All News articles – Page 397
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News
Anglia Turbostars arrive
Anglia Railways is taking delivery of eight Class 170/2 Turbostar DMUs from Adtranz, which were to be introduced on the 185 km London - Norwich route from mid-July. With the start of the winter timetable on September 26, Anglia also hopes to deploy the trains on services from London to ...
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Alfa Pendular enters service
PORTUGUESE Railways launched regular operation of its Pendolino tilting trains between Lisboa and Porto on July 1, following an inaugural run on June 30. The special covered the 329 km between Porto and Lisboa Oriente in 2h 50min. Several sections were run at over 180 km/h, with a top speed ...
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A tough agenda
MAKING his first public speech as Rail Regulator at the Railway Forum on July 9, Tom Winsor described Britain’s railway industry as ’emerging from a period of regulatory uncertainty while the [new Labour] government has been completing its spring clean, and preparing to publish the SRA Bill’ (p484). His speech ...
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Eurotunnel secures 99-year concession
TWO YEARS after the British and French governments agreed in principle to extend Eurotunnel’s concession to 99 years, their action was approved by the Assemblée Nationale in Paris on June 30. The original 55-year concession granted in 1987 would have terminated in 2042. It was extended by 10 years in ...
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£7m revamp gives Caledonian Sleepers a quality upgrade
UK: Train operating company ScotRail was expected to unveil a new livery for its Caledonian Sleeper services at the end of last month, as part of a £7m upgrading of the service announced by Managing Director Alastair MacPherson on April 1. The company currently runs two 16-car trains to ...
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ú500m to boost LU
PUBLIC FUNDING to complete London Underground’s Jubilee line extension and continue investment in the rest of the network through to March 31 2001 was announced by Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott on July 15. The statement promised ’an extra £500m of resources’, but the nominal amount of new grant ...
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DB targets Paris with the ICE3
INTRO: ICE3 builders Siemens and Adtranz demonstrated the first complete ICE3 unit or German Railway at the Siemens test track in Wegberg-Wildenrath on July 9. Murray Hughes was on boardHEINZ KURZ, Head of Rolling StockTechnology and Train Systems at DB Reise&Touristik, German Railway’s long-distance passenger subsidiary, confirmed on July 9 ...
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VAL Line 2 reaches Tourcoing
AUGUST 18 sees the start of revenue operation on the Lille metro Line 2 extension from Fort de Mons to Tourcoing Centre, adding 12·5 route-km and 16 stations to the network. The extension was formally handed over to operator Transpole by the Lille Urban Community on June 21, ready for ...
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News in Brief - August 1999
Asia: International freight services between Russia and China began using the new 40 km cross-border line between Makhalino and Hunchun during June. Canada: Alberta RailNet took over the 586 km ex-CN route from Swan Landing to Hythe and Tangent on June 27. CN and CP have agreed to halt ...
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Tense time in Taiwan
Council for Economic Planning & Development to seek ways to resolve THSRC’s problems, and that if the government received a formal request for funding, ’we would consider it carefully’.Given that a presidential election is due next March, the government is keen to keep the project moving forward, and Siew stated ...
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Sidetrack
INTRO: Barak building bridges OVER the last few years Israel Railways has recorded a marked increase in patronage, which has been attributed in part to the risks of terrorist attacks on buses in the region. Following the election of a new Labour government in May, IR General Manager Uzani is ...
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Publications
Schriftenreihe für Verkehr und Bahntechnik. Band 1. Feste Fahrbahn The first of a series of VDEI handbooks, this 156-page softback looks at all aspects of slab, grass and embedded track. Liberally illustrated with monochrome pictures and diagrams, it covers general construction methods and techniques, and the application of slab track ...
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Pointers
n Australia’s federal government has agreed that from July 2000 the railways will no longer have to pay the diesel fuel excise levy used to fund road maintenance and construction; this will cut A$70m from the railways’ tax bill in 2000-01 (RG 3.99 p127).n The Nigerian government has signed a ...
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PEOPLE
Swiss Federal Railways’ Infrastructure Director Pierre-Alain Urech has joined the board of DB Netz AG. Anna Ottavianelli of FS has been named Secretary-General of the Community of European Railways, replacing Trevor Halvorsen. Carl-Henrik Lundstrøm of DSB been appointed to the newly created position of Deputy Secretary-General.As part of the latest ...
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Penn rebuild
US PRESIDENT Bill Clinton has formally inaugurated a US$484m project to develop a new main building for New York’s Pennsylvania Station, which currently handles almost 160 million passengers a year. In the ceremony on May 19 plans were unveiled to convert the neo-classical Farley Building, which was built for the ...
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Trackwatch for Metrorail
South African commuter operator Metrorail has ordered a Trackwatch system from Solartron to monitor signalling equipment at the Maitland interlocking in the Cape Town suburbs. Data prepared using the system’s PC-based analysis software will be exported to assist with the implementation of a condition-based maintenance strategy.Within the modular Trackwatch system, ...
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Merger signed
ON JUNE 22 Netherlands Railways President Rob den Besten and German Railway Chairman Dr Johannes Ludewig signed an agreement in Frankfurt which seals the merger of the two railways’ freight businesses, DB Cargo and NS Cargo. German Transport Minister Franz Münterfering was present, as were DB Cargo chief Dr Eberhard ...
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MPI and WAB to merge
US railway equipment suppliers MotivePower Industries and Westinghouse Air Brake Company announced on June 3 that they had signed a definitive agreement to merge. Subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, the ’merger of equals’ is expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year. WAB shareholders will receive ...