All Railway Gazette International articles in May 2001 – Page 2

  • News

    Delhi digs deeper

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    CONSTRUCTION of the north-south underground metro line in Delhi is expected to get under way shortly, following the award of a Rs16·5bn turnkey design-and-build contract on March 20. Delhi Metro Rail Corp has selected a consortium including local firms Larsen & Toubro and Ircon, Dyckerhoff & Widmann of Germany, Samsung ...

  • News

    Uzbek cut-off

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    LAST MONTH was due to see the launch of regular freight services between Toshkent and northwestern Uzbekistan via Uchkuduk, following the inauguration of a new cut-off to avoid a section of former Soviet main line which now runs through Turkmenistan.Ceremonies were held in February to mark the completion of the ...

  • News

    Corridor management

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    GERMAN Railway announced on April 9 that its infrastructure business DB Netz AG was to restructure its activities on a corridor basis. The 37500 route-km network will be divided into 22 route corridors, in order to co-ordinate planning and maintenance work more efficiently. Over the next three years, DB Netz ...

  • News

    Tunnel contracts

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    THIS MONTH will see the start of work on two major tunnels on the Belgian high-speed network. Construction contracts were approved by the SNCB board at the beginning of April, following recommendations by the high-speed line project management subsidiary TUC Rail SA. Described as the biggest single civil engineering project ...

  • News

    Container special

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    NEW Zealand port authority Ports of Auckland has signed a 15-year agreement with Tranz Rail to operate a dedicated container train on the North Island Main Trunk. The train will handle import and export traffic to and from a new container terminal at Palmerston North, serving the south of the ...

  • News

    Rails to conquer the Tibetan plateau

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: Construction of a railway to Lhasa was started in 1958, but halted in the early 1980s until technical challenges could be overcome. Two decades later, Chinese Railways is poised to start work on an 1100 km railway through some of the world’s toughest terrainBYLINE: Wang Teh Lei and Xu ...

  • News

    Siberian saga draws to a close

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    BACK IN the USSR in 1981, construction workers toiling to build the 15·3 km Severomuisky tunnel on the Baikal-Amur Magistral encountered fast-flowing underground rivers that rapidly halted work. As we said at the time, ’streams of hot and cold water mingled with sand to produce a treacherous quicksand that spelt ...

  • News

    Measuring tunnel clearances faster

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    BYLINE: Dipl-Ing Bernhard MetzgerPlasser Measuring SystemsAN ACCURATE knowledge of loading gauge clearances is critical if a rail operator is to be certain that loads can be carried safely. But over time the clearance along a line can change for several reasons. The track can move out of position, perhaps being ...

  • News

    Strikes force change of course

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    TWO WEEKS of industrial action by drivers at French National Railways appeared to be drawing to a close on April 12 as officials at the FGAAC and SUD-Rail unions advised their members to return to work. After making major concessions on April 5 which had satisfied the larger unions such ...

  • News

    Challenges and opportunities change the face of urban transport

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    MOBILITY IS about more than just getting from one place to another. Today it is considered part of our quality of life, and nowhere is this more apparent than in major cities and their suburbs. It is also here that public transport plays a particularly important role, with rail and ...

  • News

    Spain’s high-speed challenge

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    HIGH SPEED rail travel has long since ceased to be an adventure. For more than a decade trains have run routinely at 300 km/h in France, while Japan, Belgium and Spain joined the club during the 1990s. The new Roma - Napoli line in Italy, Britain’s Channel Tunnel Rail Link, ...

  • News

    EMA camera identifies rail defects

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    GAUGE corner cracking and other forms of rolling contact fatigue can be detected using a field gradient rail inspection camera developed by Newt International. The Lizard camera presents television-like pictures of flaws in the rail (or other engineering structures) and uses an odometer to record defect locations. It can see ...

  • News

    Concession call

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    THE GOVERNMENTS of Senegal and Mali have called bids for a concession to operate the Dakar - Bamako line. Expressions of interest were invited by the end of April, and ’pre-selection’ documentation will be available this month. The process is being managed by a bi-national steering committee with representatives from ...

  • News

    Fully functional cab simulators

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    VIRGIN Trains unveiled three driver simulators when its Crewe training centre was officially opened on March 23.The £2m simulators are based on real train cabs, with all controls fully functional. The two Voyager diesel simulators were supplied by Oktal Technirail, and a Pendolino tilting train simulator by Corys. Each has ...

  • News

    Grenoble plans Line C

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    PLANNING for the construction of a third light rail route in Grenoble moved ahead last month, when a consortium led by Lyon-based Semaly was appointed to act as prime contractor; other partners are Ingerop, Attica and Sogreah. They will work with local transport authority SMTC and Territoires 38.Feasibility studies for ...

  • News

    Law may impose ETCS in Britain

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    THE REPORT of the Joint Inquiry into Train Protection Systems by Lord Cullen and Professor Uff, published on March 29, calls on the British government to introduce regulations requiring all routes on which trains exceed 160 km/h to be fitted with full automatic train protection by 2008.They say that the ...

  • News

    Products in Brief

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    Pfister Waagen has introduced Sirius, a ’weigh rail’ for moving trains. The 1·8m rail is welded into existing track and uses sealed load cells to measure wheel and axle weights of trains passing at 6 to 12 km/h. There is no restriction on the speed of other trains.Speno Rail Maintenance ...

  • News

    Industry News in Brief

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    Canada: Amsted Industries opened a Canadian arm on April 2. Based in Boucherville, Quebec, Amsted Canada Inc will provide combined sales and support for ASF-Keystone Inc, Brenco/QBS and Griffin Wheel Co. Czech Republic: CKD Vagonka's Ostrava-Vitkovice passenger rolling stock plant was opened by Prime Minister Milos Zeman on March 23. ...

  • News

    Brasilia metro finally inaugurated

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    CEREMONIES were held in the Brazilian capital on March 31 to mark the formal inauguration of the Brasilia metro. Participating in the event were the Governor of the Federal District, Joaquim Domingos Roriz, the district’s Secretary of Infrastructure & Works Nelson Fadeu Filippelli, and Metr

  • News

    Cross-city bore

    2001-05-01T10:00:00Z

    SPAIN’s Ministry of Development called bids on April 9 for consultants to assist with the development of a second cross-city rail tunnel under Madrid. The 8 km tunnel is intended to carry the capital’s growing suburban traffic, releasing pressure in the existing tunnel for main line services.The aim is to ...