All News articles – Page 361
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News
MTR scramble
SHARES in Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway are due to be traded for the first time on October 5. To pave the way for partial privatisation, MTRC’s property, rights and liabilities were vested in MTR Corporation Ltd on June 30. This allowed the government to announce on September 11 that ...
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On-line procurement
French engineering consultancy Mercury Consultants is launching an on-line search engine for technical suppliers, aimed initially at the engineering and research departments of railway operators and manufacturers. Research and development departments from any organisation will be able to contact mepax.com free with specific technical requirements for materials procurement or potential ...
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A warning and an opportunity
THE political jungle is inhabited by a species of parrot that squawks ’safety is paramount’ at the slightest hint of rail safety being compromised. The bird was unaccountably silent in September, when an unexpected relaxation of employment rules meant train drivers in charge of freight trains carrying dangerous chemicals, inflammable ...
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Overwhelmed by passengers
QUESTIONS have been asked in the Dutch parliament about the widespread failure of NS Reizigers to meet comfort standards laid down in its 1995 service contract with the government. These require 85% of passengers travelling for more than 5min in the commuting peak to have a seat. But at the ...
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PEOPLE
Pascal Tomasso and Jacques Damas have joined Eurostar Group to fill two new Executive Director positions, respectively Sales & Marketing and Operations. Maurits Kalff has been appointed Director of Customer Services, in place of Edward Bell.Head of SNCF’s Marseille region Pierre Izard has been appointed Director of Human Resources at ...
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PeruRail refurbishes
ON AUGUST 24 PeruRail announced the start of a US$1·5m programme to refurbish its passenger car fleet, due for completion by March 2001. Work is being undertaken by James Park Associates at the company’s workshops in Cusco and Arequipa.The fleet of eight diesel railcars operating between Cusco and Aguas Calientes ...
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Pointers
n Australian aluminium producer Alcoa, one of Westrail’s biggest customers, is to put its rail transport out to tender, a move which could affect bids for the purchase of Westrail’s freight business.n Completion of the long-planned line across the Malawi-Zambia border between Mchinji and Chipata (40 km) is under discussion ...
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Sevilla revival
PUBLIC consultations have begun for the construction of a four-line metro network in the Spanish city of Sevilla. Promoter of the 47 km network is Metro de Sevilla, a joint venture company formed by the city administration and the Andalucia regional government. An environmental impact study costing Pts346m has been ...
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Sidetrack
Scent to try usA HECTIC dash by metro across Paris one afternoon during last month’s fuel ’crisis’ reminded us of the hapless British transport minister who got into trouble for preferring his car to public transport because he didn’t like sitting next to ’smelly commuters’. It was hot and crowded, ...
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Signals at yellow
IT LOOKS as if Jean-Yves Leblanc may be going into the signalling business. Outlining progress with the takeover of Adtranz (RG 9.00 p601), Bombardier Transportation’s President & Chief Operating Officer admitted on September 12 that the bids for Adtranz Signal had been ’not interesting’. GE Harris and Harmon are too ...
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Class 185 pioneers use of ETCS
INTRO: Three pre-production dual-system Class 185 freight locos for German Railway are equipped to operate using ERTMS/ETCS, although delays in the development of Specific Transmission Modules in each country to form the interface with existing signalling mean that conventional train protection systems will be used initiallyTRIALS with a trio of ...
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NewsInnoTrans 2000: Giant event storms to success in Berlin
INNOTRANS: Over 800 exhibitors from nearly 30 countries will be present at the InnoTrans event on September 12-15, filling some 20000m2 of hall space within the Berlin exhibition grounds. Organiser Messe Berlin reports that the number of exhibitors is up 75% from the last InnoTrans event in 1998. Once again, ...
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Prescott promises £60bn spending bonanza
BRITAIN’s Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has unveiled plans for a massive increase in public and private investment in rail over the next 10 years. Presenting Transport 2010 on July 20, Prescott set a target of lifting passenger-km on the national network by 50% and freight tonne-km by 80% by ...
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Loco pools stoke the open access fire
INTRO: Germany’s railway reforms paved the way for open access operators to enter the freight business, sparking a demand for motive power available on short or long-term lease. Ralf Roman Rossberg looks at the ’rent-a-loco’ business set up by suppliers who have established pools of locomotives, lending encouragement to DB ...
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Freight accord
OCTOBER is due to see the launch of a joint venture company based in Paris to co-ordinate wagonload freight traffic between France and Germany. The move follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Hannover on June 23. Participating in the ceremonies were DB Chairman Hartmut Mehdorn and SNCF ...
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Bombardier agrees to buy Adtranz
Bombardier announced on August 4 that it had signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire Adtranz from its parent DaimlerChrysler. The move had been expected following Bombardier’s unsuccessful bid for Siemens’ rail arm. The deal values the extensive Adtranz empire at just US$725m, reflecting the company’s recent lack of ...
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Advanced current collection
GERMAN Railway is currently working with its principal suppliers and the German Aerospace Research Centre on the development of a next-generation current collector. The Ultra design uses electronic control to regulate the contact pressure, improving performance at high speeds. Reliable contact at 400 km/h will only require a force of ...
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Africans build rail trolleys
MALAWI bus manufacturer PEW handed over its first locally-built maintenance gang trolley in July to the local rail operator Central East African Railways, which was awarded a 20-year franchise to run the Malawi network last summer. Owned by Kamwayi Corp, PEW mainly builds minibuses for countries in southern ...
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Alicante light rail opens
SPAIN’s Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana has launched an initial light rail service in the resort of Alicante. The 1 km segregated alignment runs from Puerta del Mar via Albufuerta to the FGC station at Marina, from which some LRVs continue over the Denia line as far as Lucentum. Next ...