All News articles – Page 382
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News
Success builds on solid foundations
INTRO: Switzerland’s major programme of infrastructure upgrades is being implemented on the basis of market-driven projects, carefully tailored to contribute to an overall improvement in the speed, capacity and ease of use of the rail network. Paul Moser, SBB’s Manager, Major Projects, revealed to Reinhard Christeller why the SFr7·4bn Bahn ...
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Passenger In Brief
VIA Rail Canada is to introduce The Enterprise, an overnight service between Toronto and Montréal offering both seats and sleeping cars equipped with shower facilities. The company is also offering PRIVA, a group business travel service ranging from private cars to special trains.German Railway has opened lounges for first and ...
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Products In Brief
Following successful trials on the Florida East Coast Railway and BHP Iron Ore’s Mount Newman line, GE Harris Railway Electronics has launched an improved version of its EPx direct braking system. This uses an air-powered smart valve, eliminating the need for individual axle generators and batteries on each wagon. The ...
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Wires to Boston at last
US NATIONAL passenger operator Amtrak inaugurated electric operation between Boston and New Haven on January 31 with the introduction of its Acela Regional service. The first southbound electric train was scheduled to depart from Boston at 06.15, but left 20min late owing to a fouled pantograph; arrival at New York’s ...
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Cross-city boost
RECOMMENDATIONS for improving rail services in the Tokyo region were submitted to Japan’s transport ministry on January 27. They include new suburban lines and subway routes and construction of key links to open up more through routes on both suburban railways and the metro network by 2015. Cost of implementing ...
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Swiss duo blow hot and cold
THERE has been much head-scratching in the Swiss capital recently as debate rages over a suggestion made in November by Swiss Federal Railways President Thierry Lalive d’Epinay that BLS L
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Berlin firms up tram extensions
THIS MAY is due to see the opening of a second tram route serving West Berlin, following the delivery of the first bi-directional low-floor cars to Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe last year (RG 2.00 p70). BVG currently has 12 tram extensions in development, all due for opening by 2006.First will be a ...
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Smart cards encircle the Bay
INTRO: San Francisco’s public transport operators have launched a programme to introduce contactless smart card ticketing which will ultimately cover 24 metro, tram, ferry and bus networks. Julian Wolinsky looks at the technology and at the planned expansion into electronic purse functions LATER this year, passengers using selected public transport ...
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Ballast recycling eases logistics of track renewal
ON JANUARY 17 track maintenance contractor Wiebe & Swietelsky took delivery of what its supplier claims to be the largest track renewal and formation rehabilitation machine in the world. Within two weeks the company had set it to work on a 2 km section of track near Bonn in Germany. ...
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Eurotrain fights back in Taiwan tussle
ON FEBRUARY 10 Eurotrain lodged an appeal with the High Court in Taipei in a further round in its battle to obtain the contract to supply electrical and mechanical equipment for Taiwan’s high speed line from Taipei to Kaohsiung. On December 28 Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp had announced ...
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Athenians celebrate metro’s arrival
INTRO: The first sections of the long-awaited Athens metro were officially inaugurated on January 28. Artemis Klonos joined the crowds at Syntagma SquareCEREMONIES were held in Athens on January 28 to mark the inauguration of the Greek capital’s metro network. Amongst the participants at the event were the President of ...
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Smart card questions move from technology to applications
The 5th UITP fare collection conference in Bologna on February 2 - 4 signalled a turning point in the prospects for widespread use of smart cards. No longer were delegates asking if the technology was ready; now the key question is the best management and operating structure to meet individual ...
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Amtrak’s figures challenged
ALTHOUGH the Amtrak Reform Council said its annual report published on January 28 was ’not in any sense a finding’, it immediately generated controversy. Approved on an 8 to 3 majority vote, the report disputes Amtrak’s assertion that it is on schedule to be free of taxpayer subsidy by the ...
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Alstom scoops Bordeaux turnkey
ON FEBRUARY 7, the French municipality of Bordeaux announced that it had selected a consortium led by Alstom to build the 22·2 km first phase of the city’s planned three-line light rail network. Awarded a formal declaration of public utility at the end of January, the three lines are due ...
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Japanese now alone in high speed maglev stakes
IT HAS long been clear that the much-hyped project to build a Transrapid magnetic levitation line between Hamburg and Berlin was going nowhere fast. The only question was how much longer it would cling to life as successive governments chose weasel words in their statements about its future to avoid ...
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CFR Calatori restructured again
ROMANIA’s passenger train operating company has been split with effect from February 1. Formed during the break-up of the former state railway in October 1998, CFR Calatori has now been dividedinto a national inter-city operator and eight regional companies. Announcing the restructuring, Transport Minister Traian Basescu said the new structure ...
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China adopts AEI
THE CHINESE Ministry of Railways has decided to adopt radio-frequency transponder tagging for automatic vehicle identification, compatible with the standards adopted by the Association of American Railroads and the UIC.On January 28 the Dallas-based Amtech Systems division of Intermec Technologies announced that it had won an initial contract from MoR ...
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PR board abolished
PLANS to restructure Pakistan Railways have been announced by the government. As an interim measure, the PR board has been disbanded, and its functions assumed by the Ministry of Railways. A new 15-member advisory board is to be formed, including the PR General Manager, Finance Director, the Managing Directors of ...
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Thalys traffic up 5·5%
ACCORDING TO figures released on February 7, Thalys high speed services between France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany carried a total of 4·98million passengers in 1999, up 5·5% on the previous year. Of this traffic, 53% was carried between Paris and Brussels where high speed rail is now the market ...
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First North Western launches Class 175
UK: First North Western unveiled the first five of 27 Class 175 diesel multiple-units at its newly-built depot in Chester on February 4. Part of Alstom’s Coradia family, the trains will enter commercial service in May on routes from Birmingham and Chester to Holyhead and Manchester to Llandudno. Later they ...