All News articles – Page 178
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News
‘Worthless’ product
GRAB-POLES were being stolen from suburban passenger trains in Cape Town, and operator Metrorail suspected this was because of the resale value of the stainless steel. In an effort to reduce the costs of replac-ing the poles, Metrorail’s workshops devel-oped a glass fibre version which has no scrap value. Around ...
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Pointers
Chinese Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun confirmed in January that the government had decided to make the Beijing - Shanghai high speed line its ’first priority’ in the 2006-10 expansion plan, which envisages investment of 1250bn yuan to build 9800 km of new lines. The ministry plans to build the ...
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People
Montenegrin Transport Minister Andrija Lompar and ZCG President Ranko Medenica resigned after the Bioce derailment on January 23 which killed 46 people. The Malaysian government has appointed Lim Ah Lek as Chairman of KTMB with effect from the retirement of Thong Yaw Hong on January 2. Former ...
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Rails roll out
THE FIRST UIC60 rails were produced at Voestalpine’s €66m rail rolling mill at Leoben-Donawitz on January 31, during commissioning by the steelmaker and plant supplier Danieli.’We have done precisely what we said we would do’, said Hans Pfeiler, Chairman of the Board of Voestalpine Schienen GmbH. ’Our team has worked ...
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Siemens wins Railjet order
THE BOARD of Austrian Federal Railways voted on February 9 to authorise a contract for supply of high speed inter-city trains valued at between €250m and €300m.ÖBB has selected Siemens to provide the trains for its Railjet programme. Over the next two years, the manufacturer is to supply 23 seven-car ...
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Tyro operator tests the water
On JANUARY 27 the UK’s Office for Rail Regulation announced that it was ’minded’ to approve access rights for Grand Central, an open access passenger company that had previously sought to run services over the East Coast Main Line in 2003, to operate three trains a day between Sunderland and ...
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Market
Algeria:SNTF has ordered 16 GT36CW freight locos and 14 GT36HCW passenger locos from EMD in a US$82m deal.Australia:Lachlan Valley Railfreight has bought 16 Class MZ 3900hp diesel locos from DSB. The first five of the 140 km/h six-axle Nohab locos built in 1972 were shipped from København on February 14. ...
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North-South Railway makes progress
WITHIN THE next few months, the first tenders will be issued for construction of the 2400 km North-South Railway in Saudi Arabia. This is expected to take around five years to complete, and revenue services are expected to begin by 2011. The NSR is a key component of the Kingdom’s ...
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Loco orders placed
RUSSIAN Railways has awarded contracts for almost 800 main line locomotives under its 2006-10 investment programme. Bryansk Machine Works is to supply 277 'sections' to form 2TE25 twin-unit diesel locomotives. The prototype 2TE25L Peresvet (RG 9.05 p537) is expected to complete its test programme at Shcherbinka this year. Bryansk's Managing ...
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Tuy Medio line to open in October
IAFE President Ángel García announced at the end of January that the 41·4 km Tuy Medio suburban line between Caracas and Cúa in Venezuela will open on October 15. Named the Ezequiel Zamora Railway after a federalist general born in Cúa in 1817, the route has cost US$2·5bn to build. ...
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Olympic VAL inaugurated
ITALY’S first automatic metro was formally opened on February 4 by Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi and Torino Mayor Sergio Chiamparino.Torino residents had their first look at the new line on February 5, when celebrations were held in the Piazza XVIII Dicembre near Porta Susa and the stations were opened to ...
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A route to higher profit
EXPLOITING the latest yield management and quota control techniques to increase ticket revenue is gaining ground across Europe as more operators abandon distance-based fares. In the words of Tim Porter, Chief Executive Officer of Thales Information Systems, ’you can make more profit by selling the same thing that you do ...
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Glazing Shanghai South
Shanghai South station will ’glow with both daytime light and nighttime lamplight’, according to Frans van de Noort, Asia-Pacific General Manager at GE Plastics. The Dutch-based company is supplying Lexan clear polycarbonate sheet to roof the concourse of the new station in the firm’s largest order to date. Custom-designed high ...
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Finance
Africa: On January 24 the World Bank approved three International Development Association Partial Risk Guarantees for up to US$45m and US$15m in support of the Joint Railway Concession in Kenya and Uganda, the first time IDA has provided PRGs for a transport project.Bosnia: EIB is providing a 20-year loan worth ...
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Toll and Patrick step up the fight
HAVING received no assurance that Toll Holdings will respect its decision to block Toll’s hostile takeover bid for Patrick Corp, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission launched Federal Court proceedings against the firm on February 9.ACCC is seeking an injunction against Toll acquiring any further interest in Patrick, or taking ...
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Monorail fever
THIS MONTH should see another 6·5 km of Delhi Metro Line 3 opened from Dwarka to Dwarka Sub City, following the inauguration of the Barakhamba Road - Dwarka section by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on December 30. Commending Delhi Metro Rail Corp, Singh said the capital's metro was 'one ...
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French freight ferment
WITH THE French government required to open up its domestic rail freight market by March 31 (RG 2.05 p58), operators are lining up to compete with Fret SNCF.After filing an application in November 2004, rail4chem announced on February 13 that it had received a safety certificate from the transport ministry ...
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NewsFaster ticket transactions increase satisfaction
WATCHING passengers trying to buy tickets is a key part of research being carried out by Amberlight, a consultancy specialising in human-computer interaction which has been hired to improve the user interface of self-service ticket machines operated by South Eastern Trains. The British train operator appointed Amberlight last October to ...
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Eye in the sky
ROBOTIC aerial vehicles fitted with cameras are being investigated as a way to prevent terrorist attacks on US trains. President Bush recently approved an appropriations bill awarding $200000 of federal funding to the GeoGraphics laboratory at Bridgewater State College, which is experimenting with model aircraft equipped with cameras to ...