All News articles – Page 437
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News
More discounts and better service
FRENCH National Railways has changed its portfolio of discounted fares. This follows an initial step last June, when SNCF simplified its basic fares structure and launched two railcards designed to attract young people to travel by train. The latest changes are being made after a market research campaign in November ...
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Berlin interchange rebuilt as Stadtbahn reopens
FROM May 24 German Railway reinstates full services over the 9 km Berlin Stadtbahn between Zoo and Hauptbahnhof, which from the same day reverts to its former name of Ostbahnhof. All four tracks, reconstructed using a ballastless design (right), will return to service, with main line and S-Bahn trains each ...
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Freeways expose the freight barriers
INTRO: Although Terffs exist on paper and trains have operated since January, genuine customers bringing new business to rail are in short supply. Richard Hope explains what is going on and where it might all be leadingTRANSPORT Commissioner Neil Kinnock has made the transfer of freight from road to rail ...
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Plasser to roll-out multi-purpose ballast machine
Shortly to roll out of one of Plasser & Theurer’s Linz factories is the first AFKM automatic track control unit. Designed for use behind a ballast train, it integrates ballast ploughs, a ballast storage hopper and a dynamic stabiliser in a single machine. Plasser estimates that the AFKM will achieve ...
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Investment surge tackles the backlog
INTRO: The railway laboratory is four years old. In the time since Railtrack was set up, Britain’s railway network has been split up, sold off, and in some cases recombined. The hiatus in investment which threatened to kill the indigenous supply industry has given way to a flood of orders ...
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Airport line ticketing
AUTOMATIC ticket checking equipment is shortly to be installed at stations on Norway’s Gardermobanen route to Oslo airport, due to open in October. Supplied by Dassault Automatismes et Telecommunications in partnership with ICL, the equipment is similar to that previously installed at Eurostar stations with a magnetic stripe reader for ...
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Connex consolidates after performance wobbles
INTRO: Antoine Hurel, Chief Executive of Connex Rail, part of the French-owned CGEA group, briefed Murray Hughes on progress with the group’s two British franchisesMANAGING two large franchises that are mainly dependent on London commuting was always going to be a challenge. Connex Rail Chief Executive Antoine Hurel looks back ...
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Adtranz launches off-the-shelf strategy
INTRO: Joachim Gaissert, Executive Vice President of Adtranz, discusses with Murray Hughes the implications of his company’s move to a sales and production policy based on ’modular product platforms’COMING from the car and trucking giant Mercedes-Benz, Joachim Gaissert ’did not use trains’. He does now, and is as critical as ...
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Transalpine freight accord signed
ON MARCH 30 Swiss Federal Railways signed an agreement with Italian State Railways at the Italian embassy in Bern, marking the formation of a joint venture rail freight company. Under the terms of an accord reached last August (RG 9.97 p572) the two operators will merge their two freight operations ...
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Shippers seek open access
’We need to respond. We can’t wait any longer. We have to act now.’ Linda Morgan, who chairs the US Surface Transportation Board, was speaking on April 3 at the end of a two-day public hearing to deal with shippers’ complaints about poor service and high charges. In the light ...
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Master Plan will add 900 km to IR network
ISRAEL RAILWAYS, encouraged by the public’s enthusiastic response to a steady programme of rolling stock modernisation and service expansion, has drawn up a Master Plan that could see nearly 900 km of new lines built by 2020 at a total cost of around US$3·7bn. The present 610 route-km network is ...
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Line 7 extended
MARCH 13 saw the inauguration of services on a 1·2 km extension of Madrid Metro Line 7 from Avenida de América to Gregorio Marañón, built at a cost of Pts3·7bn. The new section forms the first part of a 9·5 km extension west across the city centre and then northwest ...
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Strasbourg hosts Rail 21
INTRO: The Fifth International Railway Congress organised by the Union of European Railway Engineer Associations and the French Railways Engineers & Executives Association is taking place at the Palais de la Musique et des Congrès in Strasbourg from May 19 to 22Rail 21 is to examine innovation, technology and perspectives ...
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MF2000 proposals go in
APRIL 15 was the deadline for tenders to supply up to 1400 steel-wheeled metro cars to Paris Transport Authority, under an invitation to bid published in the Official Journal of the European Community on February 12. The MF2000 project covers a fleet of five-car trainsets to replace the existing MF67 ...
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SBB to adopt ETCS Level 2
SWISS FEDERAL Railways has awarded the first contract for transmission-based signalling equipment to the standards set out in the European Rail Traffic Management System. Under a contract awarded to Adtranz Signal at the beginning of April, ECTS equipment is to be installed on 32 km of the Olten - Luzern ...
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VP185 family grows
GEC Alsthom Paxman Diesels has launched an 18-cylinder version of its successful VP185 engine (RG 3.95 p157). Rated at 3100 kWb at 1800rev/min for rail traction applications, the 18VP185 is 2158mm high, 3763mm long and 1450mm wide, and weighs 10·1 tonnes.Intended to combine high output with compact size and low ...
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Via at the Styx
’CAN we close the gap between revenue and costs any more? The answer is no.’ Addressing the Standing Committee on Transport on February 26, Via Rail Canada President & CEO Terry Ivany told Canada’s MPs that by the end of this year Via will have reduced its reliance on government ...
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Training strategy
CONTINUING optimism about the future of rail in Britain has prompted concern that engineering expertise could be lacking in years to come. Launching a consultation paper on February 25, the Chairman of the Railway Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Peter Lowe said that it was important ’to ...
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Talgo speed-up
THE FEDERAL Railroad Administration and BNSF have given Amtrak West permission to raise the speed of its Talgo tilting trains through curves on the Seattle - Portland portion of the 750 km Pacific Northwest corridor. The move will cut journey times by up to 25 min, permitting introduction of a ...