All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1154
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News
Switching to a condition-based monitoring regime
UNTIL RECENTLY ProRail planned switch and crossing maintenance on the basis of elapsed time or reported defects, but the Dutch infrastructure manager has changed to a condition-based regime in order to maximise availability and reliability while minimising costs and possession times. This requires an understanding of the usage and loads ...
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'Constructive debate' sought over DB sell-off
PRESENTING a study on options for privatising Deutsche Bahn AG to the Transport Committee in Berlin on January 17, Germany's Federal Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee called for 'a constructive debate' between the Bundestag, the Lãnder, transport associations and the railway. The government is anxious to take a decision by the ...
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DaimlerChrysler sells MTU to EQT
PRIVATE equity fund group EQT is to buy the Off-Highway business of DaimlerChrysler AG, including rail, marine and military diesel engine maker MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH. The companies have agreed an enterprise value of €1·6bn, and DaimlerChrysler will receive a cash inflow of €1bn.The Off-Highway business has annual sales of around ...
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Switch out the dark
BNSF and the Federal Railroad Administration have begun testing wireless monitoring of switch alignment at 409 hand-operated turnouts on a 280 km section of unsignalled route between Tulsa and Avard, Oklahoma. US Secretary of Transportation Norman Y Mineta announced the start of trials on November 14.Dispatchers in Fort Worth are ...
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National database
LAST year SNCF introduced a unified computer system to manage the maintenance of its locomotive fleet. Known as Lionne, it replaced a system called Badem dating from 1987 to which several other applications had been grafted in an attempt to update it.Lionne was piloted at several sites before national launch, ...
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VR unveils double-deck sleepers
THIS month VR is to put into service the first five of 20 double-deck sleeping cars being built by Talgo Oy. The €2·9m cars will enter revenue service between Helsinki and Rovaniemi from February 1. The entire fleet will be in service by August, allowing 33 older vehicles to be ...
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High speed lines will drive forward Refer's long-term strategy
Portuguese infrastructure authority Refer has launched a comprehensive review of rail's role in the national economy. This will guide development of the conventional network and the construction of standard gauge high speed lines
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East London Line shortlists
MARCH 31 has been set as the bidding deadline for the £500m main works contract to build the East London Line extensions. Part B of the tender documentation was issued by Transport for London to four shortlisted consortia in December. The E-link consortium is led by Laing O'Rourke Civil Engineering, ...
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Edmonton extends light rail line
NEW YEAR'S Day saw the start of revenue operation on the first addition to Edmonton's light rail line in 14 years, although formal inauguration ceremonies were not held until the following day. Costing C$100m, the 600m extension from University to the Health Sciences station is the first part of the ...
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Unbundling plan could end NRZ ’paralysis’
APPOINTED AS General Manager of National Railways of Zimbabwe on November 1, Mike Karakadzai was charged with ’turning around and possibly restructuring NRZ to make it a viable entity’ (RG 12.05 p760).Six weeks on, the retired Air Commodore announced in mid-December that he had come up with a restructuring package ...
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Israel plans massive expansion
DURING 2005 nearly 27 million trips were made on the 853 route-km Israel Railways network, more than three times as many as in 1999. If that sounds a spectacular increase, consider what ISR envisages in the future: no fewer than 65 million trips are expected in 2010. The freight forecast ...
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Finance
Canada: CP plans capital spending of C$810m to C$825m for 2006, down from C$920m in 2005. C$570m will go on infrastructure, C$160m on locos, C$50m on IT and C$25m to expand intermodal terminals.Croatia: Zagreb city council has agreed to guarantee financing for the purchase of 18 EMUs for HZ’s suburban ...
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KL plans to grow
PLANS TO expand both of Kuala Lumpur's urban rail networks were unveiled on January 3 by the Chief Executive Officer of the state-owned holding company Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd, which was formed to integrate the bus and rail network in the Malaysian capital. Shaipudin Shah Harun said work would get ...
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Guangzhou grows as two lines open
TWO FURTHER sections of the growing metro network in Guangzhou were put into operation on December 26.Revenue services started on the first section of Line 3, six months ahead of schedule. Trains are operating between the Line 1 terminus at Guangzhou Dongzhan and the interchange with Line 2 at Kecun, ...
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Heavy haul study
AUSTRALIAN mining group Murchison Metals Ltd announced on December 22 that it had reached a preliminary agreement for ’industrial partners’ to undertake a feasibility study for a 380 km heavy haul railway in Western Australia.The line would link the Jack Hills deposits to a new port at Okajee, 23 ...
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‘Investment will be of historic proportions’
INTRO: Unprecedented levels of investment are transforming Spain’s national railway with new high speed lines and a huge rolling stock acquisition programme. Robert Preston put the questions to Renfe Operadora President José SalgueiroPreston: What were Renfe’s results for 2005 and what are its financial targets for 2006?Salgueiro: One key fact ...
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Leased locos to work HSL-Zuid
FACED WITH the prospect of having no ETCS-equipped trainsets available to operate the Antwerpen - Rotterdam - Amsterdam high speed line when it opens on July 1 2007 (RG 9.05 p519), HSL-Zuid concessionaire High Speed Alliance has decided to start with loco-hauled trains.On December 23 HSA signed an agreement to ...
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Independent review
LLOYD’S REGISTER Rail carried out an independent review of Hong Kong MTR’s asset management practices in 2005, after public concern about high-profile incidents.Asset management was assessed through verification of processes and inspection of asset condition, with the international cross-sector BSI PAS 55 asset management standard as a benchmark. Maintenance ...
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Intermodal sale
SYDNEY-based Babcock & Brown has acquired Swiss intermodal operator Crossrail AG, with all shares and staff transferred on January 1.Crossrail was the brand name used since January 2004 for unaccompanied intermodal services operated by the Logistics & Freight Traffic business of Burgdorf-based Regionalverkehr Mittelland. This included five trains a week ...