All News articles – Page 317
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News
Shinkansen programme revived
THE Japanese government has decided to accelerate the current programme of high speed line construction as part of measures to aid the country’s economic recovery. Budget plans for the financial year starting on April 1, agreed in December, envisage a start of work on the outstanding sections of two long-planned ...
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Pointers
n Chinese Vice-Minister of Railways Sun Yongfu has announced plans to build a second rail link to Tibet. Work on the 1600 km Kunming - Lhasa line would begin after completion of the Qinghai route in 2007.n India’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the construction of a 68·2 ...
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Pointers
n Chinese Railways expects to order 4500 new locomotives over the period of the 10th five year plan (2001-05), of which 75% will be electric. Dalian Rolling Stock Plant is expected to build 20 SS4 electric locos in 2001.n The Indonesian Communications Ministry has announced plans to construct 190 km ...
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PEOPLE
SNCB Chief Executive Officer Etienne Schouppe has been appointed Chairman of the International Union of Railways for 2002-03. DB’s Hartmut Mehdorn, East Japan Railway’s Masatake Matsuda and Marton Kukeley of MÁV have been elected as UIC Vice-Chairmen.A former head of Union Railways and Costain, John Armitt was named Chief Executive ...
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people
Alexand D Rusak has been named Head of Locomotives at Russian Railways, succeeding Vladimir N Pustovoi who becomes a Vice-Minister of Railways. The appointment of Sergey N Gapeev as a Vice-Minister (RG 1.01 p15) has been confirmed. Mikhail P Akulov becomes President of RZD’s SouthEastern Railway in place of I ...
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Pajares project
Spain’s Ministry of Development has instructed high speed line authority GIF to proceed with outline design of a new high speed alignment to avoid the steeply-graded crossing of the Pajares pass on the León - Oviedo route. Costed at €1·56bn, the new line would run from a point south of ...
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Shenzhen order
ON NOVEMBER 23 Bombardier confirmed that Shenzhen Metro Co had ordered 19 six-car trainsets from its CARC joint venture with Changchun Car Co of China. The trains are destined to operate the first phase of the metro network now under construction in the Shenzhen economic development zone between Hong Kong ...
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ÖBB tries plug-and-play pointwork
INTRO: Railways are seeking to use turnouts that can be installed quickly and that require little or no maintenance. Austrian Federal Railways has found that the Hydrostar design with its associated Hydrolink control and IS-2000 monitoring meets these objectivesBYLINE: Ing Friedrich Papacek Head of Design & Construction, Signal Technology ...
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Metrotrén underway
Spanish Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos has laid the first sleeper for the doubling of FEVE’s El Berrón - Pola de Siero route, part of the €344·8m Metrotrén project to create a suburban network serving Oviedo, Gijón and neighbouring towns in Asturias. A total of 65·6 km of FEVE’s metre-gauge routes ...
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Metros
Canada: Testing is underway on 8 km of the Vancouver SkyTrain Millennium line. The first section will open early this year, with the remainder in the summer.China: Hong Kong MTR Corp has opened a cross-platform interchange between the Island and Kwun Tong lines at North Point station. It is intended ...
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Metros
Azerbaijan: Baku metro chief Tagi Ahmadov has complained that the state budget for 2001 only allocates 10bn manats for the network, compared to the 66bn manats needed. Repairs require 32bn manats, and a large percentage of the fleet is out of use awaiting repairs.Belgium: Bombardier is to supply 10 low-floor ...
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Opening in sight for TGV Méditerranée
WITH French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot at the controls, TGV Réseau set No 531 achieved 354 km/h during a test run between Aix-en-Provence TGV and Valence TGV on January 17. SNCF President Louis Gallois and RFF Director General Jean-François Bénard were also present to mark the start of commissioning trials ...
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Market
Australia: The Commonwealth government was due to receive bids last month from consultants for two more scoping studies into the potential for high speed railways in the Melbourne - Canberra - Sydney and Sydney - Brisbane corridors.Denmark: Angel Trains International has ordered 12 more Class MQ two-car Siemens Desiro VT642 ...
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Market
Egypt: Tenders have been invited for a 25-year franchise to extend ENR’s optic fibre communications network.Europe: The European Commission has appointed Ødegaard & Danneskiold-Samsøe to study ’European Priorities & Strategies for Railway Noise Abatement’. Covering the EU countries plus Norway, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, it will review ...
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Low-maintenance point operation
INTRO: After successful trials with a prototype maintenance-free point actuator, two production units were installed on Railtrack’s Southern Region. Following full product acceptance, further applications are now underwayCONTRACTUAL relationships between train operator, infrastructure manager and maintenance contractor are increasingly focusing attention on punctuality and performance requirements. In turn this is ...
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Sinai link restored
ON NOVEMBER 14 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak formally opened the 640m El-Ferdan swing bridge across the Suez Canal, 20 km north of Isamailia. The bridge reinstates the rail link into Sinai which has been broken since the third bridge was destroyed during the 1967 war with Israel. Built over five ...
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Luchou line starts
TAIPEI MAYOR Ma Ying-jeou joined city and metro officials on December 3 to turn the first sod for the 7 km Luchou line. Due for completion by December 2009, the Luchou line will branch off the 19·7 km Hsinchuang line now under construction and run northwest from Taipei Bridge through ...
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Lightning protection
AS ON-TRAIN electrical and electronic equipment has become more complex and integral to the design and operation of modern rolling stock, protection against lightning strikes becomes ever more critical. The latest SB-230 Rail Equipment Surge Protector from Lightning Eliminators & Consultants can absorb peak voltages of 2 kV at 80kA, ...
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Letters
December front coverSir - I should like to correct the caption to the front cover photograph printed on the Contents page of your December edition. Matisa’s Palas track geometry measuring system uses fixed points along the track, and does not need any GPS and fixed beacons. The measuring precision of ...
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Kazakhs to restructure
ON DECEMBER 21 the government of Kazakhstan announced that the central Asian republic’s national rail network is to be restructured by 2003, with the aim of partially privatising the business. KTZ Director General Ablai Myrakhmetov told a meeting in Astana that the railway would be split into four businesses, of ...