All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1223
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News
Waterfall exposes safety management failings
TWO senior managers in RailCorp have been sacked and others faced the prospect of disciplinary action following publication on January 15 of Commissioner Peter McInerney’s interim report into a derailment at Waterfall in New South Wales on January 31 2003. Seven died and 42 were injured (RG 3.03 p122). He ...
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Samjhauta Express reinstated
THE CHAIRMAN of Pakistan’s Railway Board Kurshid Ahmad Khan joined ceremonies at Lahore station on January 15 to dispatch the first cross-border train to India for more than two years. The Samjhauta Express between Lahore and Delhi had been discontinued in 2001.A three-year agreement to restore freight and passenger services ...
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Maglev triumphs and falters
PROMOTERS of magnetic levitation technology in China celebrated the launch of the world’s first fare-paying high speed regular maglev service on December 29 between Shanghai Airport and Pudong. Maglev vehicles formed of five sections depart at 20min intervals, reaching a maximum speed of 430 km/h on their 71/2min journey over ...
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Ferrovías invests
SPEAKING AT the Emepa workshops in Chascomús on December 30 before invited guests including President Néstor Kirchner and Transport Secretary Ricardo Jaime, Ferrovías President Gabriel Romero announced a programme of station and rolling stock refurbishment for the Belgrano Norte commuter concession in Buenos Aires.Work to modernise 22 stations on the ...
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Finance
Australia:The Queensland government has announced A$184m of funding to double-track the 7 km Ormeau - Coomera section of the Gold Coast line used by QR Citytrain, and extend the dual gauge by 9·5 km from Salisbury to Kuraby. A further A$63m has been allocated for additional trainsets.China:Asian Development Bank has ...
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France tests high speed Wi-Fi
FOR A six-month experimental period Wi-Fi access is being made available to passengers on trains operating at up to 300 km/h between Paris, Bordeaux and Pau. The trial was launched in November by Clic TGV, a joint venture of 11 transport and telecoms firms and content providers.A total of 15 ...
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Planning Freight Railways
Edited by Nigel G Harris and Felix SchmidtThe editors of this handbook set out to bring together in a single volume the key material needed by railfreight practitioners, policymakers and transport students, as well as companies which are considering sending freight by rail for the first time.The 246 pages contain ...
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High speed network grows
FASTEST journey times between Madrid and Logroño were cut by 1h 15min on January 19 when Renfe introduced Altaria services to the route. Talgo cars are hauled at up to 200 km/h on the high speed line between Madrid Atocha and Plasencia de Jalón near Zaragoza, where they ...
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Nanjing grows
CONSTRUCTION of metro Line 2 in the Chinese city of Nanjing began on December 28, at the site of Xiangxinyu station. The 21·6 km line is due to open in 2009, at a cost of 9bn yuan. Running from Xishang Bridge to Maqun via Jiangdongmen, Suiximen and Mingu-gong, it will ...
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Not guaranteed
STRIKE action by France’s railway unions on January 21 threw into sharp focus the long-running debate over who controls what happens on the national network. While the dispute is ostensibly about the paucity of this year’s 1% pay rise, it is also a protest against government plans to introduce minimum ...
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Upgrade on hold
ON DECEMBER 17 Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi announced that the 14·5bn ringgit project to double track and electrify KTMB’s north-south trunk line had been postponed. The plan called for upgrading of the 339 km from Ipoh northwards to Padang Besar on the Thai border and the 297 ...
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Houston LRT opens
OVER 15000 passengers rode Houston's 12 km Main Street light rail line in the 4h following the official dedication ceremonies on January 1, which also marked the 25th anniversary of the MTA. The first car was driven through a banner at the Fannin South Park & Ride terminal by former ...
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Wagon hunting
HUNTING, the severe low-frequency lateral acceleration of a vehicle caused by wheel and rail wear, speed and track condition, can increase the risk of derailment, as well as damage a wagon’s payload. The RHD-2000 sensor has been developed to identify vehicles which are badly affected by hunting, allowing remedial action ...
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Raffarin sets infrastructure priorities
INTRO: Rail forms an important part of the French government’s infrastructure programme for the next 20 years. Projects to be taken forward include eight high speed schemes, and a new agency is to be created to fund infrastructure investment. Robert Preston reportsCHAIRING a meeting of the inter-ministerial planning and development ...
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Iran’s next metro makes progress
INTRO: Iran’s principal steel city has ambitious plans to develop an urban rail networkCONSTRUCTION is forging ahead on the initial section of the metro network in Esfahan, around 325 km south of the Iranian capital Tehran. Plans for the network were drawn up in the 1990s, and a start has ...
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Laval in trouble
MONTREAL has been building a three-station extension of its Orange metro line since spring 2002. Running from Henri Bourassa station to Laval, the extension may not see revenue service even after completion in 2006 as the metro’s existing control centre has insufficient capacity.Officials at the Société de Transport de Montréal ...
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Upgrading loan
RECONSTRUCTION of Venezuela’s 244 km Western rail network is expected to get underway this year, following the signing of a loan agreement to fund the work. The Ministry of Finance announced on December 16 that Finance Minister Tobias Nóbrega had signed an 11-year credit agreement with the Vice-President of China’s ...
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Pacific National looks north
AUSTRALIAN interstate freight operator Pacific National has ordered 13 narrow-gauge diesel locos from EDI Rail, as part of its strategy to breach Queensland Rail’s 1067mm gauge stronghold (RG 1.04 p16). Due for delivery in February 2005, the PN class locos will be similar to QR’s 4000 class locos which were ...
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Market
China:Nokia and Shanghai Railway Communication Equipment Factory are to supply a Tetra digital radio network to Ningqi Railway Co for use from June on the Nanjing - Qidong line now under construction.France:SNCF is planning to order 60 electric locomotives from Alstom to haul push-pull services in Ile-de-France. They will be ...
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Mumbai metro plan revived
MAHARASHTRA’S Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde announced on January 10 that the regional government had approved plans to build the first phase of a heavy metro network in Mumbai over the next five years. He said Delhi Metro Rail Corp had been asked to prepare a detailed project report for an ...