All News articles – Page 191
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News
South Africa’s cooler cabs
SPOORNET’S locomotive upgrading programme includes equipping Class 8E shunting locos with cab air-conditioning. Two prototypes units were developed by Booyco Engineering, which will supply 17 sets of equipment by the end of the year, and a total of 88 over the next four years. According to Booyco Managing Director Jeremy ...
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Funding accord
FRENCH Transport Minister Dominique Perben signed three agreements with his Swiss counterpart Moritz Leuenberger on August 25 confirming Switzerland’s participation in financing French rail infrastructure projects.The Swiss are to contribute €65m towards the construction of the 189 km eastern section of TGV Rhine-Rh
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Access charges pose grave threat to the future of Dutch freight
THE FUTURE viability of Railion Nederland NV has been thrown into question since Transport Minister Karla Peijs announced earlier this year that track access charges are to rise substantially in 2006, and could double again within the following two or three years.At the same time, parliament is insisting that charges ...
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Open access challenge
BRATISLAVA-based regional operator BRKS is planning to launch open-access inter-city services from the capital to cities in eastern Slovakia, including Kosice.BRKS is the most successful new operator on the Slovak network. As well as regional passenger services between Bratislava, Zohor and Zahorska Ves, it runs domestic and international freight services ...
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Restructuring announced by ABB
ABB has announced details of a restructuring which will take effect from January 1 2006, replacing its two core divisions with five business areas.Under the plan, the current Technologies and Automation Technologies divisions will be abolished, to be replaced by Zürich-based Power Products, Power Systems and Automation Products divisions, a ...
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Sensors on show
STRAINSTALL will be demonstrating the latest version of the TrackAlert wheel defect, vehicle weight and track force sensors (RG 11.04 p765).The company’s Bridge StrikeAlert will also be on show at Infrarail, and visitors will be able to see how control centres are notified when a bridge is hit by a ...
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Safer spraying
VEGETATION control on the Tyne & Wear Metro relied on handheld strimmers, cutting and spraying equipment, until Avondale Environment Services was awarded a contract to carry out the work with a specialised road-rail vehicle.A two-man team remains within the Mercedes Benz Unimog’s air-conditioned and filtered cab during spraying. Six integral ...
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Suburban renewal
THE INDONESIAN government expected to sign last month a memorandum of understanding for modernisation and operation of the Jakarta suburban network. Transport Minister Hatta Radjsasa announced on July 20 that South Korean engineering consultancy Sam-An Corp had been selected to revitalise the capital’s railways, which will be separated from national ...
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Pointers
Minister of Public Works & Transport Randall Quirós announced last month that the government of Costa Rica is planning to reactivate the country’s rail network to carry freight as part of a programme to save fuel. Trial movements had been conducted for a commuter service across San José from Pavas ...
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Polish plant plan
HAVING taken over a rolling stock plant from bankrupt manufacturer Wagon, the Europejskie Konsorcjum Kolejowe Wagon consortium is planning to restart the production of freight vehicles at the site in the Polish town of Ostrów. ’We plan to invest 14m zloty annually starting in 2006’, said Chairman Marek Woloch. ...
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People
Tium Tekie has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Ethio-Djibouti Railway, replacing Abraham Habtezgi.Teresa Zwiernik has succeeded Grazyna Liberadzka as board member for EU Co-Financed Projects at Polish infrastructure manager PKP PLK. Jozef Jezewicz becomes board member for Operations, replacing Krzysztof Szwed who has stepped down for health reasons. Member ...
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TEA-LU passes
A SIX-YEAR bill to fund US transport investment projects was approved by Congress on July 29 in the final session before the annual August recess. With lawmakers repeatedly unable to agree on a new measure, a series of 11 temporary extensions had been needed to keep the previous TEA-21 legislation ...
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Trams from Oregon
DEFENCE contractor Oregon Iron Works is planning to build under licence trams similar to the Czech-made Astra vehicles in operation in Portland and Tacoma. Based in the Portland suburb of Clackamas, Oregon Iron Works has established a partnership with the Inekon Group, which manufactures the Astra in the Czech Republic. ...
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Transperth opens Thornlie Spur
A FIFTH suburban rail service in Perth was introduced on August 7, when Western Australia’s Premier Geoff Gallop inaugurated the Thornlie Spur.The A$75m branch serves a new bus/rail interchange with park-and-ride facilities for 450 cars. It diverges from the Perth - Armadale line south of Cannington, and includes a short ...
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Puerto Montt refurbishment progress
PRESIDENT OF CHILE Ricardo Lagos joined EFE President Luis Ajenjo and Mayor María Angélica Astudillo on August 5 to reopen the station at La Unión.This is the first station to be refurbished under a 2·7bn pesos programme being undertaken in preparation for reintroduction of passenger services between Temuco and Puerto ...
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Monitoring tools
ROWE HANKINS will show its trackside power and safety monitoring technology.The company has invested in DC test equipment for accurately calibrating high-speed circuit breakers, discriminating between breakers on the same circuit.Rowe Hankins distributes LEM products, and will be showing Relaysenz and Pointsenz, which give early warning of problems with signals ...
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Market
Australia: As part of BHP Billiton’s US$575m Rapid Growth Project 2 to expand the capacity of its Pilbara iron ore operations from 110million tonnes per annum to 118million tonnes by the end of 2006, Barclay Mowlem’s Rail Group will extend tracks from Bing Siding to Nelson Point Yard and modify ...
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Water and logs
RUNNING water will be used by Balfour Beatty Rail Technologies to demonstrate the way its XiTrack geocomposite ballast treatment forms a three-dimensional polymer cage around ballast.It does not fill the voids, so allowing water to drain through. The polymer accepts track movement under passing trains, rapidly returning to the desired ...
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Kowloon Southern Link underway
THREE contracts for construction of the Kowloon Southern Link were awarded by KCRC on August 1 at a cost of HK$3·1bn. Authorised by the Hong Kong government on June 24, the 3·8 km KSL forms an extension of West Rail from Nam Cheong to East Tsim Sha Tsui, where it ...