All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1388

  • News

    Toronto beckons urban rail suppliers

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    AROUND 7000 visitors and delegates are expected to converge on the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on May 23-27. Prominent among them will be delegates attending the 53rd Congress of the International Union of Public Transport, which is sharing this modern venue with the City Transport 99 exhibition. Supporting events include ...

  • News

    Bundesboxes Berlin-bound

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    As Sidetrack was closing for press, ceremonies in Berlin on April 19 marked the formal opening of the new home of Germany’s government at the rebuilt Reichstag. The transfer of power from Bonn requires government departments to be dismantled and reassembled in their new home.The impact of the move on ...

  • News

    Big three lead rail renaissance

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: By focusing on customer service and investing in both infrastructure and new equipment, Mexico’s three major concessionaires are working to provide safe, reliable and punctual freight service and win back traffic lost to road. Senior executives from TFM, Ferromex and Ferrosur spoke to Robert Preston about the progress they ...

  • News

    Bilbao termini

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    SPANISH National Railways has completed a further rationalisation of local rail services in Bilbao, with the diversion of suburban routes C1 and C2 from Santurtzi and Muskiz into the main terminus at Abando (RG 3.97 p153). This has involved reconstruction of an orbital freight line and construction of a 600m ...

  • News

    Luggage blocker

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    LAST AUGUST we reported that German Railway and national airline Lufthansa had signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at switching short-haul domestic air traffic to rail. When Frankfurt Airport’s dedicated inter-city station opens on May 30, the trip by rail to Stuttgart will take only 1h 15min, while from 2002 ...

  • News

    MAV boosts investment

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    HUNGARIAN Railways announced plans in March to invest around HF65bn in upgrading and network development this year, with a similar amount to be spent in 2000. Around three-quarters of this will come from international agencies such as the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development, the European Investment Bank, Kreditanstalt für ...

  • News

    Taiwan breaks ground twice

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    CEREMONIES were held in Kaohsiung on March 26 to mark the formal groundbreaking for construction of the 345 km Taipei - Kaohsiung high-speed line. Participants included Vice-President Lien Chan and Transport Minister Lin Feng-Cheng. President Vincent Siew joined Lin for a second event at Taipao in his home state of ...

  • News

    Building Britain's first high speed line

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    Section 1 only impinges on the urban fabric at Ashford, but Section 2 penetrates to the heart of London where driving 36 km of single-track bored tunnel through some difficult ground beneath existing railways and other structures presents a major engineering challenge

  • News

    Float-out eases Dutch capacity crunch

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    NETHERLANDS Railways has a problem. It has become a victim of its own success. Such is the growth in passenger traffic that NS Reizigers has had to adopt a number of tactics to get more seats on its trains. One important strand is refurbishment of the 1964-built four-car ’Plan T’ ...

  • News

    SMRT cards

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    LAST MONTH Singapore’s Land Transit Authority awarded an S$134·6m contract to ERG Ltd and Motorola Worldwide for the supply of an integrated smart card fare collection system covering all public transport on the island. Around 22000 readers and 5 million cards will be required by the time the project is ...

  • News

    Cassiopeia relaunches JR East sleepers

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    ON April 10 East Japan Railway unveiled its Deluxe Super Night Express train at Tokyo’s Ogu depot. Marketed as Cassiopeia, the 12-car double-deck set is to enter revenue service between Ueno and Sapporo on July 16. It will run northwards on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday each week, returning on Monday, ...

  • News

    Chinese plans

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    CHINESE Railways is to invest 55bn yuan during 1999, the Ministry of Railways announced in March. Under the five-year development plan launched last year (RG 9.98 p611) this year will see the construction of 1320route-km of new line.Last month CR completed feasibility studies for two alternative routes to the Tibetan ...

  • News

    Karachi tries Circular Railconcession

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    MAY 20 is the deadline for submission of proposals to revitalise the Karachi Circular Railway as a high-capacity commuter carrier. Pakistan’s National Mass Transit Authority envisages awarding a 25-year build-operate-transfer concession, with railway-owned land and stations forming a government equity stake in the project.NMTA is looking for private sector promoters ...

  • News

    City NEWS

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    The Chinese city of Dalian has announced plans to relay 9·4 km of its 15 km tramway network this year, and to start work on 30 km of new light rail lines next year. The move reverses earlier proposals to run down and abandon the network.CAPTION: Finnish Railways Ltd has ...

  • News

    City NEWS

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    On March 23 the Denver RTD board approved another $7m for design and construction of the 3 km Central Platte Valley light rail branch. With $2m approved earlier this year, this completes the agency’s share of the $40m project, which will branch off the existing line at Auraria station. Serving ...

  • News

    West Coast conundrum

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    THE SWEDISH government has selected a private consortium as preferred bidder to run passenger services on the West Coast main line between Gøteborg and Malm

  • News

    DB fixes on radio

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    BY THE END of this year radio-based signalling should be operational on German Railway’s route from Kaiserslautern to Lauterecken-Grumbach. The branches from Bielefeld to Dissen-Bad Rothenfelde and from Mainz to Gensingen-Horrweiler, Alzey and Monsheim are to follow shortly afterwards, kicking off a programme to convert 16000 route-km of mainly regional ...

  • News

    Partners promise to deliver on time

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    BYLINE: Union Railways South has the challenge of completing the first phase of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link by October 2003. Newly-appointed Managing Director Chris Jago told Chris Jackson that a partnership with project managers Rail Link Engineering promised ’a win-win solution’ INTRO: Union Railways South has the challenge of ...

  • News

    Dieter

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    Netherlands Railways has been testing methods for removing chewing gum from stations, and found that a mixture of solvents, steam and brushing worked best. Dieter is concerned that more thorough cleaning may have unexpected side effects

  • News

    Dutch tunnels make progress

    1999-05-01T10:00:00Z

    ON MARCH 17 Netherlands Transport Minister Tineke Netelenbos officially launched work on the country’s first bored rail tunnel. The double track Botleks tunnel under the Oude Maas will carry freight trains between the docks and the Betuwe line. The twin 1835m bores will replace the Botleks bridge on Rotterdam’s harbour ...