All News articles – Page 337
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Soyabean grease
ENVIRONMENTAL Lubricants Manufacturing and Portec Rail have launched a high-performance lubricant based on soya beans, for rail curve and grinding applications. SoyTrack is the result of research at the University of Northern Iowa, and has the column strength and resistance to rain of petroleum-based lubricants. It has the advantage of ...
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Freight goes west
ON JUNE 13 New South Wales operator FreightCorp announced that aluminium supplier Alcoa had signed an agreement on June 1 giving it preferred bidder status for a contract to move traffic in Western Australia. The first step will be for FreightCorp to agree with Alcoa and infrastructure company WestNet Rail ...
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Finance
Australia: The Victoria state budget has allocated A$14m over two years to extend suburban electrification from St Albans to Sydenham and build a new station.The NSW budget has allocated A$1bn in extra funding for the railways over the next four years. There is A$320m for track maintenance, A$147m for signalling ...
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Eastern promises
EXPANSION of the 1520mm gauge Russian rail network is once again in prospect. Prof Sergey Zakharov of the All-Russian Railway Research Institute told the 7th International Heavy Haul Conference in Brisbane of proposals for modernising the 86660 km network over the next 30 years. Several major projects will add 15000 ...
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Four routes east
A REPORT presented to the Portuguese parliament in May proposes the construction of four high-speed rail links to Spain between 2004 and 2017, at a cost of €7·2bn. The plan was unveiled by Dr Luis Manuel Pereira de Moura, head of the high-speed project office Rede Ferrovi
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Technology meets information demands
RAIL travellers are increasingly demanding instant, reliable and easy to understand train running information. The market for passenger information systems is growing, and many companies are exploiting recent technical developments to provide a better travel experience.The railway environment calls for robust, reliable, low-maintenance and vandal-proof equipment, which meet the highest ...
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Unusual layout led to Ladbroke Grove crash
The unsafe track and signalling layout adopted by British Rail when the approaches to Paddington were remodelled in 1989-92 appears to be the root cause of the 210 km/h head-on collision that occurred at Ladbroke Grove on October 5 1999 (RG 11.99 p703). Lord Cullen’s report on the accident, published ...
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Railtrack’s costs go through the roof
ON MAY 24 Railtrack released preliminary results for the year ended March 31 2001. These were bad enough, with the previous year’s £360m profit replaced by a £543m loss. This was mainly due to £561m in extra penalty payments to train operators after the Hatfield derailment on October 17 2000, ...
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Link completes pan-European corridor
THERESTORED rail link between Slovenia and Hungary was formally inaugurated by the two Prime Ministers on May 16. The route forms part of the pan-European Corridor V, linking Venezia, Trieste, Koper, Ljubljana, Budapest, Bratislava and L’viv (RBR 95 p67).The first railway to be built in Slovenia for over 30 years, ...
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Metros need co-ordination, not competition
’THIS IS A tremendous opportunity for us all to learn’, suggested Mayor of London Ken Livingstone as he welcomed delegates to the 54th UITP World Congress which opened at Earl’s Court on May 21. Readers will be aware of recent developments in London which led him to continue ’and you ...
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Compact tacho
Bombardier is using a new design of hand-held tachometer to measure diesel engine components during maintenance work at Crewe. The Compact CT6 Tachometer has a magnetic probe to measure cooler group fan speeds without the need to remove safety covers. A piezo-electric quartz crystal pressure sensor strapped to a fuel ...
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Chinese inspect screen doors
ON MAY 24 the Chippenham plant of Westinghouse Brakes (UK) Ltd was visited by a delegation from the Chinese city of Guangzhou, led by Mayor Lin Shusen and including Guangzhou Metro General Manager Lu Guanglin. Under a contract worth £12m, Westinghouse and its local partner Guangzhou Otis Elevator Co Ltd ...
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TramPlus is changing the face of Rotterdam
INTRO: Government grants for public transport modernisation will fund new low-floor cars, route extensions and upgrading work in a programme that will eventually see total restructuring of Rotterdam’s tram network. Chris Jackson finds that the first phase of TramPlus has already brought a welcome upturn in ridershipAPRIL 17 saw the ...
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High-speed fortunes change
FLORIDA Governor Jeb Bush has signed the High Speed Rail Authority Act, setting up an agency to build a passenger railway connecting the state’s five largest metropolitan areas, and providing $4·5m to fund the first year’s work. Nine board members were to be appointed by June 30: three each by ...
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Cargo Express launched
SWISS Federal Railways introduced an accelerated overnight service for domestic freight on June 11. Offering later loading times and earlier deliveries than existing wagonload services, Cargo Express combines SBB’s former Cargo Rail Rapid and Cargo Domizil networks and relies on a network of trains that converge on yards at Bern ...
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MTA seeks capital funds
NEW YORK MTA has applied for federal funding to support a number of capital projects during the financial year starting in September. MTA has allocated $4bn for New York City Transit, $302m for Metro-North, and $216m for Long Island Rail Road, plus $150m for the LIRR’s East Side Access project. ...
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Dutch plan to juggle capacity
STUDIES by Railforum Nederland suggest that it may be possible to boost capacity on the Dutch rail network by 30 to 40% over the next five years with relatively minor modifications to signalling and track layouts.NS is currently struggling to handle its growing traffic, with many passenger trains cancelled due ...
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Indiana Rail Road shows how to grow regional business
INTRO: The last decades have seen numerous unprofitable secondary and branch lines spun off to regional and short line operators. The Indiana Rail Road demonstrates how labour flexibility, innovative technology, and close attention to service can turn once marginal routes into successful regional railways, reports William DMiddleton ESTABLISHED IN 1986, ...
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TGV Méditerranée opens for business
On June 7 President Jacques Chirac formally opened the latest addition to the French high speed network, the 250 km TGV Méditerranée running from the TGV Rh
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NewsIntegrating 'global brilliance'
IN HIS KEYNOTE speech to the 7th International Heavy Haul Conference in Brisbane on June 11, former Spoornet Chief Executive Braam le Roux, currently Representative for Southern Africa at the International Union of Railways, drew attention to the constant threat facing railways from their competitors. Telling 580 delegates from 27 ...