All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1307
-
News
Prima orders
ON SEPTEMBER 27 French National Railways announced that it had confirmed options to order a further 120 Prima electric freight locos from Alstom Transport SA, and taken another option for 80 more. Deliveries are scheduled to run from October 2005 to March 2007. The contract was formally approved by the ...
-
News
Panama Railway reopens
FREIGHT TRAINS were due to begin running on the Panama Canal Railway in mid-October, following a US$76m reconstruction and conversion to standard gauge. Passenger services resumed in July, using ex-Amtrak locos and coaches. The complete overhaul of the 75·6 km route, including new ballast, sleepers and rails, has taken nearly ...
-
News
A recipe for paralysis
IFTRANSPORT Secretary Stephen Byers had intended to bury the bad news about Railtrack by announcing it just before the bombing of Afghanistan commenced, he did not succeed.The immediate result of his action, which could at worst see shareholders left with nothing, was to enrage the financial institutions. Anthony Bolton at ...
-
News
PEOPLE
PEOPLEMohammad Saeedi Nejad has become head of Iranian Islamic Republic Railways.Priyal de Silva was appointed General Manager of Sri Lanka Railways from October 6. On October 1 Robert Etmans took over as Director of Personnel for DB Cargo, succeeding Birgit Gantz-Rathmann who moves to a similar post at DB’s headquarters ...
-
News
Pointers
n Watch for firm plans to be drawn up for the 300 km link between Kashi in Xinjiang province and Andizhan in Uzbekistan, through Kyrgyzstan, following China’s formal agreement in September to participate in the scheme (RG 4.01 p223).n Look for Iranian Islamic Republic Railways to announce plans ...
-
News
Subways recover swiftly
NEW YORK City Transit officials were amazed how well subway lines near the World Trade Center withstood the collapse of the two towers on September 11, especially as the top of some 85 year-old tunnels ran just 1·5m below street level. Credit was given to the subway’s designers, who supported ...
-
News
Sidetrack
No go at Lo WuMORE than 200 passengers were stranded at Hong Kong’s Lo Wu border crossing on September 29, after refusing to leave a KCR East Rail train. Newspapers had incorrectly reported that opening hours at the checkpoint had been extended by 30 min to handle extra passengers on ...
-
News
Toronto turnround
THREE YEARS ago, the Conservative government in the Province of Ontario dumped financial responsibility for GO Transit on local authorities under a deal that saw it taking on funding of education. It also scrapped subsidies for Toronto Transit Commission. Now it has had second thoughts.The province intends to restore funding ...
-
News
Manila Line 2 work resumes
MANILA’s Light Rail Transit Administration confirmed on August 21 that construction had resumed on metro Line 2. Work had been delayed for several years by land acquisition problems, which were finally settled on July 31. The line is now expected to open for revenue service in the third quarter of ...
-
News
World Speed Survey 2001: Speeds improve, but no changes at the top
Over 20 countries now operate passenger services at over 120 km/h, with 10 countries exceeding 150 km/h. In our biennial survey of the world's fastest journeys, Dr Colin Taylor finds there are no changes in the top slots, though TGV Méditerranée brings France closer to Japan's lead. Most changes lie ...
-
News
Freight accord
FRENCH National Railways and German Railway announced on September 5 that they were forming a working party to study ways of improving cross-border rail freight between their networks. The team will be headed by Dr Helmut Draxler, whose term as Director General of Austrian Federal Railways came to an end ...
-
News
Education across the Øresund
INTRO: Staff involved in cross-border railway operation must be able to understand each others’ languages, culture, and procedures. Technology is often emphasised, but education is also of vital importanceBYLINE: Svend PoulsenChief Advisor Birch & Krogboe AS Consulting EngineersWHEN THE Øresund link between Denmark and Sweden opened last year, it was ...
-
News
PPP inches ahead
ON SEPTEMBER 19 Metronet was named preferred bidder for the Sub-Surface Lines Infraco contract, indicating that progress, albeit slow, continues to be made with the London Underground Public-Private Partnership project. The SSL contract covers the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and East London lines.LU Chairman Derek Smith said that ...
-
News
Marketing alliance
MULTIMODAL Applied Systems and Opcom Pty Ltd have entered into an agreement to market jointly their railway service planning and crew optimisation products. Opcom’s OPCrew and MultiModal’s MultiRail scheduling software will be integrated, with timetables and crew data shared between the products.Opcom’s North American marketing and sales support will be ...
-
News
SNCF forms on-line alliance
ON SEPTEMBER 5 French National Railways announced that it had signed an agreement with Expedia Inc to form a joint venture that will develop SNCF’s existing web presence at www.voyages-sncf.com to provide a wider range of travel services by the end of this year. The site will combine facilities for ...
-
News
Low-floor trams arrive in Schwerin
BOMBARDIER Transportation has supplied the first of 28 articulated SN2001 70% low-floor bogie trams to the German city of Schwerin. The 2·65m wide unidirectional vehicles are from the same family as 27 trams built for Kassel and 34 for Essen. Costing DM3·2m each, the Schwerin cars are due to be ...
-
News
TRA orders ATP package
TAIWAN Railway Administration has awarded an €90m contract to a Bombardier-led consortium for a complete automatic train protection system covering 1200 route-km. The technology will be based on the European standard Ertms, adapted where necessary to local requirements. The order covers on-train equipment for 832 locomotives and multiple-units, 14000 balises ...
-
News
Auxiliary power supplies
AUSTRALIAN train builder A Goninan & Co has ordered nine auxiliary power supply systems from Transtechnik, for use on the fleet of standard-gauge diesel railcars which it is building to replace the existing stock on Western Australia’s Prospector and Avonlink services from Perth to Kalgoorlie and Northam.Each of the nine ...
-
News
Bangkok Blue line makes progress
TRACKLAYING is getting under way on the heavy metro Blue line in Bangkok. Mass Rapid Transit Authority’s construction department confirmed last month that the first section had been completed between Rama IX depot and the station at Tiem Ruam Mitr. Under the 3bn baht contract awarded by MRTA in October ...