All Railway Gazette International articles in October 2005
All articles published this month.
-
News
Restructuring announced by ABB
ABB has announced details of a restructuring which will take effect from January 1 2006, replacing its two core divisions with five business areas.Under the plan, the current Technologies and Automation Technologies divisions will be abolished, to be replaced by Zürich-based Power Products, Power Systems and Automation Products divisions, a ...
-
News
Access charges pose grave threat to the future of Dutch freight
THE FUTURE viability of Railion Nederland NV has been thrown into question since Transport Minister Karla Peijs announced earlier this year that track access charges are to rise substantially in 2006, and could double again within the following two or three years.At the same time, parliament is insisting that charges ...
-
News
Open access challenge
BRATISLAVA-based regional operator BRKS is planning to launch open-access inter-city services from the capital to cities in eastern Slovakia, including Kosice.BRKS is the most successful new operator on the Slovak network. As well as regional passenger services between Bratislava, Zohor and Zahorska Ves, it runs domestic and international freight services ...
-
News
Funding accord
FRENCH Transport Minister Dominique Perben signed three agreements with his Swiss counterpart Moritz Leuenberger on August 25 confirming Switzerland’s participation in financing French rail infrastructure projects.The Swiss are to contribute €65m towards the construction of the 189 km eastern section of TGV Rhine-Rh
-
News
South Africa’s cooler cabs
SPOORNET’S locomotive upgrading programme includes equipping Class 8E shunting locos with cab air-conditioning. Two prototypes units were developed by Booyco Engineering, which will supply 17 sets of equipment by the end of the year, and a total of 88 over the next four years. According to Booyco Managing Director Jeremy ...
-
News
Tenerife’s PPP tram moves ahead
INTRO: Now being built under a Public-Private Partnership, the first phase of Tenerife’s planned light rail network is expected to open in March 2007WORKIS now underway on a 12·4 km light rail route in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is being built under a Public-Private Partnership between the island authority ...
-
News
Air-con inverter
SWISS Federal Railways is fitting the cab air-conditioning of 114 locos with seven VS-606V7 AC inverters supplied by Yaskawa Electric in a €150000 order.As well as withstanding the mechanical stress from the vibrations of a moving train, the 4 kW inverters were initially tested on two locos to ensure there ...
-
News
Airport link rebid
KAWASAKI Heavy Industries was the sole bidder last month to supply electrical and mechanical equipment for the planned metro link between Taipei city centre and Chiang Kai-shek International Airport. The tender was opened on September 7 by the state-owned Bureau of High Speed Rail. Legislation requires at least three qualified ...
-
News
All-round inspection car
ON NOVEMBER 11 Swiss Federal Railways will take delivery of a 160 km/h track, overhead line and tunnel infrastructure diagnosis and inspection vehicle designed and built by Mer Mec.The self-propelled vehicle is to be used to measure rail profile and corrugation, track and overhead line geometry and contact wire wear. ...
-
News
Research pinpoints ways to prevent unzipping of aluminium welds
’Weld unzipping has been mastered.’ Dennis Schut of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research made this bold assertion on September 7 at a conference on the crashworthiness of aluminium rail vehicles held at the UK’s National Railway Museum in York.Noting that ’even now we are learning from analysing what remains ...
-
News
SRT restructuring approved
THE TRANSPORT and Finance Ministries have approved plans for the restructuring of State Railway of Thailand. On August 22 Transport Minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisal said the ministries had signed off the plan to deal with SRT’s liabilities and debts. The Finance Ministry will write off accumulated debts currently standing at 42·7bn ...
-
News
Delhi Phase II approved
THE GOVERNMENT of India has approved plans for the second phase of the Delhi metro, which will add a further 53 km and 45 stations to the network by 2010. Following the formal go-ahead, Delhi Metro Rail Corp announced on September 12 the planned completion dates for the six extensions ...
-
News
Light rail arrives in Charlotte
INTRO: Construction began earlier this year on the 15·5 km South Corridor route in Charlotte, the first light rail project in this rapidly-growing city in North Carolina. William D Middleton reportsLIGHT RAIL has a key role to play in Charlotte, North Carolina, where an initial line is now under ...
-
News
Transport downturn at Atkins
A DOWNTURN in the rail sector adversely affected profits at WS Atkins plc during the year to March 31. Trading operating profit at transport fell 9% to £21·3m, on turnover which was down 4% to £394·4m.A fall-off in work in the second half of the year necessitated a reduction in ...
-
News
Three-stage programme puts Combino trams back on track
When higher than expected torsion forces caused cracking in some of the bolted aluminium bodyshells of the Combino fleet in 2002-03, Siemens decided to modify more than 450 trams. Harry Hondius MSc reports on progress with a three-stage programme to deal with the defects
-
News
Betuwe line could be privately run
IN AN ATTEMPT to break the impasse over charges to use the Betuwe Route after it opens in 2007 or 2008 (p605), a group comprising ProRail, TowRail and the port authorities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam announced a plan on September 19 that would see a company established to maintain and ...
-
News
Kenya-Uganda bids in
BIDDING documentation for the 25-year concession to operate the rail networks in Kenya and Uganda was issued on August 30, after the submission deadline was extended at the request of the bidders.Final offers were due by September 30, and the two governments now expect to name the preferred bidder on ...
-
News
Five bids for Line H
BUENOS AIRES metro construction authority Sbase has received five bids for a contract to build the second section of Line H, running from Caseros to Hospitales via one intermediate station at Parque Patricios. The lowest bid of 71·9m pesos was submitted by Cartellone, followed by Dycasa (86·3m pesos), Benito Roggio ...