All News articles – Page 254
-
News
Thais to boost rail investment
PLANS TO invest up to 900bn baht in rail projects over the next five years were announced by Thailand’s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on August 28. Following a meeting to consider national energy strategy, he said better rail transport would cut car use, saving the country an estimated 2500bn baht ...
-
News
Measurement of wheel roughness caused by different types of composite brake block
BYLINE: Manfred KalivodapsiA-Consult, AustriaIn recent years composite brake blocks have been developed and tested to reduce rolling noise from coaches and wagons fitted with tread brakes. The principle is easy to explain - if the wheel’s running surface is not roughened or ’polished’ by the brake block material during braking, ...
-
News
Backlog boosts Bombardier
According to results released by its parent Bombardier Inc on August 27, Bombardier Transportation recorded revenue of C$2·3bn in the second quarter to July 31, down from C$2·4bn in 2002 ’due to a lower level of activities as a result of the timing of the completion and start-up of contracts’. ...
-
News
PATH spending approved
AN $809m capital programme for the PATH metro network was approved by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey board of directors on September 10. It is the Port Authority’s biggest single investment in PATH since it was acquired from the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad 41 years ago. ...
-
News
High speed light amid the gloom
173 YEARS and one day after the opening of the world’s first inter-city railway between Liverpool and Manchester, Britain finally entered the age of high speed railways. The opening of Section 1 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link on September 16 came 20 years after France’s first TGV line was ...
-
News
Perpignan - Figueres moves ahead
AS JOINT PROMOTERS of the project to build a new 45 km line between Perpignan and Figueres, the governments of France and Spain have set a deadline of October 30 for the selection of a preferred bidder. Under a second competition launched earlier this year, four consortia have prequalified for ...
-
News
Team to review Crossrail again
THE CASE for building London's long-planned east-west Crossrail Line 1 is to be reviewed by a team of experts appointed by Transport Secretary Alistair Darling. The team, headed by Network Rail Deputy Chairman Adrian Montague, will report 'around the turn of the year', he said on September 9. They will ...
-
News
Emotion wins again
NOT FOR the first time, a European operator has backtracked on plans to withdraw restaurant cars. Even in Switzerland where main line trips rarely last longer than 3h, passengers revolted last year over SBB’s plan to provide a minimalist bistro service on its IC2000 fleet of double-deck push-pull trains. Now ...
-
News
Partnership in South Africa
UNION Carriage Partnership has been formed to carry out rolling stock refurbishment work in southern Africa. Union Carriage & Wagon, a subsidiary of Murray & Roberts, has a 70% stake in the Partnership, with 30% held by a consortium led by investment management company J & J Group. The consortium ...
-
News
Ministers admit safety is crippling rail
LAST MONTH we reported on the staggering rise in infrastructure costs since Britain’s railways were fragmented and privatised in the 1990s (RG 9.03 p553). This owes much to relentless political, regulatory and even judicial pressure to spend unlimited sums and accept huge disruption of services in the name of safety, ...
-
News
Gangway designs hinge on modularity and wide access
GANGWAY design is changing as rolling stock manufacturers increasingly adopt modular vehicle construction methods. Commonality of components between different vehicle models is becoming standard practice in the industry, bringing a need for the clear division of responsibility between gangway subcontractor and the final assembler of the vehicle.Traditionally, manufacturers have incorporated ...
-
News
Watching the wheels
SPANISH National Railways is using four Multirail in-sleeper wheel force measuring units supplied by Schenck Process, following the completion of three months of testing.Developed from established technology used to measure the weight of trains passing at low speeds, Multirail is able to highlight wheel flats and other faults on trains ...
-
News
Puigcerdà upgrade
TENDERS are to be called for track and overhead line equipment renewal works on the 17·8 km Borgonyà - Ripoll section of Renfe’s Barcelona - Puigcerdà route, within a budget of €18·3m. Expected to take 22 months to complete, work will include drainage improvements, relaying with long-welded UIC54 rail on ...
-
News
PUBLICATIONS
Trans-Canada Rail Guideby Melissa Graham’If we cannot export the scenery, we shall have to import the tourists’, said the General Manager of Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885. The surviving trans-Canadian train services remain popular tourist attractions, and no other mode of travel so well conveys a sense of the country’s ...
-
News
Pointers
Pending the completion of track repairs between Santo Tomé and Santa Fe, Trenes de Buenos Aires expects to begin operating a weekly service between the Argentinian capital and Santa Fe this month. The first train ran as far as Santo Tomé on August 1. On board was Transport Secretary Ricardo ...
-
News
Timetable planner
VIRIATO is a timetable planning and co-ordination tool designed to handle the increasing numbers of parties involved in modern service planning processes. Different timetable proposals can be generated and stored for comparison, using common data for the train specifications. Train graphs can be produced, and the software is available in ...
-
News
PEOPLE
Aurangzeb Khan (left) has become General Manager of Pakistan Railways on the retirement of Iqbal Samad Khan. Gulrez Hasmey has become Chief Commercial Manager, Freight, succeeding Nazir Ahmad who was appointed Additional General Manager Freight on the retirement of Mian Abdul Qayyum. Muhammad Aslam has been appointed Chief Personnel Officer, ...
-
News
Tilt trains out
GERMAN Railway was taken by surprise on July 24 when the Federal Railway Office (EBA) suddenly ordered the withdrawal of the 20-strong fleet of Class 605 ICE tilting diesel sets, citing a report suggesting there were problems with fatigue resistance of the axles. Class 605 was intended to bring ICE ...
-
News
Metros
China: UK firm Smith Bros & Webb has won orders totalling £500000 to supply metro car washing plants to the Shenzhen and Guangzhou metros. Daewoo Construction Co Ltd expects to begin civil engineering work this month on the 22 km, 9·5bn yuan Shenyang metro network.This month is expected to see ...