All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1132
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News
Iris 320 casts an expert eye over the French network
SNCF has completed a €33·5m programme to convert a TGV Réseau trainset for inspecting track, overhead electrification, signalling and telecommunications systems at speeds up to 320 km/h. Laurent Charlier reports
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US$47m Belgrano spend proposed
THE GOVERNOR of Argentina’s Salta province, Juan Carlos Romero, has presented a plan that would see US$47m invested in the metre-gauge Belgrano network (RG 7.06 p376) to restore key routes over a 16-month period. The 500 km identified as priority routes under the plan include Embarcación - Formosa, Joaquín V ...
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Tough times at AEA
REPORTING its results for the year to March 31, on June 8 AEA Technology announced an adjusted operating loss of £2·1m at its Rail division, compared with a loss of £0·6m in 2004-05. Turnover was £46·7m, down from £59·8m in 2004-05.’Significant and necessary change’ in the Rail business over the ...
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Africa needs to cut border delays
ACCORDING TO Spoornet CEO Siyabonga Gama, delays to freight trains at international borders on the Cape gauge network serving southern Africa are costing the region US$48bn a year. Gama told the ninth AfricaRail conference near Johannesburg on June 28 that it could take up to 12 days to get a ...
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Spie sale terms agreed
AMEC has agreed terms for the sale of AMEC Spie to a new company controlled by private equity firm PAI. The £707m sale was expected to be completed last month, with AMEC to record an exceptional profit on disposal of £295m which will be used to pay down debt.AMEC Spie ...
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Granada light rail funding agreed
CONSTRUCTION of a 15·5 km light rail route in the Spanish city of Granada is expected to begin this autumn, following the signature of funding agreements by the Andalucía regional government and the municipalities of Granada, Armilla, Albolote and Maracena on July 12.Excluding rolling stock, the project is expected to ...
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Buenos Aires branches revived
UNDER A 180m pesos investment programme funded by the Argentinian government, work was expected to begin this month to renew track on four diesel-worked sections of the Buenos Aires commuter network. On TBA’s Sarmiento route, the Moreno - Mercedes and Merlo - Lobos sections are to be upgraded, together with ...
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Airport rail links must focus on service
Germany is world leader in terms of connecting its major airports to the national rail network, but Dr-Ing Edmund Krieger argues that the investment in hardware is not yet being matched by 'software' improvements in terms of services and passenger handling
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Sendai airport line nears completion
EAST JAPAN Railway plans to open the 7·1 km rail link to Sendai airport early in 2007 - before the end of the current financial year. Seen as a key element in plans to open up the Tohoku region, the scheme takes the form of a public-private partnership which is ...
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Always informed
STAFF in ticket offices and depots need to be kept informed of unexpected incidents which bring changes to service patterns, and this requires near-instant communication across an operator’s business. But pagers and mobile phones get turned off if staff see the messages as a low priority, multiple text messages go ...
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Reims and Angers choose APS
ON JULY 13 the Communauté d'agglomeration Reims Métropole signed a €1·4bn turnkey contract with the Alstom-led MARS consortium for construction of an 11·2 km light rail line, and for the operation of trams and buses in the city over 30 years from January 1 2008. The Mobilité Agglomération Rémoise ...
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SSB announces midlife car refit
STUTTGARTER Straßenbahn AG announced on July 5 that it intends to start a mid-life refit for around a third of its 164-strong fleet of LRVs.The 60 cars in the DT8.4 to DT8.9 series, which are coming up to 20 years old, will be fully refurbished and brought up to the ...
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SBB funding package approved
ON JUNE 21 Swiss Transport Minister Moritz Leuenburger confirmed that Parliament had approved SFr5·88bn of state funding to support Swiss Federal Railways over the next four years.The budget allocation had been passed by the Bundesrat in March, but was the subject of fierce debate in the Ständerat before it was ...
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Arriva expands in Europe
ON JULY 4 Arriva announced that it had won a contract to operate trains between München and Oberstdorf in the Bavarian Alps, and also to Lindau in southern Germany. The contract starts from December 9 2007 and is expected to generate total revenue exceeding €150m over the following 10 years.In ...
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Idrac arrives in a bear garden
ALL EYES are on France as new SNCF President Anne-Marie Idrac takes up the reins in the toughest management challenge in Europe’s railway business.Formally appointed on July 12, Idrac succeeds Louis Gallois, who has returned to the aerospace business from whence he came in July 1996. The presidency of SNCF ...
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Railroads invest in extra capacity to move Asian import windfall
Unprecedented volumes of Asian import traffic arriving at ports along the Pacific coast are putting pressure on North American railroads, but the welcome boost to their profitability is helping to fund the much-needed investment in additional capacity, explains David Lustig
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UIC hosts first Middle East Assembly
FOLLOWING a decision taken by the UIC General Assembly in Montréal on June 8 to set up five UIC Regional Assemblies worldwide, the first meeting of the Regional Assembly for the Middle East took place in Istanbul on June 13-14. Chaired by Khalid Alyahya, President of Saudi Railways Organisation, ...
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Madrid LRT contracts awarded
SPAIN: The Madrid regional government has selected a consortium of Madrid Metro, the Caja Madrid bank and bus operator Alsa as preferred bidder for a 30-year concession to operate and maintain the light rail route currently under construction between Pinar del Chamartín and Las Tablas (RG 7.06 p377). The winning ...
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Metrolink tries a Little Bang instead
NEXT MONTH is due to see a call for expressions of interest in building three light rail lines in Manchester, following the agreement of a £650m funding package which will allow work to start on part of the long-planned ’Big Bang’ Metrolink expansion scheme, now priced at £1·2bn.The Association of ...
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NewsBangalore metro launched
INDIAN Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the Rs64bn Bangalore metro project on June 24, paving the way for the start of construction in October. 'I hope this project will become a milestone in Bangalore's progress', said the Prime Minister, adding that 'we must start ...