All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1215
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News
North American Freight Car Market - 2004
David Burns and Toby KolstadThe two principals of Rail Theory Forecasts have compiled a 280-page book intended as a comprehensive source of information for investors contemplating the freight rolling stock market in North America. This market study assesses historical production of all products and commodities shipped by rail and also ...
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Record number of exhibitors expected at 2004 event
Even though the opening of the fair is still a good six months away, the InnoTrans 2004 railway technology fair in Berlin is already breaking virtually every record. The net display space of around 29500 m2 booked for InnoTrans 2002 has already been matched. InnoTrans spokesman Wolfgang Wagner says "two ...
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IE plans €3bn Dublin upgrade
PLANS TO UPGRADE and integrate rail services in the greater Dublin area were presented to Ireland's Parliamentary Transport Committee by Iarnród Éireann Managing Director Joe Meagher at the end of February. The €3bn package envisages development of frequent commuter services to nearly all towns within 100 km of the ...
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Renfe’s i4bn train bonanza
MEETING on March 3, the board of Spanish National Railways approved what the company describes as its largest-ever rolling stock order, a fleet of 40 high speed trains that is costing a total of €1·6bn. Talgo and Bombardier are to supply 30 high speed trains for €1·17bn, including maintenance over ...
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NewsEurostar abandons Project Jupiter
Plans to form a single company tentatively called Eurostar International that would have managed the train service between London, Paris and Brussels as a unified operation were formally abandoned by the Boards of SNCF, SNCB and London & Continental Railways on March 12. Originally SNCB had intended to take a ...
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Kinetic energy storage wins acceptance
The ability of KESS to support line voltage, regenerate braking energy and provide uninterrupted supplies at stations has now been demonstrated on urban railways in London, New York, Lyon and Tokyo
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Funding package will improve access to high speed networks
SWITZERLAND’S Ministry of Transport is drawing up legislation that will authorise expenditure of up to SFr1·3bn on a series of projects to improve access to and from high speed networks in neighbouring countries. Unusually, this will see Swiss funds used as contributions towards major schemes in other countries. Because of ...
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News
Deal defers access charge hike
control period. The rest will be added to the company’s Regulatory Asset Base for CP4 starting on April 1 2009, and repaid out of future access charges. Winsor emphasised on March 10 that the reprofiling was conditional on the first issue of bonds under NR’s securitisation programme being completed by ...
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Beijing metro accords
CONSTRUCTION of a fourth heavy metro line in Beijing is to be undertaken by a private-sector consortium including Hong Kong MTRCorp, which recently signed a concession in Shenzhen (RG 2.04 p65). The Chairman of Beijing Capital Group Liu Xiaoguang revealed on March 4 that the company had reached an agreement ...
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AMEC adapts to handover
ENGINEERING contractor AMEC Spie is reorganising its rail business in advance of the handover of its UK rail maintenance work to Network Rail on July 24 (RG 12.03 p770).Maintenance currently accounts for one-third of AMEC Spie Rail’s £350m turnover, and according to Business Development Manager Barry Atkinson the company hopes ...
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New airport branch
THE SPANISH Ministry of Development has begun public consultation on a new 4·9 km branch taking 1668mm gauge trains to Barcelona Airport, which is expected to cost €139·8m to build. As well as suburban services running through to destinations northeast of the city centre, the route would also be used ...
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Off-centre load alarm
MOVING trains can be automatically weighed by SilverPoint+, which will warn operators of overweight or incorrectly loaded vehicles and send text alerts to the train crew’s mobile telephones.Installed without needing to modify the rails, SilverPoint+ reports axle, bogie and total weights, and compares front and rear weight readings. An option ...
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News
FSCargo to stand alone
ITALIAN Railways has decided to restructure its freight operation as a stand-alone company later this year. After discussing the proposal with the Director of the Treasury at the Ministry of Finance Domenico Siniscalco, FS President & Administrator-General Giancarlo Cimoli informed the FS and Trenitalia boards on March 3 that the ...
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A marriage is arranged
ON FEBRUARY 24 the Hong Kong government instructed Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corp and Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp to start negotiations for a merger. The government said that the talks should be completed by August 31 and specified a number of key objectives.’To ensure that the public can benefit from ...
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News
Operators respond to bomb attacks
ON MARCH 4 French National Railways ordered 10000 staff out on to the tracks to look for bombs following threats from an unknown group called AZF. Letters to the Interior Ministry last December were followed by a ransom demand in February. AZF alerted the authorities to a bomb in the ...
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News
Bombardier to axe seven plants
PRESIDENT & Chief Executive Officer Paul Tellier announced a reduction of 6600 jobs in rail manufacturing on March 17 after Bombardier Transportation recorded ’disappointing financial results’ in the last quarter of the year to January 31 2004. The cuts will be achieved by closing seven production sites in five countries ...
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BA bids opened
A CONSORTIUM OF Dycasa and Dragados Obras y Proyectos has presented the lowest bid of 95·2m pesos to undertake civil works for a 2·9 km extension of Line A in Buenos Aires from Primera Junta to Nazca, with intermediate stations at Pu
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Two bids for Uruguayan upgrade
Director of Railways Juan Echeverz.While the private sector will tackle the core network, Echeverz said that upgrading work would begin within the next few months on a further 500 km, comprising the route ’that connects Salto with Paysandú and Fray Bentos’. This would be undertaken by former AFE personnel transferred ...
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Border rail link
MARKING the start of high speed construction between Barcelona and the French border, Spanish Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos visited works between Sils and Riudellots on March 9, where Sacyr and Scrinser are executing a €24·1m contract to build 7·3 km of alignment within 19 months.Elsewhere between Barcelona and Girona, contracts ...
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Passenger News in Brief
This month CityNightLine plans to introduce refurbished double-deck sleeping cars on services to Amsterdam from Zürich and München. Replacing T2S vehicles, the modernised coaches offer single and double cabins in two classes, with and without showers.Suburban rail passengers in Melbourne can now send a text message to Connex Trains requesting ...