All News articles – Page 310
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News
Deicing fluid sticks to rail
MIDWEST Industrial Supply Inc is supplying anti-icing fluid for third rail electrified railways. Using ’smart fluid’ technology licensed from NASA, the anti-ice treatment is sprayed or poured onto the rail, where it forms a thin film, before the onset of freezing conditions.The fluid prevents ice bonding to metal, and is ...
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Interlocking deal
PARIS Transport Authority awarded a €7m contract to Alcatel Transport Automation Solutions on January 31 to install new electronic interlockings across the metro and RER networks. The first Series 6271 LockTrac/PIPC installation, which uses a PC platform and software-based data preparation, is due to replace relay interlockings on RATP Line ...
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German Railway telecom deal
GERMAN telephone operator Arcor AG & Co sold Telematik, its railway-specific telecommunications business, to Deutsche Bahn AG for €1·15bn on January 24. Arcor’s former parent Mannesmann AG had purchased Telematik from DB in 1996.An agreement is expected to be concluded by April 1 for the creation of a joint venture ...
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Mexican merger deal
PROPOSALS to bring two of Mexico’s three principal rail concessionaires under common ownership were announced on January 25. The plan is to transfer all the shares in Ferrocarril del Sureste to a subsidiary of the mining company Grupo México, known as Infraestructura y Transportes México. FerroSur is currently controlled by ...
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Curitiba funding
JAPAN BANK for International Co-operation is to provide a loan of US$274·6m to fund construction of a 13 km surface metro route in Curitiba, capital of the state of Paran
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CPTM keeps growing
S??O PAULO state governor Geraldo Alckmin and Transport Secretary Jurandir Fernandes (below) joined CPTM President Oliver Salles de Lima and other officials on March 8 for a test run on metro Line 5 from Capão Redondo to Vila das Belezas. The 9·6 km route from Capão Redondo to Largo Treze ...
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Screen display controls
NET Display Systems has developed Public Area Display System, a software package for controlling passenger information displays connected by LAN or internet. The computers can operate arrival and departure information, paging and emergency data, and display multimedia advertising. Plasma screens can display text, pictures and complex video presentations. PADS can ...
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Connex grows in Germany
A NEW open access freight operator emerged in Germany on January 24, when Connex Cargo Logistics GmbH unveiled one of its three Bombardier-built Class 185 electric locos at Osnabrück. The 140 km/h dual-system locos are being leased from Porterbrook, and will be operated in co-operation with NordWestCargo, a joint venture ...
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Spoornet wins ZR concession
SOUTH AFRICAN rail operator Spoornet has been awarded the 25-year concession to manage and operate Zambia Railways. Spoornet International was one of four prequalified bidders shortlisted for the concession, in a consortium with Canarail and New Limpopo Bridge Investments (RG 2.02 p62). The official date for the handover has been ...
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Maputo concession
SPOORNET Chief Executive Zandile Jakavula visited Mozambique in January to sign a memorandum of agreement for the long-awaited concession to operate the 90 km railway from Maputo from the South African border at Machava, east of Komatipoort. The concession will be held by the newly-formed Ressano Garcia Railway Company, which ...
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Rail recovery trains completed
Jarvis Rail has completed three Rail Recovery/Delivery Trains at its York workshops. They are to be used to retrieve and deliver rail in a £12m, five-year contract with Railtrack’s National Logistics Unit. Fitted with eight electric 1·25 tonne cranes operated by a single remote control unit, each train can handle ...
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Comparison processes are robust, but subjective
In its value for money review, Ernst & Young found the processes adopted by London Underground to have been ’robust’ and in overall terms ’appropriate’. But the PPP contract structure ’does not allow the presentation of an indisputable quantified assessment of value of money’, due to its 30-year term with ...
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Spain moves closer to reform
THE SEPARATION of infrastructure from operations as required by European Union directives will be implemented in Spain by the end of 2003, according to Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos. This year, the government aims to reach agreement with the unions on how to proceed, and with other political parties on what ...
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Specialist Citadis lift
MAINTENANCE depots in Montpellier and Orléans have been equipped with vehicle lifts and bogie transfer tables developed by SEFAC Industries specifically for use with Alstom’s Citadis modular family of light rail vehicles.The mobile column lift is able to raise the articulated trams as complete units. The standard design uses 12 ...
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Trans-Siberian upgrades for a new century
BYLINE: Boris LukovDeputy General Secretary,International Co-ordinating Council on Trans-Siberian TransportationIN JULY 2001, celebrations were held at the Kremlin palace in Moscow to mark the centenary of the legendary Trans-Siberian Main Line. Running for 9988 km from the capital’s Yaroslavl station to the Pacific port of Vladivostok, the world’s longest railway ...
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Third sector casualties
A CHANGE in the law two years ago that was intended to promote competition has resulted in a rising number of closures among Japan’s ’third sector’ railways. One reason is that passenger service can now be abandoned without getting permission from local government. Another is that many lines taken over ...
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Car carriers fit tighter gauge
BRITISH intermodal operator Freightliner has introduced a new design of car-carrying flat wagon, known as Autoflat. To be operated by Autoliner, the automotive arm of Freightliner Heavy Haul Ltd, the vehicles are designed to handle the increasing height and width of domestic road vehicles within the restricted UK loading gauge. ...
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California dumps maglev
NOTWITHSTANDING the Perils of Amtrak playing to full houses in Congress (p109), the California High Speed Rail Authority is steadily whittling down alignment options for a high speed network linking Sacramento and San Francisco Bay with Los Angeles and San Diego. State Governor Gray Davies continues to support the planning ...
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DM&E buys I&M Rail Link
A MONTH after receiving federal approval to expand its operations into the lucrative coal fields of Wyoming (RG 3.02 p113), the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad announced on February 21 that it had agreed to purchase I&M Rail Link, more than doubling the size of its network.I&MRL was spun off ...
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Passenger News in Brief
Passengers on some Amtrak Northeast Corridor, Hiawatha and Californian services can access the internet from carriages equipped with Compaq Pocket PCs and wireless modems.Connex has launched a free SMS service providing Stockholm commuters with Roslagsbanan train running information.A six-month public trial of TransLink multi-modal smart card ticketing in the San ...