All News articles – Page 276
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News
Bordeaux study
PROPOSALS for the development of rail services around Bordeaux are to be drawn up over the next 12 months, following the award last month of two parallel study contracts to Systra, Erea and Ingerop. The first, awarded by the region of Aquitaine, covers the area west of the city. The ...
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Reform bill clears hurdle
RUSSIA’s railways are finally set for three stages of restructuring after the fourth bill in the reform package was passed by the Federation Council on February 12. The bill covered property ownership issues, and the Council had rejected it on December 27 after finding that there were too many omissions ...
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WTC to become subway hub
RECONSTRUCTION of the subway maze around the World Trade Center site into a co-ordinated transport interchange will get underway next year, for completion by 2007, although the cost is likely to exceed the promised $4·5bn in federal aid. New York Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on February ...
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Grant battle resumes
ON FEBRUARY 13 the US Congress passed a bill that included a grant to Amtrak totalling $1·05bn. Amtrak had sought $1·2bn (RG 2.03 p72 ) but said on the following day that this ’should be sufficient to operate the national system for the remainder of the fiscal year which ends ...
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Asmara reconnected
AFTER a 10-year reconstruction programme, Eritrea Railways confirmed last month that it had completed the rebuilding of its 117 km main line linking the capital Asmara to the Red Sea port of Massawa (RG 2.01 p93). A formal inauguration ceremony is planned for later this year. Including 3·5% grades on ...
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SIFER arrives in Lille
SIFER 2003 is being held at the Grand Palais exhibition centre at Lille from March 25 to 27. This will be the third SIFER event. The last took place in Paris in March 2001 and attracted exhibitors from 17 countries across Europe. Visitors from a total of 40 countries attended, ...
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Questions to answer in Taegu
JUST 100 years ago 84 people died at Couronnes on the Paris metro when a fire caused by a short circuit engulfed an eight-car train of wooden-bodied cars. Major metro fires are few and far between, but the inferno that killed at least 125 people in Taegu in South Korea ...
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AMEC votes to buy Spie
AMEC plc shareholders voted at an Extraordinary General Meeting in favour of exercising an option to acquire the outstanding 54% interest in Spie. The €270m transaction will be funded using existing committed bank facilities, and is expected to be completed on March 5. AMEC’s preliminary results for the year to ...
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Low-cost airlines
Sir - In RG 10.02 p616 you noted the increasing threat to European and even the British rail system from the onslaught of low-cost aviation. Here are some other factors that need acknowledgment.Railways cost substantial amounts of public money in a way that other modes do not. The high speed ...
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Paris looks again at automation
WHEN A HOLE appeared in the grounds of a school in Paris on February 15, it was rapidly established that tunnelling for an extension of Line 14 of the metro was in hand below. Paris metro operator RATP blamed ’a geological accident’ for the collapse, which occurred where a maintenance ...
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Rolling pipelines across the borders
INTRO: On January 31 German open access operator rail4chem was granted safety approval to operate in the Netherlands, as part of its strategy to target international rail freight flows across Europe. Over the two years since its launch in March 2001, the company has seen its business grow to over ...
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Freight customers demand open access with fair competition
INTRO: From March 15 the 50000 km Trans-European Rail Freight Network is theoretically open to any qualified train operator, whether publicly or privately owned. Richard Hope asked four major rail users who desperately want a competitive market what further changes are needed to achieve itTHIS MONTH sees a major step ...
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Open access brings
mixed resultsINTRO: In theory, legislation has provided Australia with one of the most open rail freight markets in the world. In reality, results have been mixed, with success inhibited by the failure of governments to provide policies to realise the full potential of open access, says Mark CarterCOMPETITION policy principles ...
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Underground withdraws 700 cars after derailment
COMMUTERS on London Underground’s Central line faced weeks of disruption after a detached traction motor derailed the rear half of an eight-car train approaching Chancery Lane station at 13.53 on January 25. There were only minor injuries as the derailed cars were tightly confined within the 3·57m diameter tunnel, the ...
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Rail-Tech Europe 2003
WE ARE delighted to be supporting the Rail-Tech Europe 2003 event being staged in Utrecht on April 1-3. Organised by Europoint, Rail-Tech Europe 2003 will be held in the Royal Dutch Jaarbeurs with a three-day exhibition and a technical congress themed on noise, vibration and the environment. Day 1 of ...
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NewsPointers March 2003
The government of Uzbekistan has decided to accelerate construction of the Tashguzar - Baysun - Kumkurgan railway serving the southern part of the country, with the aim of completing the work by 2007. Last month Israel's Finance Minister Silvan Shalom designated the construction of a high speed rail link ...
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Line 2 upgrading
BUDAPEST City Council voted at the end of January in favour of an HF53bn refurbishment of Line 2 over the next four years. The modernisation of the 30-year-old Red line will be partially funded by a 25-year HF30bn EIB loan which was approved in December. According to Mayor Gabor Demszky, ...
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Level 1 gets thumbs down
THE THREAT that Britain might be faced with a legal requirement to spend more than £6bn on installing ERTMS Level 1 or 2 on lines where trains exceed 160 km/h before it is fully developed as a reliable product, and before existing signalling is life-expired, has been lifted. On February ...
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Testing time on the tightrope
A MOMENT of truth is arriving for the top management of French National Railways. President Louis Gallois has received fresh instructions from the Raffarin government, and these will translate into quite different policies from those followed in the recent past. Gallois’ contract expires at the end of this month, and ...