All Railway Gazette International articles in March 2007
All articles published this month.
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News
Finance March 2007
China: On January 30 the World Bank approved a US$200m loan towards doubletracking and partial realignment of the Lupanshui – Zhanyi section of the Guiyang to Kunming railway. This will increase capacity to accommodate growing business from western China. Europe: Eurofima reported a net profit of SFr45·4m in 2006, ...
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News
Intelligence March 2007
Australia: A replacement 200 m bridge across the Murrumbidgee at Wagga Wagga in New South Wales was opened on January 3. The A$16m project undertaken by Arenco under ARTC's A$2·4bn North South Rail Investment programme allowed an increase in running speed from 20 to 80 km/h. Belgium: Infrabel has ...
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News
The challenge of spending wisely
The European Union is making €14bn available for the new member states in Central and Eastern Europe to invest in rail up to 2013. With no comprehensive development plan to take advantage of this largesse, governments and railways need to take urgent action if the rail sector is to be ...
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Open access in a challenging market
Set up in the late 1990s to bid for a share of Poland's rail freight business, Rail Polska became an open access operator in 2003. The company began carrying international traffic last year and is now growing rapidly as the Polish open access market develops
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NewsModel restructuring reshapes CFR to survive in a competitive market
Romania's railways are preparing to operate in a market environment where the latest European regulations apply. Restructuring has helped to stabilise the freight sector, where private operators now have a 25% share, but more remains to be done to secure the passenger business
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News
Veolia takes on Tri-Rail
Southern Florida Regional Transportation Authority has awarded Veolia a seven-year contract worth $64m to operate the Tri-Rail commuter service. The contract includes an option for a further three years at a cost of $33m. The French group will replace Herzog Transit Services on July 1. The Sfrta board has ...
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News
Serbian sales
SLOVAK rolling stock manufacturer ZOS Trnava paid 140m dinara for the Serbian state's 77·5% stake in wagon and carriage supplier Gosa on January 26. ZOS Trnava plans to use the Gosa factory in Smederevska Palanka to relieve capacity constraints at its plant in Slovakia. It expects to invest a further ...
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News
UP reports record results
REPORTING its 2006 results on January 25, Union Pacific announced its best year ever’, with commodity revenues up by 15% to an all-time record of $14?9bn for the year. Operating income in the fourth quarter grew by 52% to nearly $810m. President & CEO Jim Young - who succeeded Dick ...
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News
Property road-show
A major property development programme along the coast of the Indian Ocean is at the heart of the Sri Lankan government’s plans to revive its ailing state railway. A road-show for potential investors is to take place in Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong, showcasing opportunities to develop 12 station sites ...
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News
Thales to resignal Piccadilly Line
LONDON Underground PPP contractor Tube Lines announced on January 29 that it had awarded Thales a ?160m contract extension covering the resignalling of the Piccadilly Line. Thales took over contracts to supply Seltrac signalling to the Jubilee and Northern lines when it acquired Alcatel-Lucent’s transport activities at the end of ...
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News
Laos link launched
WORK to link Laos to Thailand's rail network officially began on January 19, when Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh and Thai Deputy Prime Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula attended a ground-breaking ceremony in Dongphosy. This will be the site of the future Tha Naleng passenger and freight rail terminal, close to ...
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News
Leasing income up
GATX reported net income from continuing operations of $150·5m for the year to December 31 2006, up from $105·6m in 2005. The aircraft leasing business was sold to improve the firm's risk profile, and rail, marine and industrial activities grew 'while maintaining our disciplined investment approach', said President & CEO ...
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Mega-trucks impugned
ADDRESSING around 400 delegates to the CER’s Eurailfreight conference in Brussels on January 30, German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, who under the German presidency of the European Union holds the chair at the Council of Ministers [for transport], indicated that giant lorries equivalent to Australia’s road trains would not be ...
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NewsHamburger Hochbahn restructures
Hamburger Hochbahn AG is to bring its rail and bus operations together into a single holding company in a bid to accelerate its expansion programme. The firm, which operates a number of regional rail services in partnership across Germany in addition to its Hamburg bus and metro business, hopes ...
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NewsKnorr-Bremse records growth
BRAKE MANUFACTURER Knorr-Bremse Group reported steady growth and record results for 2006, with revenue up 14% to k3?1bn from k2?7bn in 2005. A third of this increase came from acquisitions and two-thirds from organic growth in both the rail and commercial vehicle divisions, particularly in Europe and North America. ...
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Green light for missing link
WORK IS DUE to begin during the second quarter of 2007 on the 1 km Parc - Sud section of the TEC light metro in the Belgian city of Charleroi, expected to open at the end of 2010 to complete a long-planned city centre loop. With one intermediate ...
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Grands projets now the norm
MARCH 15 will see the official inauguration by RFF of the first 300 km of TGV Est between Paris and Baudrecourt. Three months ahead of SNCF’s planned opening to traffic on June 10, the date leaves a slot for more ultra-high-speed trials (above). That the French government backs high speed ...
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MTR goes shopping
HONG Kong MTR has officially opened its first shopping centre in mainland China. Ginza Shopping Mall stands above Dongzhimen metro station in a prosperous area of Beijing, and will be operated using the ’rail-plus-property’ model which MTR says has proved highly successful in maximising the value of inner-urban sites around ...