All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1169
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News
Tram cameras
SUCCESSFUL trials of CCTV onboard a Nottingham tram have led to a contract to fit the entire fleet of 15 vehicles with equipment from Vision Techniques. Six cameras cover the vehicle interior, with a further two looking forwards and back. Each camera records three colour frames per second, and the ...
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Campaign pays off
FRESH impetus will be given to research and development in Nord-Pas-de-Calais with the French government’s decision on July 12 to approve i-Trans as a centre for railway technology under the p
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Smart card deal
VICTORIA Premier Steve Bracks announced on July 12 that the Kamco consortium had been selected by the Transport Ticketing Authority for a A$494m contract to supply and operate a state-wide smart card fare collection system.Led by US information technology group Keane Corp, the consortium includes ticket machine manufacturer Ascom, Perth-based ...
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US fuel cell prototype takes shape
COLORADO-based Vehicle Projects Ltd has completed the first two years of a project to develop a prototype fuel cell locomotive, and hopes to start construction in 2006. Launched in May 2003, the project is being sponsored by the US Department of Defense, and administered by the US Army Research Development ...
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Ceneri tunnel start
THE SWISS parliament has released an initial SFr1·3bn tranche of funding for the Ceneri base tunnel, which forms part of the AlpTransit Gotthard project. Proposals for the 15·4 km tunnel between Bellinzona and Lugano were approved in 2003, and the final stage of the planning authorisation is due to be ...
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Change of course
PRIVATE-SECTOR companies interested in operating freight or passenger services are invited to attend a ’pre-bid’ conference at Pakistan Railways’ headquarters in Lahore on August 2. Quite what is on offer is not clear, but the move comes hot on the heels of an earlier announcement that PR was to become ...
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Manslaughter charges dropped
SIX MONTHS after the Hatfield trial commenced in January, and almost five years after the fatal derailment on October 17 2000, Mr Justice Mackay instructed the jury hearing charges of manslaughter against track maintenance contractor Balfour Beatty and five individuals to find all the defendants not guilty.His decision came on ...
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Seats cleaned and protected
DEEP CLEANING is the speciality of Solutions E2, which has carried out work for Eurostar, Thalys and Arriva. ’Our deep-cleaning process can rapidly restore a carriage’s interior to virtually as-new condition, while simultaneously offering protection against further build-up of daily grime’, according to Managing Director Chris Debrick.The company has introduced ...
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Renegotiation draws to a close
A PUBLIC HEARING was due to be held on July 29 or during the first week of August to consider new terms for the two freight concessions held in Argentina by América Latina Logística, operated as ALL-Central and ALL-Mesopot
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Managing metro communications
INTEGRATED management and operations data for the automated metro in Brescia will be provided using the Alcatel Metro Operations System. With 17 stations served by a fleet of 18 trains, the 14 km line is expected to open in 2011. AMOS is being designed as a comprehensive communications ...
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Thameslink refreshes London commuter EMUs
COMMUTER operator Thameslink has begun a train refurbishment programme, timed to follow the resumption in May of through running on its route across central London. Services had been suspended since last September to allow work on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.The refurbishment will give ’a quick impact’ which passengers will ...
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Concessions revised
NEW concessions to operate 14 regional routes in the Netherlands were awarded to NS Reizigers on July 1, in line with legislation that came into effect on January 1 this year. Most of the concessions are limited to two years or less, giving the transport ministry time to put its ...
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French firms take Italian contracts
ON JULY 5 French transport group Transdev confirmed that it had been selected for a six-year contract to operate the metro, funicular, rack railway and bus services in Genova. With 630000 inhabitants making an average of 239 trips per year, Genova is the first Italian city to put the operation ...
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Stock contracts renegotiated
SPANISH National Railways has revised two rolling stock contracts originally awarded on February 24 2004 to reflect the requirements of the PEIT infrastructure plan (p459) and changing expectations of its future rolling stock requirements. A consortium of CAF and Alstom was awarded a €583·8m contract to supply 45 gauge-changing EMUs ...
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Under control
SERENA SOFTWARE has supplied railway monitoring, diagnostics and software firm Mer Mec with its Dimensions platform, which is being used to manage all projects across the company, reducing time to market and ensuring compliance with design regulations.Head of Mer Mec’s Quality Department Francesco Muolo said Dimensions was adopted ’to unify ...
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Czech sleepers
SIEMENS signed a €26·5m contract on June 22 to supply Czech Railways with 12 air-conditioned WLABmz 200 km/h sleeping cars which will be used on international services to Italy, Switzerland and Germany from November 2006.Financed by INGLease, the vehicles will be built at Siemens’ SKV Praha-Zlicin plant. They will have ...
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DaQin line strengthened
Traffic on the 632 km Datong - Qinhuangdao heavy haul coal line increased from 123·7 million gross tonnes in 2003 to 150 MGT last year, according to Liu Zhengjie of the China Academy of Railway Sciences. He told the Railway Engineering conference in London on June 30 that this year ...
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Fleet renewal deal signed
OVER 7000 new coaches, EMU cars and locomotives are to be built for Russian Railways over the next five years, under the terms of a framework agreement reached with Transmash Holding in June.The agreement was signed by Transmash Chairman Dmitry Komissarov and the then RZD President Gennady Fadeyev. The Governor ...
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Dieter
CAPTION: Japanese winemakers in the Katsunumacho area of Yamanashi Prefecture have found a new use for an abandoned railway tunnel. Dating from 1903, the 1·1 km Fukasawa tunnel was closed in 1997 because of its deteriorating condition. Realising that the steady year-round temperature of 15íC would be suitable ...