All News articles – Page 123
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News
Rochester Signal acquired by Stantec
STANTEC announced on January 9 that it has acquired Rochester Signal Inc, specialist in railway signalling design, programme management, installation and testing for main line and light rail customers. The transit division of Stantec provides long-range planning, design, construction and maintenance services for similar customers in the USA and Canada. ...
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Armenia confirms RZD as concession winner
PRESIDENT of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin was in Yerevan on January 16 for the official award of Armenia's 30-year national rail operating concession to sole bidder RZD. The contract is expected to be signed during February, with Russian Railways' specially-formed 100% subsidiary South Caucasian Railway scheduled to take over Armenian ...
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Veloxia confirmed for Buenos Aires - Córdoba
IN THE PRESENCE of French Transport Secretary Dominique Bussereau, on January 16 President Cristina Fernández of Argentina signed a decree awarding construction of the Buenos Aires - Córdoba high speed line to the consortium of Alstom, Iecsa, Isolux Corsán and Emepa. According to the timetable established by Decree 96/2008, the ...
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Shanghai opens five metro extensions
THE SHANGHAI metro expansion programme took a great leap forward on December 29 with the simultaneous opening of five new sections. The entirely new Line 9 opened to link Gui Lin Road with Song Jiang Xin Cheng, a distance of 29·1 km. Line 9 is currently not connected to the ...
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Making the polluter pay
EUROPEAN Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot emphasised the need for modal shift if the transport sector is to play its part in tackling climate change, when he addressed a Unife seminar on sustainable transport in Brussels on January 22. Barrot confirmed that the Commission will be bringing forward proposals by June ...
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Strong leadership must focus on project management and costs
WHAT ARE we to make of the veritable shambles which engulfed the UK rail network over the Christmas and New Year period? Three of Network Rail's major engineering projects over-ran, causing disruption and confusion for hundreds of thousands of passengers. The Office of Rail Regulation announced on January 2 that ...
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Chinese trains for Buenos Aires
A DECREE SIGNED BY President Fernández of Argentina on January 15 confirmed an order worth US$121·6m that will see Chinese suppliers build 24 diesel-electric locomotives and 160 passenger cars for the San Martín commuter network in Buenos Aires. The new rolling stock is to be supplied by builders China South, ...
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Train tests Eurasian Landbridge
A CONTAINER train arrived in Hamburg on the morning of January 24 after a 15-day, 9 954 km journey from Beijing through Mongolia, Russia, Belarus and Poland. The train was a demonstration for the 'Eurasian Landbridge' proposed by the six national rail operators, which have agreed to develop a ...
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Work begins on Beijing - Shanghai line
CEREMONIES on January 18 marked the start of work on the 1 318 km Beijing - Shanghai high speed line. Construction is expected to take five years, with work proceeding from 40 sites. The Ministry of Railways had announced the results of bidding for the civil works on January 3: ...
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Sarmiento goes underground
WITH A BID OF 3·38bn pesos, on January 23 a consortium of Iecsa, Odebrecht, Comsa and Ghella was named as the preferred bidder for the first phase of a project to place underground the 32·6 km section between Caballito and Moreno of the Sarmiento commuter route in Buenos Aires. ...
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Arcelor Mittal goes open access
A SUBSIDIARY of steel producer Arcelor Mittal has become the eighth company to be granted a licence by the Spanish Ministry of Development to operate freight trains on the national network. Arcelor Mittal Siderail is the first private company to be issued with a licence covering the operation of between ...
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Market January 2008
Australia: Downer EDI Rail has awarded Knorr-Bremse a €140m contract to supply and maintain doors and braking systems for 626 EMU cars being built with Hitachi for the Reliance Rail PPP contract to supply trains for Sydney suburban services. Thales will supply communications and CCTV. Austria: Rail Cargo Austria's wagon ...
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Finance January 2008
Bulgaria: BDZ has placed a €120m bond issue to fund debt repayment and wagon upgrades. Further issues are planned under a programme running to 2017. Canada: The federal government has announced a C$27m contribution to the C$93m Asia-Pacific Gateway & Corridor Initiative which includes the construction of a CPR intermodal ...
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EIB funds Spanish ERTMS
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank has agreed to provide €530m to Spanish national operator RENFE, releasing an initial tranche of €340m under a 25-year loan agreement last month. The remainder is to be made available during 2008. The funding will be used to acquire 140 Civia EMUs for suburban services, as ...
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Metro and light rail news January 2008
Austria: Wiener Linien has placed a €135m order for 15 six-car metro trainsets with a consortium of Siemens, Bombardier and Elin EBG Traction. It is a second option on an agreement signed in 1998, with delivery scheduled for 2009-11. Chile: On December 10 weekday express services were introduced between Plaza ...
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Border gap to be filled
WORK is to start this year on a new rail link between Switzerland and Italy. Agreement between the two governments to establish a 17·7 km route by 2013 was reached in November, with the Swiss parliament and the Canton of Ticino splitting the SFr134m cost of the Swiss part of ...
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NewsDB buys into UK passenger market
UK: German national railway Deutsche Bahn AG confirmed on January 21 that it is to acquire Laing Rail, subject to approval from the UK government's Department for Transport, Transport for London and the Office of Rail Regulation. Laing Rail owns Chiltern Railways, which will become part of DB Regio AG, ...
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Punta Colonet rail link
THE MEXICAN government expects to open bidding in the first quarter of 2008 for US$7bn project to build a new port at Punta Colonet in Baja California, including a 350 km rail link to the US network. To be funded by the private sector, the new port would aim ...
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Flushing line to grow
THE START of construction on the 2·4 km extension of New York City Transit's No 7-Flushing line from Times Square to 34th Street & 11th Avenue on the west side of Manhattan was announced on December 3 by Governor Eliot Spitzer and Mayor Michael R Bloomberg. The extension is a ...
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Blue Train and train blues
SERBIA'S Ministry of Defence is to sell a saloon car from the Blue Train, the fleet of luxury rolling stock built for President Tito. The Blue Train was subsequently used by the presidents of Yugoslavia and their state visitors, and in recent years has been available for private charter. ...