All News articles – Page 448
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Pre-coated tram rails
STREET running sections of Manchester Metrolink’s Salford Quays - Eccles extension will make use of track featuring polyurethane elastomer insulation that is bonded to the rails before they are laid. Installing the elastomer at the same time as laying the rails can lead to bad weather weakening the bonding and ...
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PUBLICATIONS
Railway Directory 1998, Book and CD-ROMMarking the next stage of Railway Directory’s transformation to an information tool for the electronic age, the 1998 edition is available on CD-ROM, as well as in book format.The CD-ROM gives the user the same wealth of information and statistics as the book, together with ...
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Rato ready
METROPOLITANO de Lisboa opened its short extension from Rotunda to Rato on December 26, diverting services from Campo Grande via Entre Campos into the new Rato terminus. On the same day through services between Campo Grande and Pontinha via Areeiro and the city centre were suspended to allow the disconnection ...
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Reshuffle in Roma
ITALIAN State Railways is undergoing another phase of reorganisation, the ultimate aim being to introduce a measure of separation between operations and infrastructure to satisfy the requirements of European Union directive 91/440. The process sees an organisation known until now as TAV2 becoming the specialist operator of high speed and ...
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Vaglia tunnel advances at 10m a day
CONSTRUCTION of Italy’s third high speed railway is forging ahead. Following completion of the Roma - Firenze direttissima in 1992, preliminary work began two years later on the 220 km Roma - Napoli leg of the Alta Velocità network, and the main civil engineering work got under way in 1995 ...
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Rail Business Report 1998
SUBSCRIBERS should receive with this issue a copy of our annual Rail Business Report. A review of investment and market developments during 1997 reveals that around 2000 electric locomotives are on order, under construction or planned as options on existing tenders. This sector alone is worth about US$7bn, while orders ...
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Line 2 gets under way
GROUNDBREAKING ceremonies for Manila light metro Line 2 were held on November 15, with President Fidel Ramos inaugurating the project at a site in Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City. To be financed by Japan’s Overseas Economic Co-operation Fund, the 14 km elevated line is to be completed by 2001.Costed at ...
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Passante aims for completion in 2003
INTRO: Following the official opening of the first section between Bovisa and Porta Venezia, completion of Milano’s cross-city route is now expected to take a further five years. Robert Preston reportsOFFICIAL OPENING of the first section of Milano’s Passante cross-city suburban railway was scheduled to take place on December 21. ...
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UK passenger-km 'to double by 2010'
RAILTRACK has warned the government that it expects total passenger-km on Britain's national rail network to double within 13 years, leading to a serious shortage of track capacity in key areas. Giving evidence before the House of Commons Transport Sub-Committee on November 26, Chief Executive Gerald Corbett said the forecast ...
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Lifting turnouts by air bag
BYLINE: Chen Zhaoming, Li Luoshu and Zhow Xianping*INTRO: Turnout replacement work on Chinese Railways’ Beijing - Guangzhou route has been speeded up by the use of air bags in place of manual liftingAIR BAGS were first used to lift preassembled turnouts on Chinese Railways during work at Langfang, Xushui and ...
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Airport branch
A LIGHT RAIL extension to Portland International Airport could be open within three years, as a result of a public-private partnership proposed by engineering and construction firm Bechtel. The company is planning a $500m office development on a vacant site near the airport entrance, and has put forward plans for ...
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GEC Alsthom to be floated
ALCATEL Alsthom of France and Britain’s GEC announced in December that they had agreed to float their eight-year-old energy and transport joint venture GEC Alsthom during the first half of 1998. Each of the partners will retain 24% of the shares, with the remaining 52% to be listed on the ...
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Ambitious plans
IN A NOTABLE shift in policy, the Turkish Transport & Communications Ministry announced in December that investment in railway upgrading and new construction is to be stepped up. Speaking two weeks ahead of a National Railway Congress held in Istanbul on December 15-17, Transport Minister Necdet Menzir indicated that railways ...
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Amtrak boosts ridership
IN a little over two months following its introduction on July 11, Amtrak’s overnight Boston - Newport News Twilight Shoreliner service recorded a 28% increase in ridership and a 36% increase in revenue on its predecessor, the Boston - Washington DC Night Owl. According to Northeast Corridor President George D ...
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Rio auction
BIDS FOR a 20-year concession to operate the two-line Rio de Janeiro metro, with an option for a 20-year extension, were due to be submitted to the state government on December 11. Conditions for the auction were published on November 14, setting the minimum bid at 25m reais, plus an ...
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Light rail to augment expanding network
INTRO: Preliminary engineering has started for two light rail lines in Vancouver, British Columbia, to augment existing mini-metro and commuter rail routes. Construction is due to get under way in 1999, with the first low-floor cars running by 2005. William D Middleton reportsA 33 km light rail network will be ...
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Telescopic axles speed gauge-changing
DB Cargo has begun trials of bogie wagons equipped with telescopic axles for use on both 1435mm and 1520mm gauges. Following tests on a 15m long gauge-changing installation at German Railway’s Research & Technology Centre in Minden, service trials are scheduled to be completed by the end of 1998.The DB ...
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Business plan to be backed by investment
INTRO: Italian State Railways is implementing a four-year business plan aimed at driving the business into the black. With many projects already under way, the 70000bn lire plan means that 150000bn lire will have been invested in 1994-2006THIS MONTH sees Italian State Railways take one more step towards a commercial ...
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Baltimore opens LRT extensions
DECEMBER 5 saw the dedication of two long-awaited light rail branches in Baltimore, which opened to revenue services the next day. The short city-centre spur to Penn Station and the line to Baltimore-Washington International Airport coincided with the completion of a major expansion at BWI.Baltimore is now the only US ...