All Railway Gazette International articles in November 2000 – Page 3

  • News

    Dieter

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    CAPTION: To celebrate Britain’s National Poetry Day on October 5, and the local Norfolk & Norwich Festival which it sponsors, Anglia Railways engaged a team of poets to entertain passengers on its services between London, Norwich, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Sheringham. Dieter suggests that the poets might help ...

  • News

    Modular DMUs roll while EMUs struggle

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    INTRO: Roger Ford reviews progress with the renewal of Britain’s rolling stock fleetWHEN THE FRANCHISING of British passenger Train Operating Companies began in 1995-96, several successful bids included commitments to new trains with optimistically short delivery times. As a result, several operators have been penalised for late deliveries.During the ...

  • News

    Driving force in the front line

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    INTRO: Murray Hughes joined Chris Green in the cab of a West Coast express for a first-hand look at the task aheadWHEN Chris Green was appointed to the top job at Virgin Trains early last year, he inherited a high-profile business that appeared to be heading rapidly downhill. But few ...

  • News

    Embedded tracks

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    AN URBAN version of the established Rheda slab track has been developed by Pfleiderer AG and Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe. Rheda-Berlin City uses twin-block sleepers with a reinforcing mesh for gauging rather than a conventional steel bar. Laid on ballast or a frost-proof layer at either 750 or 1500mm intervals, the sleepers ...

  • News

    Trans-Asia plan endorsed

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    MEETING IN Brunei at the end of September, the Transport Ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations agreed to push ahead with the 5500 km Trans-Asian rail link from Singapore to Kunming. A formal recommendation is to be put to the Asean heads-of-government summit in Singapore this month ...

  • News

    Island enterprise

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    REGIONAL and local lines are all too often dismissed by the management of large national railways as hopelessly uneconomic. And indeed, when they are left to rot, neglected but still overstaffed, they often are. But turn them over to local management, add simple, modern signalling and up-to-date rolling stock, and ...

  • News

    Uzani plans further expansion

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    CEREMONIES were held in Beer Sheva on September 26 to mark the inauguration of Israel Railways’ new city centre station. With traffic on the Beer Sheva line up by 500% this year, IR is stepping up the daily service from 18 to 28 trains each way, and plans a further ...

  • News

    FGV goes underground

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    VALENCIA metro operator FGV and the region’s department of public works reached agreement in October to put two more sections of the city’s metro and light rail network underground.The bigger project covers the reconstruction of a section of the existing north-south Line 1 through the town of Torrent, capital of ...

  • News

    Finance

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    China: The Japanese government has announced an aid package that includes ´17bn largely earmarked for rail projects.Europe: Eurotunnel is supporting a tender launched by Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Merrill Lynch on October 12, whereby Eurotunnel junior debt trading on the secondary market will be purchased with funds from an issue ...

  • News

    Pilot project to fly next year

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    GERMAN Railway and national airline Lufthansa plan to step up their co-operation next March by launching rail services to replace loss-making short-distance flights between Stuttgart and Frankfurt.Check-in will take place at Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof up to 30min before departure of Frankfurt-bound ICE services. Passengers will be able to check their luggage ...

  • News

    Flyers go free

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    PASSENGERS travelling with KLM and several partner airlines can now travel to and from Amsterdam Schiphol airport by train free of charge, following conclusion of a contract between KLM and Netherlands Railways. The service applies only to airline tickets issued in the Netherlands, which are valid for rail travel on ...

  • News

    Fortunes revive at SNCF

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    FREIGHT TRAFFIC on French National Railways has begun to grow again, with this year’s target of 53·8 billion tonne-km now looking attainable following 9% growth in the first half year compared with 1999. The positive trend continued through the summer, and Freight Director Francis Rol-Tanguy is particularly pleased that intermodal ...

  • News

    Franchises still pulling

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    BEFORE the soul-searching over the future structure of Britain’s railways began after the Hatfield derailment (p689), the process of firming up the existing arrangements was chuntering along steadily. On October 2 the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority unveiled the organisation it will assume once it has shed its shadow next January ...

  • News

    GIF spending up

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    SPANISH high speed construction authority GIF is to invest Pts393·4bn next year, a 65% increase on 2000. At Pts150bn, the contribution from central government is up by 50%; the European Union will be providing Pts135bn.The route from Madrid to Barcelona and the French border will receive Pts298·3bn in 2001, with ...

  • News

    Making the Virgin vision happen

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    The number of passengers using Virgin Trains' services has soared by 40% in three years, giving the company a head start in the race to meet ambitious commercial targets agreed with government. To succeed, Virgin Trains Chief Executive Chris Green must deliver top-of-the-range inter-city services with high speed tilting trains ...

  • News

    Joint venture held up

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    WHEN proposals were first put forward for a joint venture between the freight businesses of Swiss Federal Railways and Italian State Railways, observers were not slow to raise their eyebrows. SBB has an enviable reputation for punctuality and reliability, whereas FS has a less complimentary image.No surprise then, that the ...

  • News

    Industry News

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    Great Britain: ATA Group plc is to acquire Catalis Group Ltd, including Catalis Rail Training Ltd and Rail Training Audit Services Ltd. The acquisition was expected to be completed by October 31.International: Panrail of Austria, McIntire Group of the USA, Multi-Technologies Group of Great Britain, IED International of France and ...

  • News

    WCRM infrastructure suppliers

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    GeneralParsons Brinckerhoff has a seven-year framework contract covering programme management services.Multi-functional infrastructure consultants include CEDG, Mott MacDonald, Scott Wilson Railways and WS Atkins.TrackworkJarvis Rail - relaying 320 route-km of plain line *AMEC Spie Rail Systems - Manchester South remodelling *Balfour Beatty Rail Maintenance - London Euston remodelling *Carillion - Proof ...

  • News

    INTELLIGENCE

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    Australia: New South Wales Rail Access Corp has re-opened the Kandos - Gulgong route to traffic.Belgium: Flanders regional government has approved the construction of a second route into the Antwerpen port complex from 2009. Costed at BFr29bn, the line would run from Noord marshalling yard to Lier via Schoten, Wijnegem ...

  • News

    Momentum makes its mark

    2000-11-01T11:00:00Z

    CATERING contractor to Eurostar Group since June 1 this year (RG 8.00 p475), Momentum has introduced a number of changes to food service on the high speed trains linking London with Paris and Brussels. The new seasonal menu for first class passengers introduced on October 13 was accompanied by an ...