All News articles – Page 298
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News
Italians lift up and away
ACCESSIBILTY specialist Bestgroup Industrie has developed MoDiLift, a battery powered on-board lift which can be fitted to vehicles during refurbishment. Two prototypes are currently undergoing tests on Spanish National Railways regional trains, and MoDiLift will be used on 10 trainsets being refurbished by Magliola & Figli for services between Italy ...
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Swiss to test asphalt substructure
TWO OR THREE trial sections of asphalt-based track are to be laid in Switzerland. Leading the project is Swiss Track Systems, a grouping of companies set up to promote use of asphalt track in Switzerland.The group is led by local company Aeschlimann AG, whose partners are Cellere AG, also from ...
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Echoes of Armagh
FLAGS in Mozambique were lowered to half mast on May 26 as the country began three days of official mourning following a disastrous runaway incident on the previous day. At around 05.00 a mixed train bound for Maputo from Ressano Garcia was on a grade near the town of Moamba, ...
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CAF expands US arm
SPANISH rolling stock builder CAF has opened a new technical development centre at Elmira Heights, New York, which will work closely with its North American manufacturing plants at Hunt Valley, Maryland and Sacramento, California. The centre will also support the company’s contract to supply 28 new light rail cars for ...
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Amtrak ’near the point of no return’
IMMEDIATELY after taking office as President & CEO of Amtrak in May, David Gunn set about tackling the railway’s precarious financial position. In particular, he warned that Amtrak would have to cease running services in July unless an emergency $200m short-term loan was arranged by the end of June to ...
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WMATA picks Alstom
WASHINGTON DC metro operator WMATA has selected Alstom Transportation Inc to supply a build of 64 new cars, although the recommendation by the Operations Committee on May 23 must still be endorsed by the board of directors. The $148·6m contract will include an option for up to 120 cars at ...
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AGV in need of a customer
HAVING completed its task in May, Alstom's Elisa test train formed of two experimental AGV cars married to part of a TGV Réseau set is being dismantled while the results are analysed. AGV stands for Automotrice à Grande Vitesse, and Project Director Georges Palais told us on the final trip ...
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ERRAC sets out strategic agenda
THE DIRECTION of European railway research for the next 20 years was mapped out on June 4, when the European Commissioner for Research Philippe Busquin unveiled the Strategic Rail Research Agenda. Subtitled ’A Turning Point for European Rail Research’, SRRA 2020 outlines four ’areas of action’ to be progressed by ...
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PPP in the dock again
ONCE AGAIN the High Court in London is due to consider the legality of the Public-Private Partnership that is intended to hand over the maintenance of the capital’s metro to the private sector. On June 12 Mayor of London Ken Livingstone announced that Transport for London, which he chairs, had ...
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Master Plan will add capacity
INTRO: Earlier this year Vietnam’s Prime Minister authorised a 160921bn dong programme of investment that will expand and modernise the DSVN network by 2020MAJOR upgrading of existing routes and construction of new lines feature prominently in Vietnam Railways’ Master Plan. With Prime Minister Phan Van Khai’s seal on the document, ...
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RZD accelerates the pace of electrification
INTRO: Electrification of the final two sections of the Trans-Siberian main line ranks among several major wiring projects nearing completion under a Russian Railways investment programmeAFTER A LONG period during the 1990s when financial problems prevented much investment in the Russian Railways network, electrification is once again a priority in ...
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Line 4 consortia prequalified
A TOTAL OF 12 consortia have prequalified for turnkey contracts to design and build metro Line 4 in the Brazilian city of São Paulo. The first phase which will run for 12·8 km from Luz to Vila S
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VIA stations
VIA Rail Canada has completed the renovation of Halifax station in Nova Scotia, the eastern terminus of its Ocean service from Montréal. The rail/bus interchange has been improved, the station roof renewed and exterior brickwork restored. On May 10 VIA officially unveiled the refurbished station at Kitchener-Waterloo in southwest Ontario, ...
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Ticino S-Bahn
SWISS Federal Railways and Italian State Railway will take a first step in December towards creation of a regional S-Bahn network serving the cross-border region north of Milano. From the winter timetable change, local services between Mendrisio and Lugano will be increased to half-hourly, and the border stop at Chiasso ...
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PTC tests at risk
WORK to upgrade track and signalling over much of the Union Pacific route between Chicago and St Louis is due for completion by October. The section between Dwight and Springfield, Illinois, has been fitted with Positive Train Control and improved protection at level crossings (RG 6.00 p359), allowing line speed ...
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Pointers
n Communications Minister Nazmul Huda has proposed electrifying the Bangladesh Railway main lines from Dhaka to Chittagong and Rajshahi, as well as building links from Dhaka to Laksam, between Banganbandhu Bridge and Bogra and from Chittagong to Cox’s Bazar. Land sales and the recovery of 120bn taka owed by companies ...
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PEOPLE
Gilles de Robien has been appointed Transport Minister in the new French government. Marc Foucault is Ministerial Advisor, Pierre Graff is Director of the Minister’s Cabinet, and Guénola de Couedic is Head of Communications. Former President of New York City Transit and Toronto Transit Commission David L Gunn took over ...
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TBTC pays off in Vancouver
BYLINE: Michael RichardVice-President, OperationsBritish Columbia Rapid Transit Company LtdBRITISH COLUMBIA was an early user of TBTC. Since 1986 Vancouver’s SkyTrain has been the largest driverless transit system in North America. Using SelTrac technology, it remains one of the largest fully-automated applications in the world.As operator, BC Rapid Transit Co has ...
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Orbital study
MARYLAND’S General Assembly has approved funding of $10·5m to start planning and environmental studies for the proposed 22·7 km orbital light rail line from New Carrollton to Silver Spring and Bethesda. It would link the outer ends of Washington Metro’s Red, Green and Orange lines, providing suburb-to-suburb connections between communities ...
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Metros
Brazil: TCBR, Vega and Dalcon have been awarded a contract to undertake outline engineering design for a 13 km elevated metro in Curitiba (RG 3.02 p117). The winning bid was R$5·82m.Canada: Montréal’s AMT has unveiled plans for a 6·2 km, six station C$700m extension of the Blue line from Saint ...