All News articles – Page 172
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News
Fitting the fleet slows high speed start-up
DONATO CARILLO, Head of the Alta Velocita Division at Trenitalia, suggests there are good reasons for the cautious start-up of high speed services between Roma and Napoli.Public services with Trenitalia’s new AV branding began on December 22, although there were just two trains a day each way and no fares ...
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Murder on the oriental express
THE SUICIDE of a Taiwan Railway Administration ticket clerk on March 23 marked a tragic twist in a bizarre tale of sabotage on the South Link railway between Taitung and Kaohsiung. Over the past two years, six separate incidents have seen track fastenings removed in Pingtung county. On June ...
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Simulation possibilities expand
RECENT customers of simulator maker Corys TESS include railways in Turkey, India and the Netherlands, and the Grenoble-based company is currently upgrading to the latest capabilities simulators used by operators in France and Britain.Turkish State Railways’ Eskisehir training school is to take delivery of a full-motion cab simulator later this ...
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Sydac enters Europe
ADELAIDE-based simulator maufacturer Sydac has won a second rail contract in Europe, to supply First ScotRail with two cab simulators in a deal worth almost £1m. Sydac has been supplying simulation and training equipment to the Australian rail and defence sectors for the past 15 years, and entered the European ...
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Dubai Rapid Link underway
ON MARCH 21 the Prime Minister of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, attended a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction work on the Red Line of the Dubai Metro. The 52·1 km Red Line will link Rashidiya and Jebel Ali from 2009. Work is ...
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Indian Railways tries double-stack service
INDIA'S FIRST double-stack train was flagged off by Minister of Railways Laloo Prasad Yadav on March 23. Starting from the Kanakpura Inland Container Depot near Jaipur in Rajasthan, the train ran to the Arabian Sea port of Pipavav in Gujarat, a distance of 950 km. With accelerated growth in export ...
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Dieter
McDonald's has been selling a million €99 sets of four special tickets valid for a second class journey on German Railway's long distance trains and connecting regional services. DB is hoping to reach infrequent rail travellers through the offer, but Dieter wonders if the railway will reciprocate by offering the ...
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Crushed with success
HAVING WATCHED the first practical test of Crash Energy Management at Pueblo on March 23, US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta declared it a success. A five-car train of decommissioned LIRR and SEPTA commuter coaches rebuilt with strengthened couplers and crush zones was slammed into a stationary locomotive and two wagons ...
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Voice control
VOICE-over-IP is being used in a British train operator’s passenger information system for the first time, with the installation of a Vossloh IT system controlling screens and announcements at stations served by Northern.A central computer at the train operator’s Manchester data centre is operated from two workstations at the information ...
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Pacific concession goes to court
COLOMBIA's national concession agency INCO has begun legal proceedings against Tren de Occidente, which holds the 30-year concession to upgrade and operate the 498 km Pacific network connecting the port of Buenaventura with Cali, La Virginia and Armenia. INCO maintains that the concessionaire has fallen behind with an infrastructure ...
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Composite tie-up
STEEL Dynamics Inc announced on March 9 that it is to begin manufacturing composite sleepers under licence from Primix Corp through a joint venture.The sleepers will have a formed steel core, to be produced by Steel Dynamic’s flat roll division. This core will be filled with concrete for stability and ...
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Strategic thinking can reduce the mass of commuter EMUs
Rolling stock manufacturers are studying the potential for reducing the weight of rolling stock, with a view to cutting energy consumption and life-cycle costs. Experience from Japan suggests that taking a strategic view offers long-term benefits
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Porto Metro close to completion
MARCH 31 saw the start of revenue services on two further sections of the Porto Metro, bringing the light rail network to 58·2 km serving 65 stations.The Green Line (C) was extended by 4·5 km from Fórum Maia to Ismai, using the alignment of a former metre-gauge line which had ...
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Montpellier Citadis rolled out
THE FIRST of 24 Citadis 302 low-floor cars being built by Alstom for Montpellier’s second tramline was unveiled by city officials and TAM representatives on April 3. Tracklaying is nearing completion on the 19·8 km line, which is expected to open at the end of this year. Running from southwest ...
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China offsets stagnant Europe
KNORR-BREMSE recorded consolidated sales of €2·7bn in 2005, 13% up on the 2004 figure of €2·4bn. Orders were up 16% to €2·85m, and net income rose 18% to €154m.The Rail Vehicle division accounted for €991m of last year’s sales, up from €944m in 2004, but the Commercial Vehicle sector in ...
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Gounon challenges creditors to get real
AFTER MONTHS of largely fruitless negotiations on debt restructuring, Eurotunnel’s Executive Chairman Jacques Gounon threw down the gauntlet on April 12. He effectively challenged creditors holding £6·2bn of debt to settle on terms that would allow the company to operate profitably. The alternative was the uncertain prospect of trying to ...
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DB chases a high score in World Cup challenge
INTRO: German Railway has seized on the opportunities presented by this year’s World Cup to promote its services and win more passengers to rail. The north-south tunnel in Berlin and the high speed line from Nürnberg to Ingolstadt open this month in good time to help handle the expected crowds ...