All News articles – Page 127
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News
Who is getting serious about climate change?
FOUR MONTHS of consultation on an unprecedented scale across France culminated at the end of October in a high-profile summit on the environment. During the event President Nicolas Sarkozy made some remarkable commitments on rail policy. 'We will make a massive investment in transport', proclaimed Sarkozy, who at that time ...
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Mobile shops to keep wagons moving
GE EQUIPMENT Services, Rail Services is expanding its mobile wagon repair and inspection capabilities with the establishment of bases at Mounds in Illinois and Waycross in Georgia. A facility at La Porte in Texas is already up and running. The company's mobile repair units can travel out to work on ...
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Investment boost for Indonesia
THE INDONESIAN government announced on November 5 that it plans to invest 15·8bn rupiah in modernisation and upgrading of the national rail network, using a mix of public and private funds. According to the Director-General of Rail Transport at the Ministry of Railways, Wendy Aritnang, much of the money will ...
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People in the News - December 2007
Following the merger of Kowloon - Canton Railway and MTR Corp with effect from December 2, Raymond Ch'ien Kuo-fung will be Non-Executive Chairman of the combined company and C K Chow will be Chief Executive Officer. Lincoln Leong is Finance Director, Andrew McCusker becomes Operations Director and Li Yun-tai (formerly ...
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NewsNexans reels out custom cable
MORE THAN 160 km of specialist axle-counter cable was supplied to Balfour Beatty Rail Projects this summer for use in the Trent Valley Four Tracking project on Britain's West Coast Main Line. Linking trackside axle-counters to the central monitoring system, the cable has been laid alongside 29 route-km of track ...
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Indian launch
INVENSYS Rail Group launched its Westinghouse Rail Systems India division at the Expo Rail India exhibition held in New Delhi during October. Charles Page, Acting Sales & Marketing Director from Westinghouse Rail Systems Australia, said the division 'will enable us to significantly enhance our customer and technical support and provide ...
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News in Brief
Queensland Rail Chief Executive Officer Lance Hockridge officially launched QR National's first Melbourne – Perth container service on November 13. 'QR now offers a full container service from Cairns to Perth via Melbourne', he said, adding that this 'gives customers a third and highly-competitive carrier across the Nullarbor. We are ...
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Light rail flip-flop
IN A MARKED reversal of its policy adopted in June 2005, the board of Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority voted on October 18 to adopt light rail for all five corridors in the city's $1·3bn Metro Solutions expansion programme. It had previously been decided that an all-rail plan would be too ...
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Safety scares could paralyse freight in the Netherlands
BACK IN October there did appear to be some prospect that the Betuwe Route – which was formally 'opened' by Queen Beatrix on June 16 – would at last be carrying freight trains on a regular basis from December 9 (RG 9.07 p536). On November 12 Bombardier's plant in Randers ...
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High speed heads northwest
MEETING ON October 25, the board of the Spanish government's transport infrastructure agency Seitt approved the award of three contracts worth €201·3m in total, covering civil works on 67·1 km of the 91·9 km of high speed line to be built between Olmedo and Zamora. Leaving the Madrid – Valladolid ...
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Finance News December 2007
Australia: The state of Victoria has allocated A$272m to add a further eight trains to a planned order for 10 six-car passenger sets for which tenders were called in July. Delivery is planned for late 2009. Bulgaria: On October 20 Mayor of Sofia Boyko Borissov said that the European Investment ...
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More light rail for Andalucía
AN AGREEMENT signed by Andalucía's Minister for Public Works & Transport Concepción Gutiérrez and Mayor of San Fernando Manuel María de Bernardo on November 15 paved the way for tendering to begin before the end of 2007 for a 24 km tram-train route that will connect San Fernando and Chiclana ...
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SPV to fund Beijing - Shanghai
FACED WITH rapidly increasing estimates for the cost of building the long-planned high speed line between Beijing and Shanghai, the Chinese Ministry of Railways has decided to form a Special Purpose Vehicle to finance the project. Under development for more than 10 years, the 1 318 km line was originally ...
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World rail market December 2007
Africa: Plasser & Theurer has won orders to supply ATP 500-C flash butt welding machines to Oncfm in Morocco and the Transgabonais Railway which carries manganese ore in Gabon. China: Nokia Siemens Networks is to provide GSM-R communications on the 166 km Passenger-Dedicated Line under construction between Hefei and Nanjing ...
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Argentine tram-train bids in
THE GOVERNMENT of the Argentinian province of Mendoza has received a total of seven bids for a contract to undertake civils, track, electrification, signalling and telecommunications work for the first phase of a tram-train network serving the provincial capital (RG 2.07 p60). This would run from for 12 km from ...
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Network Rail says it needs £5bn more
IN ITS Strategic Business Plan published on November 1, Network Rail details the funding it requires to operate, maintain, renew and enhance the UK's national rail infrastructure over the five years commencing April 1 2009. This suggests that there will be a shortfall of £5bn in the public subsidy that ...
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Airport link on the way
BUCURESTI Municipal Council approved a feasibility study on October 12 for a metro line to connect Piata Victoriei in the city cenre with Henri Coanda airport at Otopeni. The 15·8 km line will serve 19 stations and include a dedicated depot. All of the stations will be built below ground. ...
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NewsBombardier to run GO Transit
GREATER TORONTO Transit Authority has awarded Bombardier Transportation a five-year contract to operate GO Transit commuter rail services, valued at C$131·3m. GTTA announced on November 9 that Bombardier's bid had been selected over tenders from SNC-Lavalin and Veolia Transportation Rail. From June 2008 the company will be responsible for providing ...
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Inter-city overhaul continues as operators change
LAST MONTH outgoing InterCity East Coast franchisee GNER expected to return to service the fourth of its 13 diesel High Speed Train sets to be refurbished by Wabtec Rail in Doncaster. The £45m modernisation of the Class 43 power cars and MkIII coaches is being funded by the train's owners ...
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Pointers December 2007
The government of Queensland has begun consultation on the creation of a transit authority to co-ordinate rail, bus and ferry services in the southeast of the Australian state by July 2008. QR's passenger services would be structurally separated from freight operations. A feasibility study is being conducted into a proposed ...