All News articles – Page 357
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PORTLAND light rail operator Tri-Max hopes to break ground this month for its 9·3 km Red line along Interstate Avenue, connecting the Rose Quarter and Expo Center. Scheduled to open in September 2004, this is costed at $350m. On September 20 Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater signed an agreement to provide ...
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Maintaining the West Coast fleet
INTRO: Through a train service provision agreement, the builders of the tilting fleet for Virgin Trains’ West Coast franchise now maintain the existing rolling stock. West Coast Traincare Managing Director Ron Temple reveals to Robert Preston his strategy for the new trains and the need to improve reliability of the ...
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Citadis orders placed
ON OCTOBER 6, Alstom Transport confirmed that it had signed contracts worth 67m euros to supply and maintain Citadis 300 low-floor light rail cars for Melbourne franchise operator Yarra Trams. Under the deal Alstom will supply 31 cars with options for a further five, and maintain them for 15 years. ...
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Catenary spring tensioner
At Railtex Pfisterer will be presenting its Tensorex spring tensioner for catenary contact and messenger wires, of which over 500 units have been supplied since the first application in 1997. Designed to provide a low-maintenance alternative to weight-based tensioning systems, Tensorex is available in two versions allowing for a maximum ...
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Carbon fibre composites strengthen iron and steel structures
BYLINE: Dr Paul S Hill MA MBA PhD MIM CEngTechnical ManagerDML CompositesBONDING plates made from carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) to concrete bridges is now becoming accepted practice. However, the application of this strengthening technique to metal structures has yet to be exploited on a similar scale.London Underground has been ...
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Complex structure of Britain’s railway starts to crack
PUNCTUALITY and on-time performance on Britain’s rail network were sacrificed on the altar of safety on October 19, when Railtrack imposed 81 emergency speed restrictions on main lines. It followed the derailment at Hatfield of Great North Eastern Railway’s 12.10 inter-city service from London to Leeds two days earlier. The ...
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Passenger in Brief
Following pilot projects with Spar at Leatherhead and Costcutter at Cooden Beach, Connex is looking to establish a joint venture with ’a major retailer’ to set up convenience stores at over 100 stations in southeast England. The 118m2 Cooden Beach shop is run by six Connex staff trained by Costcutter ...
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Industry in Brief
Europe: The Railcert BV subsidiary of TÜV Süddeutschland and Holland Railconsult has been approved by the Netherlands Ministry of Transport as a Notified Body able to certify compliance with EU Directive 96/48 on the interoperability of high speed rail systems.The European Commission has approved the takeover by Siemens of three ...
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Congress boosts rail funding
ON OCTOBER 6 the US Congress approved a total of $58bn in funding for the Department of Transportation during the 2001 fiscal year starting on October 1. The package includes $6·3bn for the federal transit programme, 8·2% more than last year in line with TEA 21 commitments. There will be ...
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EVR bidding hots up
FINAL BIDS are due this month for the 66% stake in Estonian National Railways currently up for sale, and the government hopes to select the winning bidder by the end of the year. Bidders are being asked to offer an initial payment and commitments to network upgrading totalling around ...
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Béziers line boosted
FRENCH Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot joined RFF President Claude Martinand and SNCF President Louis Gallois at Saint-Chély d’Apcher on October 13 to mark the start of work on upgrading the Clermont-Ferrand - Neussargues - Béziers line. Participating in a renewal programme running from September 4 to October 20, the minister ...
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Balfour Beatty buys wiring unit
BALFOUR BEATTY of Great Britain announced on September 20 that it was to acquire the Adtranz Fixed Installations business for 153m euros (RG 10.00 p636). Supplying electrification and traction power supply systems, this business unit has 1400 employees. Profit before interest and tax was 16·2m euros last year on sales ...
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AVE tenders go in
ON SEPTEMBER 29 Spanish National Railways received three bids to supply high speed trains for the Madrid - Barcelona route, from Alstom/CAF, Siemens, and Talgo/Adtranz. Although shortlisted, AnsaldoBreda declined to submit a final bid. Renfe intends to order between 26 and 40 trainsets capable of 350 km/h before the end ...
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Sentinel guards Euston approaches
CONDITION monitoring equipment has been installed on the approaches to Euston station as part of the current remodelling. The Euston Alliance of Railtrack, Balfour Beatty and Westinghouse Signals awarded a contract to CDS Rail in August 1999 to supply a turnkey package based on its Sentinel monitoring system.Condition monitoring is ...
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NSB tests anti-noise
NORWEGIAN State Railway is planning to equip five of its locomotives with an innovative system to reduce noise in the driving cabs. The move follows a trial with a prototype developed by Silence International of Oslo, which was part-funded by NSB. This was tested for four months on a Di4 ...
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Ankara extension bids in
BIDS for infrastructure and electromechanical works on three additions to the Ankara urban rail network were submitted on September 21. Seven consortia of local civil engineering firms have bid for the 18 km metro extension from Batikent to Sinkan and T
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Testing time at Alstom
INTRO: The first pre-series Pendolino Britannico trainset is nearing completion at Alstom’s Washwood Heath works in Birmingham. With a high profile roll-out scheduled for February, there is no time to lose in completing a demanding test programmeVIRGIN TRAINS has staked its commercial future on the success of its Class 390 ...
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Track Alliance aims to beat the clock
INTRO: The WCRM Track Alliance is using high output and conventional machines to relay the fast lines between London and CreweNOT FOR NOTHING did Richard Branson name a West Coast Main Line locomotive ’Mission Impossible’ when Virgin took over the InterCity West Coast franchise in March 1997. The ...
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Praha extends again
CZECH Prime Minister Milos Zeman and the Mayor of Praha Jan Kasl ceremonially laid the foundation stone for an extension of metro Line C on September 21. Running 3·9 km north from N
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Africans seek Chinese aid
THE RWANDA government is seeking Chinese assistance with construction of a 400 km rail link from Kigali to Isaka in Tanzania. Rwandan Ambassador to Tanzania, Zephyr Mutanguha, said last month that the government was confident of finding donors to fund the line. Import and export traffic for Rwanda is currently ...