All News articles – Page 266

  • News

    Pajares base tunnel bids in

    2003-06-01T10:00:00Z

    SPANISH high speed construction authority GIF has received seven bids (below) for Lot 2, one of the four contracts to be let to build the 25 km Pajares base tunnel on the León - Oviedo route (RG 4.03 p183). Bid prices were due to be considered on May 21, and ...

  • News

    Alacant contract

    2003-06-01T10:00:00Z

    SPANISH regional railway operator FGV ordered nine articulated LRVs from Alstom in April, at a cost of €46m. Intended to operate tram-train services in the resort of Alacant (RG 5.02 p232), they will be assembled at Alstom’s Valencia plant, using electrical equipment supplied from Charleroi. Deliveries are due to run ...

  • News

    Airport services

    2003-06-01T10:00:00Z

    GERMAN Railway inter-city trains are due to start serving Leipzig-Halle Airport on June 30, coinciding with the inauguration of the airport’s new Central Terminal. On the main line between Leipzig, Grübers and Halle (Saale), the station opened on December 15 last year. It has been connected to the city centre ...

  • News

    Airport backs metro plan

    2003-06-01T10:00:00Z

    PLANS to develop an automated metro or light rail line serving the rapidly-growing corridor between Vancouver and Richmond received a boost last month, when the Vancouver International Airport Authority confirmed that it had committed C$300m towards the link. President & CEO Larry Berg said the authority had signed a memorandum ...

  • News

    Buenos Aires smart card

    2003-06-01T10:00:00Z

    TECHNOLOGY company Prominente and specialist transport commercial development business Metronec have launched a contactless smart card for Buenos Aires. As well as being used to buy Metrovías metro and train tickets, Subtecard is an electronic purse which can be used at Subtexpress shops and to buy cinema tickets. It can ...

  • News

    Amtrak battle looms again

    2003-06-01T10:00:00Z

    ONAPRIL 24 Amtrak President David Gunn outlined an $8bn, five-year plan to repair and replace outdated infrastructure and rolling stock while retaining much of the US network of long distance trains. It would require $4·5bn for capital funding and $3·5bn in operating subsidies in fiscal years 2004 to 2009. Proposals ...

  • News

    Menangle aftershock hits NSW

    2003-06-01T10:00:00Z

    IN A MOVE that will be seen as highly significant, New South Wales Transport Minister Michael Costa announced on April 30 that ownership of the infrastructure used by Sydney’s regional and suburban passengers trains would be transferred on January 1 2004 from the Rail Infrastructure Corp back to the State ...

  • News

    Singapore adopts resilient rail fixing

    2003-06-01T10:00:00Z

    OPPORTUNITIES for track maintenance on mass transit railways can be limited, and high passenger volumes make any disruption to services extremely costly. For these situations Pandrol has developed its Double Fastclip rail fastening. This has been installed on Singapore’s North East Line, which is expected to open this month (MR03 ...

  • News

    The writing’s off the wall

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    PAINT or ink scrawled across signs coated with K20209 AntiGraf film cannot stick to its fluoropolymer surface, and instead ’floats’, making removal with spirit-based solvents a simple task. The 50

  • News

    Tunnelling under Valencia

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    THE SPANISH Ministry of Development has begun public consultation on a €804·5m package of works in Valencia that would enable high speed trains to serve the city centre without reversing at the Estació del Nord terminus, as is currently the case for inter-city services on the conventional network. The programme ...

  • News

    Wind tunnel

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    EUROTUNNEL has signed an agreement with two firms planning to build a wind farm on land at its French terminal. If planning permission is obtained, five 2MW turbines will be erected at Coquelles by Canadian energy company Boralex and Innovent, a French company specialising in the design and management of ...

  • News

    Suckers no more

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    MAY 4 sees a 33% hike in the flat fare on the New York subway, from US$1·50 to $2·00. Despite a wave of protests, Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors voted unanimously in favour of the increase on March 6, along with a 25% increase in commuter rail fares. MTA ...

  • News

    STC to upgrade

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    CONSULTANT SYSTRA is to design a modernisation of STC Mexico City Metro’s busiest lines-1, 2 and 3. The eight-month contract involves a technical assessment of the three lines and development of an action plan for their complete overhaul, starting in November. Systra will also produce a detailed programme of works ...

  • News

    Swedish spend

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    ON APRIL 15 Banverket presented a formal application to the Swedish government to invest SKr275m during 2004. The money would form the first stage of a 12-year package totalling SKr101·5bn which is due to be approved later this year. Banverket is currently undertaking public consultation on its long-term investment plan ...

  • News

    VIA revenue up

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    INCREASING passenger numbers contributed to improved financial results at VIA Rail Canada during 2002. The Crown Corporation’s revenue for 2002 was C$270·8m, an increase of 90% since 1990. In the same period passenger numbers have risen by over half a million. Last year brought an increase of 116000 passengers to ...

  • News

    Turbos return

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    YEARS have passed since we first reported the rebuilding of seven of Amtrak’s gas-turbine powered trainsets originally supplied to the US operator in 1976. At 09.00 on April 14 the first of two rebuilt RTL-III Turboliners pulled out of Albany to begin revenue service trials on CSX tracks in the ...

  • News

    Revenue up at ’recession-resistant’ Transportation

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    BOMBARDIER Inc reported consolidated revenues of C$23·7bn for the year ended January 31, up 8·5% from the previous year. The increase came from a higher level of activity in the Transportation business, mainly in Europe, and a full year’s contribution from Bombardier Transportation GmbH (Adtranz), compared to eight months the ...

  • News

    Publications

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    Jubilee Line Extension: From Concept to CompletionBob MitchellThis major reference work provides a record of all aspects of the 10-year project to extend London Underground’s Jubilee line from Green Park to Stratford. The planning and political procedures are traced from the emergence of the first proposals in 1943, through the ...

  • News

    Praha recovers

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    THE LAST of Praha metro’s stations closed by floods in August 2002 were reopened in March. Rehabilitation, funded by a European Investment Bank loan, has included repairs to tunnels, escalators and safety systems, as well as a large amount of general cleaning up. Through running on Line B, the most ...

  • News

    Pointers

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    n Vietnam’s Minstry of Transport & Communications has announced that work will begin this year on a 5 km railway extension from Halong to the new Cai Lan deep water port in Quang Ninh province, at a cost of 281bn dong.n AustralAsia Railway Corp now expects to complete construction of ...