All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1323
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News
Freight strategy unveiled
A £4bn investment package to boost rail freight traffic in Britain was announced on May 3 by the Strategic Rail Authority’s Freight Director Julia Clarke. Intended to form part of the SRA’s Strategic Plan due later this year, the freight strategy is designed to deliver the 80% increase in tonne-km ...
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Nigerian funding
TRANSPORT Minister Ojo Maduekwe has allocated state finance totalling 1bn naira for rehabilitation of the Nigerian rail network. The move followed a promise made by President Olusegun Obasanjo on April 26 to complete the revitalisation of the national railways within two years. The President made his comments during the inauguration ...
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S-Bahn funds
AUSTRIAN Transport Minister Monika Forstinger has approved an initial grant of Sch600m towards the development of an S-Bahn network in Salzburg. A further Sch150m will come from the local authority towards the first stage of the Sch3bn scheme originally agreed in 1998. A start of work is expected shortly on ...
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Investment funds sought
THIS YEAR’S TransAfrica 21 conference, organised on May 8-10 in London by GlobalSA Ltd within the Africa Investment Forum promotional framework, treated delegates to a range of contrasting views on ways to privatise or restructure their railways.With concessioning and privatisation starting to bear fruit in several African countries, investment is ...
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Line H gets under way
On April 19 Aníbal Ibarra, head of the Buenos Aires city government, formally marked the start of work on metro Line H during a ceremony at the site of the future Incl
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Grasping the nettle
EARLIER this year alarming reports surfaced about a McKinsey study that envisaged German Railway making huge cuts in passenger and freight services in an attempt to avoid massive financial losses in the next few years. At the time DB acknowledged that McKinsey had been asked to undertake studies, but was ...
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MetroRail keeps growing
WASHINGTON Metro held a groundbreaking ceremony on May 8 for its 5 km Blue line extension from Addison Road to Largo, Maryland (RG 1.01 p29). The $434m project includes two new stations, and the line is expected to open at the end of 2004.On April 19 the WMATA board ...
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Infraspeed wins HSL-Zuid PPP
ON MAY 11 Dutch Transport Minister Tineke Netelenbos and Finance Minister Gunnar Zalm announced that a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed for provision and maintenance of track, signalling, power supplies, noise barriers and communication systems on HSL-Zuid between Amsterdam and the Belgian border.The Infraspeed BV consortium has been selected ...
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Industry News
Germany: Voith Turbo opened a service centre in Heidenheim on May 9. It stocks 19000 spare parts, and will provide 24h service to locomotive hire pools.South Africa: Austrian track materials manufacturer VAE AG has acquired 65% of Transwert Perway (Pty) Ltd.USA: Harris Corp announced on May 9 that it had ...
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Integrated smart ticketing
CUBIC Transportation Systems is to install smart card fare collection equipment on 14 Baltimore metro stations and 957 buses under a US$21·9m contract awarded by Maryland MTA on April 18. The equipment is compatible with that already in use on the Washington metro. A second contract will cover Baltimore’s light ...
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INTELLIGENCE
Australia: An audit of the interstate rail network carried out for Australian Rail Track Corp by Booz·Allen & Hamilton suggests that A$507m needs to be spent over the next five to six years to attract more freight to rail (p397). A$398m would go on the Melbourne - Sydney - Brisbane ...
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Wheel-rail interface must be managed
’WEAR IS HEALTHY, but uncontrolled wear is not.’ Richard Keefe, Infrastructure Engineering Manager for MTR Corp in Hong Kong, was referring to the management of rail deterioration on one of the world’s busiest metros. Intriguingly, the model developed for rail management on Hong Kong’s MTR had been prescribed by BHP, ...
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Intrastate revival
THE VICTORIA state government has confirmed plans to reinstate a number of regional passenger services radiating from Melbourne. Under the previous state administration, several services were replaced by buses. Trains are due to begin running again to Mildura, Ararat and Bairnsdale in 2003, and to Leongatha in 2004. Extensive work ...
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Separation issue not resolved
OF ALL THE CHANGES thrust on the world’s railways in the last decade of the 20th century, separating operations from infrastructure was the most fundamental. Embraced by few and denigrated by many, separation generated more controversy than any other topic. In Britain, it led to unprecedented havoc after last October’s ...
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Letters
Mixed train dailySir - The successful Amsterdam - Milano OverNight Express (RG 5.01 p339) shows that inspiration, innovation and dedication can produce the high-quality service that just-in-time freight customers demand but seldom receive from rail. In this interesting experiment, the modern equivalent of the old-style ’mixed’ passenger and freight train, ...
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Traffic management software
ADTRANZ Signal A/S of Denmark has completed the development of its Ebicos TMS traffic management software. Already sold to railways in Sweden, Portugal, India and Australia, a test version of the software is due to be up and running in Sweden this month.Adtranz Signal has invested €25m in developing Ebicos ...
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Market
Australia: The Northern Territory government has called tenders for construction of a A$30m intermodal terminal at Darwin’s East Arm port, including a rail link to the Alice - Darwin line (p386).Bangladesh: Trelleborg Industrial is supplying rubber chevron springs for use on 700 freight wagon bogies.Brazil: MRS Logística took delivery last ...
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Metros
France: With fares income up 3·5% at Fr15·7bn, RATP has reported a profit of Fr143m for 2000, up from Fr27m in 1999. A new record of 2·6billion passengers were carried in 2000 across all modes, with metro traffic up 4·8%, RER 5·1% and light rail 10·3%.Toulouse transport authority SMTC signed ...
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Submerged monorail proposed for Stonehenge
UK: Appointed to design a new visitor centre at the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, Melbourne-based architects Denton Corker Marshall suggested building 'a submerged monorail' in a trench to carry visitors around the stone age monument. The suggestion drew cries of derision from residents of Sydney, who have been blessed ...