All Railway Gazette International articles in May 2002
All articles published this month.
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News
Network Rail launches £9bn Railtrack bid
The Company Limited by Guarantee intended to succeed Railtrack as owner of the British railway infrastructure launched a formal bid for Railtrack plc on March 25. This was lodged with Railtrack Group, and a copy was sent to administrators Ernst & Young. Chairman Ian McAllister said he hoped to reach ...
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News
Customer service academy opened
RICHARD Bowker, Chairman of Britain’s Strategic Rail Authority, opened Midland Mainline’s Customer Service Academy in Derby on April 5. The three-storey building houses training facilities for drivers, train managers, catering staff and booking office personnel.Ian Buchan, Chief Executive of National Express Group’s Rail Division, owner of Midland Mainline, said that ...
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News
Open access is crucial to international freight revival
INTRO: From March 2003 the 50000 km Trans-European Rail Freight Network should be fully open to international freight train operators, whether state or privately owned, and by 2006 the EC hopes to see competition on all routes. Jean-Arnold Vinois told Richard Hope why open access is now seen as absolutely ...
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News
UIRR members want open access too
INTRO: Europe’s combined transport companies have suffered a dramatic increase in delays during the last three years, stunting previously robust traffic growth, but they get no compensation from the national railways. UIRR Director General Rudy Colle backs the EC’s efforts to promote competition as one way out of this impasseTHE ...
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News
Rails across the roof of the world
INTRO: Unprecedented challenges face the engineers building the Golmud - Lhasa railway across the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Over 85% of the route lies more than 4000m above sea level, where permafrost demands special construction techniques and the rarified atmosphere affects both men and machinesBYLINE: Hou Wen-weiChief Editor,China Railway ScienceXINING, the provincial ...
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News
Rolling motorway advice on offer
EUROTUNNEL has received a number of requests for advice from other companies providing rolling motorway services. This has prompted thoughts of long-term expansion, probably in partnership with other companies, to help develop and possibly operate similar services to the lorry shuttles it runs between Cheriton and Coquelles. According to Planning ...
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News
AEAT Rail grows
IN WHAT IT describes as ’the largest single-office letting in Derby for more than 25 years’, AEA Technology Rail will move its head office to Jubilee House this month. The 6500m2 building will house over 400 staff out of a total complement that has grown from 300 to over 900 ...
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NewsKuala Lumpur's airport in the city opens for business
The 57 km standard gauge rail link serving Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Malaysia’s new administrative capital opened last month. Andrew Grantham sampled the ride
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News
Freight trains running on Alameda Corridor
SECRETARY of Transportation Norman Mineta and California Governor Gray Davies joined ceremonies in Los Angeles on April 12 to mark the formal opening of the Alameda Corridor. Around 1000 guests, including Mayor of Los Angeles James Hahn and his counterpart from Long Beach Beverly O’Neill, watched as senior project executives ...
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News
Bay Area projects boom
CONSTRUCTION of the planned 35 km BART extension from Fremont to Warm Springs and San Jose moved a step closer on April 4, when the California Transportation Commission approved a grant of $717m as part of a state-wide traffic congestion relief programme. Financial support has also been promised by Alameda ...
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News
Wagon suppliers await upturn
EUROPE’S rail freight business is in trouble - and yet politicians continue to predict a huge rise in traffic. We have no quarrel with the assessment that the potential is huge, but progress to date is shamefully slow. Elsewhere in this issue we offer some insight into the issues that ...
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News
Back from the brink
HAVING instigated a game of ’chicken’ with Congress over funding for its long-distance trains, it was Amtrak that blinked first. George Warrington, who is stepping down as President to join New Jersey Transit, announced on April 5 that he would not, after all, file the required 180-day notice for withdrawal ...
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News
More French tram projects backed
CONSTRUCTION of three more light rail lines is to go ahead in southeast France, following the approval of five-year regional spending plans in Lyon and Grenoble. Work is expected to start next year on the 13·5 km Line C in Grenoble, as part of a €732m transport package proposed by ...
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News
Sharon backs IR ’new deal’
ISRAEL is planning to invest US$4bn in rail over the next five years, according to Transport Minister Dr Efrayim Sne. He announced in mid-March that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had approved in principle the 2002-06 plan which will be funded by a mix of public and private investment. A seven-year ...
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News
Mole cuts ballast faster
infrastructure maintenance contractor Jarvis Rail has introduced a 44 tonne self-propelled excavator able to cut a swathe of ballast up to 3800mm wide and 600mm deep in one pass. Supplied by mining equipment manufacturer DBT, the Mole has been adapted for rail use by Jarvis Rail’s On-Track Machines division. The ...
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News
Base tunnel progress
A CONSORTIUM of Eiffage TP, GRA and Condotte d’Acqua has been awarded an €82m contract to dig a 4 km pilot bore from Villarodin-Bourget near Modane, which will be used to gain access to worksites on the Mont Cenis base tunnel between France and Italy. Blasted out of the rock, ...
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News
Victoria regauging begins
WORK IS to start this month on the first projects to regauge around 2000 km of freight lines in the Australian state of Victoria. The state government has allocated A$96m towards the five-year programme costing A$140m, which was announced a year ago (RG 6.01 p367), and formally approved last September. ...
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News
US high speed bidding starts
FLORIDA Department of Transportation has received 10 responses to its Invitation to Prequalify for a public-private partnership to develop a high speed railway connecting the state’s major cities. No public funding has yet been allocated for the project, although voters passed a constitutional amendment in November 2000 mandating that the ...
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News
Perpignan - Figueres bids
THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL Commission developing the cross-border rail link between France and Spain has confirmed that all six shortlisted consortia had submitted bids by April 2 for the concession to finance, build and operate the45 km link. The six were shortlisted on November 30 2001 (RG 1.02 p6).Meeting in Madrid on ...