coach Factory at Kapurthala rolled out the first four locally-built inter-city coaches being built to an Alstom-LHB design under a technology transfer agreement (RG 8.99 p515). Expected to enter revenue service shortly, the first vehicles are two air-conditioned 78-seat second class cars and two ...
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Circular plan
VISITING Beijing on February 18, a delegation from Pakistan reached agreement for the Chinese to assist with the proposed revitalisation of the Karachi Circular Railway (RG 12.00 p791). Led by Railways Minister Ghous Bukhsh Mahar, the delegation included Sindh provincial Transport Minister Adil Siddique and Planning & Development Minister Syed ...
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News
Sevilla circle revived
SPANISH Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos has unveiled a €112·4m programme to create a circular suburban route in Sevilla, building on earlier proposals developed by Renfe (RG 7.97 p434). The €57·3m infrastructure component of the Metrotrén Sevilla scheme includes €4·5m to build a 765m double-track electrified spur between the main line ...
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China cools its metro rush
WHEN Guangzhou broke ground for its fourth metro line at the end of January (p120), it was a race against time. Barely two days later the construction of new metros in China was put on hold for the second time in a decade. With extensions and new lines underway in ...
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Cross-border chemicals
FEBRUARY 12 saw the operation of the first private-sector freight train across the German/Polish border, carrying oil products from Leuna to the Katowice region. A joint venture of German open-access operator rail4chem and Chem Trans Logistic Holding Polska SA plans to run a regular block train for chemicals traffic to ...
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News
Cargo terminal saves space
RAIL Cargo Austria is testing advanced loading and sorting technology at an intermodal terminal at Wien-Nordwestbahnhof. Developed in partnership with ABC Consulting, Intermodal Corridor Network, Künz, Palfiger, Porr and seibersdorfer research, the pilot installation can handle all types of container in current use, as well as swap bodies, up to ...
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News
Customer care training
USA: Police officers belonging to Washington metro's Rail Anti-crime Target Squad have been sent on a crash course in customer service at Disney World, in a bid to reduce tension and prevent the escalation of minor incidents into major confrontations. All 357 officers will participate in a 6h course designed ...
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Smart card deal
US operator WMATA has selected ERG Transit Systems and Northrop Grumman Information Technology to install and operate the SmarTrip¨ smart card fare collection system, which will cover 17 metro, rail and bus networks in Washington DC, Maryland and northern Virginia, subject to approval by Maryland Transit Administration. The $20m contract ...
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News
DMU to Lao Cai
VIETNAM RAILWAYS began work last month at its Gia Lam works on a metre-gauge diesel trainset. Costing 90bn dong, the unit will have two end power cars enclosing 12 trailer vehicles. It is expected to be completed by the beginning of June, and to enter service on the Hanoi - ...
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Bush freezes transit budget
ON FEBRUARY 3 US President George W Bush unveiled his proposed budget for the 2003-04 financial year. This freezes the allocation for the Federal Transit Administration at the same $7·2bn as in the 2002-03 budget still making its way through Congress, compared to $6·8bn actually spent in 2001-02. The plan ...
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News
Vinck slashes SNCB budget
IF THE Belgian government had thought that Karel Vinck would be more docile than his predecessor as Managing Director of SNCB, the fired Etienne Schouppe, it may find itself largely mistaken. Against the express wishes of Transport Minister Isabelle Durand, the SNCB board has approved a plan to reduce spending ...
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