All News articles – Page 345
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News
Letter
Belgian rail problemsSir - Your article on SNCB (RG 4.01 p253) brought a smile to my face. A Prime Minister intervening in the Belgian Railway administration! That can’t have been what Brussels had in mind with Directive 91/440, can it?Seriously though, new rolling stock and new lines may be all ...
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Metro news
Argentina: Revised plans for the redevelopment of the Retiro complex in Buenos Aires unveiled by the city government include a metro station on the proposed Line H and a relocated terminus for Trainmet’s San Martín commuter services. A light rail line from Retiro to the Puerto Madero waterfront development area ...
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Reform pressure mounts
YET ANOTHER official report has recommended major reform of Indian Railways. This time it originated with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways, which last month published a document in response to IR’s requests for grants in 2000-01. The report went much further than commenting on the grants, making strong criticism ...
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PPP nears the ’point of no return’
ON APRIL 17 Mayor of London Ken Livingstone joined Commissioner for Transport in London Bob Kiley to attack the British government’s decision to press ahead with the Public-Private Partnership for London Underground (RG 3.01 p139). On April 10 Transport for London had been granted permission to seek a judicial review ...
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Neckar S-Bahn
MARCH 20 saw the signing of an accord between German Railway and the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar to expand the scope of the planned Rhein-Neckar S-Bahn network. First proposed in 1996 to serve the region around Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg, the S-Bahn is due to be launched with the December 2003 timetable ...
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PEOPLE
President Bush has nominated Allan Rutter as Administrator of the US Federal Railroad Administration. He had been Director of Transportation Policy in the Texas Governor’s Office since 1995.British Columbia Railway has appointed Robert Phillips as President & CEO.Queensland Rail has made a number of appointments. Mike Scanlan has become Group ...
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Publications
Competition, Regulation & the Privatisation of British Rail by Jon ShawPart of the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers Transport Geography Research Group’s Transport & Mobilty series, this 244-page monograph reviews the process of rail privatisation in Great Britain, covering the ideology, the different models considered, and the actual processes ...
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Sidetrack
Metro goes to the dogsMoscow Metro Director Dmitry Gayev has announced the creation of a dog breeding centre to supply up to 80 dogs to sniff out explosives and drugs at stations.Stressing that violent crimes are not rising and that the Metro is working with the Federal Security service to ...
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Touch-screen ticketing
ON March 26 the first of 600 new ticket vending machines entered service at Amsterdam Centraal. Offering both single and return fares, the Ascom Autelca machines can sell 80% of ticket combinations, accepting payment by smartcard only. Maximum transaction time of the euro-compliant machines is 25 sec, faster than ...
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Upgrade on track
LAST MONTH was due to see the completion of track and overhead renewals on São Paulo suburban Line C, as part of a R$450m upgrading which is expected to be finished by the end of this year. CPTM’s 24 km cross-city line links Osasco in the west of the conurbation ...
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Are double-deck EMU power cars possible on Japan’s 1067mm gauge?
INTRO: Professor Satoru Sone of Kogakuin University examines the possibility of using compact power electronics to create a fully double-deck trainset within the constraints of a tight loading gaugeIN HIS ARTICLE on the development of double-deck power cars (RG 2.01 p107), John Dunn refers to the difficulty of accommodating traction ...
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CTRL Section 2 contracts let
FOUR large construction contracts totalling almost £400m have been let for Section 2 of Britain’s Channel Tunnel Rail Link. This means all of the major London - North Kent tunnelling contracts have now been awarded. Major engineering work is expected to start in July, which would see the second section ...
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Line 4 closer
THE São Paulo state government has allocated R$80m for property acquisition along the route of the long-planned metro Line 4. This should clear the way for the state’s Transport Ministry to invite bids for construction under a 30-year DBOM concession (RG 10.99 p618).The 13·5 km first phase of Line 4 ...
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Canadian grain access bid
TWO Canadian short line railways are seeking open access powers to operate on branch lines in the prairie provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta. OmniTrax subsidiary Hudson Bay Railway - which took over the 1200 km Churchill branch in 1997 - lodged an application with the Canadian Transport Agency on ...
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Wenzhou - Fuzhou accord
ON MARCH 14 China’s Ministry of Railways signed an agreement in Beijing with the provincial governments of Zhejiang and Fujian, paving the way for the start of construction on a 352 km coastal rail link between Wenzhou and Fuzhou.The line will boost economic development in the region, particularly around the ...
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Wires added to Russian network
FURTHER sections of the Russian Railways network are being electrified under a Master Programme to convert more main lines. From mid-January electric locomotives replaced diesels on the 105 km Obozyorst - Vonduga section of the Northern Railway’s Vologda - Belomorsk main line. Wiring is now in hand over the 120 ...
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Sir Alastair sets out his DBFT stall
IT HAS BEEN a long time coming, but the Chairman of Britain’s Strategic Rail Authority, Sir Alastair Morton, finally published A Strategic Agenda on March 13. True, a tortured industry slowly recovering from unprecedented disruption after last October’s Hatfield derailment must wait six months or more before a strategic plan ...
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Alsop puts the station at the heart of Rotterdam
INTRO: This month Alsop Architects is due to present its master plan for the redevelopment of a 20ha site around Rotterdam Centraal station. Incorporating the city’s gateway to the European high speed network, a major transport interchange has been designed to extend its presence into the urban fabricThe arrival of ...