All News articles – Page 232
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News
Impact-resistant insulators
PORCELAIN insulators used to support conductor rails are heavy and suffer from chipping and cracking, but these problems can be avoided by using glass-reinforced plastic insulators developed by Rehau. Assembled from three adjustable and replaceable GRP parts, the insulators are comparable in cost to porcelain. Two versions are available to ...
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Tunis needs a heavy metro
CONTRACTS are due to be awarded shortly for the construction of a light rail line in Tunis, linking the central station with the southwestern suburb of El Mourouj. Expected to be completed next year, the line is the first of two 7 km extensions to the city's five-line light ...
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QR heads south
APRIL 28 saw the arrival of Queensland Rail’s maiden Brisbane - Melbourne open-access interstate train at CRT Group’s Altona terminal in the Victoria state capital. The East Coast Intermodal Service is run by QR’s standard-gauge subsidiary Interail in conjunction with CRT.On hand to greet the train were CRT Group Executive ...
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Transandine funding
THE ARGENTINIAN province of Neuquén is seeking legislation that will allow it to raise up to US$48·9m in loans to fund construction of the first section of a new rail crossing of the Andes from Zapala to Lonquimay in Chile. The initial Zapala - Las Lajas section would cost between ...
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French freight plan is ’on target’
FRENCH National Railways announced on April 28 that the plan to rescue its rail freight business is showing early results.Deputy Managing Director, Freight, Marc Véron said the objective was to achieve 3% annual growth from 2007 onwards. Since the start of implementation at the end of last year, the main ...
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Finance
Canada: The federal, provincial and city governments have announced funding commitments totalling C$660m to extend Ottawa’s O-Train DMU-operated line from Lebreton to Limebank, and to develop plans to run to Barrhaven and the city centre.Europe: Eurotunnel has appointed Lazard and Lehman Brothers as banking advisors. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein will continue ...
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E-ticketing trials in Finland
FINNISH national operator VR began trials with e-ticketing on May 11. Customers can make a booking on the internet and then print off a ticket, or alternatively they can opt to receive an e-mail or text message confirming the booking. Tickets can be purchased between eight weeks and one hour ...
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TGV Est will be ERTMS testbed
INTERNATIONAL trials of the European Rail Traffic Management System are to be undertaken on the Paris - Frankfurt corridor, and are due to start in 2007.Meeting in Paris on May 14, Hartmut Mehdorn of DB AG, RFF President Jean-Pierre Dupont and Louis Gallois of SNCF signed a ’common declaration’ launching ...
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Greener tram lines in Erfurt
THIS month Erfurter Gleisbau GmbH will begin installing grassed track using clip-together sleeper and rail fastening protectors developed by Regum GmbH. Made from bonded recycled rubber, the components will be used on reserved track sections of the 3·7 km extension of Erfurt’s tram network from the cemetery to the airport ...
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Flash-butt welder enters service
COSTFER’s Plasser & Theurer APT600 which entered service during April represents the state of the art in mobile flash-butt rail welding technology.Flash-butt welding permits the precise alignment of rails and a consistently reproducible join quality, as well as permitting a high level of automation. In contrast to aluminothermic techniques, it ...
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Security tops enlargement issues
ON APRIL 22 the European Parliament approved the proposals in the so-called Second Railway Package (RG 3.04 p121) for further liberalisation of the rail businesses. The legislation also paves the way for establishment of the European Railway Agency in Valenciennes, for which a board will be appointed this summer.All this ...
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Double-deck DMU
SOUTH Florida Regional Transportation Authority has ordered a two-car double-deck diesel multiple-unit from Colorado Railcar for $6·9m.The move follows trials on Tri-Rail’s Miami - Fort Lauderdale - West Palm Beach service using Colorado Railcar’s prototype single-deck DMU car, as part of a demonstration tour of the USA. The authority has ...
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Danes in Sweden
MALMÖ-based DSB subsidiary Tågvärdsbolag AB has been awarded a contract to provide ticket checking and onboard services on regional and Øresund trains in Skåne from November 1 this year until June 2007.DSB already provides staff for trains running across the Øresund as far as Malm
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Cross-river study
THE GOVERNMENT of West Bengal has commissioned Delhi Metro Rail Corp to develop proposals for an east-west metro line in Kolkata, linking IR’s principal stations at Sealdah and Howrah.The 22 km line would start from Rajarhat in the east and run through Kankurgachi, Sealdah and Mankharan before tunnelling under the ...
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Spotlight on cross-border traffic
INTRO: Third East European & Asian Rail Summit at InnoTrans 2004 As part of the InnoTrans Convention, the third East European & Asian Rail Summit will be held on September 20-22. EEARS is specifically tailored towards the interests of railways in Central and Eastern Europe and in Asia. Alongside the ...
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Rites and Ircon win Sena contract
A US$175m concession to rehabilitate and operate the 575 km Sena line in Mozambique has been awarded to a consortium comprising Rail India Technical & Economic Services and Ircon International. The line links the port at Beira with the Moatize coalfields, with a 39 km branch from Vila de Sena ...
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Relaying train nears completion
INTRO: Matisa of Switzerland is putting the finishing touches to a P95UK track relaying train for Network Rail designed to work within the UK’s restrictive loading gaugeNEARING completion at Crissier near Lausanne in Switzerland is a giant track relaying train destined for Network Rail. Nearly 140m long, the P95UK consists ...
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NewsPrivate operators start to compete in the Polish freight market
Poland was the largest of the countries to join the European Union on May 1, and the possibility of the huge rail freight business being privatised attracted much interest. Privatisation is off the agenda for the moment, but Marek Rabsztyn and Jan Raczynski find that more than 20 new operators ...
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Two passenger companies in PKP Group
Within the PKP Group there are two national passenger operators: PKP Intercity Ltd, which ran its first trains on September 1 2001, and PKP Przewozy Regionalne Ltd which came into being on October 1 2001.PKP Intercity runs about 280 daily trains, including overnight and international services. The overnight trains from ...
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ERTMS costs must come down
’WE NOW have a defined and funded project’, SRA’s Executive Director, Technical, David Waboso declared on May 18. He was referring to the UK’s trial site for ERTMS on the Cambrian lines from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli, which was selected last year after the decision was made not to ...