All News articles – Page 354
-
News
View from the bank
ON DECEMBER 5 Deutsche VerkehrsBank published a study1 suggesting that investment in transport will total US$300bn a year for the next decade. ’The Global Transport Market - a Tremendous Investment Opportunity’ estimates that US$45bn is being spent every year on ’rail infrastructure improvements’, and that by 2004 annual spending on ...
-
News
Back to health
The fortunes of two small stations on Taiwan’s West Coast main line have been revived by - of all things - a car advertisement. Television marketing for a Volkswagen minibus was designed to appeal to the Chinese sense of good fortune with a pun based on their names. Pairing Yungkang ...
-
News
On autotransformers
Sir - The article on catenary upgrading on the West Coast Main Line (RG 11.00 p735) was extremely interesting, but there are, however, always pitfalls in making claims for ’firsts’. Sometime in the mid-1960s Railway Gazette published an article, based on Japanese sources, reporting on the development of a ’new’ ...
-
News
Australia the ’big loser’ in Speedrail dumping
FURY ERUPTED in Australia in the wake of the federal government’s decision on December 11 that it would not provide financial support for the Sydney - Canberra Speedrail project. A formal announcement the following day attempted to disguise the abandonment of the A$4·5bn scheme by calling for a feasibility study ...
-
News
Trans-Asia links approved
PROPOSALS for the US$2·5bn trans-Asia rail network linking Singapore to Kunming were endorsed by local heads of government at the 4th Asean Summit held on November 25. Feasibility studies for the scheme had been approved by a meeting of Asean Transport Ministers in Brunei in September (RG 11.00 p696). Malaysia's ...
-
News
Diet asked to approve total sell-off
THIS MONTH may be decisive for the future of the three JR companies on Honshu. Following a government decision on December 7, the Diet is being asked to approve a bill authorising sale of the remaining government-held shares in the three companies - just 12·5% of East Japan Railway’s shares ...
-
News
Separation finds another fan
CHANGE is coming to Austria. Newly-appointed Transport Minister Monika Forstinger has made it clear that she favours the European Commission’s view on rail policy (p3), and will campaign for competition. Until now Austria had interpreted Directives on separation of infrastructure and operations somewhat loosely - and indeed it was not ...
-
News
Railion recruits another member
WHILE EUROPE's politicians wrestle with ways to introduce competition between operators (below), the national railways continue in their slow march towards a series of alliances. Earlier rumours about Danish State Railways' freight business, DSB Gods, were confirmed on December 15 when it joined the Railion holding group formed by German ...
-
News
Kiley unveils PPP alternative
COMISSIONER of Transport for London Robert Kiley unveiled his programme for the ’rehabilitation and management’ of London Underground on December 13. Appointed by TfL Chairman and Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, the former head of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority had been asked by the mayor to review the government’s ...
-
News
Asian shuttle starts after signing
JANUARY 10 is due to see the launch of a container shuttle service from Uzbekistan to the Gulf via Sarakhs, following the signing of an accord in Tehran during November between Uzbekiston Temir Yollari and Iranian Islamic Republic Railways.According to UTY Operations Director Farhod Jalalov, the shuttle will run from ...
-
News
Talgo at home and abroad
BEYOND the glittering prize of the Madrid - Barcelona high speed train contract, Spanish rolling stock manufacturer Patentes Talgo sees a promising future in what CEO Francisco de Lorenzo describes as its ’very open’ home market. The government’s 2000-07 Railway Infrastructure Programme, costed at Pts4·7bn, combines the construction of high-speed ...
-
NewsEarthworks 60% complete on first section of Libyan network
MOHAMMED Abdulsamed Ali, Chairman of the Railways Executive Board in Libya, has revealed details of progress with building a 3170 km national network. The Great Socialist Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is planning to spend US$10bn on two major routes, the first of which is currently under construction. This will not be ...
-
News
Line 5 funding
BEIJING Municipal Government has set up a subsidiary company to raise international and private sector funding for the construction of a new metro line in the capital. The north-south Line 5 will link Songjiazhuang in Fengtai district with Taipingshuang in neighbouring Changping county. Construction of the route - one of ...
-
News
The world’s first 350 km/h railway takes shape
INTRO: Spain’s high speed construction authority Gestor de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias is pushing ahead with the route from Madrid to Barcelona and the French border, where civil works as far as Lleida are nearing completion. With this route due to open throughout by 2004, other high speed projects are now being ...
-
News
Railtex 2000 review
Over 9000 trade visitors from 50 countries attended the Railtex 2000 exhibition at Britain's National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham. Many of the exhibitors used the event to announce new contracts or launch innovative products
-
News
Tunnel vision
ASIA: 'The construction is technically feasible, but the problem is money' said Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, unveiling a US$80bn plan to end Japan's insularity with a 174 km tunnel between the island of Kyushu and South Korea. Japanese engineers built Korea's first railways, and Mori said the project is ...
-
News
Marriage of convenience
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways and the Mittelthurgau Railway announced a surprise tie-up on November 3 with the formation of the East Switzerland Regional Railway (Regionalbahn Ostschweiz, RBO). MThB took over passenger services on the Schaffhausen - Kreuzlingen - Romanshorn route in May 1998, taking delivery in September that year ...
-
News
Stop those spills
ENVIRONMENTAL protection against spills of oils and dangerous chemicals is available using lightweight Track Collector modules being introduced to Europe by CBI Engineering A/S of Denmark. Developed in North America, the moulded track pans can be laid around existing sidings and easily removed for inspection of the soil. Moulded edge ...
-
News
Programme software solution
RAILTRACK’s System Engineering Manager Brian Halliday uses Doors management software from Quality Systems & Software to co-ordinate the various facets of the route modernisation. In particular, it is essential to manage the interfaces between the various projects on the ground, Virgin, SSRA, the Office of the Rail Regulator, and the ...