All News articles – Page 408

  • News

    Seattle sets LRT routes

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    SOUND TRANSIT has selected final alignments for the light rail lines in Tacoma and Seattle, which are due to open in 2001 and 2006. On February 12 the ST board picked an L-shaped route for the 2·6 km Tacoma line between the Tacoma Dome commuter parking garage and the Theatre ...

  • News

    Operation Lifesaver is working

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    A SEMI-TRAILER laden with steel killed 11 passengers aboard Amtrak’s City of New Orleans when the driver apparently ignored flashing lights and drove around barriers at a level crossing in Bourbonnais, Illinois at 21.47 on March 15. More than 100 other passengers were injured. All the fatalities were in a ...

  • News

    Letters

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    New York, New YorkSir - I refer to Alan Levitt’s letter about Grand Central Terminal (RG 2.99 p78). Unfortunately, there are several factual errors which need to be corrected.The terminal was opened for service in November 1913 as the third station in that location. The first two stations were replaced ...

  • News

    Karaj opens

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    TEHRAN Urban & Suburban Railway Co has started revenue services on its 42 km outer-suburban feeder line linking Karaj to the Tehran metro Line 2 at Ayatollah Kashani. At the beginning of February TUSR announced that following trials the line would be open to traffic for 3h each day. Services ...

  • News

    Juniper links

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    Silvertown UK Ltd’s Silentbloc Division is supplying torque reaction links to Alstom Gears Ltd for Juniper EMUs being built by Alstom Transport for Gatwick Express, South West Trains and ScotRail.One link is fitted between each gearbox and the bogie frame, with the heavy-duty rubber/metal construction serving to absorb shock forces ...

  • News

    INTELLIGENCE

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    CAPTION: Luxembourg Railways has started putting into service its Class 3000 dual-system electric locos being supplied by Alstom Transport. CFL is buying 20 of the 3 kV DC / 25 kV 50Hz units as a joint order with SNCB’s 60 Class 13 Tractis fleet (RG 5.98 p325), and examples were ...

  • News

    INTELLIGENCE

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    CAPTION: Swedish iron ore mining group LKAB has taken delivery of five prototype Uanoo wagons from Transwerk of South Africa for MTAB to test on the Luleå - Kiruna - Narvik Malmbanan. LKAB must decide by September 1 whether to order a 68 vehicle trainset of the 120 tonne GLW ...

  • News

    INTELLIGENCE

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    CAPTION: This month is due to see the completion of the 70 km cut-off between Beitbridge and West Nicholson in southern Zimbabwe, by contractor Murray & Roberts. Operation of the line, which will provide a direct route from the South African border to Bulawayo, has been contracted to a joint ...

  • News

    INTELLIGENCE

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    Argentina: Subject to government approval, Industrias Metalúrgicas Pescarmona SA expected to complete in March the sale of its majority holdings in the Buenos Aires al Pacífico and Mesopot

  • News

    Market share increasing

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    AS EUROPE’s railways cast around for the best structures to manage and operate international freight trains, evidence suggests that rail is at long last starting to increase its share of the freight market in Western Europe, with cross-border tonnage showing significant growth. The European Council of Ministers of Transport reports ...

  • News

    Haenel worked, so what now?

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    REVIEWING progress with the programme to transfer responsibility for regional rail services to local government at a special seminar in the French Senate on March 4, Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot announced that he would ’make efforts to extend regionalisation’. Judging by the performance of the six regions where the experiment ...

  • News

    Frantour sold

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    FRENCH National Railways’ holding arm SNCF Participations (formerly Sceta) has sold its interest in travel agency Frantour to the Accor group, which also owns Wagons Lits. On-train services accounted for 26·7% of Accor’s turnover during 1998, the company announced on February 11.SNCF Participations’ President Jean-Pierre Leclerc is also looking at ...

  • News

    Summit pulls fragmented railway together

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    FOUR MINISTERS lined up to launch the National Rail Summit in London on February 25: Prime Minister Tony Blair, Deputy PM John Prescott who also heads the department covering transport, Minister of Transport John Reid, and junior transport minister Glenda Jackson. Facing them were 180 chairmen and top executives of ...

  • News

    Malpensa Express to open next month

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    FERROVIE NORD MILANO has brought forward the start of operations on its Malpensa Express airport service to May 30, from the planned date of July 1. The decision follows completion of tracklaying on the branch from Busto Arsizio on January 28. FNM President Norberto Achille expects the final fitting out ...

  • News

    NJ Transit to go double-deck

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    NEW JERSEY Transit is to invest up to US$1·3bn in new rolling stock for its 12 rail corridors, increasing capacity by almost 50% between now and 2005. Initial proposals were presented to the NJ Transit board on March 11, although funding sources have yet to be identified.An initial order would ...

  • News

    Dieter

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    CAPTION: One cost-effective way of reducing vandalism and deterring youths from hanging around at metro and urban railway stations is to broadcast classical music. Playing Bach and Beethoven over the public address system is a method tried and tested from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Toronto. But Montreal’s metro has taken the art ...

  • News

    Design improvements help to keep diesel locos on the road

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: Many developing railways face problems of locomotive availability; simple design changes to overcome common faults may have significant returns in reduced failures and quicker maintenanceBYLINE: S Gopalan*Advisor, MechanicalIrcon InternationalBYLINE: * Mr S Gopalan was previously Chief Motive Power Engineer for India’s Southern Railway, and spent four years at ...

  • News

    Delhi resignalled

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    IN A 44h changeover during February, Indian Railways put into operation its largest route-relay interlocking, to control the junction at Old Delhi. Designed by Siemens using 11000 Series K-50 relays, it controls 1122 routes on 28 running lines, with 238 signals and 188 sets of points. The station currently handles ...

  • News

    Eurotunnel declares net profit

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    Executive Chairman Patrick Ponsolle announced on March 15 that Eurotunnel had achieved a net profit of £64m in 1998. This included exceptional items from the financial restructuring, but the underlying loss was cut by almost £400m to £215m. An operating profit of £184m enabled 69% of the interest due on ...

  • News

    Nacala deal

    1999-04-01T10:00:00Z

    OPERATION of Mozambique's 700 km northern line between the Malawi border at Nayuci and the port of Nacala is set to be handed over to a private sector consortium on October 1. State-owned ports and railway authority CFM has selected the Sociedade de Desenvolvimente do Corredor de Nacala as preferred ...