All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1160
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NewsDublin dominates Irish investment
RAIL expansion projects in Dublin and across the country form the backbone of the €34·4bn Transport 21 investment package unveiled by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Transport Minister Martin Cullen at Dublin Castle on November 1. Bringing together many existing proposals into a 10-year package, Transport 21 is expected to make ...
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NewsNarrow-gauge tycoons revive Poland's regional lines
Originally established by railway enthusiasts, SKPL has grown into a significant commercial operator of regional services on narrow gauge networks closed by Poland's state railway
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Tracklaying reaches halfway in the Lötschberg base tunnel
Contractors are hurrying to install track, communications and train control equipment in the 34·6 km Lötschberg base tunnel as the civil engineers complete their task. Test trains are due to start running in early 2006
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Alstom to build 350 km/h AGV demonstrator
CONTRACTS for the first components of a seven-car ultra high speed demonstration train with distributed power have just been placed by Alstom Transport. Representing the next stage in the company's development of the Automotrice à Grande Vitesse, the AGV-7 demonstrator will be completed in 2007 and funded entirely by Alstom. ...
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Trans-Asian Railway network nears agreement
This month, an intergovernmental conference in Bangkok is due to finalise a draft agreement establishing the Trans-Asian Railway network, planned as a catalyst for railway development across Asia
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ERTMS drives change in the signalling market
Karl StrangSCI Verkehr GmbH INTRODUCTION of the European Train Control System and other new technologies is unlikely to bring radical changes to the signalling and train control sector over the next five years, but will start to open up the market to new suppliers, overcoming the natural boundaries caused by ...
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World Speed Survey 2005: France regains rail's blue riband
Running at a start-to-stop average speed of 263·3 km/h, a single TGV between Lyon-St Exupéry and Aix-en-Provence has nudged France to the top in our 2005 world speed survey, overtaking Japan's 261·8 km/h timing between Hiroshima and Kokura
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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. ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...