All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1315
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Work begins on Tibet line
CEREMONIES were held in Lhasa and Golmud on June 29 to mark the start of work on the 1118 km Qinghai - Tibet railway (RG 5.01 p319). The two cities were decorated with bunting, flags and balloons for the ceremonies, with auspicious Tibetan designs displayed prominently. Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji ...
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BHP breaks its own ’heaviest train’ record
ON JUNE 21 BHP Iron Ore set a new world record by running the longest and heaviest freight train, between Yandi mine and Port Hedland in the Pilbara region of Western Australia (below). The run was the latest manifestation of BHPIO’s ongoing programme of leading-edge research. Vice-President Mike Darby said ...
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Straits bridges
WE REPORTED last month that Russian Railways’ plans for construction of a link to the island of Sakhalin were firming up. Head of the Sakhalin Department of Transport & Communications V Romanov confirmed last month that a bridge rather than a tunnel will be built, crossing the Tatar Strait between ...
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Industry in Brief
On July 2 Westinghouse Signals Ltd changed its name to Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd to reflect its new and wider product range.Patentes Talgo SA recorded a turnover of €182m in 2000, up 62·8% from the previous year. EBITDA was €17·6m, with 51% of group revenue coming from manufacturing and 38% ...
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Reshaping the passenger business
LAST YEAR CFR Calatori accounted for 54% of all domestic passenger-km, with the rest split between road and air. Chairman & CEO Valentin Bota describes the loss of traffic between 1990 and 1996 as ’serious’, but says the decline has now slowed, ’following the upturn in the national economy’. During ...
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October Railway speeds up business class
RUSSIA’S PLANS for high-speed train services took a step forward on June 11, when the Nevsky Express was launched between Moscow and St Petersburg. Formed from 12 of the 18 air-conditioned business class cars built at Tver for 200 km/h operation, the train is hauled by a refurbished CS-200 electric ...
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QR’s Tilt Train wins the business
SO SUCCESSFUL have Queensland Railways’ 1067mm gauge tilting trains been that airlines flying betwen Brisbane and Rockhampton have found they have a strong competitor. Queensland Transport Minister Steve Bredhauer said last month that rail patronage on the 639 km route had risen by 66% since the trains were introduced in ...
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Intermodal faces capacity constraints
EFFORTS to surmount obstacles to international freight crossing Europe’s rail frontiers are making headway at last, though it would be premature to claim that the tide has turned against road competition. UIC reports that European freight tonne-km was 7% higher in 2000 than in 1999, with the international component up ...
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Line A car deal
ONJULY 4 the Comune di Roma selected CAF of Spain to supply a fleet of 33 six-car trains to boost capacity on metro Line A. The €231m deal includes an option for a further 12 sets, and provision for a five-year maintenance agreement. Delivery of the first train to Metro.Ro ...
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Integrated smart card
SMART cards can be recharged and account histories accessed over the internet using Nextfare Web Services, from Cubic Transportation Systems.Launched at the Card Tech conference in Las Vegas earlier this year, the software suite allows transit operators to offer customers a range of fare options and reward programmes. Multiple operators ...
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Smart cards to be standardised
THE ASSOCIATION of German Transport Undertakings is to draw up a set of standards for smart card ticketing. VDV members and industry partners will develop the technical and security specifications for future cards.Companies will use the specifications to simplify the use of smart cards across different networks, and to encourage ...
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Catalan trams
BARCELONA’s Autoritat del Transport Metropolità has approved plans for two more light rail lines, serving the eastern suburbs. With a total of 31 stops, the two lines will cost around Pts30bn. One will connect Gorg de Badalona with Barcelona Nord. The second will link the Renfe station at Sant Adrià ...
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Cleaning venture
FROM October 1 Norway’s medium-distance trains are to be cleaned by a new company, NSB Trafikservice AS. This is a joint venture between Norwegian State Railways and cleaning services provider ISS Norway. This is part of the ISS services group, which also has contracts with London Underground and several British ...
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Funding collapse ends long-term investment hopes
THE RESPECTED Institute of Economic Affairs must have been aghast. Its June 26 conference on The Future of UK Rail was intended to celebrate the first anniversary of a 10-year funding package that would see £63bn of public cash and private capital pour into Britain’s privatised railway, leading to 50% ...
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Cool comfort comes to the Paris metro
PARIS Transport Authority has awarded a contract worth €695m to a consortium of Alstom, Bombardier and Technicatome for 161 five-car MF2000 steel-wheeled metro trainsets. The order follows a long evaluation process - bids originally had to be submitted to RATP in April 1998.The order will replace about half the MF67 ...
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Shinkansen comes to York
THE FIRST Japanese Shinkansen carriage to be exhibited outside Japan was unveiled at Britain’s National Railway Museum in York by His Excellency The Ambassador of Japan Sadayuki Hayashi on July 12.Built in 1976, Series 0 car number 22-141 was withdrawn in 2000 after travelling over 10 million km. It was ...
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PR seeks concessionaires
THE PAKISTAN government has ruled that there is no question of full privatisation of the country’s 7791 km network, but private concessionaires have been invited to run passenger trains on selected routes. Initial response has been mixed, with some companies reluctant to bid for fear that they would face unfair ...
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Door contract
A partnership of Parker Pneumatic and Fersystems has been selected to supply complete automatic internal door operating mechanisms for the upgrading of SNCF regional trains.Reader Enquiry Numbers Parker Pneumatic148Fersystems149
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High speed contracts
THESPANISH cabinet has given its approval for tenders to be called for civil works on the 12·8 km Santaella - Puente Genil section of the Córdoba - M
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Loans fund corridor upgrades
CFR has negotiated several international loans to fund the modernisation of its two main international corridors. European Investment Bank financing worth €200m was negotiated in 1998 for the 160 km core section of Corridor IV between Bucuresti and Brasov, which is shared over the 59 km to Ploesti by Corridor ...