All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1306
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News
Success in research demands railway-industry partnerships
INTRO: Research work is increasingly carried out by suppliers and industry, but railways still have an important role in co-ordinating innovation and the development of new ideas. It is vital that performance specifications incorporate railway experience of operations and maintenanceBYLINE: Dr Rainer SchmidbergerDirector of Research & Development,German RailwayTHE SHAPE of ...
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Dieter
CAPTION: Austrian Federal Railways has brought a new twist to the tradition of school trains, bringing the school to the passengers instead of the passengers to the school. In conjunction with Innsbruck University, ÖBB is offering daily language classes in ex-dining cars on regional services. Dieter suggests this may be ...
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East London line go-ahead
BRITISH Transport Secretary Stephen Byers announced on October 9 that he had approved plans for a southern extension to London Underground’s East London line. A 2·5 km link to the South London line and a flyover at New Cross Gate will reconnect the line with the South Central network, enabling ...
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EBA wins wider regulatory powers
INTRO: Legislative changes are set to grant Germany’s Federal Railway Office ’real teeth’, including the ability to intervene directly in negotiations over paths between operators and infrastructure company DB Netz. Murray Hughes asked EBA President Dipl-Ing Horst Stuchly about EBA’s activities, including its role as purseholder for DB’s infrastructure investment ...
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Electrification thresholds
Sir - I read with great interest the report ’Wires added to Russian network’ (RG 4.01 p210) regarding the electrification of RZD lines, and the setting of the threshold at which electrification is justified at 20 to 25 million gross tonne-km a year.The Indian Ministry of Railways has appointed a ...
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Europe follows Japan into friction stir welding
INTRO: Several hundred aluminium cars with non-fusion seams are operating in Japan, and rail vehicle manufacturers elsewhere are now grasping the economic benefits of a joining technique invented in 1991BYLINE: John Davenport, Stephan W Kallee and J Graham WyldeTWI LtdA DECADE ago, the joining technique known as friction stir welding ...
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US light rail expands
SEVERAL US cities reached key milestones in their light rail development during the last week of September. On September 28, Sacramento Regional Transit marked the start of construction on its 17·5 km extension from Mather Field Road to Folsom, which will have nine stations. Work in the Rancho Cordova area ...
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Kyiv facelift
UKRAINIANRailways has completed the refurbishment of Kyiv Central station, which dates from 1927. The eight-month Hr500m project involved four contractors and 5000 workers from over 70 construction companies. In addition to the repair work carried out by Ukrzaliznytsya, a new aluminium and glass-fronted terminal building has been built by Kyivmisklbud, ...
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Finance
Great Britain: Porterbrook Leasing has been selected as preferred bidder to finance 700 Electrostar Class 375 EMU cars for the South Central franchise, valued at over £600m (RG 10.01 p654).Kyrgyzstan: Asian Development Bank is to provide US$100m to fund repair and modernisation of the 350 km Lugovoy - Bishkek - ...
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Task force sets the points
ALLEGATIONS by the European Commission of anti-competitive practices by German Railway, announced on October 12, were at once refuted by DB Chairman Hartmut Mehdorn. We understand that the EC is to investigate an incident in which DB rejected a request from a competing operator to hire traction at cost price ...
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Polish infrastructure handover
POLISH rail infrastructure company Polskie Linie Kolejowe SA officially started operation on October 1. A wholly-owned subsidiary of the Polish State Railways holding company PKP SA, PLK will be responsible for managing the rail network, although the assets will still belong to PKP. PLK will be headed by PKP’s former ...
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Hector and Hercules take over
LOWER exhaust emissions and quieter operation are among the benefits Austrian Federal Railways expects from two fleets of diesel locomotives now under construction. Both are four-axle designs, Hector a centre-cab unit for shunting and short workings, and Hercules a twin-cab loco for main line passenger and freight work.Siemens Austria won ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Canada: On September 26 Canadian Pacific shareholders voted 98% in favour of the division of the company into five independent entities from October 1. The companies are CP Rail, Pan-Canadian Energy, CP Ships, Fording Coal and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.China: The Ministry of Railways has announced plans for two further ...
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RZD starts North Korean studies
ON OCTOBER 11 Russian and South Korean government representatives agreed to establish a bilateral committee to progress the development of rail links between the two countries. The accord was reached at the end of a four-day visit to Seoul, which also discussed progress with reinstating the cross-border link between South ...
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Sakhalin link
MEETING on October 4, the Russian cabinet tentatively approved the US$4bn project to build a fixed rail link to the far-eastern island of Sakhalin. A final decision will be taken next year, although Minsiter of Railways Nikolai Aksyonenko says this is dependent upon backing from Japanese investors.Construction is expected to ...
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‘You cannot live without research’
INTRO: One of the organisations influencing railway research in Europe is the Union of European Railway Industries. General Manager Drewin Nieuwenhuis feels ’the political winds are in favour of rail’, telling Murray Hughes in Brussels that he expected a positive response to UNIFE’s application for EU research fundsDURING THE late ...
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Market
Australia: New South Wales SRA is calling tenders for 14 diesel railcars for use in the Hunter Valley, and for 40 double-deck outer suburban EMU cars.Austria: Elin EBG has won a contract to fit radio remote control to 10 of ÖBB’s Class 1044 electric locomotives for mid-train working, with an ...
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‘Shoddy and unacceptable’, says Marshall
Railtrack Chief Executive Steve Marshall tendered his resignation on October 8, describing the government’s treatment of his company and its shareholders as ’shoddy and unacceptable’. Intending to work out his six-month period of notice, Marshall said that his priorities now were to ’support the company, its people and the administrator’s ...
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Metros
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Kosice Transport of Slovakia has delivered two 1989-built Tatra KT8D5 trams to Sarajevo. Pars Sumperk and Siemens are to refurbish 37 Tatra K2 trams for Sarajevo Tramway over five years.Canada: Services began on Ottawa’s O-Train diesel light rail line on October 15, using three Class 643 Talent DMUs. Mayor ...
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RWMS monitors quality of rail welding
THE QUALITY of rail welding work can be monitored and recorded with a computer-controlled Rail Welding Monitor System recently developed by Plasser American Corp. Running on a Microsoft Windows platform on a notebook computer, the software automatically records and analyses rail welding as it is carried out by Plasser machines.A ...