All News articles – Page 354
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News
Industry News
South Africa: Spoornet is to create a new business unit for subsidiary companies, including International Joint Ventures, regional operator Comazar, and a leasing company to exploit locomotive and stock that are surplus to requirements.USA: On November 15 General Electric’s Global eXchange Services launched an internet based business-to-business exchange for the ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Australia: Wesfarmers and Genesee & Wyoming have set up two subsidiaries to run the recently-acquired Westrail freight business (RG 12.00 p788): operator Australian Western Railroad and infrastructure business WestNet Rail.On December 1 Federal Transport Minister John Anderson announced $20m of funding towards a $57m project to relocate the Melbourne - ...
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Jerusalem starts tendering
THIS MONTH is due to see formal tender documents issued to the five consortia shortlisted last year for the build-operate-transfer concession to develop the first light rail lines in Jerusalem (RG 8.00 p462). The Transport Ministry and the Municipality announced at the end of November that preliminary works totalling US$75m ...
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Ladies only
IN RESPONSE to increasing numbers of groping assaults on female passengers in Tokyo, Keio Teito Electric Railway has reintroduced women-only carriages. One coach per train will be set aside on nine late night services between the business and entertainment district of Shinjuku and the Tama region of western Tokyo from ...
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Trolley launch
COLOURFUL ceremonies on November 17 marked the start of construction on San Diego’s $431m Mission Valley East light rail extension. The 9·5 km route will connect the Mission San Diego terminus of the Misson Valley West route to the Orange (El Cajon) line in La Mesa. This is the most ...
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Market
Australia: The NSW government has appointed CSFB as financial advisor for the sale of FreightCorp. Macquarie Bank is to advise the Commonwealth government on the sale of National Rail.Canada: GO Transit has awarded a C$38m contract to Bombardier for the mid-life refurbishment of 56 bi-level commuter rail coaches and 15 ...
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Metros
China: Guangzhou Metro Corp General Manger Lu Guanglin has applied for authority to build the city’s third and fourth lines over the next 10 years, bringing the network to 129·4 km. The 23·3 km Line 2 is due to open in 2003.France: Marseille has approved an urban transport plan envisaging ...
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Ohedo opened
JAPANESE Transport Minister Chikage Ogi and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara joined celebrations at Shinjuku station on December 11 to mark the completion of the capital’s small-profile metro Line 12. Now named the Ohedo line, the 40·7 km route has taken Tokyo Municipal Government Subway (TOEI) 13 years to build at ...
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Strategy out of the shadow
THIS MONTH should see publication of a strategic plan for Britain’s national rail network. The Strategic Rail Authority - which is finally dropping its ’shadow’ status following the passing of the Transport Act on November 29 - has substantially redrafted the plan to take account of the post-Hatfield crisis. Part ...
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PEOPLE
Ms Chikage Ogi, head of Japan’s Conservative Party, has been appointed Minister Land, Infrastructure & Transport in the new coalition government which took office on December 5.Sergey N Gapeev has been named acting Vice-Minister at Russia’s Ministry of Railways responsible for passenger traffic, repair and maintenance of carriage stock, following ...
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Pointers
n Axor of Canada has signed an agreement with Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels to carry out feasibility studies on a build-operate-transfer approach to the Abu Qir - Misr Station section of the Alexandria metro. The study is being part funded by the Canadian International Development Agency. n On December ...
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Police state
Safe in civilised Britain, we used to smile patronisingly at reports of train crew hiding after a fatal accident in some third world dictatorship for fear of arrest and harsh interrogation. No longer. The British Transport Police (who only police railways, despite the name) have switched since the mid-1990s from ...
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ZSR to separate
THE SLOVAK government has approved proposals to split the state-owned railway into two separate businesses from April 1 2001. The strategy was agreed by the ZSR board last May, and endorsed by the Transport Ministry in August.Zeleznice Slovenskej Republiky will be transformed into a joint stock company responsible for management ...
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U-Bahn to Simmering
ON DECEMBER 2 the city of Wien celebrated the opening of a 3·1 km extension of metro Line U3. The capital’s Mayor Michael Häupl and Wiener Linien Director-General Günther Grois were joined by other politicians and Austrian pop stars for the celebrations, which also featured the inaugural public run of ...
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Marriage of convenience
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways and the Mittelthurgau Railway announced a surprise tie-up on November 3 with the formation of the East Switzerland Regional Railway (Regionalbahn Ostschweiz, RBO). MThB took over passenger services on the Schaffhausen - Kreuzlingen - Romanshorn route in May 1998, taking delivery in September that year ...
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Tunnel vision
ASIA: 'The construction is technically feasible, but the problem is money' said Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, unveiling a US$80bn plan to end Japan's insularity with a 174 km tunnel between the island of Kyushu and South Korea. Japanese engineers built Korea's first railways, and Mori said the project is ...
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SFr1·85bn may cut lineside noise by 2015
A LAW passed in March that came into effect on October 1 allocates a total of SFr1·85bn to a programme of noise reduction that aims to see all Swiss Federal Railways’ passenger fleet meet acceptable standards by 2004, and freight wagons by 2009. If these measures alone do not bring ...
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Line 2 contracts
LAST MONTH Siemens Verkehrstechnik confirmed that it had won a contract worth 25m euros to supply signalling and operations control equipment for the second line in Guangzhou. The first section of the 23 km route is due to open in 2003, with the entire line to be operational by June ...
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ETCS Level 2 replaces flawed vision
Roger Ford reports on the progress with Railtrack's latest plans for resignalling the West Coast Main Line, following the collapse of the company's original transmission-based signalling strategy