All News articles – Page 330
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News
Genesis boosts CPR as sale looms
AT THE END of this month, shareholders of Canadian Pacific Ltd should approve a plan to divide its holdings into five publicly-owned trading companies. Subject to favourable court and tax authority rulings, Canadian Pacific Railway expects to be trading as an independent entity in 2002.CPR results for April to June ...
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Bosnia wires to be restored
BOSNIA: Work began on July 2 to reinstate war-damaged overhead electrification on the Sarajevo - Doboj line, which forms part of Pan-European Corridor Vc from Budapest to Ploce. This will allow electric traction to be restored to the 205 km route by June 2 next year. 120 track-km of overhead ...
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Industry News in Brief
Siemens has negotiated a framework agreement to take over Praha-based rolling stock maker CKD Dopravní, currently controlled by state banking company Konsoldiacní Banka (RG 4.00 p253). An agreement to buy 61% of the shares for KC750m is expected to be signed by the end of September. Trams and metro cars ...
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Freight growth checked but prospects still bright
INTRO: After a year that combined massive rail disruption with lower taxes on heavier lorries, Richard Hope asked the Strategic Rail Authority’s Executive Director, Freight, Julia Clarke, to assess prospects for hitting the government’s target of 80% more tonne-km by 2010BYLINE: Julia ClarkeExecutive Director, Freight, Strategic Rail AuthorityDESPITE MOUNTING evidence ...
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British infrastructure show grows
OVER 200 organisations are expected to attend the Infrarail 2001 exhibition in London. Serving the British railway infrastructure market, leading players in the business will be at the Wembley Exhibition Halls from September 18 to 20.Infrastructure spending in Britain is running at high levels, with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, ...
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Station upgrades brought forward
GERMAN Railway is to accelerate its planned 20-year upgrade of stations to take place over 10 years, according to board member for Property & Passenger Stations Dieter Ullsperger. He says DB will invest DM1bn/year in station improvement work. The investment is intended to increase the revenue from commercial space at ...
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Canal Street line starts
GROUNDBREAKING ceremonies were held on July 20 for the Canal Street tram line in New Orleans, with construction expected to start this month. Costing $157m, the 6·6 km line between the Mississippi River and the cemeteries is due to be completed in early 2004. On July 24 the Regional Transportation ...
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Tide on the turn in the Cape
SPOORNET’S financial results for the year which ended in March show an impressive turnround, with ’net profit’ rising from R84m a year earlier to R605m on turnover of R10bn. Announcing this in late July, Spoornet attributed the improvement to cost savings and better service to customers, with tonnes carried up ...
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Trinity and Thrall Car to merge
US WAGON builders Trinity Industries and Thrall Car Manufacturing announced on August 13 that they are to merge by the end of this year. As Thrall is a privately-owned company, the deal provides for it to be acquired for US$165m and 7 million Trinity shares. Extra payments worth up to ...
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Catering swap
SWISSAIR Group’s railway catering contractor Rail Gourmet and station catering company Gourmet Nova are to be transferred to the Compass Group under the terms of a recently-signed asset exchange agreement. The non-binding understanding will see Swissair’s rail operations transferred to Compass in exchange for airline catering business Eurest In-flight. There ...
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Coal line revived
QUEENSLAND’S state government is expected to approve revised proposals for a railway between coal mines near Brigalow in the Darling Downs and Tarong, where a second power station is to be built (RG 1.99 p6). The original planed route has been revised to take account of local issues, and land ...
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Not commercial
Sir - In ’Maglev all the rage again’ (RG 8.01 p504), you described Shanghai’s Transrapid as ’the world’s first commercial maglev project’. Surely, this depends on how you define commercial.The maglev peoplemover at Birmingham Airport was ordered 20 years ago, inaugurated in 1984, and is now being converted to cable ...
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Extension not competition as franchise replacement stalls
INTRO: With Railtrack unable to commit to major schemes which have proved difficult to finalise, government policy has switched from letting new 20-year franchises through open competition to negotiating two-year extensions, writes Robert PrestonCONFIRMATION that the government had lost patience with the slow pace of franchise replacement came on July ...
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Danish local concessions
SEPTEMBER 17 is the closing date for bids to operate regional passenger services in Jylland from the beginning of 2003. The Danish Transport Ministry has called international bids for two concessions totalling 582 route-km. Around 10 consortia have expressed interest, including German Railway's local passenger business DB Regio. Preferred bidders ...
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Connex still expanding
WEST COAST Railway, which operates passenger trains between Melbourne and Warnambool in Victoria, has a new partner. Last month Connex, owned by the French Vivendi group and already operator of Hillside Trains in Melbourne, took a 50% stake in the company. This has implications for several operations in Australasia, not ...
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Mk II heavy maintenance contract
ALSTOM Transport Service is to overhaul 120 Mk II coaches leased to Anglia Railways by HSBC Rail (UK). The £3m three-year contract is the first to be awarded by a train operator rather than the rolling stock leasing company.The programmes will involve underframe improvements and full overhaul of the bogies, ...
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Kaohsiung E&M contract signed
SIEMENS Transportation Systems has been awarded the €363m contract to supply electrical and mechanical equipment for the first two lines of the Kaohsiung metro in Taiwan. The contract was formally signed in Singapore by Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp Chairman Chen Chengjung and Siemens Turnkey Systems Manager Karl Neubeck on August ...
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Mandurah cut-off
WESTERN AUSTRALIA Premier Dr Geoff Gallop announced on July 16 that the state Cabinet had approved plans to re-route the A$1·2bn rail link being built between Perth and the southern suburbs of Rockingham and Mandurah. Instead of diverging from Transperth’s existing Armadale line at Kenwick, the 130 km/h line will ...
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Taiwan track row threatens opening date
RUMBLES of discontent can be heard in Japan and Taiwan about progress with the 346 km Taipei - Kaohsiung high speed line. Last December, when Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp signed the Core System agreement with Taiwan Shinkansen Corp in Tokyo (RG 3.01 p186), there was an understanding that Japanese ...
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DB moves to market pricing
FROMSeptember 2002, German Railway will introduce a revised fares structure similar to airline practice, with discounted prices offered for long-distance tickets booked in advance. To qualify for the lower price passengers will have to make fixed reservations, enabling DB to set and enforce quotas for each type of ticket. Return ...