All Railway Gazette International articles in September 2006 – Page 3

  • News

    Joint efforts maximise gains

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    INDUSTRY associations, chambers of commerce and national export promotion organisations will be organising 17 joint stands at InnoTrans. Stands highlighting national supply industries will be run by Britain’s Railway Industry Association, Swissrail, Slovakia’s Avokov, the Czech Railway Industry Association, Poland’s rail industry trade association, Taiwan’s Crida, Holland Rail Industry ...

  • News

    Elastomers offer easy upgrade

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    TANK wagons carrying hazardous cargoes will need to be fitted with crash buffers by 2010, the next step in a European process which began with the introduction of UIC standards mandating the use of the energy-absorbing buffers on tank wagons built after January 1 2005.To meet the need to retrofit ...

  • News

    Drive shafts

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    KTR Kupplungstechnik GmbH will be showing a range of drive shaft couplings designed to improve traction reliability and simplify assembly. The torsionally-flexible Rotex coupling with curved-tooth splines compensates for shaft misalignment and damps vibrations; service lives of more than 1millionkm have been achieved. A new application to be highlighted at ...

  • News

    ONCF double-deck

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    MOROCCAN Railways took delivery of its first AnsaldoBreda double deck EMU on August 3, with the arrival in Casablanca of the first of 24 Italian-built trainsets ordered at a cost of €200m.Three months of testing has now begun, and delivery of the remainder of the fleet will begin in October ...

  • News

    Opening doors

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    HÜBNER will be presenting its Varido-Rail G3 door drive. Lightweight construction and refinement of the design has produced a compact drive which is 20% lighter than comparable systems. Mechanical coupling simultaneously reduces the door closing speed and increases the closing force, making the doors easier to maintain.The company will also ...

  • News

    OSE DMUs enter service

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    JULY 27 saw the entry into revenue service of the first of 15 Class 621 two-car DMUs being delivered to Greek railway operator OSE.Ordered in 1997 from a consortium of Hellenic Shipyards and Bombardier, the 125 km/h sets were originally intended to be delivered in time for the Athens Olympic ...

  • News

    Relay display

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    FRIEDRICH Lütze will be showing safety relay modules for DIN-rail mounting.The relays are suitable for safety-critical applications, including couplers, door controls, braking, driver safety devices and ATP functions. Available in all common voltages from 24 to 100V DC, they can be supplied with two to eight sets of contacts, positively-driven ...

  • News

    Dieter

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    A nine-coach Virgin Trains Pendolino train has received an all-over advertising livery to promote the Warner Bros Pictures film Superman Returns. The vinyls supplied by Halo Rail combine marketing images and slogans from the film and the train operator, the wording conceding the train is only ’almost faster than a ...

  • News

    Hybrid wheelset cuts weight and noise

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    The EU-funded Hiperwheel research project explored the structural and fatigue life of wheelsets and developed a prototype composite design that offers a 25% weight saving and a reduction in radiated noise of around 6 dB(A)

  • News

    Funding cutbacks threaten German regional revival

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    The 1994 reform of German Railway transferred responsibility for local and regional rail services from the federal government to the Länder. Traffic blossomed as investment flowed into new trains and better services, but Ralf Roman Rossberg reports that a financial axe threatens to undermine the success of the last 10 ...

  • News

    St Louis Cross-County line opens

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    AUGUST 26 was due to see the formal opening of the 12·9 km Cross-County light rail line in St Louis, with Metro President Larry Salci and other VIPs joining a festival near Shrewsbury station. This was to be followed by two days of free rides before the start of revenue ...

  • News

    Eurotunnel wins protection from its creditors

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    HAVINGPOSTPONED a decision expected on July 25, the Tribunal de Commerce in Paris finally agreed on August 2 to grant Eurotunnel’s request made on July 11 for protection from holders of debt with a face value of £6·2bn. The Group, including 17 related entities, is now barred from paying interest ...

  • News

    Los Teques on course for October start

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    DURING a worksite visit on August 14, Venezuela’s Minister of Infrastructure José David Cabello Rondón confirmed that Metro Los Teques from Las Adjuntas to El Tambor (MR 05 p28) was on course to open on October 22, and that the route would be extended to the centre of Los Teques. ...

  • News

    Slowdown will be counter-productive

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    THE Ministry of Transportation in Jerusalem has instructed Israel Railways to reduce the maximum speed on the national network from 140 km/h to 120 km/h and on some lines to 105 km/h.The ruling has nothing to do with the unscheduled arrival of Hizbollah rockets on ISR tracks but stems from ...

  • News

    Madrid - Córdoba tendering

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    TENDERS have been called within a budget of €114m for a contract to upgrade the 46·7 km section of the Madrid - Córdoba main line between Alc

  • News

    Onboard friction control cuts noise and vibration

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    Bogie performance through curves can be improved by careful control of the friction between wheel and rail. A group of Japanese engineers has developed a friction control method for the Tokyo Metro using an onboard rail spray to control the friction coefficient and the friction characteristics of the wheel-rail contact ...

  • News

    Hudson tunnel contract goes to joint venture

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    MEETING ON August 1, the New Jersey Transit board awarded an $82·5m contract to a joint venture of Parsons Brinckerhoff, STV and DMJM Harris/AECOM for preliminary engineering work on the Trans-Hudson Express tunnel. Over the next 18 months the consultants will look at tunnelling techniques, construction staging, property acquisition and ...

  • News

    Suspension components

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    TRELLEBORG Industrial will be showing a comprehensive range of rail suspension components and rubber-metal bonding technology in Berlin. The company’s stand will highlight hourglass and air springs for secondary suspension, and chevrons and Metacones for the primary suspension. A representative selection of bogie components including traction control links, traction links, ...

  • News

    Four-tracking nears completion

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    BELGIAN infrastructure authority Infrabel expects to put into operation the four-tracking between Leuven and Schaarbeek, with the December 10 timetable change, enabling SNCB to introduce a second hourly inter-city service linking Brussels and Liège in 51min. Opening of the Leuvenboog chord from the same date will permit direct trains from ...

  • News

    Namibia completes Northern extension

    2006-09-01T10:00:00Z

    THOUSANDS OF Namibians gathered at Ondangwa on July 15 when President Hifikepunye Pohamba and Founding Father Dr Sam Mujoma officially opened the town’s new station, marking the completion of Phase 1 of the country’s northern extension railway. The 246·5 km line from Tsumeb has taken four years to build at ...