All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 927
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News€486m contract for Torino - Padova upgrade
ITALY: A consortium led by Ansaldo STS has been awarded a €486m contract to upgrade the conventional route between Torino, Milano and Padova with the installation of ETCS Level 2 equipment, the company announced on February 15. The consortium will supply traffic control systems, signalling and telecoms, and upgrade tracks ...
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NewsMadrid tunnel complete
SPAIN: A ceremony on February 11 marked the completion of tunnelling work on the 7·3 km route that will connect high speed lines entering the Madrid from the north and south. Having driven a total of 6·8 km from Chamartín, the 2200 tonne earth pressure balance TBM broke through ...
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NewsWorld rolling stock market February 2011
Australia: CNR began delivering 260 ore wagons designed for 40 tonne axleloads to Fortescue in December. China: Last month GE Transportation and the Ministry of Railways signed a letter of intent to provide $350m of US-built locomotives, sub-assembly kits, service support and signalling systems. Czech Republic: Pesa has ...
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NewsGovernor halts Orlando - Tampa high speed rail project
USA: Florida’s recently-elected Republican Governor Rick Scott announced on February 16 that he had decided to reject any federal funding for the proposed 135 km high speed line between Tampa and Orlando, as the start of a state-wide high speed network. This effectively stops the project, which had been widely ...
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NewsHaramain High Speed Rail station construction contracts signed
SAUDI ARABIA: Contracts have been signed for construction of four of the five stations for the Haramain High Speed Rail project, Saudi Railways Organization announced on February 16. The contracts form Package 2 of Phase 1 of the HHR project. Saudi Bin Laden Group is to build the stations at ...
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NewsWorld rail infrastructure market February 2011
Algeria: The Méditerrail consortium of Alstom and Etrhb handed over the initial 8·7 km of the 23 km Alger tram line to Entreprise du Métro d'Alger for commissioning in December. China: OTN Systems has won contracts to supply its OTN-X3M 10 Gbit/sec optic fibre telecommunications backbone equipment for ...
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News
PKP President dismissed
Andrzej Massel took over as Poland's Vice-Minister for Railways on December 28, following the dismissal of Juliusz Engelhardt. Massel was previously Deputy Director of Poland’s Railway Research & Development Centre, Instytut Kolejnictwa.Two days later, the President & CEO of state railway holding company PKP SA Andrzej Wach was also dismissed, ...
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NewsNew Orleans tram project approved
USA: The Regional Transit Authority in New Orleans has approved moving ahead with final design on the French Quarter tram loop from Canal Street to Press Street via North Rampart Street and St Claude Avenue. In addition, a 1·9 km spur would be built on Elysian Fields Avenue to a ...
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NewsMetro automation gets green light in Brussels
BELGIUM: Presenting its results for 2010 at the beginning of February, Brussels public transport operator STIB unveiled a programme of enhancements to increase network capacity in 2011 and beyond.STIB carried a total of 311·6 million passengers in 2010, up 7% on the previous year, with the metro handling 48% of ...
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NewsCN announces capital investment
CANADA: Canadian National Railway Co announced a 2011 capital spending plan totalling C$1·7bn on February 9. Approximately C$1bn will be allocated to track, bridge and other infrastructure works, with improvements to be made to the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway which was acquired in 2009 to provide a 'missing ...
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NewsEP20 launches a new locomotive family
RUSSIA: This year is due to see the rollout of the prototype EP20 electric locomotive for RZD, being developed by Transmashholding and Alstom in association with the Velnii design institute. The single-section dual-system loco is intended to form the basis for a family of asynchronous-motored passenger and freight locos ...
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NewsAfter the deluge
POLAND: A new bridge over the Poprad river in Nowy Sacz on the Tarnów – Slovakia route was officially opened on January 15, replacing a structure swept away by flooding on June 4 last year. The replacement bridge was constructed by Intop Tarnobrzeg under a 13·2m złoty contract awarded by ...
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NewsLess steep underneath
SWITZERLAND: The abbot of Engelberg Abbey opened the 4043 m long Grafenort – Engelberg tunnel on Switzerland’s metre-gauge Zentralbahn on December 11, with regular services starting the next day. The 10·5% gradient in the tunnel replaces the exceptionally steep 24·6% on the previous route, reducing uphill journey times by 14 ...
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NewsFunding allocated to 78 French urban transport projects
FRANCE: Transport Minister Natahalie Kosciusko-Morizet announced the final tranche of light rail, metro and bus funding allocations under the Grenelle de l’Environnement on February 9. The announcement covers a total of €590m allocated to 78 urban transport projects in 54 conurbations outside Ile-de-France. These include 29 tram projects (152 km), ...
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NewsWorld rail market February 2011
Colombia: Steer Davies Gleave has won a 500m peso contract to revise ridership forecasts for the proposed Bogotá metro, updating a 2008 study by Sener and TMB. France: Egis Rail has won a €32m project management contract for Rennes metro Line B (RG 12.10 p16). India: ...
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NewsGateway Project acceleration to replace ARC trans-Hudson tunnel
USA: Amtrak has proposed accelerating its Gateway Project as a replacement for the cancelled Access to the Region's Core trans-Hudson rail tunnel to increase capacity into Midtown Manhattan. Amtrak's plan would incorporate elements from ARC, including the 14·5 km route, a new and expanded Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River ...
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NewsKallas makes call for change at European Railway Awards
EUROPE: 500 senior railway executives, politicians and suppliers gathered in Brussels on February 9 for the fifth annual European Railway Awards, organised by CER, EIM and UNIFE. In his keynote address, European Commission Vice-President for Transport Siim Kallas once again emphasised the need for the emergence of a ‘Single European ...
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NewsLow-floor trams in service as Istanbul extension testing begins
TURKEY: The Mayor of Istanbul attended a ceremony on February 3 marking the entry into service of the first 14 of 37 Citadis trams being supplied by Alstom Transport. The remainder will enter traffic in the coming weeks. The €73m contract for the trams was awarded by operator Istanbul Ulasim ...
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NewsSix-year US high speed rail programme proposed
USA: Vice-President Joseph Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood unveiled an ambitious $53bn six-year high speed and inter-city passenger rail programme on February 8. Biden said that clarifying the role of federal funding would provide states and cities with the certainty needed to make long-term plans, however the proposal ...
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NewsSouthern LGV projects make progress
FRANCE: Visiting Montpellier on February 7, Transport Secretary Thierry Mariani signed an agreement with local authority representatives covering the programme for construction of the planned Contournement Nîmes - Montpellier bypass line which will carry high speed and freight trains around the two cities as an extension to the Nîmes branch ...