All News articles – Page 218
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News
Infrastructure fund launched
FRENCH transport infrastructure finance agency AFITF is to be fully operational on January 1 2005, following the publication on December 1 of its establishing decree. AFITF’s 12-strong board will have six members nominated by the government, one MP, one senator, two local politicians and two ’qualified persons’.Drawing on the dividends ...
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RATP to run Firenze light rail
ON DECEMBER 8 Paris Transport Authority announced that its international subsidiary RATP Développement had won the concession to design, build and operate the light rail network in Firenze. The three-line network serving Firenze and the neighbouring municipality of Scandicci will eventually total 29·5 km. Construction work is already underway on ...
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Finance
Angola: Finance Minister Andre Luí Brandão has announced plans to spend US$4bn rehabilitating 2722 km of track in four phases over the next 11 years. The US$78m first phase is nearing completion, the second will see US$90m of modernisation work, and the third and fourth would involve extensions to neighbouring ...
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Koralm tunnel exploration
CONSTRUCTION of Austrian Federal Railways’ planned Klagenfurt - Graz high speed line moved a step closer on December 4, when work began on pilot bores for the 32·8 km Koralm tunnel.New line authority HL-AG has been developing plans for the 130 km Koralmbahn since 1995, and a preferred route was ...
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ERA at the gates of Europe
When Marcel Verslype takes office as Executive Director of the European Railway Agency on January 1, one of his earliest tasks will be to appoint the staff who will oversee the establishment of the entity which will in many ways determine the future of Europe's railways. Recruitment was in hand ...
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Not green enough yet
RAIL’S assumed environmental advantage (RG 12.04 p811) took a few more knocks on November 19 at a high-level conference on railways and the environment in Berlin attended by around 200 representatives from business and politics.The 22 senior railway managers from 17 European countries who were present, along with rail executives ...
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Long Dragon to offer fire retardant panels
AN AGREEMENT for the joint development of composite components for train interiors has been announced by GE Advanced Materials and China Railway Long Dragon New Composite Materials Co.The high-strength panels, ceilings, floors and sidewalls will be made by China’s largest interior component maker using Rail-Lite composites supplied by Azdel, a ...
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Hiroshima develops low-floor LRV
IN MARCH, Hiroshima Electric Railway will put into service the first 100% low-floor tram to be built entirely in Japan.Designated U3·ALFA, the car has been developed by Kinki Sharyo, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Toyo Electric Manufacturing. It consists of five articulated sections on three bogies, two of which are powered. ...
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Repowered by Deutz
OSTMECKLENBURGISCHE Bahnwerk has rebuilt a former German Railway V200.1 diesel-hydraulic locomotive for Würzburg-based operator EBW.Previously used by Prignitzer Railway, and before that Hellenic Railways Organisation, the 40-year old BB loco has had its Maybach engines replaced with two Deutz TBD620V12 engines with turbocharging and charge air cooling producing 1087 kW ...
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On the decks
EXPANSION joints in concrete and steel bridges in Italy and Portugal have been waterproofed using Sentinel Algaflex TW reinforced elastomer sheet. Sentinel Algaflex TW is designed for use with the supplier’s Eliminator and Hytec bridge deck waterproofing, and it has a continuous upper surface to prevent any ingress of ballast ...
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Investment delays will damage the future of railways in eastern Europe
RAIL’S historically high market share of freight and passenger traffic in eastern Europe is in peril. This threat comes not just from unfettered road competition buoyed up by government spending on motorways, but from the failure of governments to support their railways as they try to restructure into business entities.There ...
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C-Train still growing
FIVE LIGHT RAIL investment projects are included in Calgary’s five-year transport infrastructure programme for 2005-10, approved in November. Total cost of the package is put at C$2bn, including 35 road schemes. The light rail elements are valued at C$354m. The funding will be shared equally between the Province of Alberta ...
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Cross-border revival
MEETING in Islamabad on December 2-3, officials from the Pakistan and Indian railways boards agreed to reopen a second rail route between the two countries.The metre-gauge link between Khokhrapa in Sindh province and Munaba in Rajasthan has been out of use since 1965. According to PR Board Secretary Zaeem Ahmed ...
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Córdoba - M
ON NOVEMBER 29 Spanish Development Minister Magdalena Álvarez joined GIF President Antonio Gonz
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Connex wins Metrolink race
SOUTHERN California Regional Rail Authority board of directors has selected Connex to operate the Metrolink commuter rail network in Los Angeles, replacing Amtrak with effect from July 1 2005.The $210m five-year contract is Connex’s second in the USA; the group took over operation of MBTA commuter rail services around Boston ...
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Tamping with a Cobra
COBRA TT is the latest version of a the Cobra handheld tamper from Atlas Copco. The machine is powered by a petrol engine, so it does not require a hose and is highly portable for rapid deployment on operational railways.Though originally designed for tamping, Cobra TT can also be used ...
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Metro car logistics
ALSTOM has outsourced to Exel management of the supply chain for the delivery of around 1000 types of component worth £50m required for 87 cars Alstom is to build for London Underground’s Jubilee Line.The components include wheelsets, air-conditioning and control systems, which will be brought from the suppliers to Exel’s ...
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Cities told to swap trains for buses
IN ADDITION to simplifying the UK rail industry’s tortuous structure, a white paper published last July said responsibility for local passenger trains would be devolved to regional and local government (RG 8.04 p447). However, the Railways Bill as published on November 25 removes the right of Passenger Transport Executives responsible ...
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MÁV lays foundations to build a growing business
ZOLTÁN MÁNDOKI, General Director of Hungarian State Railways, gave details at the CEE Rail event of MÁV’s plans to develop its freight and passenger businesses and outlined progress being made towards establishment of a commercial railway conforming to EU directives.Provisional traffic figures for 2004 put freight volume on the 7729 ...