All News articles – Page 303
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News
Ikea launches furniture 'pipeline'
Swedish-based Ikea Rail AB is one of the first private companies to have bought train paths across two borders. Richard Hope finds out how the train will cover 1044 km in three countries at an average speed of 65 km/h, using three drivers and two locomotives
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Finance
Brazil: The Spanish government is providing €17m of investment capital to CAF, which is due to spend €190m under a 20-year concession to operate the Salvador metro and supply rolling stock (RG 11.99 p691).Europe: The EU is to contribute €175000 towards a study to determine the economic benefit of reopening ...
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False hopes not raised
ANYONE expecting Australia’s federal government to have lent support to plans for a high speed line linking Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane would have to be pretty naive or plain optimistic. Having damned the VFT and Speedrail projects in the past, the government said on March 27 that it would ...
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Laval extension underway
ON MARCH 20 the Prime Minister of Québec Bernard Landry inaugurated work on the extension of Montréal’s rubber-tyred metro to the neighbouring municipality of Laval. Other participants included Transport Minister Serge Ménard, Laval Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt and the Managing Director of Agence Métropolitaine de Transport Florence Junca-Adenot. Due to open ...
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Dual gauge test site opens
LAST MONTH Spanish high speed construction authority GIF was due to begin using a test site built on 16 km of disused alignment between Medina del Campo and Olmedo northwest of Madrid. The 14·1 km section of dual 1435mm and 1668mm gauge track cost €24m. The facility will also test ...
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Investment drives western expansion
With traffic forecast to grow by 9% a year until 2010 as the focus of national economic development turns west, over 125bn yuan will be invested to expand China's western rail network in the next five years. By 2005 CR is due to complete 3000 km of new line, double-track ...
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DMU order signed
ROMANIAN passenger rail operator CFR Calatori has confirmed its order for 120 two-car diesel multiple-units to be supplied by Siemens Transportation Systems. Under the terms of a provisional agreement signed in July 2001 (RG 8.01 p533), the first vehicles are due to be delivered in November this year. Siemens announced ...
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Settlement deal
BRITAIN’S Association of Train Operating Companies has awarded SchlumbergerSema an £80m, 17-year contract to design, build and operate information technology for the rail settlement system. Due to become operational on April 1 2003, it will handle the apportionment of annual revenues totalling £3·5bn.Known as Latest Earnings Networked Nationally Over Night, ...
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Drive data logging
GERMAN Railway VT611 and VT612 Regio Swinger DMUs are using a data logger developed by Voith Turbo and Augsburg-based Dalog GmbH. Permanently installed on the final drive, the logger provides a comprehensive picture of the causes of problems.Using integrated GPS, diesel-hydraulic drives in almost any location can be monitored from ...
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Cross-city tunnel funded
GERMAN Railway is to go ahead with plans to build a 4 km cross-city tunnel in Leipzig. An agreement securing state and Land funding was signed in mid-March by Transport Minister Kurt Bodewig, DB Chairman Hartmut Mehdorn, Land Minister Dr Kajo Sommer and Leipzig Mayor Wolfgang Tiefensee. Total cost of ...
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Franchise renewal creeps forward
WHILE the future of Britain’s rail infrastructure remains uncertain, the Strategic Rail Authority is slowly pushing on with re-letting the short term passenger train operating franchises which are due to expire in 2003-04. Final bids were submitted on April 3 for the new Trans Pennine Express franchise to provide inter-city ...
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Contracts sold
UNITED Industrial Corp is selling two rolling stock refurbishment contracts awarded to its AAI subsidiary to Alstom Transportation Inc for US$21·4m. One covers overhaul of 100 Baltimore metro cars, which began in mid-2000 and is scheduled for completion next year. The other is for the renovation of 160 New Jersey ...
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Metrorail misery continues
DISSATISFACTION with South Africa’s Metrorail commuter operations appears to be growing (RG 4.02 p174). Pretoria - Johannesburg services were halted for 5h on April 3 when commuters, angered by timetable changes, blockaded the tracks at Bosman Street station, adjacent to Pretoria’s main station. A week later several coaches were set ...
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Paducah closes
US DIESEL loco remanufacturer VMV Paducahbilt ceased operation on April 2 and made all 240 staff redundant. Company officials blamed a steadily shrinking order book, resulting from US and Canadian railways buying large numbers of new locos, and the transfer of work to low-wage plants in Mexico. VMV’s owner, a ...
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Platte Valley celebration
DENVER Regional Transportation District formally inaugurated its 2·9 km Central Platte Valley Spur on April 5. Public services began the following day, with celebrations at the Union Station terminus. Branching off the initial route near 10th & Osage, the $46m branch serves the area west of the city centre. It ...
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Pullman car flies in
As part of its new corporate headquarters building, Kansas City Southern built an open-air trainshed. On April 13 the 1928-built Pullman car Harry S Truman was craned into position on a 24 m length of track, where it will be open to public view. From September the vehicle will be ...
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Thermal camera spots faults
LONDON Underground infrastructure company Sub-Surface Lines has bought two FLIR ThermaCAM PM695 hand-held thermal imaging cameras, which are being used to locate water ingress and drainage problems in tunnels and ballast. Areas of water seepage are picked up as cold spots. Using uncooled microbolometer FPA detectors with nearly 77 000 ...
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Roca bucks the trend
WITH the national economy effectively bankrupt, we reported in RG 2.02 (p61) that Argentina’s railways were in big trouble. Suburban operators Metropolitano and Ferrovías have both filed for bankruptcy protection. The government provided a cash injection to Fepsa in March to pay the wage bill and save the dismissal of ...
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Products in Brief
High Performance Display Systems has launched a portable plug-and-play full-colour LED display for text and video imagery and signage.Ultra-Tech Enterprises Inc has introduced Cab Signal Master, a microprocessor-based device for providing track and speed restriction data during testing of on-board signalling equipment.Altrix Heathcare is supplying mouth swab drug testing kits ...
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Industry News in Brief
On March 21 German civil engineering firm Philipp Holzmann requested the start of insolvency proceedings. Dresdner Bank, Commerzbank and HypoVereinsbank rejected a rescue plan.Dellner Couplers AB of Sweden is building a new factory at Gdynia in Poland. The SKr35m factory will open this summer, and is expected to employ up ...