All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1415
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News
INTELLIGENCE
Argentina: UEPFP is to introduce Talgo rolling stock purchased from Renfe to the 399 km Buenos Aires - Mar del Plata route by the end of this year. Infrastructure improvements allowing a 2h 50min journey time include curve easements, welded rails and resignalling by Siemens.Ferrocarril General Belgrano is testing a ...
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Ore route wins investment
LAST YEAR Khutso Mampeule, Executive Manager of Spoornet’s iron ore business known as Orex, told us that export traffic on the 861 km Sishen - Saldanha iron ore line was on the way to recovery. Mampeule revealed at the end of May that the 1065mm gauge heavy haul route is ...
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LU investment up
LONDON Transport Chief Executive Dennis Tunnicliffe announced on June 11 that LT would invest £1bn in the Underground and bus services over the next two years. The bulk of this will go on stations, track and signalling improvements. £480m will come from operating surpluses and £500m from government grants.The LT ...
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Railtrack invests
INVESTMENT in the British rail network rose by 30% in 1997-98 compared to the previous year, according to the Railtrack annual results presented on June 3. In the year to March 31 spending on asset renewal and network enhancement rose steeply to £1 254m, the highest rate in real terms ...
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Joint venture to refurbish Riga station
REFURBISHMENT work is getting under way on the Central Railway Terminal in the Latvian capital Riga. The project is being undertaken by a Latvian-Norwegian joint venture at a cost understood to exceed US$6m.At the end of last year LDZ awarded a 10-year concession to the Varner Hakon Invest joint venture ...
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Keystone upgrade
A US$16m project to upgrade the Philadelphia - Harrisburg Keystone line is moving ahead rapidly this summer. The work, part of which was carried out last year, includes replacing life-expired wood sleepers and upgrading the station at Lancaster. As the work is completed and track conditions improved, speeds on some ...
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Oil line study
MALAYSIAN national oil company Petronas has appointed Canarail to undertake design of an 80 km industrial railway along the country’s northeast coast. Scheduled to open in 2001, it would link processing plants around Kerteh to the port of Kuantan. Last year Canarail completed an initial feasibility study for the link, ...
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Spending mandated
BRITAIN’s rail operators face the prospect of substantial capital investment for unquantified safety benefits. On May 21 the Health & Safety Executive issued for consultation Draft Railway Safety Regulations which would require widespread installation of the Train Protection & Warning System (RG 1.98 p55) and withdrawal or modification of MkI ...
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PRODUCT NEWS
CAPTION: Trackside signVortok International has developed the Trackguard temporary signboard support, which clamps to the foot of the rail to avoid disturbing ballast and damaging trackside cabling. Manufactured from flexible GRP with a weather-protected metal clamp, Trackguard weighs 12 kg, can be carried and erected by one person, and has ...
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Ottawa takeover
CANADIAN passenger operator VIA Rail reached agreement on June 10 to take over parts of Canadian National’s network in the Ottawa Valley, forming part of its key Montreal - Ottawa route. CN’s Alexandria Subdivision runs from Coteau, Québec, to Hawthorne, Ontario, a distance of 92 km. Excluded from the deal ...
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PASSENGER PORTFOLIO
CAPTION: German Railway marked the completion of its DM300m refurbishment of Berlin’s 8·8 km cross-city Stadtbahn with an inaugural ICE2 special on May 22. With effect from the May 24 timetable changes, ICE services to Berlin were extended from Zoo to the modernised Ostbahnhof via Alexanderplatz (above)CAPTION: EAO has designed ...
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PEOPLE
Claude Boutté, Head of the UIC’s East-West Working Group, was elected President of the Union of European Railway Engineer Associations (UEEIV) on May 20 for a three-year term.Michael P Pracht has been named Vice President, Marketing and Sales for Siemens Transportation Systems Inc. Norberto Achille has been named President of ...
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Territorial tussle in the Pilbara
With demand for iron ore holding up in China and Taiwan despite the financial crisis that hit Asian countries around the Pacific rim a few months ago, three heavy haul lines totalling some 450 km are under construction or planned in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.The most extraordinary aspect ...
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Sidetrack
Line BeePassengers on a Den Haag - Scheveningen tram route this spring had a nasty surprise at one of the stops. A swarm of bees had gathered around the waiting shelter, and as each tram stopped the bees poured in through the open doors.When operator HTM’s control staff realised what ...
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Storming to success
FIGURES released by French and Belgian National Railways suggest that the Paris - Brussels Thalys service has been a spectacular success. Back in 1994, rail’s market share on the inter-capitals route was just 24%. Although the final 71 km of high speed line into Brussels opened only in December, ...
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Track in the swamp
JULY 1 sees the formal launch of the Australian Rail Track Corp, the 'one-stop' infrastructure access body being set up following negotiations between the federal and state transport ministers. It will initially control the trans-Australia routes from Broken Hill and Wodonga (Victoria) to Kalgoorlie and Alice Springs, and market paths ...
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Underground split could cost £1bn
AN EXTRAORDINARY conflict of evidence emerged when a committee of MPs questioned Managing Director of London Underground Denis Tunnicliffe and ex-Chairman of London Transport Peter Ford - sacked by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott on April 17 (p376).Tunnicliffe was asked on April 29 for LU’s reaction to the ’public-private partnership’ ...
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Thameslink every 15min
BRITISH Train Operating Company Thameslink Rail relaunched its cross-London service as two distinct service groups with the summer timetable on May 24, with a simplified 15min interval service pattern for most stations outside peak hours. Bedford - Brighton services via Gatwick Airport have been branded City Flyer, and Luton - ...