All News articles – Page 406
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News
City NEWS
On March 23 the Denver RTD board approved another $7m for design and construction of the 3 km Central Platte Valley light rail branch. With $2m approved earlier this year, this completes the agency’s share of the $40m project, which will branch off the existing line at Auraria station. Serving ...
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Karachi tries Circular Railconcession
MAY 20 is the deadline for submission of proposals to revitalise the Karachi Circular Railway as a high-capacity commuter carrier. Pakistan’s National Mass Transit Authority envisages awarding a 25-year build-operate-transfer concession, with railway-owned land and stations forming a government equity stake in the project.NMTA is looking for private sector promoters ...
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Chinese plans
CHINESE Railways is to invest 55bn yuan during 1999, the Ministry of Railways announced in March. Under the five-year development plan launched last year (RG 9.98 p611) this year will see the construction of 1320route-km of new line.Last month CR completed feasibility studies for two alternative routes to the Tibetan ...
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Cassiopeia relaunches JR East sleepers
ON April 10 East Japan Railway unveiled its Deluxe Super Night Express train at Tokyo’s Ogu depot. Marketed as Cassiopeia, the 12-car double-deck set is to enter revenue service between Ueno and Sapporo on July 16. It will run northwards on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday each week, returning on Monday, ...
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SMRT cards
LAST MONTH Singapore’s Land Transit Authority awarded an S$134·6m contract to ERG Ltd and Motorola Worldwide for the supply of an integrated smart card fare collection system covering all public transport on the island. Around 22000 readers and 5 million cards will be required by the time the project is ...
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Float-out eases Dutch capacity crunch
NETHERLANDS Railways has a problem. It has become a victim of its own success. Such is the growth in passenger traffic that NS Reizigers has had to adopt a number of tactics to get more seats on its trains. One important strand is refurbishment of the 1964-built four-car ’Plan T’ ...
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Taiwan breaks ground twice
CEREMONIES were held in Kaohsiung on March 26 to mark the formal groundbreaking for construction of the 345 km Taipei - Kaohsiung high-speed line. Participants included Vice-President Lien Chan and Transport Minister Lin Feng-Cheng. President Vincent Siew joined Lin for a second event at Taipao in his home state of ...
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MAV boosts investment
HUNGARIAN Railways announced plans in March to invest around HF65bn in upgrading and network development this year, with a similar amount to be spent in 2000. Around three-quarters of this will come from international agencies such as the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development, the European Investment Bank, Kreditanstalt für ...
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Luggage blocker
LAST AUGUST we reported that German Railway and national airline Lufthansa had signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at switching short-haul domestic air traffic to rail. When Frankfurt Airport’s dedicated inter-city station opens on May 30, the trip by rail to Stuttgart will take only 1h 15min, while from 2002 ...
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Bilbao termini
SPANISH National Railways has completed a further rationalisation of local rail services in Bilbao, with the diversion of suburban routes C1 and C2 from Santurtzi and Muskiz into the main terminus at Abando (RG 3.97 p153). This has involved reconstruction of an orbital freight line and construction of a 600m ...
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Big three lead rail renaissance
INTRO: By focusing on customer service and investing in both infrastructure and new equipment, Mexico’s three major concessionaires are working to provide safe, reliable and punctual freight service and win back traffic lost to road. Senior executives from TFM, Ferromex and Ferrosur spoke to Robert Preston about the progress they ...
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Bundesboxes Berlin-bound
As Sidetrack was closing for press, ceremonies in Berlin on April 19 marked the formal opening of the new home of Germany’s government at the rebuilt Reichstag. The transfer of power from Bonn requires government departments to be dismantled and reassembled in their new home.The impact of the move on ...
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Toronto beckons urban rail suppliers
AROUND 7000 visitors and delegates are expected to converge on the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on May 23-27. Prominent among them will be delegates attending the 53rd Congress of the International Union of Public Transport, which is sharing this modern venue with the City Transport 99 exhibition. Supporting events include ...
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Brenner basics
CONTAINER trains using the Brenner route across the Alps are taking up to 12h from close of loading in München to the first box being unloaded in Verona. A lorry can do the trip in 9h, and prices are typically 10 to 15% cheaper. So the Brenner motorway is crushingly ...
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Sterling bags tourist circuits
INDIAN Railways has finally agreed terms with Sterling Resorts to operate two of its eight planned luxury tourist trains, under a profit sharing agreement (RG 2.98 p87). A memorandum of understanding signed in March after three years of negotiations provides for Sterling to own and staff the train, which will ...
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Tel Aviv starts suburban line
ISRAELI Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and National Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon participated in ceremonies in March to mark the start of work on Israel Railways' Tel Aviv suburban network. The first line to Kfar Sava is costed at US$160m for infrastructure and US$88m for rolling stock, but IR ...
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Arsenal climate chamber will be hot property
SNOW OR SUNSHINE can be produced at will in the climate chamber at Wien-Arsenal, where rolling stock of all kinds is sent to check its performance in extreme weather conditions. Built in 1960 mainly to serve the research arm of the UIC, the test centre was refurbished in 1977. It ...
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CN-IC merger approved
ON March 25 the US Surface Transportation Board voted unanimously to approve the merger of Canadian National and Illinois Central. The STB will issue its written decision on May 25, and this is to become effective on June 24. CN’s 25600 route-km and IC’s 5420 route-km will be integrated from ...
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Piggyback in favour after Mont-Blanc tunnel fire
RARELY indeed do road accidents attract significant media attention. But the catastrophic fire in the 11·6 km Franco-Italian Mont-Blanc road tunnel on March 24 certainly did - despite the dominance of Balkan war coverage. It also prompted serious calls for much more European freight to be moved by rail. Among ...