All News articles – Page 366
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News
Schuylkill Valley go-ahead
PLANS to create a 100 km rail corridor linking Philadelphia and Reading were approved by the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority board on June 21, and by the neighbouring Berks Area Reading Transportation Authority board five days later. The decisions pave the way for the start of engineering design, and enable ...
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Kyrgyzstan to plug Silk Route gap
INTRO: Completion last December of China’s 1446 km South Xinjiang Railway to Kashi leaves a gap of less than 500 km to be closed in a historic trade route. Richard Hope reports on plans for a national network in the Kyrgyz Republic that will meet this needADDRESSING the Ninth National ...
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SSRA redraws franchise map
THE SHAPE of Britain’s privatised rail industry for the next 20 years was unveiled on June 20, when the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority unveiled its proposed franchise map. This would see the 25 Train Operating Companies created for privatisation reduced to 22 (table). According to Executive Director, Franchise Management, Nick ...
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Finance
Estonia: Freight operator and infrastructure manager EVR (7.00 p434) reported a profit of 113·1m kroons on a turnover of 1·4bn, up 14% on last year. Infrastructure spending in 1999 totalled 592·6m kroons, mostly on upgrading of the Tallinn - Narva route.France: Franche-Comté has approved funding for the Dijon - Mulhouse ...
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Is it time for someone to leave the field?
INTRO: In a year of stabilisation, the question remains whether there should be fewer players in the rolling stock industry to provide a worthwhile investment for shareholders. Reviewing the supply industry over the past 12 months, Andrew F Saxe* wonders if others may follow the lead given by Fiat in ...
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EC takes the lead in safety regulation
The European Commission has determined that common regulation of safety and standards is to be a crucial element in its drive to create a single market in rail transport. A draft Directive on Rail Safety is expected this year, which will have the explicit objectives of promoting open access and ...
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Internet will drive next generation of PIS
INTRO: On-board passenger information systems are becoming an essential rather than an optional extra, but design needs to be driven by customer expectations, rather than an operator’s wish list. Advanced technology is helping to lower running costs and drive up revenues, making the equipment self-financingINTER-CITY passengers could be benefiting from ...
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Development focus turns west
INTRO: China’s Ministry of Railways has unveiled a 15-year strategic plan for development of the national network, which will form the basis of the 10th five-year plan now being drawn up for 2001-05. Continued investment will see the upgrading of existing lines and large-scale expansion in the west and southwestCONSTRUCTION ...
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The Desiro family keeps growing
THE FIRST Desiro EMU for Slovenian Railways has begun trials at the Wildenrath test centre of Siemens Transportation Systems. Deliveries to SZ are expected to start next month, with a total of 30 Desiros being built by Siemens and TVT of Slovenia for service on the 85 km Koper - ...
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Railcar deal
THE NETHERLANDS government has allocated 31m guilders for upgrading the rural branch from Zutphen to Winterswijk and Doetinchem, ready for the introduction of lightweight railcars next year. The route was one of 33 unprofitable NS lines identified for transfer to regional operation. It became the responsibility of the province of ...
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Cutting noise and smoothing the ride
Commercial demands for a better ride and political pressure to reduce lineside noise present engineers with fresh challenges in bogie design
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Remote crossing monitoring
New South Wales rail infrastructure authority Railway Services Agency has introduced remote monitoring of equipment at isolated level crossings around the network, using digital cellular technology provided by Call Direct Cellular Solutions.Providing two-way communication and allowing the collection of real-time information, the Remote Monitoring Unit was originally developed to allow ...
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Montreal management contract
Sir - We were interested to read your article on Montreal’s commuter rail expansion (MR 00 p43). Unfortunately, the comment that ’AMT subsidiary Gesproex specifies service levels on various routes...’ does not represent the correct position.In 1992, AMT awarded a contract to a joint venture known as SLIG, comprising SNC-Lavalin, ...
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SA concessions
AFTER four years of debate, South Africa’s Transport Minister Dullah Omar announced on June 20 that the government was ready to start concessioning the operation of rail services administered by South Africa Rail Commuter Corp. A pilot project covering the East Rand network will be launched by the end of ...
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LA completes Red line
THE FINAL 10·1 km of the Los Angeles Red line heavy metro from Hollywood & Vine to North Hollywood was dedicated on June 23, ending a troubled project that has taken 13 years to complete (MR 99 p15). During the ceremonies at North Hollywood, Mayor Richard Riordan described the occasion ...
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Vote foreshadows more competition
AMONG THOSE who have vowed to force Europe’s national railways to face up to the calls for competition are a determined core of politicians who understand that the decline in rail freight’s market share to just 14% of tonne-km must be reversed. Another tiny step was taken on July 5 ...
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MTR in company
HONG KONG metro operator MTR Corp has been restructured as a limited company - MTR Corporation Ltd - with effect from June 30, paving the way for the government’s planned sale of a minority shareholding later this year. MTR’s Standard & Poor’s rating outlook was revised from ’developing’ ...
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Interoperability moves closer
AT ITS ANNUAL meeting in Paris on June 30, the Union of European Railway Supply Industry Associations (Unife) signed a formal accord with the International Union of Railways (UIC) and the Community of European Railways (CER) to establish a permanent secretariat for the European Association for Railway Interoperability (AEIF). Since ...
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Polish Citadis rolls out
THE FIRST of 17 steel-bodied Citadis 100 low-floor trams for the Polish city of Katowice was rolled out at Alstom’s Konstal plant on June 30 (above). The cars are destined to operate PKT’s 20 km route from Katowice to Bytom via Chorzów, which is being upgraded to light rail standards ...