All News articles – Page 210
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News
Tibet to get high-altitude trains
CHINA’S Ministry of Railways has ordered 361 passenger coaches designed for use at high altitudes. Due to enter service from June 2006, they will be used on trains to Lhasa from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.The €213m order was placed at the end of February with the Qingdao-based Bombardier Sifang Power ...
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High-output machines speed track renewals
WORK is due to start in early May on a programme of track renewals covering around 100 km of the ProRail network. The contract was awarded to the contractor Spitzke Spoorbouw BV, a subsidiary of the German Spitzke group.The work forms part of the Nefit Noordoost programme to renew sleepers ...
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Intelligence
Bangladesh:The Ministry of Communications has called tenders for consultants to undertake feasibility studies into double-tracking and electrification of the Dhaka - Chittagong main line. The study will also look at building a cut-off from Laksam to Dhaka, shorter than the route via Akhaura. Belarus:The creation of a joint venture to ...
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Paris invests in suburban renewals
ILE DE France transport authority STIF has approved in principle a €324m upgrading of the northern section of Paris RER Line B, and expects to give the formal go-ahead in September.By upgrading the existing RFF long-distance tracks which parallel Line B Nord and building an additional track from Villeparisis to ...
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NS reform makes progress at last
UNDER the Railways Act 2003, concessions for operation of the trunk passenger network and for management of the national railway infrastructure are about to come into force with Netherlands Railways and ProRail. Both will be backdated to January 1, the date on which the formal ownership of NS was transferred ...
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Replica line has the technology
TRAINING company Rail Tech Group has created an indoor replica of a section of typical modern railway infrastructure which is being used to provide courses for signalling engineers. The lengths of track in Rail Tech’s Ipswich training centre simulate a compressed 1·6 km of line, and are equipped with a ...
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Mexico suburban makes progress
TWO CONSORTIA have been shortlisted for a concession to develop suburban services around Mexico City. The two groups were expected to lodge their partnership documentation by the end of March, with technical and financial bids due in May.According to the transport ministry, the contract is expected to be awarded at ...
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Market
Argentina:National Railway Equipment Co of the USA is supplying four rebuilt GM-EMD G12 locomotives to Fepsa. Originally manufactured for National Railways of Mexico, they have received 1676mm gauge bogies and the Qtron fault diagnosis system.Chile:EFE has signed a US$180m contract with a consortium of Sice-Enyse and Cam to upgrade electrification, ...
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Metros
China: Alcatel has won a €9·8m contract to provide communications for the planned Line 9 in Shanghai. The 31 km route between SongJiang and YiShan Road with 12 stations will open in 2009.France:On February 28 Reims council approved a €281m plan for an initial tram line running 10 km from ...
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Pointers
During an official visit to Chile, Argentinian President Néstor Kirchner announced in Santiago on March 14 that tenders would soon be called for work to restore the central rail crossing of the Andes between Mendoza and Los Andes.Chinese Railways expects to start work this year on an underground link between ...
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Publications
End of the Line: The Failure of Amtrak Reform and the Future of America’s Passenger Trainsby Joseph VranichIf you thought that Amtrak had some redeeming features, you will have forgotten them by the time you reach the end of this well-researched book.Author Joseph Vranich, a former Amtrak public affairs spokesman ...
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Rails to be rolled in Scunthorpe
CORUS announced on February 17 that rail production will be transferred from its Workington plant to Scunthorpe steelworks by November 2006.The steelmaker is to spend £130m at Scunthorpe, creating a rail production facility at the existing section mill, as well as an on-site service centre offering rail in lengths of ...
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Simulating the world’s railways
CORYS Training & Engineering Support Systems is supplying train simulators to railways across the world from its base in Grenoble. The company has recently completed the modification of a cab simulator used to train Acela Express drivers to represent four additional types of vehicle, covering the majority of Amtrak’s fleet.The ...
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No ride in Tainan
WE JUMPED to the wrong conclusion last month in our report on events in Taiwan on January 27. It appears that, although there were indeed around 500 guests at Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s ceremony in Tainan, they were not in fact allowed to ride on the Series 700T trainset. ...
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Sidetrack
DieterNot the whole storyOUR Swiss cartoonist was fortunately not strolling across the Place Saint-Laurent in Lausanne on February 22, when tunnelling work for the city’s rubber-tyred M2 metro project brought about the collapse of a section of the square. Parts of the area had to be cordoned off, residents were ...
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Step-by-step training
ROYAL Navy training facilities are to be used in a £30m Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme launched by Network Rail.The company is to recruit 200 school leavers each year over five years for the three-year courses, which include a residential first year. The courses will be based at a purpose-built centre within ...
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Television on the subway
MARTA has signed a 10-year contract with Atlanta-based company The Rail Network for the installation of five 15 inch flat digital television screens in each of the 338 Atlanta metro cars. Television news programmes will be updated four times daily, and there will be three music channels. An information channel ...
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Pointers March 2005
On January 25 the King of Bhutan Jigme Singye Wangchuk and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed in Delhi to launch a feasibility study for rail links between the two countries. Routes under consideration are Hasimara - Phuentsholing with a branch to Pasaka (18 km), Kokrajhar - Geylegphug (70 km), ...
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Across the border
RUSSIAN and Finnish railway representatives agreed on January 18 to cut the St Petersburg - Helsinki journey time from 5h45min to under 3h30min by 2008. Line speeds are to be increased in both countries, and border formalities carried out on board moving trains. RZD and VRare anticipating 500000 passengers per ...