All News articles – Page 300
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News
DART heads north
ANOTHER 5·6 km of light rail line opened in the northeast suburbs of Dallas on May 6, bringing the network to 43·4 km. The Blue line extension from White Rock to LBJ/Skillman runs through White Rock Lake Park on a 1430m bridge. Services run every 15min, and every 10min at ...
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GIS crossing location
ENSCO has been selected by the Federal Railroad Administration to incorporate a Geographical Information System into the US level crossing Emergency Notification System. Road signs at crossings provide a unique inventory number and a free telephone number for the public to call if there is a problem or potential emergency. ...
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Cross-border revival starts
LEBANESE Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and his Syrian counterpart Mustafa Miro attended ceremonies at Riyaq on April 18 to mark the start of work to restore the 1050mm gauge railway between the two countries. Other participants included Lebanon’s Public Works & Transport Minister Najib Mikati - who has been advocating ...
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TSIs must cover safety too
DIRECTIVE 96/48 mandating interoperability on high speed lines in the European Union was transposed into British law on May 16. After a three-month grace period, Technical Specifications for Interoperability will apply to designated routes, even though they will not come into force until November at the earliest. In the meantime, ...
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Leasing companies gain foothold in Europe
INTRO: One undoubted success stemming from Britain’s turbulent rail privatisation programme was the creation of a trio of Rolling Stock Companies. As all three expand into Europe, Roger Ford analyses their progressCOMPETITION was a key driver in the privatisation of British Rail. In the case of the passenger railway, this ...
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Coasting in Portugal
DELEGATES to a TradePartners UK seminar on May 15 were warned of a likely slowdown in major railway projects in Portugal. The government that took office in March has indicated that it is reassessing major schemes, and it now seems that the upgrading of track and signalling on the trunk ...
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La Robla reopening closer
SPANISH metre gauge operator FEVE has started work on the last phase of a programme to reopen the whole of its León - Bilbao route to passenger traffic. Under a €12·87m contract expected to take 11 months to complete, Tecsa is relaying the 42 km between Cordovilla and Arija with ...
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Phones chipped
EAST Japan Railway and NTT DoCoMo Inc are developing proposals to equip mobile telephones with Suica microchips, which are currently being used in the railway’s contactless smart cards (RG 2.02 p99). Passengers could then use a Suica-fitted telephone to reserve seats on trains, and to pass through ticket control barriers ...
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In-town check-in
SPANISH Prime Minister José María Aznar officially opened the latest addition to the Madrid Metro network on May 21, the 5·9 km extension of Line 8 from Mar de Cristal to Nuevos Ministerios. Serving one intermediate station at Colombia, the new line enables passengers to reach Barajas Airport in 12min ...
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CFCO concession
NEXT MONTH is due to see the completion of prequalification for a concession to operate the 1115 km Congo-Ocean Railway in the Republic of Congo. On May 13 CPCS Transcom confirmed that 23 groups had expressed interest following publication of prequalification documents in April. These include African, European and North ...
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Metro car orders
NEW YORK’S Metropolitan Transportation Authority has exercised a further option with Bombardier for 352 M-7 EMU cars, valued at C$941m. MTA now has a total of 678 M-7s on order for the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North commuter networks. It will shortly commission the first cars of the initial ...
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More capacity in Mumbai
Every day, the 302 route-km Mumbai suburban rail network operates as a surface metro carrying 6·1 million passengers in 1985 trains. To say that the network is heavily overloaded is an understatement, with as many as 4600 people travelling in, and on, nine-car trains during the morning peak hours. Plans ...
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Higher capacity has priority in huge IR investment programme
INDIAN RAILWAYS has announced an unprecedented programme of investment to raise capacity across the network. Under newly-appointed Chairman I I M S Rana, the Indian Railway Board is proposing to spend Rs260bn on new lines, further gauge conversion, double tracking and resignalling over the next seven years (p322).On May 16 ...
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Burned station restored
RESTORATION of Pretoria’s historic main station has been completed, and an official reopening ceremony was planned for May 30. Built in 1910 to the design of Sir Herbert Baker, the station was badly damaged by fire on February 19 last year, when commuters rioted following a signal failure. The final ...
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Bucuresti launch
On May 22 the Managing Director of Bucuresti metro operator Metrorex Marius Lapadat took part in a special event to mark the launch of new rolling stock for Line 2. The first of 18 six-car Movia trainsets was demonstrated by builder Bombardier Transportation to Metrorex officials and other potential customers. ...
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Schouppe ousted from SNCB in Brussels pantomime
THE APPROVAL by the Belgian Senate of government plans to change the management structure of Belgian National Railways (RG 4.01 p253) triggered a remarkable and unseemly round of political manoeuvring, as Transport Minister Isabelle Durant strove to gain control of the railway’s management board. A member of the Green party, ...
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Products in Brief
Escol Panels is to supply vitreous enamel cladding panels for stations on Kowloon - Canton Railway's West Rail project.Spescom is providing software and equipment to allow Spoornet to record, monitor and archive train movement authorisations given by a variety of radio systems at 40 sites in South Africa.Ecebs is to ...
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Passenger News in Brief
Finnish State Railways is to introduce a clock-face timetable on its routes from Helsinki to Turku, Tampere and Kouvola and cut journey times with the introduction of more Pendolino services on June 2.Spanish National Railways has formed the NEFSA joint venture with Riofisa to undertake station modernisation and development ...
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Industry News in Brief
Stadler Rail AG and ABB Switzerland signed a rail vehicle business co-operation agreement on May 6. ABB is to supply converters, transformers, and associated protective and control electronics for Stadler rolling stock.Kawasaki Manufacturing Corp opened a $50m plant in Lincoln, Nebraska on April 19. The 40600 m2 custom-built facility will ...
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Train ferry bidding
INTERNATIONAL partners are being canvassed to finance the development of a train ferry route across the Bohai Sea. China’s Ministry of Railways unveiled proposals in Beijing on April 26, and the Director of the Railway Co-operation Department Wang Chunsheng hopes to name the preferred investors by the end of this ...