All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1408
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News
Mah awards LRT contracts
CONTRACTS for design and construction of two more ’LRT’ peoplemovers to feed the Singapore metro network were awarded by the island’s Communications Minister Mah Bow Tan in mid-July. The Sengkang and Punggol feeders will be built by a consortium of Singapore Technologies Industrial Corp and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at ...
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Higher wagons optimise axleloads
A study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the Association of American Railroads has proposed the use of higher, shorter wagons to optimise application of heavier axleloads.Drawing data from 22 sample coal train flows from across North America, researchers compared a standard 16m four-axle wagon with 30 tonne axleloads ...
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BA ring study
THE city government of Buenos Aires has commissioned a study into a proposal for a 54 km elevated ring line around the boundary of the municipality. First proposed three years ago, the line is backed by the city’s Secretary of Public Works Nicol
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Roi Baudoin opens
BRUSSELS metro Line 1A services were due to be extended from Heysel to Roi Baudoin with effect from the end of August. A formal ceremony inaugurating the short extension to the northwestern branch was scheduled for August 25.Trains on the line began running regularly to the new terminus on July ...
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Second cross-Nile line design begins
CONSTRUCTION of a third metro line in Cairo has moved a step closer with the launch of detailed design studies. Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels has awarded a US$2·5m contract for the two-year study to a consortium of Systra and Arab Consulting Engineers, which were also involved with Lines 1 ...
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TBTC benefits prove elusive
TEN years ago British Rail conceived the idea of a massive upgrade to its West Coast main line linking London with Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, which was in need of overhaul after electrification in the 1960s and 1970s. Some slight delay was necessary while the previous government sold off ...
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Shake-up in Berlin
READERS keeping a close eye on the financial press would not have been surprised by Andrew Saxe’s warning last month (RG 8.98 p541) about losses at Siemens Verkehrstechnik. It seemed that change was inevitable, and the August announcement that Dr Wolfram Martinsen will leave the post of President of the ...
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NewsBHP tries radio-controlled ECP braking
Australian's largest iron ore producer BHP is experimenting with the latest heavy haul technology by fitting radio-controlled ECP brakes to four locos and 240 wagons
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Privatisation bloom withers
THERE ARE suggestions that moves to push all or part of Netherlands Railways into the private sector have moved down the agenda of the incoming government, which is formed of a coalition of liberal democrats, radical liberals and socialists. Former Transport Minister Annemarie Jorritsma is replaced by Mrs Tineke Netelenbos ...
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Wayside inspection station pinpoints geometric faults in bogies
INTRO: By detecting alignment and tracking faults as a train passes, wheelsets suffering excessive wear caused by bogie defects can be identified before their economic life is compromisedBYLINE: Denis D’Aoust and Grigory Izbinsky*BYLINE: * Denis D’Aoust is Chief Engineer, and Grigory Izbinsky is President, Wayside Inspection Devices IncREPROFILING or ...
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News
Bordeaux rouge turns yellow
VINTAGE debates have a habit of outlasting the politicians in the French wine capital Bordeaux. The one about a tram network has been going on since 1981, and it could run for a while yet. Earlier battles were about the choice between a steel-wheeled tramway and a rubber-tyred VAL mini-metro, ...
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News
NYCT to build A division control
MTA New York City Transit has selected a consortium headed by Union Switch & Signal with Syseca of Great Britain to equip a new control centre for the A division of its subway network. The work forms part of a programme to install automatic train supervision throughout the 1150 track-km ...
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News
Virgin opens Euston business lounge
Virgin Rail has opened a redesigned £250000 business waiting area at London’s Euston station. It offers an expanded range of facilities to cater for passengers travelling first class on the Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow routes.Bright colours and curvaceous lines have been combined to produce an area which provides facilities ...
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Speedrail wins Sydney - Canberra
AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister John Howard announced on August 4 that the federal and New South Wales state governments had selected the Speedrail consortium as preferred bidder for a 30-year concession to build and operate a 270 km high-speed line between Sydney and Canberra. The project is costed at around A$3·5bn. ...
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News
CITY NEWS
CAPTION: A formal opening date for Britain’s third light rail line is due to be announced at the beginning of this month, following a meeting between the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (Centro) and concessionaire Altram. Driver training is under way with the Ansaldo LRVs, and the line has been ...
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News
CITY NEWS
CAPTION: A delegation from the Valencia light rail project in Venezuela, led by President Luis Dias Elias (above) visited the Siemens Transportation Systems plant at Sacramento in July. To mark the occasion one of the additional SD-460 LRVs for St Louis Metrolink was painted in the livery of the similar ...
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News
Governments clash on interstate plans
Western Australia’s Transport Minister Murray Criddle announced on July 30 that Westrail is to be sold as a vertically integrated freight operation in the second quarter of 1999. The state will retain ownership of the land, and of suburban and country passenger services. Federal Transport Minister Mark Vaile responded by ...
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News
London smartcard concession signed
LONDON Transport signed the long-awaited Prestige smartcard fare collection contract with the TranSys consortium on August 13 after what LT's Commercial Director David Bailey described as 'tough and protracted' negotiations. Worth £1bn over 17 years, the deal has been agreed under the terms of Britain's Private Finance Initiative. TranSys ...
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Eight corridors at heart of five-year plan
INTRO: Chinese Railways’ new line and upgrading plan for 1998-2002 envisages investment reaching a new record levelBY 2002 the Chinese Railways main line network will have smashed through the 70000 route-km barrier, with the construction of more than 5000 km of new line over the next five years. At the ...
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Taiwan HSR deal signed
TAIWAN’S Minister of Transport & Communications Lin Feng Cheng and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp President Nita Ing signed the concession contract for construction of the 340 km Taipei - Kaohsiung high speed line on July 23. The signing had been delayed by four weeks after negotiations over land purchase ...