All News articles – Page 182
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News
Finance
Canada: CP plans capital spending of C$810m to C$825m for 2006, down from C$920m in 2005. C$570m will go on infrastructure, C$160m on locos, C$50m on IT and C$25m to expand intermodal terminals.Croatia: Zagreb city council has agreed to guarantee financing for the purchase of 18 EMUs for HZ’s suburban ...
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Israel plans massive expansion
DURING 2005 nearly 27 million trips were made on the 853 route-km Israel Railways network, more than three times as many as in 1999. If that sounds a spectacular increase, consider what ISR envisages in the future: no fewer than 65 million trips are expected in 2010. The freight forecast ...
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Unbundling plan could end NRZ ’paralysis’
APPOINTED AS General Manager of National Railways of Zimbabwe on November 1, Mike Karakadzai was charged with ’turning around and possibly restructuring NRZ to make it a viable entity’ (RG 12.05 p760).Six weeks on, the retired Air Commodore announced in mid-December that he had come up with a restructuring package ...
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East London Line shortlists
MARCH 31 has been set as the bidding deadline for the £500m main works contract to build the East London Line extensions. Part B of the tender documentation was issued by Transport for London to four shortlisted consortia in December. The E-link consortium is led by Laing O'Rourke Civil Engineering, ...
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VR unveils double-deck sleepers
THIS month VR is to put into service the first five of 20 double-deck sleeping cars being built by Talgo Oy. The €2·9m cars will enter revenue service between Helsinki and Rovaniemi from February 1. The entire fleet will be in service by August, allowing 33 older vehicles to be ...
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National database
LAST year SNCF introduced a unified computer system to manage the maintenance of its locomotive fleet. Known as Lionne, it replaced a system called Badem dating from 1987 to which several other applications had been grafted in an attempt to update it.Lionne was piloted at several sites before national launch, ...
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Switch out the dark
BNSF and the Federal Railroad Administration have begun testing wireless monitoring of switch alignment at 409 hand-operated turnouts on a 280 km section of unsignalled route between Tulsa and Avard, Oklahoma. US Secretary of Transportation Norman Y Mineta announced the start of trials on November 14.Dispatchers in Fort Worth are ...
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DaimlerChrysler sells MTU to EQT
PRIVATE equity fund group EQT is to buy the Off-Highway business of DaimlerChrysler AG, including rail, marine and military diesel engine maker MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH. The companies have agreed an enterprise value of €1·6bn, and DaimlerChrysler will receive a cash inflow of €1bn.The Off-Highway business has annual sales of around ...
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'Constructive debate' sought over DB sell-off
PRESENTING a study on options for privatising Deutsche Bahn AG to the Transport Committee in Berlin on January 17, Germany's Federal Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee called for 'a constructive debate' between the Bundestag, the Lãnder, transport associations and the railway. The government is anxious to take a decision by the ...
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Switching to a condition-based monitoring regime
UNTIL RECENTLY ProRail planned switch and crossing maintenance on the basis of elapsed time or reported defects, but the Dutch infrastructure manager has changed to a condition-based regime in order to maximise availability and reliability while minimising costs and possession times. This requires an understanding of the usage and loads ...
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Cleaner underground escalator
AUTOMATIC dust tray cleaners have been installed during the replacement of two escalators at London Underground’s Embankment station.Designed by RJC and installed by Otis, the rectangular metal dust trays are fitted under the escalator steps at both the top and bottom chambers. Debris and dirt is swept from the tray ...
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Chuo Line renewal
EAST JAPAN Railway has announced plans to order a new fleet of 10-car EMUs to operate Tokyo’s busy Chuo suburban lines. The first of 688 Series E233 cars are expected to enter service in December, starting the replacement of 710 Series 201 vehicles.The E233 trainsets are derived from the Series ...
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Door to China
GUANGZHOU Guangri Group and Knorr-Bremse have established a joint venture to produce platform screen doors in China.Knorr-Bremse has a 65% stake in Westinghouse Platform Screen Doors (Guangzhou) Ltd, which will initially employ around 70 staff and produce up to 3000 screen doors annually. The partners have previously won orders to ...
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Premium rail and suspension changes could cut rolling contact fatigue
INTRO: Two methods of achieving economic benefits in the management of rolling contact fatigue were examined in studies carried out by TTCI for the UK railway industry during 2005. Both the use of premium rail steels and changes to vehicle suspensions have the potential to deliver cost savingsBYLINE: Steve Clark, ...
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Cab and coach composites
METRO-NORTH Railroad has selected American Acoustical Products’ HushLiner FR acoustic ceiling panels for installation in the cabs of its GE Genesis passenger locomotives, replacing vinyl film which had de-laminated.The lightweight panels provide sound absorption and an attractive, cleanable surface that resists graffiti and de-lamination. Exposure to a flame causes rapid ...
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Holland buy-out
Holland Railconsult staff acquired the majority of the company’s shares in a buy-out effective from January 2.Management and staff now hold 74% of the shares in the Dutch consultancy, and Van Lanschot Bankiers the remaining 26%.On December 15 the Movares Polska subsidiary announced the acquisition of Lublin-based consultancy Biuro Projektów ...
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Dry bulk loads
FREIGHT operator EWS and its French-based subsidiary Euro Cargo Rail are offering European users of dry bulk powders and granule products rail transport in ISO-Veyor pressurised containers (RG 9.03 p595).Contained within standard ISO frames, the ISO-Veyor units are filled and sealed at source for intermodal transport to a site, where ...
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Europeans to dissect the British Experiment
A SEMINAR has been organised in Brussels on February 23 for the purpose of dispelling myths and misconceptions that have gained currency among the ranks of senior rail managers in Europe about the outcome of Britain’s unique privatisation experiment in the mid-1990s.This event was triggered by letters sent last autumn ...
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News in Brief
Paths on the standard gauge network in Switzerland will be allocated by an independent organisation from April 1. Trassenvergabe AG, set up in December to manage and allocate paths, is owned equally by Swiss Federal Railways, BLS Lötschbergbahn, Südostbahn and the Association of Public Transport Undertakings. The move is intended ...
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Passenger News in Brief
Qinghai-Tibet Railway Corp and Shanghai-based Rail Partners Inc have set up a joint venture to operate luxury tourist trains between Xining and Lhasa, taking three days to cover over 2000 km.NS Business Cards have been issued to 4200 Capgemini employees in the Netherlands. The cards are used to book business ...