All News articles – Page 251
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News
Industry unites at Australian showcase
AUSRAIL Plus 2003 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre from November 17 to 19 will be the first time that the members’ forum of the Australasian Railway Association joins forces with the Rail Track Association of Australia, the Australian Railway Industry Corp, the Railway Technical Society of Australasia and ...
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Sweden’s railways tackle the need to attract engineers
INTRO: In recent years railways in different countries have lost status and importance, to the point that working in the industry is not considered ’cool’. Sweden’s infrastructure authority is seeking to change this perception, so that young people will want to work in the railway business in the futureBYLINE: Jan ...
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Revised package rescues Alstom
ALSTOM announced on September 23 that it had reached an agreement with its banks and the European Commission on a package to meet the company’s financial needs. The proposals were developed following the EC’s decision that a previous rescue deal announced on August 6 was inconsistent with its procedures for ...
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Alcatel wins Tube Lines resignalling
LONDON Underground infrastructure concessionaire Tube Lines announced on October 2 that it had awarded a £300m contract to Alcatel for resignalling of the Jubilee and Northern lines. Installation of SelTrac S40 communications-based train control is expected to increase ’capability’ by 22% on the Jubilee line by 2009 and 18% on ...
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Franchise deals move ahead
ON OCTOBER 20 the UK Strategic Rail Authority confirmed that it had signed a 15-year franchise agreement with Arriva Trains Ltd to operate the Wales &Borders franchise, giving Wales ’a unified railway under a single operational management structure’. Arriva will take over from National Express Group on December 7.On October ...
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Bavarian agreement
After two years of tough negotiations DB Chairman Hartmut Mehdorn and Bavarian Transport Minister Otto Wiesheu signed an agreement on September 12 covering regional rail services for a 10-year period. This will see the Land contract with DB Regio to provide local services at a total cost of €8bn. The ...
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Austerity on the French agenda
OPTIONS to improve the woeful performance of the French rail freight business were due to be presented to the SNCF board on October 22. Freight revenue in the first six months of the year was 3% down on the same period in 2002, which SNCF blamed on the poor economic ...
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Texans try again
LONG-STANDING readers may remember the Texas TGV, a proposal to build a 1000 km high speed network linking Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. This bit the dust in 1994 after Texas TGV Corp failed to raise sufficient funding for a franchise to build and operate the routes. Something similar, if ...
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Berlin cross-city line advances
Good progress is being made with the north-south tunnel in Berlin. Due to open in 2006, the line forms the central element in the city’s ’mushroom concept’ that will see east-west and north-south main lines meet at a central interchange at Lehrter (RG 9.02 p525).The southern portal near Gleisdreieck U-Bahn ...
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Interfleet acquires TrainTech Engineering
TRAIN ENGINEERING consultancy Interfleet Technology has expanded its European operations with the acquisition of Swedish rolling stock consultancy services company TrainTech Engineering AB fromEuroMaint AB on October 1.Created in 1988 as a business unit of SJ, TrainTech was launched as a separate subsidiary in 2000. It has around 90 consultants ...
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Jarvis aborts maintenance contracts
ONE OF the seven companies that until recently held 20 area contracts to maintain track, structures, signalling and electrification on Britain’s national network announced on October 10 that it was pulling out. Jarvis Chairman Paris Moayedi had informed Network Rail Chief Executive John Armitt at a meeting four days earlier ...
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CD abandons split
CZECH Railways announced on September 1 that it was introducing a new organisational structure as part of its four-stage programme to transform the state-owned company into a holding group. CD is being assisted with the development and implementation of the new structure by Spanish National Railways under an EU-funded programme ...
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Renfe orders 80 Civias
MEETING ON October 13, the Spanish National Railways board approved orders for 80 Civia EMUs worth €407·5m, including maintenance over four years worth €32·5m. Siemens and CAF are to build 40 sets for €200m, and Alstom the remainder for €175m.Deliveries will take place between mid-2005 and the end of 2007, ...
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Pointers November 2003
Vermont Agency of Transportation has backed proposals for a fast passenger service between Boston and Montréal. Track upgrading for 177 km/h would allow a journey time of under 6h for the 523 km trip, with annual ridership put at 648000. According to Vietnam Railways' Director-General Dr Nguyen Huu Bang, DSVN ...
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Intelligence November 2003
Africa: Services on the 1143 km line linking Abidjan and Ouagadougou were restored in September, having been suspended a year earlier because of fighting in Côte d'Ivoire. Argentina: Sefecha has introduced passenger service over a new 1·6 km branch from Resistencia to Puerto Vilelas. Construction was funded by the government ...
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Tracks on track
Plant hire firm BCL has placed an order for 10 Komatsu PC128US tracked excavators converted for road-rail use by Rexquote.The Komatsu base machine is designed so hydraulic rail bogies can be fitted for travel to a worksite, where normal working is carried out using the vehicle’s tracks, minimising soil and ...
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Sidetrack
Construction workers on the Qinghai to Tibet railway are facing some of the most extreme environmental conditions tackled by any railway builders. Work has now been completed on the Hoh Xil plateau, which is up to 4·7 km above sea level, and the next stage of the project will take ...
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Transwa railcars start TEST running
SEPTEMBER 8 saw the start of of a five-week programme of commissioning trials with the first of nine new diesel railcars for the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia. The cars are being built by United Goninan’s Broadmeadow plant in New South Wales to re-equip the state’s Prospector and ...
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Pointers
Rio Tinto subsidiary Hamersley Iron has almost completed a feasibility study to determine whether its mines, railway and port at Dampier can be upgraded to produce 114 million tonnes of ore a year. Robe River Iron Associates, also owned by Rio Tinto, now expects the West Angelas mine opened last ...
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PEOPLE
South African Treasury Director-General Maria Ramos is to become Group Chief Executive of Transnet on January 1, when Mafika Mkwanazi will leave to take up a post in the private sector.Nick Newton has become Deputy Chief Executive of the Strategic Rail Authority. He will be Chairman of South Eastern Trains, ...