All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1387
-
News
NEWS
Spanish National Railways President Miguel Corsini signed an accord with Chilean State Railways Director-General Jaime Mondaca on April 16 for the sale of rolling stock worth Pts9bn to Chile by the end of 2002. It covers 22 Class 440R commuter EMUs, a Class 308 diesel loco, five Class 444 inter-regional ...
-
News
Passenger PORTFOLIO
In Briefn Amtrak is altering market branding for its first class service on a number of corridors. The San Diegan trains now carry Pacific Class, while in the Pacific Northwest first class is redesignated Cascade Business Class. In the run up to introduction of Acela high speed trains on ...
-
News
Passenger PORTFOLIO
SNCF has deployed two Eurostar sets on domestic services. From March 15 the units, redesignated TGV TM, began operating from Dunkerque and Valenciennes to Paris. SNCF plans to diagram them for the Brussels - Nice service during the summerSNCF is planning to open the first phase of the Eole cross-Paris ...
-
News
PEOPLE
Swiss Federal Railways has confirmed the senior posts on its four new divisions. Reporting to the Head of Passenger division Paul Blumenthal are: Philippe Gauderon (Regional services); Vincent Ducrot (Intercity); Peter Lehmann (Client Services); Serge Anet/Thomas Portmann (Production); Hans-Kaspar Weber (Baggage and personal security) and Ferdinando Gianella (Rolling stock). ...
-
News
Pointers
n Look for an announcement this month of the preferred bidders to control Peru’s state rail network now run by Enafer. Under a process being organised by Mercer Management Consultants, the government will retain ownership of the infrastructure, and the concessionaires will be responsible for selling timetable paths to various ...
-
News
RailNoise for Windows
WS atkins Noise & Vibration has released a Windows version of its RailNoise software which calculates operational noise generated by railways and guided transport systems (RG 3.97 p189). Running under Windows 95, 98 or NT4, RailNoise 98 is available in three versions: LT for smaller projects, Standard, and Enterprise with ...
-
News
Sidetrack
Airport is all at seaWith growth at Schiphol airport continuing (p355), its management, the airlines based there and the air traffic authority have concluded that the construction of an off-shore airport, similar to that serving Osaka in Japan, is the best solution, and is needed by 2010. Connection to the ...
-
News
Tagus troubles
AS PREDICTED last month, no celebrations were held in Lisboa on April 25 to mark the launch of cross-Tagus rail services. Testing was still under way early last month on the cross-Tagus route, and the double-deck EMUs (below) built for the service to be operated by concessionaire Fertagus were only ...
-
News
Railtrack boosts rolling 10-year plan to £27bn
THE 1999 Network Management Statement which Railtrack is required to publish each year suggests that total spending on Britain’s national network in the 10 years from April 1 1999 to March 31 2009 is expected to reach £27·1bn. This is 64% higher than the £16·5bn foreseen in the 1998 NMS. ...
-
News
World Speed Survey 1999
Sir - Work has now begun on the 1999 World Speed Survey, which as usual will be based on the summer timetables. Our 1997 review prompted an above-average reader response. It seems appropriate now to reply in the hope that with help from readers we can avoid errors. These days ...
-
News
Athens Line 2 breakthrough
ON MARCH 26 a tunnel boring machine broke through into the station box at Agiou Ioanni station in the southeastern suburb of Neos Kosmos, marking the completion of tunnelling on Line 2 of the Athens Metro. Work on the Sepolia - Dafni line is late because boring was suspended for ...
-
News
NS float in 2003
THE NETHERLANDS cabinet proposed at the end of March that national rail operator NS should be privatised in 2003, through a stock market flotation expected to raise at least 4bn guilders. In order to boost the sale price, NS will retain its monopoly of inter-city services for the next 10 ...
-
News
Line 9 reaches Arganda del Rey
ON APRIL 7 Madrid Metro inaugurated its 18·3 km suburban feeder line between Puerta de Arganda and Arganda del Rey. Operating above ground along a former industrial railway alignment, the route is worked as an extension of Line 9 with intermediate stations at Rivas Urbanizaciones, Rivas Vaciamadrid and La Poveda.Operating ...
-
News
Piggyback in favour after Mont-Blanc tunnel fire
RARELY indeed do road accidents attract significant media attention. But the catastrophic fire in the 11·6 km Franco-Italian Mont-Blanc road tunnel on March 24 certainly did - despite the dominance of Balkan war coverage. It also prompted serious calls for much more European freight to be moved by rail. Among ...
-
News
CN-IC merger approved
ON March 25 the US Surface Transportation Board voted unanimously to approve the merger of Canadian National and Illinois Central. The STB will issue its written decision on May 25, and this is to become effective on June 24. CN’s 25600 route-km and IC’s 5420 route-km will be integrated from ...
-
News
Arsenal climate chamber will be hot property
SNOW OR SUNSHINE can be produced at will in the climate chamber at Wien-Arsenal, where rolling stock of all kinds is sent to check its performance in extreme weather conditions. Built in 1960 mainly to serve the research arm of the UIC, the test centre was refurbished in 1977. It ...
-
News
Tel Aviv starts suburban line
ISRAELI Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and National Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon participated in ceremonies in March to mark the start of work on Israel Railways' Tel Aviv suburban network. The first line to Kfar Sava is costed at US$160m for infrastructure and US$88m for rolling stock, but IR ...
-
News
Sterling bags tourist circuits
INDIAN Railways has finally agreed terms with Sterling Resorts to operate two of its eight planned luxury tourist trains, under a profit sharing agreement (RG 2.98 p87). A memorandum of understanding signed in March after three years of negotiations provides for Sterling to own and staff the train, which will ...
-
News
Brenner basics
CONTAINER trains using the Brenner route across the Alps are taking up to 12h from close of loading in München to the first box being unloaded in Verona. A lorry can do the trip in 9h, and prices are typically 10 to 15% cheaper. So the Brenner motorway is crushingly ...