All News articles – Page 269

  • News

    Sitram orders Citadis

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    MULHOUSE transport authority Sitram has ordered 20 Citadis trams from Alstom at a cost of €48m, with an option for a further seven. On delivery in 2005, the all-low-floor cars will run on the initial 12 km urban section of the city’s Tram-Train network.The urban network will consist of an ...

  • News

    Change in the wind

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    UNDER the tutelage of its ousted Chief Executive Etienne Schouppe, Belgian National Railways remained largely unscathed by the European Commission’s directives aimed at introducing intra-modal competition. Separation of infrastructure and operations was nominal at best, but there are signs that Karel Vinck, appointed as Managing Director last year (RG 8.02 ...

  • News

    UITP to debate ’the ultimate challenge’

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    AROUND 2000 delegates are expected to attend the 55th World Congress of the International Union of Public Transport, being held in Madrid on May 4-9. Theme of the event is ’The Challenge of Integration: Turning Multimodality into Seamless Mobility’. UITP Secretary-General Hans Rat says ’the integration of transport services is ...

  • News

    Smart cards in Madrid

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    FUENLABRADA, a town of 200000 inhabitants 17 km south of Madrid, is the location for live trials started last month of the BIT city-wide smart card ticketing system, which has been under development since 1997. The multimodal card will eventually encompass all public transport-metro, EMT bus and Renfe suburban trains- ...

  • News

    Cross County ground broken

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    CONSTRUCTION of St Louis Metro’s Cross County light rail extension was inaugurated on April 9 with a ground-breaking ceremony at the site of Forsyth station, Missouri. The 13 km route links the existing Forest Park station, which will be rebuilt, with Clayton and Shrewsbury, running largely at grade but with ...

  • News

    Linx signs broadband deal

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    FROM JUNE 1 Nordic inter-city operator Linx AB will offer broadband internet access in First and Business class on all X2000 trainsets operating Stockholm - Oslo and G

  • News

    Industry News in Brief

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    Czech rolling stock builder CKD Vagonka has reported sales worth KC760m last year, up from KC273m the previous year. A significant contribution came from a KC850m order to supply 16 DMU cars to Finland’s VR by 2006.Holland LP’s Railroad Mechanical Group has opened five M-Bar-D wagon repair and inspection facilities, ...

  • News

    Passenger News in Brief

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    Venice Simplon-Orient Express and Queensland Rail are to suspend services of the Great South Pacific Express luxury train from June 8, blaming a downturn in the international tourist market.Hellenic Railways real estate wing GaiaOSE has appointed Planet Ernst & Young to advise on the development and management of its real ...

  • News

    Products in Brief

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    Peguform GmbH is using Araldite AW2101/HW2951 two-part epoxy adhesive from Vantico to bond moulded sheet components to aluminium rails during the assembly of electrical equipment housings for Bombardier-built S-Bahn trains for Berlin.HAR1000 is the first in LEM’s range of low-power consumption open loop principle Hall-effect current transducers for traction applications. ...

  • News

    First Engineering boost

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    REPORTING its results for the year to January 4 2003 on March 25, Peterhouse Group announced a 21% increase in turnover from £369m to £447m and 6% growth in profit to £16·7m. Executive Chairman David Jackson said the group had ’completed the final strategic moves’ in its transformation from a ...

  • News

    Saudi passenger boost

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    SAUDI Railways’ Dammam-Riyadh services will benefit from refurbished rolling stock in a programme launched on April 10. The railway’s entire passenger fleet of 49 saloons and nine restaurant cars is being renovated to provide higher comfort and improved safety standards in advance of delivery of new stock. Local firms are ...

  • News

    UK franchise bidding hots up

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    SERCOGroup announced on April 23 that it had been selected as preferred bidder for a 25-year concession to run the Merseyrail Electrics suburban network in the UK, in a joint venture with NS subsidiary NedRailways (RG 4.03 p222). The £3·6bn contract is due to start on July 20, when responsibility ...

  • News

    Drains become piles

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    MEMBRA vertical pipes normally used to drain surface water through a clay layer to permeable material below have been adapted by Cobra to form piles supporting 28 km of track in Malaysia. The company is hoping for an order covering a further 50 km on KTM’s Kuala Lumpur - Padang ...

  • News

    Basel boost

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    MEETING in Basel in March 20, the chief executives of national railways in France, Germany and Switzerland resolved to launch a programme to raise the capacity of rail routes in and around the city. Because of rising transit freight traffic, the forthcoming completion of the two Swiss base tunnels, ambitious ...

  • News

    Australian boost

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    Barclay Mowlem Construction Group reported strong performance in 2002, with turnover up by 24% to A$823m and an operating profit of A$19·8m. Managing Director David Hudson attributed the success to the ’particularly robust’ Australian construction business. Barclay Mowlem is a partner in the ADrail joint venture building the Alice Springs ...

  • News

    Steady growth at Arup

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    CONTNUED steady growth in turnover was seen at Arup during 2002. Overall turnover for the period to March 31 this year exceeded £400m, with profits of over £20m. There was a 17% increase in global turnover, 3% increase in profit, and a stable profit margin of 5%, despite an 11% ...

  • News

    Applying proactive maintenance on CTRL

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: The Channel Tunnel Rail Link will need maintenance standards ’an order of magnitude higher’ than on the rest of the UK network. Chris Jago, Managing Director of Union Railways South, briefs Murray Hughes on plans to maintain Britain’s first 300 km/h railway’IF THE NAKED EYE can see an irregularity ...

  • News

    Amey recommends cash offer

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    SPANISH construction and services group Ferrovial Servicios has made a cash offer of £0·32 per share for Amey plc. The directors of Amey have unanimously recommended acceptance of the ’fair and reasonable’ offer, and Ferrovial has received irrevocable undertakings to accept the offer in respect of 32·6% of Amey’s shares. ...

  • News

    EMU refurbishment agreed

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    GOVIA has signed a £20m contract with rolling stock leasing firm HSBC Rail for the refurbishment of 184 inner-suburban EMU vehicles operated on the South Central franchise. Work on the Class 455 four-car units will start this month, and will be completed within three years. Each train will be taken ...

  • News

    Madrid - Lleida slips again

    2003-05-01T10:00:00Z

    ACTING on the findings of a joint working group formed with Renfe to tackle the mounting delays to the opening of the Madrid - Lleida high speed line (RG 4.03 p179), on March 24 Spanish high speed construction authority GIF agreed a new commissioning programme with signalling contractors CSEE Transport ...