All News articles – Page 384
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News
MetroSur gets under way
ON JANUARY 11, the Madrid regional government invited tenders for construction work on the MetroSur ring line in the capital’s southwestern suburbs. The project has been split into 12 sections, with a total cost of Pts163bn. Bids are due by February 21, with contracts to be awarded in March or ...
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Kogan makes a fresh start
AFTER a spell at the World Bank, the architect of rail privatisation in Argentina has returned home to take up a weighty portfolio. Appointed as Secretary of Transport in December last year, Jorge Kogan was soon briefing journalists on how he intended to tackle the thorny issue of renegotiating the ...
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Finance
China: Shanghai city government is launching its biggest-ever bond issue, valued at 800m yuan, to finance infrastructure projects including construction of light rail Line 1.Britain’s Export Credit Guarantee Department has underwritten a loan of US$26m from ANZ Investment Bank to China Development Bank to part-finance a digital optic fibre network ...
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Routine maintenance extends rail life and offers long-term savings
INTRO: There is ample evidence to suggest that a preventive rail maintenance regime using a regular grinding programme can keep rail defects under control and lead to significant cost savings. Failure to maintain the rail leads to higher rail purchase costs and financial penaltiesBYLINE: Dr Stuart L Grassie and Paul ...
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Sleeper express
NETHERLANDS Railways’ newly formed international passenger business NS Internationaal is to launch a new overnight service with the May 2000 timetable change. A six-times-a-week service will link Amsterdam and Milano, conveying both sleeping cars and premium freight traffic. Leaving Amsterdam at 18.00, it is due into Milano at 07.50. The ...
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European freight wars hot up
SWISS Federal Railways and Italian State Railways hoped to sign a ’final agreement’ by the end of January to set up a jointly owned freight and logistics company to be known as Cargo SI. The agreement is a prelude to a full merger of the two railways’ freight businesses, now ...
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EMSAT track recorder
AN EMSAT track recording car supplied by Plasser & Theurer has been deployed on German Railway’s high speed network to measure long-wave faults in height and alignment on plain track and switches. Equipped with three measuring axles, the EMSAT has an average output of 2·5 km/h and takes measurements every ...
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EDSA launched
PHILIPPINES President Joseph Estrada officially inaugurated the first section of Manila's light rail Line 3 on December 15. After cutting a ribbon at the North Avenue terminus in Quezon City, he rode one of the CKD-built articulated LRVs along the 10 km route along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue to ...
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Dutch rethink on ticket sales
NETHERLANDS Railways confirmed on December 16 that it intends to push ahead with controversial plans to eliminate staffed booking offices at most stations. The proposals had been on hold for three months pending consultation with consumers’ organisations. NS Reizigers will move to a three-level strategy by 2003. However, it has ...
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Dutch target rail growth
INTRO: The Dutch government is investing heavily in expansion of capacity on the rail network to accommodate traffic growth. With bidding for rights to run high-speed services due to resume in April, Chris Jackson asked Transport Minister Tineke Netelenbos how she sees the Netherlands railways developing over the next ...
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Fault detection by thermal imaging
TO detect current leakage and other faults in traction power supply systems, British infrastructure maintenance contractor AMEC Rail has acquired a FLIR Systems 570 thermal imaging camera. Equipped with a GPS unit, video recorder and remote microphone to record voice commentary, the camera is to be used to check for ...
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Still dark in Iraq
NO-ONE should be surprised that Iraqi Republic Railways is ekeing out the most precarious existence. Official information is hard to come by, but an intrepid traveller recently reported to the Berliner Kurier that all is far from well. The passenger service is apparently down to three trains a day between ...
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Marmaray consultancy and engineering services shortlist
TURKEY: General Directorate of Railway, Port and Airport Construction shortlisted three consortia in December for consultancy and engineering services on the Marmaray cross-Bosporus rail link in Istanbul. The three were to be vetted by the Japanese Bank for International Co-operation, before the final tenders were issued in January. The three ...
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Steel sleepers invade concrete territory
INTRO: Almost half the new sleepers being installed on Railtrack’s network could soon be steel. Richard Hope reports on a quiet revolution driven by major savings in materials handling and the volume of new ballast neededRAILTRACK IS currently installing around 600000 sleepers annually on its network, which totals 32000 track-km. ...
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Compact fire suppression
FOR RAILWAY applications such as engine compartments and equipment cubicles, Brush Traction is distributing Pyrogen, a fire suppressant derived from solid fuel developed for the Russian space programme. When activated by an electrical signal or a pyrotechnic fuse, the Pyrogen canister produces an aerosol of potassium carbonates in carbon dioxide, ...
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Periodic Review moves closer
COMMENTS are due by February 14 from the many parties in Britain’s fragmented rail industry about the proposed structure of Railtrack track access charges which will apply from April 2001 to April 2006. Rail Regulator Tom Winsor published the fifth consultation document on December 15.Provisional Conclusions on Revenue Requirements sets ...
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Duewag to close Düsseldorf plant
CITING the need to assure long-term competitiveness and achieve profitability, Siemens Duewag Schienenfahrzeuge GmbH has announced a restructuring programme that will concentrate all rolling stock production at Uerdingen. Transfer of work from Düsseldorf, which currently produces light rail vehicles, is to be complete by the end of 2001.SDS has also ...
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CalTrain vote
TWO major investment schemes to boost San Francisco’s CalTrain commuter operation were approved by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board on January 6. The board unanimously approved the revival of plans for a 2·4 km extension from the 4th & Townsend terminus into central San Francisco, near the Transbay Terminal ...
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Passenger In Brief
The International Union of Railways has added a European timetable search facility to its website (www.uic.asso.fr). After entering the country their journey starts in and that of their destination, users are presented with links to the journey planning pages of the relevant member railways.Cubic Transportation Systems has developed the Tri-Reader, ...
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Products In Brief
Mors Smitt Relais has launched a range of plug-in relays for safety functions, available in standard voltages and rated up to 8A. Mechanical construction prevents the contacts from bridging, even when the power supply to the coil is twice the rated value.Genesee & Wyoming Inc has ordered MultiRail¨ service planning ...