All News articles – Page 136
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Finance September 2007
China: China Southern Locomotive & Rolling Stock Industry Co is reported to be planning an initial public offering for early next year, with the aim of raising at least US$2·5bn. France: The Centre and Limousin regions have agreed to provide 50% of the €4m annual operating cost of a daily ...
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Investing in India
GE EQUIPMENT Services has entered the Indian rolling stock leasing market with the purchase of a 15% stake in Titagarh Wagons Ltd, a private sector manufacturer of wagons, bridges and earth moving equipment. The deal gives GE Equipment Services preferred access to wagons produced by Titagarh, which will be leased ...
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Market September 2007
Africa: GE Transportation is to overhaul eight Tazara locomotives over three years. Bosnia: ZFBH has awarded Koncar of Zagreb a contract to modernise 14 Class 441 electric locos, following on from a previous batch of four. All will receive thyristor controls and new cab equipment. Bulgaria: Fuel transport ...
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October start for Tanzania rail concession
THE TANZANIAN government and RITES Ltd of India signed a 25-year concession agreement for the 2 700 km metre-gauge state railway on September 3. The government holds 49% in the newly-established Tanzania Railway Ltd, with RITES holding 51%, and operation of Tanzania Railways Corp is scheduled to be officially handed ...
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Madrid's next metro plan underway
TENDERING IS NOW underway for projects contained in Madrid's 2007-11 transport infrastructure plan, which was approved by the cabinet of the regional government on August 2 with a total budget of €2·23bn. The metro network is to grow by a further 11 km at a cost of €740m, including the ...
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Return of the mountain train
ARGENTINA's Transport Secretary Ricardo Jaime visited the city of Córdoba on August 12 to formally open the first stage of a project to restore passenger services over the 144 km metre-gauge route to Cruz del Eje. Aimed primarily at the tourist market, the Tren de las Sierras (Train of the ...
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NewsBangkok Desiro deliveries begin
THE FIRST two of the nine Desiro electric multiple-units which are being built for Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport rail link left the German port of Bremerhaven for the five-week journey to Thailand on September 8. The trains sailed onboard the cargo ship MV Pegasus Leader and are expected to arrive at ...
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Canadian Pacific buys DM&E
A US$1·48bn deal for the purchase of Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp was announced by Canadian Pacific Railway on September 5. The acquisition of the 4 000 km DM&E came as a surprise to many in the industry, and financial analysts immediately questioned the price as being high given ...
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Pointers September 2007
On August 17 five state-owned Chinese transport, steel and construction companies signed an A$750m investment agreement with Yilgarn Infrastructure Ltd, an unlisted Australian company established to develop the A$3bn Oakajee Port & Rail Project. Work on the common-user route serving iron ore mines in Western Australia could begin in late ...
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Ghana revival starts as concessions are signed
RECONSTRUCTION and expansion of the rail network in Ghana is expected to get underway before the end of this year, following the award of two 35-year concessions covering the country's Western and Eastern corridors. Transport Minister Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi pledged that 'we will leave no stone unturned' to revive the rail ...
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Magnificent seven
MEETING on August 10, the board of Hungarian State Railways agreed to shortlist seven bidders for the second round of tenders in the privatisation of MÁV Cargo, rather than the five originally anticipated. Final offers are due on October 19. Launched on May 29, the first round which closed on ...
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NewsReturn of the inter-city train
Investment by individual states has brought a dramatic growth in inter-city rail travel on some US corridors, and may trigger the political breakthrough required for the development of true high speed lines
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World rail news in brief
An 8·3 MW gas turbine locomotive which is currently undergoing trials was displayed at the opening of Russian Railways' Innovation Development Centre at Moscow's Riga station last month. The 300 tonne twin-section GTI-001 loco built by the Voronezh Locomotive Factory has a NK-361 turbine developed by ...
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Chuo maglev priced
CENTRAL JAPAN Railway has stepped up its campaign to build the long-planned Chuo Shinkansen as a maglev link between Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. In August the company issued its first detailed cost estimate, putting the first stage from Tokyo to Nagoya at ¥5 000bn. Three years ago the ...
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Metros September 2007
Belgium: STIB will begin putting the 15 six-car Boa metro trainsets supplied by CAF into service on Brussels Line 1B this month. Bulgaria: Having received no bids during two previous privatisation attempts, the city of Sofia has lowered to 25m leva the price it expects to obtain from the sale ...
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No concession at Ethio-Djibouti Railway
MID-2007 was expected to have seen the signing of a 25-year concession for the operation of the 781 km Ethio-Djibouti Railway. But it was not to be. Nine consortia had expressed interest in the concession when bidding began two years ago. Two groups led by Comazar of South Africa and ...
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Karelian Trains awards Pendolino contract
ON SEPTEMBER 5 Alstom announced it had been awarded a €120m contract by Karelian Trains to supply four 1520 mm gauge Pendolino tilting trains for use on 220 km/h services between Helsinki and St Petersburg. In May Alstom had been named as the sole bidder for the contract, which includes ...
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Midi-Pyrénées renewal plan
RFF President Hubert du Mesnil joined his SNCF counterpart Anne-Marie Idrac in Toulouse on July 25 to sign a rail plan for the Midi-Pyrénées region which will see €820m spent on track renewals and capacity enhancements for TER services in 2007-13. To assist the development of its local rail network, ...
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Shanghai Metro Line 2 to link the airports
WORK started on July 25 on the extension of Shanghai Metro's Line 2 from Long Yang Road to Pudong International Airport. Long Yang Road is at present the penultimate station on Line 2 at its eastern end, where an interchange already exists with the maglev service to the airport. The ...
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Inter-regional TGV line will have an international impact
Spectacular time savings will follow completion of France's first inter-regional TGV line over the 140 km between Dijon and Belfort in December 2011. Reporting from RFF's construction headquarters at Besançon, Murray Hughes finds that the line will change Europe's railway geography