All Railway Gazette International articles in September 2003
All articles published this month.
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News
BHP line to carry 100 million tonnes
BHP BILLITON has accelerated plans that will expand the capacity of its 426 km railway from Newman to Port Hedland to 100 million net tonnes/year by the end of 2004. In the year ended June 30 2002 the line carried 71 million tonnes. Announcing investment totalling A$77m on July 25, ...
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Intelligence September 2003
Argentina: The Entre Ríos provincial government has signed an agreement with ALL Mesopot? mica that will see the Concepción del Uruguay - Paran? route re-opened to freight traffic with new terminals at Estación Parera and Nogoy? . A daily Basavilbaso - Villaguay passenger service is also planned. ALL Central ...
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News
Preparations for InnoTrans 2004 are already well advanced
INTRO: Letter from InnoTransInnoTrans 2004 looks set to repeat the success of previous years. With 12 months still to go before this event starts on September 21 2004, Messe Berlin has already received a record number of applications. The amount of display space that has been reserved is almost equivalent ...
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News
Pendeltåg X60 EMU takes shape
Harry Hondius MSc reports from Salzgitter NOW UNDER construction at the Alstom LHB plant in Salzgitter are the first cars for a fleet of innovative articulated low-floor cars to operate Pendeltåg suburban services in Stockholm. Ordered last year by Storstockholms Lokaltrafik AB, they are derived from the Lirex experimental multiple-unit ...
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Smart card accord
RAIL and bus operators in the Greater Tokyo region have agreed to introduce a common smart card by 2006 that can be used on services run by 53 organisations. Around six million passengers use the Suica smart card introduced by JR-East in 2001, and two other rail operators have smart ...
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News
Cost control tops the agenda as refranchising moves ahead
INTRO: With the complex relationships of the privatised rail industry driving costs and subsidies to record levels, politicians are asking whether Britain still needs its railways. Murray Hughes looks at recent developmentsTEN YEARS have passed since the Railways Act 1993, the legislation passed by John Major’s Conservative government that brought ...
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Financial rescue agreed
ALSTOM announced on August 6 that it had secured a comprehensive financial package with the agreement of more than 30 of its banks. This will enable the company to repay its existing debt facilities which mature in the first half of 2004, as well as providing short and medium-term liquidity.The ...
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News
RZD reforms move ahead
ON OCTOBER 1 Russian Railways will begin life as a joint stock company, OAO RZD, marking the start of the second phase of the railway reform programme. The company will remain 100% state-owned, according to Vice-Minister of Railways Anna Belova.Reviewing progress with the reform programme on July 25, Mrs Belova ...
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News
Alpine plan cleared
PLANS TO introduce rolling motorway services over the 175 km Fréjus corridor between Aiton-Bourganeuf in France and Orbassano in Italy have been cleared by the European Commission. On August 4 the EC confirmed that it had given the go-ahead for the formation of Autoroute Ferroviaire Alpine, a 50:50 joint venture ...
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Amtrak reform bill goes to Congress
INTRO: Julian Wolinsky reports on the latest developments in the saga of the US long-distance passenger trainOn August 5 the US administration presented its Passenger Rail Reform Bill to Congress, proposing the breaking up of Amtrak and privatisation of some parts, together with the devolving of control and financial responsibility ...
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News
Angolan restoration
LAST MONTH was due to see the start of work on rehabilitating Angola’s 1067mm gauge Caminhos de Ferro do Luanda. This runs eastwards for 424 km from the Atlantic coast to Malanje, with a southern branch to Dondo. In recent years trains have only been running between Luanda and Dondo.Transport ...
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North Rail approved
THE PHILIPPINES government announced on August 8 that it had approved plans for construction of the first stage of the planned North Rail express commuter railway, at an estimated cost of 27·6bn pesos. The project has been cleared by the Investment Co-ordination Committee of the National Economic Development Authority. NEDA ...
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Intermodal fly ash in bulk
CEMENT maker RMC Rugby has ordered 40 intermodal H-type ISO-Veyor units from inBulk Technologies for transporting fly ash from power stations.The H-type is a cylindrical vessel with 34m3 capacity constructed within the dimensions of a 30ft ISO container, and can be handled and transported using the same equipment. Once it ...
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News
Authority will revive SLR
PLANS FOR a comprehensive revival of Sri Lanka’s rail network were announced by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesignhe on August 11. Consultants are to be appointed to look at improving the management structure, whilst Indian engineers will start on urgent repairs, he said. The Prime Minister also hopes to see services ...
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News
Ballast machine cleans up
BERLIN-BASED contractor MGW Gleis- & Weichenbau GmbH & Co KG is using an RM 95-700 high capacity ballast cleaning machine from Plasser & Theurer for maintenance work on the German rail network. The eight-axle articulated hydraulic machine offers a precise, laser-aligned cutting of the subgrade, with integrated supply of new ...
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News
Batignolles sale
AS PART of its strategy to focus on services and reduce its exposure to cyclical construction activities, Amec has signed an agreement to sell 51% of French construction business Spie Batignolles to management buy-out vehicle Financière Spie Batignolles for €15·3m. The management offer was announced in May, and completion of ...
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Battery power
SAFT is supplying three 24V batteries for each of the 23 three-car diesel multiple-units being built by CAF for Northern Ireland Railways. The underframe-mounted batteries comprise 20 SRX 190 FR cells, designed to deliver short-duration high current discharges of up to 1 min at five times normal capacity when starting ...
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Mannheim tests grooved rails with elastic bearings
BYLINE: Anabel HengelmannGetzner Werkstoffe GmbHIN THE search for a smoother ride for street-running tram and light rail lines, Getzner Werkstoffe has been developing an elastic support structure for grooved rails over the past two or three years, in co-operation with Mannheimer Versorgungs- und Verkehrsgesellschaft AG. The system combines external ...
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Rivals skirmish over Beijing - Shanghai
WITH maglev technology effectively ruled out for the 1300 km high speed line planned between Beijing and Shanghai (RG 8.03 p484), a serious battle is shaping up between rival interests promoting Japanese Shinkansen, French TGV and German ICE technology. Already it is looking like a re-run of the fight to ...
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Nine bid for Line A
A TOTAL OF nine groups have submitted bids to prequalify for a contract to build the 3·5 km extension of Buenos Aires metro Line A from Primera Junta to Nazca. With intermediate stations at Puan, Carabobo and Flores, the extension is expected to take three years to build within a ...