All News articles – Page 210
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News
Civils and signals block speed-up on world's fastest line
PRESENTING a report to the Spanish Parliament on difficulties encountered with the Madrid - Lleida section of the Madrid - Barcelona high speed line, Development Minister Magdalena Álvarez said last month that the assessment confirmed 'the impossibility of operating the line with the features for which it was designed and ...
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NewsCrossrail bill introduced
A BILL to authorise construction of the east-west Crossrail Line 1 under central London was introduced to Parliament on February 22. Unlike an earlier private bill that failed in May 1994, the new hybrid bill is backed by the government. Transport Secretary Alistair Darling told MPs 'the case for ...
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i-Trans bids for research funding
WITH THE AIM of creating Europe’s leading centre for railway systems, 40 companies and 16 research bodies in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France have come together as i-Trans to bid for government funding under the p
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Dubai metro bids opened
A JAPANESE consortium of Mitsubishi, Obayashi and Kajima with Turkish civil engineering group Yapi Merkezi has submitted the lowest bid for the first phase of the Dubai automated light metro network.The final tenders for civil, mechanical and electrical work were opened by the Dubai Municipality’s LRT project office on February ...
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Barcelona works start
ON MARCH 3 Dragados and Tecsa began work on a €29·3m contract that forms the first part of a €220m programme to increase capacity at Barcelona Sants station in preparation for the arrival of high speed services (RG 9.04 p522). The first phase includes the construction of new through track ...
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Ballastless track meets design challenges
APART from a 6 km section close to the Belgian border where ballasted track is used, HSL-Zuid will have ballastless track throughout. On the basis of an evaluation of track types using a direct fastening system as a reference (RG 12.00 p819), Infraspeed BV chose the Rheda 2000¨ design as ...
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Austrian tunnels inch closer
NEW CREDIT guarantees to be issued for infrastructure projects by the European Investment Bank are likely to favour cross-border schemes designed as public-private partnerships such as the Brenner base tunnel.Last month Stefaan de Rynck, a spokesman for European Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot, cited the Brenner base tunnel as one scheme ...
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Dutch show attracts growing interest
INTRO: The fifth Rail-Tech Europe is being held at the Royal Dutch Jaarbeurs trade fair in Utrecht on April 4 - 7 WITH THREE high-profile new lines under construction and intense debate over the progress of the railway reform process, rail is a hot topic in the Netherlands at present. ...
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NewsWhich way to the airport?
Do airports need dedicated express shuttle trains, or should services be aimed at all rail users? Proposed changes to London's Gatwick Express are just one part of an international debate, which is complicated by local politics and geography.
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Plan Fret aid package approved
FINANCING arrangements for the restructuring of French National Railways’ loss-making freight business were approved by the European Commission on March 2. The three-year restructuring plan, which includes productivity and performance improvements, is intended to restore Fret SNCF to profitability by the end of 2006 (RG 3.05 p141). It was referred ...
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Siemens depots plan ahead
QUEST event simulation software is being used by Siemens to test proposed designs for train maintenance depots for the optimal use of staff and equipment.Dassault Systèmes subsidiary Delmia UK studied what Siemens required from the computer models used to plan activities in its depots. Finnish consultancy Delfoi then implemented the ...
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Sishen upgrade deal agreed
SOUTH AFRICAN transport holding group Transnet signed Heads of Agreement last month with mining company Kumba Resources, paving the way for upgrading of the Sishen - Saldanha iron ore line. Announced by Transnet CEO Maria Ramos on March 7, the agreement follows intensive negotiations since August 2004 (RG 3.05 p121). ...
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Scales tip against Amtrak
AN ATTEMPT in the US Senate to force an amendment to the President’s 2006 budget giving just over $1bn to Amtrak, in addition to the $360m proposed to support Northeast Corridor services (RG 3.05 p115), was voted out on March 16.This darkened the increasingly gloomy outlook for Amtrak, whose Bush-appointed ...
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Thai double-tracking advances
STATE RAILWAY of Thailand expects to start calling tenders in May for double-tracking of five main lines totalling 757route-km at a cost of US$1·5bn.According to SRT Governor Chitsanti Dhanasobhon, the investment forms part of a programme to improve freight train competitiveness and will see maximum axleloads increased from 15 to ...
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High speed loco accord
RUSSIA: Plans to order dual-system electric locos for high speed passenger trains were announced by Russian Railways President Gennady Fadeyev on March 2. On the same day RZD and Russian locomotive builder Transmash Holding signed an agreement with Bombardier Transportation covering a pre-series build of 12 EP10 locos. To be ...
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ICE3 hits obstacles en route to Paris
TALKING of flying ballast (left), a cautionary tale emerges from German Railway. In a statement issued on March 3, DB explained for the first time precisely what delayed the start of ICE3 services from K
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Torque of the town
LAST MONTH saw Nord-Ostsee Bahn begin trials with a DE2700 locomotive. The first of 12 intended to take over the Marschbahn service between Hamburg and Westerland from December, it was built for Norwegian State Railways as Class Di6 by Krupp-MAK and Siemens in the 1990s.A series of problems prompted NSB ...
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Ventilating Torino’s tunnels
TUNNELS on Torino’s VAL automatic metro are to be fitted with custom-made ventilation equipment supplied by Fläkt Woods. Announced on January 31, the order covers two parallel reversible fans for use in each of the metro’s 22 ventilation chambers, as well as silencers, diffusers and dampers. Video surveillance and smoke ...
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Sidetrack
From sea to seaOver the years, Sidetrack has reported on a wide range of unusual loads being moved by rail. Chinese Railways is set to join the roll of honour next year.Developers have started work on a 120m yuan luxury swimming centre at the Shijingshan Sports Centre in Beijing, where ...
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Seibu scandal
AFTERSTEPPING down as President of Japan’s Seibu Railway in January, Terumasa Koyanagi was found dead on February 19, apparently the second senior manager to commit suicide after an accounting scandal hit the railway. Last October Seibu admitted that it had been falsifying its financial statements for more than 50 years. ...