All News articles – Page 120
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News
Birmingham New Street station rebuild funded
UK: Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly announced on February 12 that the Birmingham Gateway project to reconstruct the city's New Street station had obtained the funding needed to proceed. Work is planned to start in 2009 for completion by 2014. The Department for Transport will contribute £288m; another £100m will come ...
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Indian Railways invests
INDIA: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh officiated at a ceremony in Jhabua on February 8 to lay the foundation stone for two new railways serving the western part of Madhya Pradesh. Joined by the state's Governor Balram Jakhar and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Prime Minister inaugurated work on ...
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NewsHeavy haul developments
AUSTRALIA: Fortescue Metals subsidiary The Pilbara Infrastructure has lodged an application with Australia's National Competition Council seeking access to Rio Tinto's Robe River heavy haul line. TPI is seeking to operate trains over 210 km of track between Mesa J and Cape Lambert, with a view to enabling third parties ...
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Cork commuter reinstatement
IRELAND: Transport Minister Noel Dempsey officially launched works to reinstate the disued Glounthaune - Midleton line on February 14. A DMU service to Cork will be introduced in early 2009, running half-hourly in the peaks and hourly off-peak as part of a €130m investment in the city's commuter services under ...
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Dulles deal halted
USA: Federal funding is unlikely to be forthcoming for the 18·7 km first stage of the Washington Metro extension towards Dulles International Airport. Federal Transit Administrator James Simpson insisted there are 'an extraordinarily large set of challenges' that would exclude the project from receiving $900m in federal grants. FTA had ...
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NewsCzech passenger reform
CZECH REPUBLIC: On January 9 the government approved in principle the Ministry of Transport's plans to hive off the passenger division of Czech Railways as a wholly-owned subsidiary company. The Ministry will complete detailed studies by the end of October, and the restructuring is to be completed by the end ...
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New Chairman at CD
Petr Zaluda has been appointed Chairman & General Manager of Czech Railways (CD). He replaces Josef Bazala, who recently became Chairman & General Manager of CD Cargo (RG 1.08 p17). Educated in Brno, Petr Zaluda studied management, marketing and information technology at the University of Utrecht and Sheffield Business School ...
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BC proposes Vancouver transport plan
CANADA: The Premier of British Columbia Gordon Campbell announced a C$14bn transport plan which includes new metro, light rail and bus rapid transit lines on January 14. The biggest project is a 12 km SkyTrain light metro line running parallel to congested Broadway, bisecting central Vancouver to the University of ...
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NewsWraps come off the AGV
Built by Alstom on a speculative basis, the seven-car AGV demonstrator was unveiled to French President Nicolas Sarkozy on February 5. Murray Hughes reports from La Rochelle
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Helping business-led railways to share best practice
If there is one thing that we have learned during the past 20-year maelstrom of railway reform, restructuring, liberalisation, concessioning and privatisation, it is that today's railway managers need to keep a firm focus on the commercial aspects of their business. For operators such as the Class I railroads of ...
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Try, try again
GEORGIA: Despite, or perhaps because of, parliamentary elections in May, the government has embarked on another attempt to privatise Georgian Railways. Bids were invited by January 25, although no structure or timetable had been set for the process. Last year the Caucasian republic tried handing a 99-year concession to UK-based ...
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Denver places $184m order
USA: Siemens announced its largest-ever US light rail vehicle contract on February 5, a $184m deal to supply 55 SD160 high-floor cars to Denver's Regional Transportation District. RTD has previously ordered a total of 95 LRVs from Siemens. The initial seven vehicles from an option for 34 SD160 cars are ...
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NewsLegendary task of painting the Forth Bridge to end
UK: Painting the Forth Bridge has become a British proverb, a task so big that it can never be finished; by the time you have reached one end, it is time to start re-painting the other again. Never strictly true - painting has always been prioritised ...
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Dieter - March 2008
DENMARK: The Transport for London board reported several 'overindulged and overcarried passengers' on London's Docklands Light Railway over the last New Year holiday, but a potential solution to this inconvenience has been found in Denmark. In an effort to reduce the number of København Metro passengers who fall asleep ...
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Sell-off squad soldiers on
GERMANY: The coalition government in Berlin appears determined to make one final effort to sell off part of the national railway before the forthcoming 2009 general election. Previous attempts to privatise Deutsche Bahn AG have collapsed in the face of political opposition focused mainly on the possibility of the national ...
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Bombardier opens Bautzen test ring
A LIGHT RAIL testing circuit at Bombardier's Batuzen plant in Germany was formally inaugurated on February 1 by Thomas Jurk, Minister of Economic Affairs & Labour for the Land of Sachsen. The 850 m circuit will be used for the testing and approval of new vehicles, supplementing a 800 m ...
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Pepy to take the top job
FRANCE: Guillaume Pepy was nominated on February 20 as the next President of SNCF. Replacing Anne-Marie Idrac, who was appointed in July 2006 to take over from Louis Gallois when he left for a post in the aerospace industry, Pepy was due to have his appointment confirmed at a cabinet ...
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Greenbrier buys American Allied
THE GREENBRIER Companies announced an agreement to acquire the operating assets of American Allied Railway Equipment Co for $83m in cash on January 28. American Allied supplies new and reconditioned wagon wheelsets from plants in Georgia and Illinois, where it also has a coupler and running gear component refurbishment business. ...
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Serbia signs €57m wagon order
SERBIA: International Railway Systems has been awarded a €57m contract to supply Serbian Railways with 750 wagons by the end of the year. The contract signed on February 21 is funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development. Luxembourg-headquartered IRS said the Eanoss wagons will be produced at ...
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NewsKnorr-Bremse growth
BRAKE?maker Knorr-Bremse has reported an 4·1% increase in sales for 2007, up to €3·25bn from €3·12bn in 2006. Adjusting the figures for currency effects shows an operation growth of 6·6%. The European activities of the Rail Vehicle Systems division have recovered from stagnation in 2006, with growth of more than ...