All News articles – Page 325
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News
Task force sets the points
ALLEGATIONS by the European Commission of anti-competitive practices by German Railway, announced on October 12, were at once refuted by DB Chairman Hartmut Mehdorn. We understand that the EC is to investigate an incident in which DB rejected a request from a competing operator to hire traction at cost price ...
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Polish infrastructure handover
POLISH rail infrastructure company Polskie Linie Kolejowe SA officially started operation on October 1. A wholly-owned subsidiary of the Polish State Railways holding company PKP SA, PLK will be responsible for managing the rail network, although the assets will still belong to PKP. PLK will be headed by PKP’s former ...
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Hector and Hercules take over
LOWER exhaust emissions and quieter operation are among the benefits Austrian Federal Railways expects from two fleets of diesel locomotives now under construction. Both are four-axle designs, Hector a centre-cab unit for shunting and short workings, and Hercules a twin-cab loco for main line passenger and freight work.Siemens Austria won ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Canada: On September 26 Canadian Pacific shareholders voted 98% in favour of the division of the company into five independent entities from October 1. The companies are CP Rail, Pan-Canadian Energy, CP Ships, Fording Coal and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.China: The Ministry of Railways has announced plans for two further ...
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RZD starts North Korean studies
ON OCTOBER 11 Russian and South Korean government representatives agreed to establish a bilateral committee to progress the development of rail links between the two countries. The accord was reached at the end of a four-day visit to Seoul, which also discussed progress with reinstating the cross-border link between South ...
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Sakhalin link
MEETING on October 4, the Russian cabinet tentatively approved the US$4bn project to build a fixed rail link to the far-eastern island of Sakhalin. A final decision will be taken next year, although Minsiter of Railways Nikolai Aksyonenko says this is dependent upon backing from Japanese investors.Construction is expected to ...
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‘You cannot live without research’
INTRO: One of the organisations influencing railway research in Europe is the Union of European Railway Industries. General Manager Drewin Nieuwenhuis feels ’the political winds are in favour of rail’, telling Murray Hughes in Brussels that he expected a positive response to UNIFE’s application for EU research fundsDURING THE late ...
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Market
Australia: New South Wales SRA is calling tenders for 14 diesel railcars for use in the Hunter Valley, and for 40 double-deck outer suburban EMU cars.Austria: Elin EBG has won a contract to fit radio remote control to 10 of ÖBB’s Class 1044 electric locomotives for mid-train working, with an ...
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‘Shoddy and unacceptable’, says Marshall
Railtrack Chief Executive Steve Marshall tendered his resignation on October 8, describing the government’s treatment of his company and its shareholders as ’shoddy and unacceptable’. Intending to work out his six-month period of notice, Marshall said that his priorities now were to ’support the company, its people and the administrator’s ...
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Metros
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Kosice Transport of Slovakia has delivered two 1989-built Tatra KT8D5 trams to Sarajevo. Pars Sumperk and Siemens are to refurbish 37 Tatra K2 trams for Sarajevo Tramway over five years.Canada: Services began on Ottawa’s O-Train diesel light rail line on October 15, using three Class 643 Talent DMUs. Mayor ...
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RWMS monitors quality of rail welding
THE QUALITY of rail welding work can be monitored and recorded with a computer-controlled Rail Welding Monitor System recently developed by Plasser American Corp. Running on a Microsoft Windows platform on a notebook computer, the software automatically records and analyses rail welding as it is carried out by Plasser machines.A ...
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Prima orders
ON SEPTEMBER 27 French National Railways announced that it had confirmed options to order a further 120 Prima electric freight locos from Alstom Transport SA, and taken another option for 80 more. Deliveries are scheduled to run from October 2005 to March 2007. The contract was formally approved by the ...
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Panama Railway reopens
FREIGHT TRAINS were due to begin running on the Panama Canal Railway in mid-October, following a US$76m reconstruction and conversion to standard gauge. Passenger services resumed in July, using ex-Amtrak locos and coaches. The complete overhaul of the 75·6 km route, including new ballast, sleepers and rails, has taken nearly ...
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A recipe for paralysis
IFTRANSPORT Secretary Stephen Byers had intended to bury the bad news about Railtrack by announcing it just before the bombing of Afghanistan commenced, he did not succeed.The immediate result of his action, which could at worst see shareholders left with nothing, was to enrage the financial institutions. Anthony Bolton at ...
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PEOPLE
PEOPLEMohammad Saeedi Nejad has become head of Iranian Islamic Republic Railways.Priyal de Silva was appointed General Manager of Sri Lanka Railways from October 6. On October 1 Robert Etmans took over as Director of Personnel for DB Cargo, succeeding Birgit Gantz-Rathmann who moves to a similar post at DB’s headquarters ...
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Pointers
n Watch for firm plans to be drawn up for the 300 km link between Kashi in Xinjiang province and Andizhan in Uzbekistan, through Kyrgyzstan, following China’s formal agreement in September to participate in the scheme (RG 4.01 p223).n Look for Iranian Islamic Republic Railways to announce plans ...
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Subways recover swiftly
NEW YORK City Transit officials were amazed how well subway lines near the World Trade Center withstood the collapse of the two towers on September 11, especially as the top of some 85 year-old tunnels ran just 1·5m below street level. Credit was given to the subway’s designers, who supported ...
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Sidetrack
No go at Lo WuMORE than 200 passengers were stranded at Hong Kong’s Lo Wu border crossing on September 29, after refusing to leave a KCR East Rail train. Newspapers had incorrectly reported that opening hours at the checkpoint had been extended by 30 min to handle extra passengers on ...
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Toronto turnround
THREE YEARS ago, the Conservative government in the Province of Ontario dumped financial responsibility for GO Transit on local authorities under a deal that saw it taking on funding of education. It also scrapped subsidies for Toronto Transit Commission. Now it has had second thoughts.The province intends to restore funding ...
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Manila Line 2 work resumes
MANILA’s Light Rail Transit Administration confirmed on August 21 that construction had resumed on metro Line 2. Work had been delayed for several years by land acquisition problems, which were finally settled on July 31. The line is now expected to open for revenue service in the third quarter of ...