All News articles – Page 380
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News
Amtrak turns to growth
REVERSING a 25-year policy of cutting costs, US national passenger operator Amtrak announced an aggressive expansion plan on February 29. President & CEO George Warrington admitted that the previous policy had backfired: ’the amount of revenue we lost exceeded the amount we saved.’ Intended to boost profits by $65m a ...
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Amsterdam picks Combinos
ON MARCH 8 Amsterdam's metro operator GVB confirmed that it was to order a fleet of 95 Combino 100% low-floor cars from Siemens Verkehrstechnik, making it the eighth city to adopt the modular design. Placed after a Europe-wide tendering process, the 138bn euros contract works out at 1·45bn euros per ...
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F-Market all at sea
WITH LITTLE fanfare and no speeches from elected officials, San Francisco Municipal Railway’s long-awaited F-Market light rail extension to Fisherman’s Wharf was opened on March 4. Now renamed F-Market & Wharves, the line runs along the waterfront to a loop at Jones & Beach streets. Serving many tourist destinations, the ...
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BBR beacon lights the way in southern Africa
AFRICA: Opening of the Beitbridge - Bulawayo Railway in Zimbabwe on July 15 last year quickly led to appreciation of the benefits of faster transits between Zambia, Zimbabwe and the ports of South Africa. Traffic that had previously rolled through Botswana via Mafikeng and Plumtree rapidly switched to the new ...
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Restructuring hits Adtranz
ON FEBRUARY 28 DaimlerChrysler AG presented its results for 1999, the first year with fully consolidated results from Adtranz after ABB sold its 50% stake in the business. Operating profit at DaimlerChrysler was up 20% at 10·3bn euros, after adjustment for one-time effects including restructuring expenses at Adtranz, where revenue ...
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Auto-sanding tackles low adhesion
TRANSYS Projects Ltd has started work at Cambridge depot to fit sanding equipment to a batch of Class 158 DMUs operated by Central Trains of Great Britain, following successful installation last year on six Class 158s and a batch of Class 323 EMUs (below). The equipment operates automatically in braking ...
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Action needed
A PROGRESS report from International Risk Management Services commissioned by the Irish Department of Public Enterprise chides Iarnród éireann for not moving quickly enough to implement changes to improve safety. While the dire predictions of a report by the same consultants published in November 1998 (RG 12.98 p825) have not ...
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On-board condition monitoring keeps down Series E231 costs
BYLINE: Yoshihiko SatoGeneral Manager, Transport & Rolling Stock Department East Japan Railway CoEast Japan Railway’s Series 209 broke fresh ground in 1992 when it was launched as a train designed to halve costs. The idea was to achieve major savings in manufacturing and operating costs through a shorter life cycle ...
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BA plans to double metro by 2010
APRIL 24 is due to see the opening of the latest extension to the Buenos Aires metro, taking Line D from Juramento to the provisionally-named Congreso de Tucum
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Sidetrack
Every cloud...One side effect of the storms which lashed parts of France at Christmas is the large number of fallen trees unexpectedly available for future use as timber. SNCF is providing additional storage space for the windfalls at the 150 or so freight depots regularly handling timber traffic, as well ...
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Publications
Météor: Le Métro du FuturThis colourful booklet in French with English translations provides a potted history of the development of Paris metro Line 14. It traces the background to the line, and explains in more detail the modular train control systems, which have since been adopted as the basis for ...
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Portable train weigher
RAPID MEASURMENT of rolling stock at any location is now possible, thanks to the development of a portable train weigher by British based Weighwell Engineering. Light enough to be carried by two people, the unit takes approximately 15 min to install. This makes it suitable for checking wagons being loaded ...
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Pointers
n The prime ministers of Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Germany and the Land of Schleswig-Holstein have pledged their support for the construction of a fixed link across the Fehmarn Belt within 10 years, replacing the present Rødby - Puttgarden ferry.n Railion confirmed on February 15 that ’discussions’ are taking place with ...
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PEOPLE
In the new Croatian government formed at the end of January, Alojz Tusek was named Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport & Telecommunications in succession to Ivan Pavlovic.On February 14 Mike Kinski resigned as Chief Executive of British-based bus and rail operator Stagecoach Group. He is to be replaced by the ...
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State takes over Sokol
TIME is running out for the Russian High Speed Railway Co (RAO VSM). At a meeting of shareholders held in January, several major decisions were taken. Most significant was to hand to the Ministry of Railways the project to build and operate the Sokol high speed train (RG 9.99 p567).The ...
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Metros
Argentina: Studies are under way for putting in tunnel the Liniers - Once section of the Sarmiento network operated by Trenes de Buenos Aires, to eliminate 70 level crossings. The present alignment would then turned over for development.Canada: Three extensions have been proposed to Ottawa’s initial light rail route due ...
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Market
Algeria: SNTF is negotiating a US$30m agreement with General Motors EMD for refurbishment and ongoing maintenance of its ageing diesel loco fleet.Australia: Queensland Rail is to install track, electrification and signalling on the 8·5 km Brisbane airport line as sub-contractor to Transfield Construction.A consortium led by Maunsell McIntyre is to ...
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Manila muddles on
REPORTS from Manila at the end of January suggest that SNC Lavalin may shortly win approval from the government to build the long-planned LRT Line 1 southern extension from Baclaran to Dasmarinas and Cavite. The Canadians had been negotiating for years with the previous administration for the C$600m BOT project, ...
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Maintenance software
GERMAN Railway’s inter-city business unit DB Reise & Touristik AG has decided to equip 11 of its principal rolling stock servicing depots with simulation and support software from Stuttgart-based Flexis GmbH. The Rail Maintenance Planning System allows operators to optimise shunting sequences and materials supply as the trains pass ...
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Short line merger
US-BASED short line group RailAmerica confirmed on February 4 that it had completed the US$325m acquisition of RailTex Inc announced in October 1999. Under terms approved by both sets of shareholders on February 1, RailTex shareholders will receive $13·50 in cash and 0·66 of a share of RailAmerica stock for ...