All Railway Gazette International articles in March 2005
All articles published this month.
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News
Torque of the town
LAST MONTH saw Nord-Ostsee Bahn begin trials with a DE2700 locomotive. The first of 12 intended to take over the Marschbahn service between Hamburg and Westerland from December, it was built for Norwegian State Railways as Class Di6 by Krupp-MAK and Siemens in the 1990s.A series of problems prompted NSB ...
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Ventilating Torino’s tunnels
TUNNELS on Torino’s VAL automatic metro are to be fitted with custom-made ventilation equipment supplied by Fläkt Woods. Announced on January 31, the order covers two parallel reversible fans for use in each of the metro’s 22 ventilation chambers, as well as silencers, diffusers and dampers. Video surveillance and smoke ...
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News
Sidetrack
From sea to seaOver the years, Sidetrack has reported on a wide range of unusual loads being moved by rail. Chinese Railways is set to join the roll of honour next year.Developers have started work on a 120m yuan luxury swimming centre at the Shijingshan Sports Centre in Beijing, where ...
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News
Seibu scandal
AFTERSTEPPING down as President of Japan’s Seibu Railway in January, Terumasa Koyanagi was found dead on February 19, apparently the second senior manager to commit suicide after an accounting scandal hit the railway. Last October Seibu admitted that it had been falsifying its financial statements for more than 50 years. ...
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News
PUBLICATIONS
Guidelines for selecting and planning a new light rail systemThis CD has been compiled by UITP in response to requests from transport authorities considering the use of light rail.The documents provide a listing of the issues involved in opening an intermediate capacity system, from the initial reviews and appraisals through ...
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News
Schedule patent
REAL-TIME information management from the mining industry has been adapted by Modular Mining Systems to improve the planning, supervision and dispatching of trains on mine-to-port freight railways.In January Modular Mining Systems obtained a US patent for its Integrated Railroad System, which is combined with GPS tracking of trains to form ...
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Puerto Montt upgrade underway
CHILEAN state railway EFE has called tenders for a contract to upgrade and maintain over eight years the 567·4route-km of its Southern Zone between San Rosendo and Puerto Montt. Bids are due by June 8, and EFE hopes to sign a contract on September 3 so that work can begin ...
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Mixed signals from the ministry
BRITAIN’S national railway must complete before Christmas its third major restructuring within a decade, assuming that the latest Railways Bill becomes law this month and is not derailed by a general election in May. Or maybe it is the fourth, depending whether you count the replacement in 2002 of infrastructure ...
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Metros
China: Passengers using Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway network rose 8% to 834 million in 2004; Airport Express traffic went up 17% to 8·01 million as air travel recovered from the Sars health scare.Czech Republic: The Railway Authority has certified for revenue operation Skoda Transportation’s prototype 05T Vektra low-floor tram, ...
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Work starts on Metroeste
WORK HAS begun on the 8·3 km extension of Madrid metro Line 7 from Las Musas to San Fernando de Henares, due to open in March 2007 and expected to cost a total of €444m. Known as Metroeste, the extension will serve an area with a population of 120000.The route ...
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Singapore metro networked
THIS summer Singapore MRT will complete the roll-out of digital CCTV at its 51 metro stations, three depots and the operations control centre. The contract to provide analogue-quality video over an IP transmission network was awarded to O’Connors Engineering and video networking specialist COE last year, and work began in ...
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Market
China: Bombardier Transportation is to supply 200 bogies and kits for another 400 for use under cars for Guangzhou metro Lines 4 and 5 which are being assembled by a joint venture of Itochu Corp and Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock Co Ltd.Harsco Track Technologies is to supply a rail ...
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South Line start
A GROUNDBREAKING ceremony was due to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 26 to mark the start of construction for the city’s 15·4 km South Line light rail route. Serving 15 stops, it is due to open on December 31 2007.Charlotte Area Transit System scheduled the groundbreaking at ...
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Light work
PORTABLE lighting supplier SA Equipment has launched a backpack version of its 12V Rechargeable Worklite Kit which can be used to illuminate trackside locations accessible by foot. The backpack contains a powerful Worklite lamp with twin 18W fluorescent tubes, as well as a portable stand and rechargeable battery module. ...
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News
Light rail study
PROPOSALS are being developed for a light rail line in Guatemala City, the country’s Ministry of Communications & Transport announced at the end of January. The project would form part of a US$100m expansion of the capital’s bus network now underway.The line would follow a disused railway alignment running 10 ...
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News
PKPloses less
POLISHState Railways’ passenger business made a loss of 760m zloty in 2004, an improvement on the 1 245m loss in 2003, President Janusz Detlaff said in January. However, ticket sales fell from 1·20bn to 1·18bn zloty. To try to stem the flow of passengers to other modes, tenders are to ...
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News
Saudi Landbridge ready to launch
The prequalification process is expected to start this month for a concession to develop a rail corridor across the Arabian peninsula, with the aim of having trains running by 2010. Chris Jackson reports
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NewsKeeping Luas up to speed
INTRO: Maintenance of rolling stock and infrastructure on the two light rail routes in Dublin has been contracted to Alstom WELL BEFORE the first cars began running on Dublin's two light rail lines last year, Ireland's Railway Procurement Agency had put in place two contracts for the ...
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Intelligence
Australia: A decision to use TPWS and TPWS+ to halt trains that approach curves or junctions too fast is being blamed for an increase in the cost of Victoria’s Regional Fast Rail project A$750m (RG 12.04 p840). Canada: On February 4 the GO Transit board approved a budget of C$173m ...