All Railway Gazette International articles in November 2003
All articles published this month.
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News
Pointers November 2003
Vermont Agency of Transportation has backed proposals for a fast passenger service between Boston and Montréal. Track upgrading for 177 km/h would allow a journey time of under 6h for the 523 km trip, with annual ridership put at 648000. According to Vietnam Railways' Director-General Dr Nguyen Huu Bang, DSVN ...
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Intelligence November 2003
Africa: Services on the 1143 km line linking Abidjan and Ouagadougou were restored in September, having been suspended a year earlier because of fighting in Côte d'Ivoire. Argentina: Sefecha has introduced passenger service over a new 1·6 km branch from Resistencia to Puerto Vilelas. Construction was funded by the government ...
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Renfe orders 80 Civias
MEETING ON October 13, the Spanish National Railways board approved orders for 80 Civia EMUs worth €407·5m, including maintenance over four years worth €32·5m. Siemens and CAF are to build 40 sets for €200m, and Alstom the remainder for €175m.Deliveries will take place between mid-2005 and the end of 2007, ...
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CD abandons split
CZECH Railways announced on September 1 that it was introducing a new organisational structure as part of its four-stage programme to transform the state-owned company into a holding group. CD is being assisted with the development and implementation of the new structure by Spanish National Railways under an EU-funded programme ...
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Jarvis aborts maintenance contracts
ONE OF the seven companies that until recently held 20 area contracts to maintain track, structures, signalling and electrification on Britain’s national network announced on October 10 that it was pulling out. Jarvis Chairman Paris Moayedi had informed Network Rail Chief Executive John Armitt at a meeting four days earlier ...
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Interfleet acquires TrainTech Engineering
TRAIN ENGINEERING consultancy Interfleet Technology has expanded its European operations with the acquisition of Swedish rolling stock consultancy services company TrainTech Engineering AB fromEuroMaint AB on October 1.Created in 1988 as a business unit of SJ, TrainTech was launched as a separate subsidiary in 2000. It has around 90 consultants ...
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Berlin cross-city line advances
Good progress is being made with the north-south tunnel in Berlin. Due to open in 2006, the line forms the central element in the city’s ’mushroom concept’ that will see east-west and north-south main lines meet at a central interchange at Lehrter (RG 9.02 p525).The southern portal near Gleisdreieck U-Bahn ...
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Texans try again
LONG-STANDING readers may remember the Texas TGV, a proposal to build a 1000 km high speed network linking Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. This bit the dust in 1994 after Texas TGV Corp failed to raise sufficient funding for a franchise to build and operate the routes. Something similar, if ...
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Austerity on the French agenda
OPTIONS to improve the woeful performance of the French rail freight business were due to be presented to the SNCF board on October 22. Freight revenue in the first six months of the year was 3% down on the same period in 2002, which SNCF blamed on the poor economic ...
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Bavarian agreement
After two years of tough negotiations DB Chairman Hartmut Mehdorn and Bavarian Transport Minister Otto Wiesheu signed an agreement on September 12 covering regional rail services for a 10-year period. This will see the Land contract with DB Regio to provide local services at a total cost of €8bn. The ...
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Franchise deals move ahead
ON OCTOBER 20 the UK Strategic Rail Authority confirmed that it had signed a 15-year franchise agreement with Arriva Trains Ltd to operate the Wales &Borders franchise, giving Wales ’a unified railway under a single operational management structure’. Arriva will take over from National Express Group on December 7.On October ...
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Alcatel wins Tube Lines resignalling
LONDON Underground infrastructure concessionaire Tube Lines announced on October 2 that it had awarded a £300m contract to Alcatel for resignalling of the Jubilee and Northern lines. Installation of SelTrac S40 communications-based train control is expected to increase ’capability’ by 22% on the Jubilee line by 2009 and 18% on ...
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Revised package rescues Alstom
ALSTOM announced on September 23 that it had reached an agreement with its banks and the European Commission on a package to meet the company’s financial needs. The proposals were developed following the EC’s decision that a previous rescue deal announced on August 6 was inconsistent with its procedures for ...
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Sweden’s railways tackle the need to attract engineers
INTRO: In recent years railways in different countries have lost status and importance, to the point that working in the industry is not considered ’cool’. Sweden’s infrastructure authority is seeking to change this perception, so that young people will want to work in the railway business in the futureBYLINE: Jan ...
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Industry unites at Australian showcase
AUSRAIL Plus 2003 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre from November 17 to 19 will be the first time that the members’ forum of the Australasian Railway Association joins forces with the Rail Track Association of Australia, the Australian Railway Industry Corp, the Railway Technical Society of Australasia and ...
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Second AVE line opens
THE 481 km initial section of Spain’s Madrid - Barcelona high speed line was inaugurated on October 10 by King Juan Carlos, who was accompanied by Renfe President Michel Corsini and other VIPs on a special trip to Zaragoza Delicias (right). Commercial services began running at 06.40 on October 11, ...
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World Bank warning
THE World Bank has warned Bangladesh Railway that dramatic improvements in efficiency are needed if it is ’to demonstrate that it has a real role to play in the future transportation system of the country and that it can hold its market share’. Productivity of staff and rolling stock was ...
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Marmaray tunnel bids in
TURKEY: Three prequalified consortia submitted technical bids on October 3 for construction of Istanbul's Marmaray tunnel, comprising a 1·8 km double-track submerged tube under the Bosporus together with 11·5 km of bored tunnel approaches on each side. Four groups had prequalified last year (RG 9.02 p465), but one subsequently withdrew. ...
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F-MAN will boost wagon productivity in Europe
INTRO: An EU-funded research project will confirm the feasibility of equipping Europe’s wagon fleet with on-board tracking systems that report their location and status to a central database via the internet. This will greatly improve arrangements for tracking consignments, and for getting empty wagons where they are neededBYLINE: Eckhard Kuhla, ...
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Eurotunnel's plan to boost intermodal freight
While lorries carrying 15 million tonnes of freight used the Channel Tunnel in 2002, through trains carried barely a tenth of that. Richard Hope talked to Bill Dix, the executive charged with expanding rail freight to levels matching those between other EU countries