All Railway Gazette International articles in September 2003
All articles published this month.
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News
Watching the wheels
SPANISH National Railways is using four Multirail in-sleeper wheel force measuring units supplied by Schenck Process, following the completion of three months of testing.Developed from established technology used to measure the weight of trains passing at low speeds, Multirail is able to highlight wheel flats and other faults on trains ...
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News
Puigcerdà upgrade
TENDERS are to be called for track and overhead line equipment renewal works on the 17·8 km Borgonyà - Ripoll section of Renfe’s Barcelona - Puigcerdà route, within a budget of €18·3m. Expected to take 22 months to complete, work will include drainage improvements, relaying with long-welded UIC54 rail on ...
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News
PUBLICATIONS
Trans-Canada Rail Guideby Melissa Graham’If we cannot export the scenery, we shall have to import the tourists’, said the General Manager of Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885. The surviving trans-Canadian train services remain popular tourist attractions, and no other mode of travel so well conveys a sense of the country’s ...
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News
Pointers
Pending the completion of track repairs between Santo Tomé and Santa Fe, Trenes de Buenos Aires expects to begin operating a weekly service between the Argentinian capital and Santa Fe this month. The first train ran as far as Santo Tomé on August 1. On board was Transport Secretary Ricardo ...
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Timetable planner
VIRIATO is a timetable planning and co-ordination tool designed to handle the increasing numbers of parties involved in modern service planning processes. Different timetable proposals can be generated and stored for comparison, using common data for the train specifications. Train graphs can be produced, and the software is available in ...
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PEOPLE
Aurangzeb Khan (left) has become General Manager of Pakistan Railways on the retirement of Iqbal Samad Khan. Gulrez Hasmey has become Chief Commercial Manager, Freight, succeeding Nazir Ahmad who was appointed Additional General Manager Freight on the retirement of Mian Abdul Qayyum. Muhammad Aslam has been appointed Chief Personnel Officer, ...
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News
Tilt trains out
GERMAN Railway was taken by surprise on July 24 when the Federal Railway Office (EBA) suddenly ordered the withdrawal of the 20-strong fleet of Class 605 ICE tilting diesel sets, citing a report suggesting there were problems with fatigue resistance of the axles. Class 605 was intended to bring ICE ...
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News
Metros
China: UK firm Smith Bros & Webb has won orders totalling £500000 to supply metro car washing plants to the Shenzhen and Guangzhou metros. Daewoo Construction Co Ltd expects to begin civil engineering work this month on the 22 km, 9·5bn yuan Shenyang metro network.This month is expected to see ...
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Market
Australia: Queensland Rail has been awarded a A$2·4m contract running to December 2005 for rail grinding on WestNet Rail’s 1067mm gauge lines in Western Australia.Brazil: CVRD has announced plans to buy 77 diesel locomoties and 2010 wagons to handle traffic rising at 9% a year. China:Bombardier Sifang Power (Qingdao) Transportation ...
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News
Stand-off over Pilbara ore line
ATTEMPTS to stitch together a coalition of three groups holding rights to work virgin iron ore deposits in the Central Pilbara region of Western Australia, northwest of Newman, broke down at the end of July. However, a strong market with prospects for growing demand, especially in China, is piling on ...
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News
On-board internet
UK inter-city train operator GNER announced on August 11 that it is preparing a business case to install broadband internet access on its trains. Subject to the outcome of a pilot project between King’s Cross and Scotland for three months starting in mid-September, GNER plans to fit the equipment to ...
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News
Secaucus interchange opens
UNDER CONSTRUCTION for more than eight years, the $450m Secaucus Transfer interchange in New Jersey will see its first fare-paying passengers on September 6. However, NJ Transit board decided on July 31 that the multilevel station linking 10 of its 11 commuter rail routes will initially be open only at ...
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News
Intelligent pantograph on trial
INTRO: Ralf Roman Rossberg reports on tests with an actively-controlled pantograph GERMAN Railway and Bombardier have developed an actively-controlled pantograph to permit operation at higher speeds without costly alterations to overhead line equipment. The single-arm ASP design is also expected to reduce contact noise by 10dB(A) and to halve wear ...
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Hybrid railcar
EAST JAPAN Railway has completed the first trial runs with its ’environmentally-friendly’ New Energy Train, a hybrid diesel-electric railcar designated Series E991. The tests were conducted on the 40 km Utsonomiya - Nikko line. The 19·5m long 1067mm gauge vehicle has a top speed of 100 km/h. It is driven ...
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Tranz Rail sale on hold
ON AUGUST 13 New Zealand’s Tranz Rail confirmed that ’there have been limited discussions’ with Toll Holdings of Australia about improvements to the company’s most recent offer, submitted on July 9. The offer for NZ$0·95 per share required 90% acceptance by August 29 and replaced Toll’s previous takeover bid (RG ...
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News
Hit by trams
Carillion plc issued a trading update on July 10, in advance of an interim results announcement on September 10. Profit in Construction Services for the six months to June 30 is likely to be £10m less than expected, owing to difficulties with the Nottingham Express Transit light rail public-private partnership ...
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News
Infrastructure industry heads for Manchester
THE INFRARAIL 2003 exhibition will be held at the G-MEX centre in Manchester from September 16 to 18. Every aspect of infrastructure work will be on show, from civil engineering to fare collection and staff recruitment.Aimed at all companies involved in the rail infrastructure market, Infrarail will be of interest ...
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News
LA Gold line inaugurated
JULY 28 saw the start of revenue services on the 22 km Gold line light rail route linking Los Angeles and Pasadena, following a weekend of free rides. Local politicians and MTA board members participated in a dedication ceremony at Union Station on July 25, including Los Angeles Mayor James ...
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Green Kid is a smaller Goat
GREEN Kid is the latest hybrid shunting locomotive developed by RailPower Technologies. Smaller than the firm’s Green Goat (RG 11.01 p786), Green Kid is designed for operation in grain terminals, ports and other industrial sites where the duty cycle is less harsh than the busy shunting yards Green Goat is ...