All News articles – Page 296
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News
INTELLIGENCE
Albania: The Railway Directorate expected to start work last month on the reconstruction of the Shkoder - Hani I Hotit line, which was damaged during riots in 1997. A contract has been awarded to the Alba Via company following the allocation of 200m leks for the work in the government ...
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Interior suppliers integrate
FINTEN, a marketing and product development alliance of six Finnish railway suppliers, is planning to boost its members’ order books by seeking international contracts for integrated passenger carriage interiors. Members produced components for 92 double-deck vehicles built for VR by Talgo, the last of which rolled off the production line ...
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Turn up the heat
CKS Holdings Ltd is supplying rugged industrial computers to control gas-powered point heaters made by Netherlands-based Pintsch Aben BV.Burning natural gas or propane, the heaters are being used by railways in Switzerland, Russia and the Netherlands. Each computer can control up to 10240 burner pipes. Because they are mounted in ...
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Mott joins Franklin
ENGINEERING consultancies Mott MacDonald and Franklin + Andrews announced a merger on May 16. The companies will trade under their own names within the Mott MacDonald group.Franklin + Andrews is focused on consultancy and project management. Mott MacDonald’s skills include design engineering and experience with privately-financed projects. The two companies ...
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Frame-sleeper track promises a longer life
INTRO: Tests at three sites have confirmed that frame-sleeper track has high lateral resistance and a lower ballast settlement rate than conventional sleepers, but more work is needed to confirm the predicted reduction in maintenance costsBYLINE: Dipl-Ing Dr Techn Klaus RiessbergerHead of Railway Department, Technical University of GrazFIRST DEVELOPED in ...
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Finance
Chile: Investment bank IM Trust has been commissioned by Grupo CB to examine options for raising up to US$15m of investment funding for freight operator Fepasa. This may involve CB selling all or part of its controlling interest in the company.Czech Republic: CD recorded a loss of KC4bn in 2001, ...
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Regions fight for funds
TWO REGIONS in the north of France have begun official proceedings before the Conseil d’Etat in an attempt to obtain additional funding from central government to meet their responsibilities under new agreements with SNCF (RG 4.02 p167). Nord-Pas-de-Calais reckons that TER services will require €180m this year against the €108m ...
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NJT expands
NEW JERSEY Transit has ordered 34 extra light rail vehicles from Kinki Sharyo, similar to the 45 already operating on the Hudson-Bergen line and the Newark City Subway. The $101·4m order, confirmed by the NJT board on June 12, was placed by 21st Century Rail Corp, the DBO concessionaire for ...
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Road excavators take to the rails
ROAD-RAIL maintenance vehicles offer contractors great flexibility, being suitable for tasks including excavation, vegetation cutting and spraying, rail lifting and rail clip insertion and removal.JCB estimates that 750 road-rail vehicles are in use in the UK. The company’s JS175W (right) has recently been launched for the European market. Each rail ...
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ERFA founded
A GROUP of European operators and the Association of German Transport Undertakings (VDV) are setting up the European Rail Freight Association. The first general assembly will take place on July 23 in Brussels, and Klaus-J Meyer, the VDV representative in Brussels, has been nominated as Chief Executive.ERFA’s primary objectives are ...
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Embattled ICF tries X.net
ANNOUNCING its 2001 results on June 6, Intercontainer-Interfrigo looked back on a year when traffic fell by over 13%, to 834894 TEU and 942 million TEU-km. Apart from losing two major customers, ICF attributed its poor performance to ’poor quality’, ’disruptions due to accidents and bad weather conditions’ and ’strikes ...
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Easy to open windows
TOUCH-sensitive hopper windows for railway vehicles have been developed at Sheffield Hallam University with less-able users in mind. A passenger simply presses the damped-cam window to open it, and presses again to close it. The design incorporates embossed Braille instructions, and unlike existing windows requires minimal pressure to use.Inventor Margaret ...
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JR East to go fully private
THE Japanese government is to sell its remaining 12·7% stake in East Japan Railway. JR-East runs 12 220 trains a day, carrying 16·2 million passengers on a network totalling 7 538 route-km. Around 500000 shares owned by Japan Railway Construction Public Corp are to be sold, raising an expected ´300bn. ...
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Dynamic stabilisation keeps geometry in shape
INTRO: Long-term trials carried out jointly by German Railway and Plasser & Theurer have shown that dynamic track stabilisation reduces the rate at which track geometry deterioratesBYLINE: Dr Bernhard LichtbergerHead of Research & TestingPlasser & TheurerIN A LONG-TERM trial carried out with German Railway on a main line near Regensburg, ...
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Czech results mixed
US-owned Czech wagon builder Thrall Vagonka lost KC23m on revenues of KC1·17bn in 2001, but restructuring and consolidation reduced the loss from the previous year’s figure of KC203m. Meanwhile, CKD Vagonka recorded a net profit of KC60m on sales of KC273m. Brake manufacturer DAKO-CZ achieved a gross profit of KC36m, ...
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TGV Est contracts let
FRENCH infrastructure authority RFF has awarded a further six contracts for civil works on the first phase of the TGV Est européen high speed line, which runs for 300 km between Vaires-sur-Marne and Baudrecourt. Contracts have now been let for civil works on over 60% of the route, due to ...
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More confrontation over Taiwan’s high speed line
WITH civil engineering work on Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s 346 km line between Taipei and Kaohsiung now 30% complete (p345), the project is unlikely to be abandoned. But serious delay is almost certain to follow a furious legal row that has erupted between the corporation and the government.The NT$446bn ...
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Low noise track meets environmental concerns
INTRO: New forms of track are being developed with the objective of reducing railway noise at its source. Different techniques are required to tackle airborne noise radiated by the rail and low-frequency ground vibration, and it is often necessary to balance noise reduction against mechanical performanceBYLINE: David Thompson and Chris ...
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Swiss commit to ETCS
SWISS Federal Railways will invest SFr2·9bn in signalling and train control modernisation over the next 15 years. A commitment to install ETCS on all main lines in Switzerland by 2017 was made by SBB’s management board on June 4, when it announced a three-pronged investment programme. Apart from SFr830m for ...