All News articles – Page 180

  • News

    Finance

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    Africa: On January 24 the World Bank approved three International Development Association Partial Risk Guarantees for up to US$45m and US$15m in support of the Joint Railway Concession in Kenya and Uganda, the first time IDA has provided PRGs for a transport project.Bosnia: EIB is providing a 20-year loan worth ...

  • News

    Glazing Shanghai South

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    Shanghai South station will ’glow with both daytime light and nighttime lamplight’, according to Frans van de Noort, Asia-Pacific General Manager at GE Plastics. The Dutch-based company is supplying Lexan clear polycarbonate sheet to roof the concourse of the new station in the firm’s largest order to date. Custom-designed high ...

  • News

    A route to higher profit

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    EXPLOITING the latest yield management and quota control techniques to increase ticket revenue is gaining ground across Europe as more operators abandon distance-based fares. In the words of Tim Porter, Chief Executive Officer of Thales Information Systems, ’you can make more profit by selling the same thing that you do ...

  • News

    Olympic VAL inaugurated

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    ITALY’S first automatic metro was formally opened on February 4 by Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi and Torino Mayor Sergio Chiamparino.Torino residents had their first look at the new line on February 5, when celebrations were held in the Piazza XVIII Dicembre near Porta Susa and the stations were opened to ...

  • News

    Tuy Medio line to open in October

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    IAFE President Ángel García announced at the end of January that the 41·4 km Tuy Medio suburban line between Caracas and Cúa in Venezuela will open on October 15. Named the Ezequiel Zamora Railway after a federalist general born in Cúa in 1817, the route has cost US$2·5bn to build. ...

  • News

    Loco orders placed

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    RUSSIAN Railways has awarded contracts for almost 800 main line locomotives under its 2006-10 investment programme. Bryansk Machine Works is to supply 277 'sections' to form 2TE25 twin-unit diesel locomotives. The prototype 2TE25L Peresvet (RG 9.05 p537) is expected to complete its test programme at Shcherbinka this year. Bryansk's Managing ...

  • News

    M

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    JANUARY 26 saw the start of construction of a two-line light metro in the Spanish city of M

  • News

    North-South Railway makes progress

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    WITHIN THE next few months, the first tenders will be issued for construction of the 2400 km North-South Railway in Saudi Arabia. This is expected to take around five years to complete, and revenue services are expected to begin by 2011. The NSR is a key component of the Kingdom’s ...

  • News

    Market

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    Algeria:SNTF has ordered 16 GT36CW freight locos and 14 GT36HCW passenger locos from EMD in a US$82m deal.Australia:Lachlan Valley Railfreight has bought 16 Class MZ 3900hp diesel locos from DSB. The first five of the 140 km/h six-axle Nohab locos built in 1972 were shipped from København on February 14. ...

  • News

    Tyro operator tests the water

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    On JANUARY 27 the UK’s Office for Rail Regulation announced that it was ’minded’ to approve access rights for Grand Central, an open access passenger company that had previously sought to run services over the East Coast Main Line in 2003, to operate three trains a day between Sunderland and ...

  • News

    Siemens wins Railjet order

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    THE BOARD of Austrian Federal Railways voted on February 9 to authorise a contract for supply of high speed inter-city trains valued at between €250m and €300m.ÖBB has selected Siemens to provide the trains for its Railjet programme. Over the next two years, the manufacturer is to supply 23 seven-car ...

  • News

    Rails roll out

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    THE FIRST UIC60 rails were produced at Voestalpine’s €66m rail rolling mill at Leoben-Donawitz on January 31, during commissioning by the steelmaker and plant supplier Danieli.’We have done precisely what we said we would do’, said Hans Pfeiler, Chairman of the Board of Voestalpine Schienen GmbH. ’Our team has worked ...

  • News

    People

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    Montenegrin Transport Minister Andrija Lompar and ZCG President Ranko Medenica resigned after the Bioce derailment on January 23 which killed 46 people. The Malaysian government has appointed Lim Ah Lek as Chairman of KTMB with effect from the retirement of Thong Yaw Hong on January 2. Former ...

  • News

    Pointers

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    Chinese Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun confirmed in January that the government had decided to make the Beijing - Shanghai high speed line its ’first priority’ in the 2006-10 expansion plan, which envisages investment of 1250bn yuan to build 9800 km of new lines. The ministry plans to build the ...

  • News

    ‘Worthless’ product

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    GRAB-POLES were being stolen from suburban passenger trains in Cape Town, and operator Metrorail suspected this was because of the resale value of the stainless steel. In an effort to reduce the costs of replac-ing the poles, Metrorail’s workshops devel-oped a glass fibre version which has no scrap value. Around ...

  • News

    Reusable retaining walls

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    CRUSTACEAN shells inspired the design of Karapace, pairs of interlocking precast concrete components which can be used to create retaining walls up to 7·5m high. The reinforced concrete units can be installed directly onto a prepared substrate and then loaded from either side. They can be dismantled for reuse elsewhere.’By ...

  • News

    Sachsen technology

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    THE FREE State of Sachsen has established Rail Technology Sachsen (BTS) as a joint venture to promote the supply industry in the German Land.To be managed by PricewaterhouseCoopers for three years, BTS aims to improve competitiveness and promote entrepreneurship, particularly among small and medium enterprises, and ’to extend the potential, ...

  • News

    Safe temperature

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    RAIL temperatures can be monitored remotely using Radio-Tech’s RTM, providing operators with early warning of potential track buckling on inaccessible sections of line without endangering staff.Up to eight non-invasive temperature probes are mounted on rails with any flat bottom profile, with each probe fitted in under a minute without needing ...

  • News

    Slovak shortlist

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    THIS MONTH is expected to see the announcement of the preferred bidder to take over ZSSK Cargo. Privatisation of the Slovakian freight operator began last year after train operator ZSSK was split into separate freight and passenger business units (RG 5.05 p241). The government hopes to raise at least KS15bn ...

  • News

    Spanish tenders

    2006-03-01T11:00:00Z

    THE SPANISH Ministry of Development has been authorised to call tenders for further works on the emerging high speed network in the northeast of the country.Tenders are to be called for civil works on two sections of the connection between the Valencia - Barcelona route at Vandell