All News articles – Page 173
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Technicentre Est Europeen opens for business
FRANCE: At 09.00 on April 6, two TGV Duplex trainsets were standing at Platforms 5 and 6 in Paris Est station, well outside their normal sphere of operations. They were laden with 1500 guests, press and VIPs, bound for the inauguration of the new TGV Est rolling stock ...
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Replacement station at Burgos
THE SPANISH cabinet has given its approval for tenders to be called for the construction of a station on the new alignment avoiding the centre of Burgos on the Madrid - Hendaye main line. A budget of €18·58m has been set for the work, expected to take 18 months to ...
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RENFE to build more trains
ON APRIL 18 Renfe President José Salguiero signed five agreements with rolling stock suppliers Alstom, CAF and Siemens that will see 258 passengers cars built by the operator's Valladolid workshops in 2006-09, representing 700000h of new work. Valladolid is to build 42 Civia III EMU cars under a contract ...
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Products in Brief
China Academy of Rail Sciences and Sifang Rolling Stock Research Institute have standardised on the LonWorks IEEE 1473L network platform for onboard safety monitoring of functions including brakes, doors and power supply.Echelon, USALos Angeles MTA has ordered an emergency access and incident response road-rail vehicle from Mattman Speciality Vehicles in ...
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City News in Brief
On March 23 the Septa board approved a US$244m contract to buy 104 Silverliner V EMU cars from United Transit System to replace life-expired stock on the Philadelphia suburban network. Three prototypes are due in 30 months, and the remainder within four years. The UTS consortium of Rotem and Japan’s ...
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Industry News in Brief
Spanish train builder CAF recorded a consolidated net profit after tax of €18·1m in 2005, up 29% on 2004. Turnover was up 18% to €680·8m, and cash flow after taxation reached €23·3m, an increase of 19%. Orders in hand at December 31 2005 stood at €2·7bn, with 27% of this ...
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Training in Brief
Ptarmigan Transport Solutions, Maxim Learning and the UKAssociation of Train Operating Companies have developed a modular course totalling 2h to train ticket sellers in selling passengers additional services such as first class travel, railcards and through bus ticketing.Rail Training International has established a partnership with UK train operator Southern to ...
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Passengers in a box
DURING April Dorsey station on the Camden Line in Baltimore was equipped with a 20ft shipping container housing walk-through explosives and metal detectors supplied by Smiths Group.The USA’s Transportation Security Administration wants to know whether the container can process large numbers of passengers without requiring them to empty their pockets ...
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Bought by the neighbours
AMERICAN Railcar Industries acquired the Custom Steel subsidiary of Steel Technologies with effect from April 1.Under the deal announced on March 27, ARI paid approximately $13m for the Custom Steel business, plus $5m for its inventory. Custom Steel operates a rolling stock component fabrication facility in Kennett, Missouri, which primarily ...
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Billing costs cut
FRETSNCF is using ILOG’s JRules software to create a new pricing system as part of a major IT modernisation programme, which aims to increase sales flexibility and billing transparency while reducing costs. JRules is being used to automate and streamline pricing for freight traffic worth around €1·82bn a year, and ...
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Betuwe Route soap opera continues
SHORTLY after our last issue went to press (RG 4.06 p173), Transport & Public Works Minister Karla Peijs announced that operation of the Betuwe Route would, after all, be undertaken by Prorail, the Dutch rail infrastructure manager. Her statement was received badly by the lower house in parliament, where MPs ...
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Belgrano rescue
ON APRIL 18 President of Argentina Néstor Kirchner signed a decree placing operations at Belgrano Cargas SA in a ’state of emergency’ for a period of 180 days. During this period, which can be extended for two similar terms, the government will provide funding to meet essential expenses, including the ...
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Sabah modernisation begins
LAST MONTH was due to see the start of work to modernise the 134 km railway between Tanjung Aru and Tenom in the Malaysian state of Sabah. Assistant Infrastructure Development Minister Aklee Abbas announced in March that two contractors had been appointed to undertake the upgrading at a cost of ...
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Beginning of the end for PN?
UNCERTAINTY still clouds the future of Australia’s rail freight market as the fiercely-contested eight-month takeover battle between Toll Holdings and Patrick Corp draws to a close.The Patrick board finally conceded defeat on April 13, accepting a second revised offer from Toll which valued the company at A$5·8bn, compared to the ...
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Balkan co-operation
KONCAR Inem and Gosa have signed an agreement to restore past co-operation in the production of rolling stock, under which the Croatian firm will supply electrical equipment for passenger vehicles to be built by the Serbian company.Gosa’s rolling stock factory in Smederevska Palanka is currently building 30 freight wagons for ...
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Bacteria down from the glacier
INDIA’S Research Design & Standardisation Organisation, IIT-Kanpur and the Defence Research Development Organisation are studying the use of bacteria to treat waste in toilet retention tanks, as part of a campaign by Railways Minister Laloo Prasad to improve on-train toilets.The three research bodies are adapting military technologies developed to support ...
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Transandine tenders by August
DURING her first state visit abroad, President of Chile Michelle Bachelet announced in Buenos Aires on March 21 that tendering for the project to restore the 225 km route from Los Andes to Mendoza in Argentina (RG 4.06 p218) would start before July 31 2006. The preceding week the Chilean ...
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Belgians to install interim ATP
PENDING the long-term introduction of ETCS, Belgian infrastructure company Infrabel is to fit interim automatic train protection equipment across its 3500 route-km network to prevent drivers passing red signals. The programme will cost €306m.Starting next year, the company will install the TBL1+ system at all main line signals on its ...
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NewsDouble-deck multiple-units arrive on Zürich's S-Bahn network
Due to enter service on S-Bahn routes in Zürich this summer are the first of 35 double-deck commuter EMUs ordered from Siemens in 2003, which offer a high rate of acceleration for rapid journeys between the closely-spaced stops and level boarding from the station platforms
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Arica - La Paz changes hands
RESPONSIBILITY for the Chilean section of the Arica - La Paz Railway (RG 2.06 p65) is to be taken over by EPA, the state-owned company which manages the port of Arica. According to EPA General Manager Mario Moya, major investment in track repairs will be required before tenders are called ...