All Railway Gazette International articles in November 2001
All articles published this month.
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News
HSL-Zuid concessions
NETHERLANDS: This month is due to see the signing of a formal contract for operation of services on the HSL-Zuid high speed line between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Belgian border. The Dutch Ministry of Transport & Water Management announced on October 17 that it had reached agreement with the ...
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News
China speeds up again
CHINA: October 21 saw the introduction of Chinese Railways’ 2001-02 national timetable, implementing a further network- wide increase in train speeds. Vice- Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun announced that passenger train speeds would be raised from 120 to 140 and 140 to 160 km/h, following the completion of upgrading ...
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NewsEcotram research aims to cut tram energy consumption
AUSTRIA: Technische Universität Wien is heading a consortium of Wien transport operator Wiener Linien, Siemens, Vossloh Kiepe, Rail Tec Arsenal and SCHIG, which is undertaking research into operating strategies and design alterations which could lower the energy consumption of trams. Launched in March 2010 and backed by Austrian research agency ...
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News
Toronto turnround
THREE YEARS ago, the Conservative government in the Province of Ontario dumped financial responsibility for GO Transit on local authorities under a deal that saw it taking on funding of education. It also scrapped subsidies for Toronto Transit Commission. Now it has had second thoughts.The province intends to restore funding ...
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News
Sidetrack
No go at Lo WuMORE than 200 passengers were stranded at Hong Kong’s Lo Wu border crossing on September 29, after refusing to leave a KCR East Rail train. Newspapers had incorrectly reported that opening hours at the checkpoint had been extended by 30 min to handle extra passengers on ...
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News
Subways recover swiftly
NEW YORK City Transit officials were amazed how well subway lines near the World Trade Center withstood the collapse of the two towers on September 11, especially as the top of some 85 year-old tunnels ran just 1·5m below street level. Credit was given to the subway’s designers, who supported ...
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News
Pointers
n Watch for firm plans to be drawn up for the 300 km link between Kashi in Xinjiang province and Andizhan in Uzbekistan, through Kyrgyzstan, following China’s formal agreement in September to participate in the scheme (RG 4.01 p223).n Look for Iranian Islamic Republic Railways to announce plans ...
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News
PEOPLE
PEOPLEMohammad Saeedi Nejad has become head of Iranian Islamic Republic Railways.Priyal de Silva was appointed General Manager of Sri Lanka Railways from October 6. On October 1 Robert Etmans took over as Director of Personnel for DB Cargo, succeeding Birgit Gantz-Rathmann who moves to a similar post at DB’s headquarters ...
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News
A recipe for paralysis
IFTRANSPORT Secretary Stephen Byers had intended to bury the bad news about Railtrack by announcing it just before the bombing of Afghanistan commenced, he did not succeed.The immediate result of his action, which could at worst see shareholders left with nothing, was to enrage the financial institutions. Anthony Bolton at ...
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News
Panama Railway reopens
FREIGHT TRAINS were due to begin running on the Panama Canal Railway in mid-October, following a US$76m reconstruction and conversion to standard gauge. Passenger services resumed in July, using ex-Amtrak locos and coaches.The complete overhaul of the 75·6 km route, including new ballast, sleepers and rails, has taken nearly two ...
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News
Prima orders
ON SEPTEMBER 27 French National Railways announced that it had confirmed options to order a further 120 Prima electric freight locos from Alstom Transport SA, and taken another option for 80 more. Deliveries are scheduled to run from October 2005 to March 2007. The contract was formally approved by the ...
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News
RWMS monitors quality of rail welding
THE QUALITY of rail welding work can be monitored and recorded with a computer-controlled Rail Welding Monitor System recently developed by Plasser American Corp. Running on a Microsoft Windows platform on a notebook computer, the software automatically records and analyses rail welding as it is carried out by Plasser machines.A ...
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News
Metros
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Kosice Transport of Slovakia has delivered two 1989-built Tatra KT8D5 trams to Sarajevo. Pars Sumperk and Siemens are to refurbish 37 Tatra K2 trams for Sarajevo Tramway over five years.Canada: Services began on Ottawa’s O-Train diesel light rail line on October 15, using three Class 643 Talent DMUs. Mayor ...
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News
‘Shoddy and unacceptable’, says Marshall
Railtrack Chief Executive Steve Marshall tendered his resignation on October 8, describing the government’s treatment of his company and its shareholders as ’shoddy and unacceptable’. Intending to work out his six-month period of notice, Marshall said that his priorities now were to ’support the company, its people and the administrator’s ...
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News
Market
Australia: New South Wales SRA is calling tenders for 14 diesel railcars for use in the Hunter Valley, and for 40 double-deck outer suburban EMU cars.Austria: Elin EBG has won a contract to fit radio remote control to 10 of ÖBB’s Class 1044 electric locomotives for mid-train working, with an ...
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News
‘You cannot live without research’
INTRO: One of the organisations influencing railway research in Europe is the Union of European Railway Industries. General Manager Drewin Nieuwenhuis feels ’the political winds are in favour of rail’, telling Murray Hughes in Brussels that he expected a positive response to UNIFE’s application for EU research fundsDURING THE late ...
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News
Sakhalin link
MEETING on October 4, the Russian cabinet tentatively approved the US$4bn project to build a fixed rail link to the far-eastern island of Sakhalin. A final decision will be taken next year, although Minsiter of Railways Nikolai Aksyonenko says this is dependent upon backing from Japanese investors.Construction is expected to ...
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News
RZD starts North Korean studies
ON OCTOBER 11 Russian and South Korean government representatives agreed to establish a bilateral committee to progress the development of rail links between the two countries. The accord was reached at the end of a four-day visit to Seoul, which also discussed progress with reinstating the cross-border link between South ...
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News
INTELLIGENCE
Canada: On September 26 Canadian Pacific shareholders voted 98% in favour of the division of the company into five independent entities from October 1. The companies are CP Rail, Pan-Canadian Energy, CP Ships, Fording Coal and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.China: The Ministry of Railways has announced plans for two further ...
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News
Hector and Hercules take over
LOWER exhaust emissions and quieter operation are among the benefits Austrian Federal Railways expects from two fleets of diesel locomotives now under construction. Both are four-axle designs, Hector a centre-cab unit for shunting and short workings, and Hercules a twin-cab loco for main line passenger and freight work.Siemens Austria won ...