All Railway Gazette International articles in October 2003 – Page 2

  • News

    The right height

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    OVH Wizard is an ultrasonic overhead contact wire height and stagger measuring unit, which can be installed in under two hours. Cheaper than laser-based devices, it can be easily mounted on any railway vehicles from 2·75 to 3·75m high. The rugged aluminium beam construction is suited for installation on ...

  • News

    Suburban quadrupling heads infrastructure programme

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: Construction of new tracks through the western suburbs of Oslo will relieve the biggest bottleneck on the Norwegian networkDEEP IN THE hills to the southwest of the Norwegian capital, contractors are hard at work boring rock tunnels 2·7 km and 3·6 km long. They will form part of the ...

  • News

    Glimmer of hope

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    WITH TEARS in their eyes, the citizens of Basavilbaso in Argentina congregated at the small town’s station on August 26 to witness the departure at 08.00 of the first passenger train since 1992. Around 21/2h later it arrived at Villaguay 62 km down the line. Local politicians were joined on ...

  • News

    Getting a grip

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    LIFTING the concrete slabs which make up cable troughing frequently installed alongside railway tracks can be made easier using a scissor-action tool developed by J Muscroft Engineering. ’It grips concrete slabs at each end and allows two operators to lift the slab via handles, enabling operators to keep their backs ...

  • News

    Getting out

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    The provision of emergency escape routes is a growing consideration in carriage design, with analysis of passengers’ responses to incidents showing it is an important factor in the aftermath of a serious incident. AEA Technology Rail has developed sliding vestibule doors which include a simple mechanism to allow passengers to ...

  • News

    German tenders re-called

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    GERMAN Railway announced on August 21 that it was to call tenders early next year for the supply of 203 diesel locomotives for its freight subsidiary Railion Deutschland (left). Options for a further 263 locos could lift the total value of the package to around €1·1bn. Contracts for the supply ...

  • News

    Finance

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    China: The Ministry of Railways is issuing 3bn yuan of 18-year 4·63% bonds to raise funds for the construction of five lines in western China by the end of 2006.France: The Swiss government is to provide €76m or 6% of the cost of building the Mulhouse - Dijon section of ...

  • News

    Monopoly falls

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    FOLLOWING complaints by Germany’s private railways, the Federal Cartel Office has ruled that third parties are free to supply electricity to the 162/3Hz high voltage grid which feeds DB’s traction substations. Until now this has been operated exclusively by DB subsidiary DB Energie GmbH. A report commissioned by 28 of ...

  • News

    UK franchises to be extended

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    ON SEPTEMBER 9 the UK Strategic Rail Authority announced that it was to start formal negotiations to extend four of the remaining first-generation franchises. The Wessex Trains and West Anglia Great Northern franchises currently held by National Express expire on March 31 2004, as does GOVIA’s Thameslink franchise. NEG’s contract ...

  • News

    Sharing knowledge is essential to secure the future

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: With international delegates in attendance from all sectors of the railway industry and academia, the World Congress on Railway Research provides an opportunity to network with colleagues and industry peersBYLINE: Len PorterChairman, WCRR 2003 Organising CommitteeTHE ORGANISING Committee is proud to host the 6th World Congress on Railway Research, ...

  • News

    Dublin expansion gets underway

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    LAST MONTH saw the start of work on the €170m first phase of the DART & Suburban Enhancement Project to expand commuter services in the Dublin area. Due to be completed by mid-2005, the project includes platform lengthening to ensure that all 30 stations on the DART network will be ...

  • News

    Plug-in doors

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    TWIN-LEAF passenger doors on a Bombardier LF2000 low-floor tram used in the city of Dessau have been replaced with a new door module from a range developed by Fahrzeugtechnik Dessau AG.The installation of the new doors for a one-year demonstration and testing period did not require changes to the tram’s ...

  • News

    Minding the doors

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    MODERN trains and trams need doors which are intelligent. A passenger caught in a closing door can be injured, and even trapped clothing causes short delays while the doors are released. Systems are available to prevent doors trapping obstructions, but it is vital to reduce the number of false alarms.Siemens ...

  • News

    Magnetic detectors

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    E-AWS has been developed to remove the need for Automatic Warning System receivers to be switched between high and low sensitivity as trains move between areas with differing or no electrification systems. The solid state magnetic detector used by E-AWS covers the full range of receiver-to-magnet sensitivities, eliminating the need ...

  • News

    Delhi Metro extends

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    INDIAN Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is due to inaugurate the second section of the Delhi Metro network on October 2. Running for 4·5 km from Tis Hazari to Tri Nagar, the extension has intermediate stations at Pulbangash, Pratap Nagar and Vivekanandpuri, serving one of the most densely populated parts ...

  • News

    NRC is ’dead’, says minister

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    ON August 7 the Lagos Daily Trust reported that Nigerian Railway Corp had launched ’a massive rail expansion programme throughout the country’, made possible by the arrival of long-awaited consignments of imported track materials that were being distributed to key locations. NRC Assistant Director of Public Relations David Ndakosu was ...

  • News

    NSB focuses on customer satisfaction

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    WITH THE launch of the summer timetable on June 15, NSB abandoned the three marketing brands that it had launched in 1999 - Signatur for long-distance services, Agenda for medium-distance inter-city and Puls for local suburban trains. In future, all operations will revert to the core NSB branding. The change ...

  • News

    Monti cracks the whip

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    AS WE closed for press, the future of ailing industrial titan Alstom was hanging in the balance. Around six weeks had passed since the French government and a group of banks agreed a rescue package on August 5 (RG 9.03 p594), which was to be endorsed by shareholders on September ...

  • News

    Compiling the tables

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z

    Not all the trains in the tables run every day, but all have been scheduled to run regularly at some time between June and September 2003. Many European countries still schedule additional trains during July and August, and may temporarily suspend others. The schedules in this review represent, as far ...

  • News

    Compiling the tables

    2003-10-01T10:00:00Z