All Railway Gazette International articles in May 2004
All articles published this month.
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News
Sitram starts tracklaying
JEAN-MARIE Bockel, Mayor of Mulhouse, took part in a ceremony on March 16 to weld one of the first rails on the city’s tram network. The event was staged at La Porte Jeune, site of the future interchange between the two lines of the planned 19·75 km network.Work on the ...
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News
A satisfactory start
INITIAL results have been published for Metronet Rail’s performance during the first year of the London Underground PPP. In April 2003 the firm assumed responsibility for maintaining and upgrading the infrastructure and rolling stock on nine of LU’s 12 lines. Bonuses and penalties are payable for good or poor performance.Metronet ...
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News
Septa retenders
AMID charges of favouritism and political interference, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority on March 19 cancelled a $236m order for 104 stainless steel commuter cars from the Rotem-led United Transit Systems consortium.Septa board Chairman Pasquale Deon blamed the potential cost of defending a lawsuit brought by Kawasaki Rail Car, one of ...
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News
PUBLICATIONS
Transport Projects, Programmes & PoliciesEvaluation needs and capabilitiesEditors: Alan Pearman, Peter Mackie and John NellthorpForming part of the Contemporary Trends in European Social Sciences series, this volume collects together selected papers from international specialists in the application of economic evaluation to the transport sector. These were presented at a workshop ...
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Upgrading programme
AN INFRASTRUCTURE improvement programme for the Montréal metro costing C$309·4m was announced on March 22 following approval by the federal, provincial and city governments.Forming part of the Infrastructure Canada-Québec 2000 Programme, the work includes replacing 41 escalators and two moving walkways in the initial 26-station network. Other elements in the ...
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News
Profits up
ENGINEERING company Balfour Beatty reported a 10% increase in pre-tax profits to £130m for the year to December 31 2003, including provision for anticipated costs arising from the ’surprising and disappointing’ termination of its three Network Rail maintenance contracts.The order book grew 14% to £5·8bn.Balfour Beatty’s share in two of ...
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News
Praha refurbishment
A CONSORTIUM including ING Real Estate Development, Supod Praha and Moravka Centrum is to refurbish Praha’s Masarykovo station at a cost of up to KC8m.CD has taken an initial 51% stake in the consortium, in exchange for providing the buildings and land. As the other partners fund the refurbishment, the ...
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Pointers
Phillippine National Railways and Siemens are to carry out a 100m peso feasibility study for the Mindanao railway project, which would link Butan, Davao and General Santos.A consortium of local industries and broad gauge operator Nuevo Central Argentino is reported to have expressed interest in acquiring a stake in Belgrano ...
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PEOPLE
Magdalena Álvarez Arza has been named as Secretary of State for Transport in the new Spanish government.A government reshuffle in France sees François Goulard appointed as Secretary of State for Transport under Gilles de Robien. who remains as Transport Minister.RFF Director-General Jean-Marie Bertrand was elected Chairman of the European Rail ...
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Yarra Trams takes over
At 03.01 on April 18 Yarra Trams became the new name for Melbourne’s entire privatised tram network when the company assumed responsibility for the former National Express Swanston Trams franchise operated under the M>Tram brand.Yarra Trams Chief Executive Hubert Guyot drove the first tram, a Siemens Combino low-floor car, from ...
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Nusantara Tunnel plan unveiled
PROPOSALS to develop a fixed link between Sumatra and Java were unveiled by Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency at the end of March. The aim is to start construction next year, with opening envisaged in 2008.The plan is to build a twin-bore tunnel between Banteng and Lampung, through which electric ...
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News
Mitropa sold
SELECT Service Partner, the international concessions arm of catering services business Compass Group, is to acquire Mitropa AG from German Railway for a net consideration of €17·6m.Now separated from DB’s on-train catering business, Mitropa has catering concessions at more than 60 German railway stations. It reported sales of around €115m ...
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Market
Argentina:Under a contract worth 1·3m pesos, Luis Carlos Zonis has begun work to repair track on the network operated by Buenos Aires port authority AGP.Austria:ÖBB has awarded Kapsch TrafficCom a five-year contract to implement a train management and telephone communications system using its Mulitmedia Access IP Dispatcher technology. Bulgaria:Koncar Ellok ...
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SBB ticket machines
LATER this year SBB will begin replacing portable ticket machines used for on-train sales with 2000 almex.mobile portable ticket machines from Höft & Wessel. Up to 1GB of data on available tickets and fares can be stored in the almex.mobile terminals, and a radio link can be used to obtain ...
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Minuetto leads regional revival
Minuetto leads regional revivalINTRO: Styled by Giugiaro Design, the Minuetto is intended to bring a note of elegance to regional services in Italy. Alstom Transport is due to deliver 70 electric and 67 diesel multiple-units by December 2005ONE OF the most recent additions to Alstom’s Coradia family, the Minuetto is ...
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KTZ starts on Trans-Asian link
KAZAKHSTAN Railways has started work on an ambitious US$3·5bn project to build a 1435mm gauge railway linking Asia and Europe, paralleling the broad gauge Trans-Siberian corridor in Russia. According to KTZ First Vice-President Kanat Zhangaskin, the standard gauge Trans-Kazakhstan Railway between China and Iran would cut journey times by up ...
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La Réunion plans inter-urban link
LYON-BASED consultant Semaly has won a contract to study and design an inter-urban ’tram-train’ project on the French island département of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean.Leader of a consortium with Scetauroute, Thales and Dubus Richez, Semaly is already working on preliminary studies and expects to complete an assessment of ...
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Intelligence
Australia:Mining company Xstrata has announced that it will go ahead with a planned open-cast coal mine west of Rolleston in Queensland, which will include a 110 km rail link (RG 4.03 p183). To be built by QR, Abigroup, John Holland and Connell Wagner at a cost of A$230m, it ...