All News articles – Page 82
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NewsPeople in the News - March 2009
Sami Khilji has been appointed Chairman & Secretary of the Pakistan Railway Administration, replacing Kashif Murtaza as part of a series of changes aimed at overcoming the railway’s recent deficits. Saeed Akhtar has been named General Manager, Operations, in place of Nasir Ahmad Zaidi who has taken over Akhtar’s former ...
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NewsWorld infrastructure market March 2009
Australia: QR has won a A$100m eight-year contract for rail grinding on ARTC’s interstate network. Chile: Metro de Santiago has awarded Alstom a €5·3m contract to supply Sacem ATC on the 3·8 km Los Dominicos extension of Line 1. China: Siemens and Beijing Huatie ITDC have won a €32m ...
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NewsJylland contract stays with Arriva
DENMARK: Arriva has retained the contract to operate regional passenger services in western and central Jylland which it has run since 2003. The incumbent saw off bids for the replacement concession from DB Regio and the First Jylland joint venture of FirstGroup and DSB. The contract runs for eight ...
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NewsLondon’s cross-city line follows the RER model
CROSS-CITY: Many enhancements have been made to RER Line A since it was completed across the centre of Paris in 1977. Now carrying more than 60 000 passengers/h on each track, it offers similarities to London’s Crossrail project, making a comparison particularly instructive.
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NewsTurkey high speed launch
TURKEY: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to formally open Turkey's first section of 250 km/h railway on March 13. Passenger services will begin the following day, with four daily return trains and promotional fares being offered until April 2. Under construction since 2003, the section of line between ...
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NewsTransnet presses on
SOUTH AFRICA: Despite a ‘marked slowdown in economic growth internationally and domestically’, which has has resulted in reduced traffic volumes, state-owned operator Transnet confirmed on February 18 that it was pushing ahead with its capital investment programme. This envisages total spending of around R80bn over the next five years. Of ...
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NewsEurlings moves to rescue HSA
NETHERLANDS: The sorry saga of HSL-Zuid continues, with the news that Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings has put together a rescue package for High Speed Alliance, which he says was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy as a result of the delays in opening the high speed line between Schiphol and ...
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NewsPassenger services in Botswana to end
BOTSWANA: Botswana Railways' passenger service is to be suspended with effect from April 1, the Ministry of Works & Transport announced on February 25. The overnight train between Francistown and Lobatse accounts for less than 10% of BR's operating revenues, and loses P30m a year which has until now been ...
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NewsHS2 on the fast track
UK: Public consultation for the route of a high speed line from London to the West Midlands and eventually Scotland is expected to start next year. Announcing this in the keynote address at Railway Gazette International’s conference on Growth & the Capacity Challenge on March 10, Transport Minister Lord Andrew ...
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NewsArriva awarded Czech operating contract
EUROPE: Arriva's Vogtlandbahn subsidiary has been awarded a contract to operate regional passenger services on the 56 km line linking the Czech towns of Liberec, Varnsdorf and Rybniste via Zittau and Seifhennersdorf in Germany. Running for 10 years from December 2010, the contract was awarded jointly by the Liberec ...
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NewsThameslink Programme starts to take off
UK: ‘We are about to break cover’, commented Andrew Mitchell following a presentation to the Institution of Engineering & Technology in London on February 10. As Network Rail’s Major Programme Director for the Thameslink Programme, he is looking forward to March 22, when the past four years of preparation for ...
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NewsHigh speed frenzy follows election
USA: Not surprisingly, a request for expressions of interest to develop high speed rail corridors has attracted a considerable degree of attention, despite the country’s poor track record with privately-funded projects and the limited prospects for such schemes going ahead in the current economic climate. Legislation passed by Congress last ...
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NewsMore EMUs for Queensland
AUSTRALIA: Bombardier Transportation and joint venture partner Downer EDI Rail announced an A$205m order from the Queensland government for a further 20 three-car SMU260 commuter EMUs on March 9. Deliveries of the 130 km/h units are scheduled to run from August 2010 to December 2011, bringing the total number ...
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NewsAnti-corruption drive lands DB in trouble
GERMANY: An extraordinary row about the sensitive subject of personal information is occupying senior managers at Deutsche Bahn. The affair is serious enough for politicians to demand the head of DB’s pugnacious Chairman Hartmut Mehdorn, who not for the first time is defending his patch with characteristic vigour. The ...
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NewsOn the fast track to reform
TURKEY: With construction of new lines moving ahead, modernisation of the existing TCDD network is also getting underway. Meanwhile, draft legislation presented to the government last year envisages the restructuring of the rail sector to introduce competition between train operators.
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NewsWorld rail market March 2009
Belgium: A 1·6 tonne capacity Europont overhead crane with a Verlinde Eurobloc hoist has been installed at STIB’s Woluwe tram depot in Brussels. Netherlands: INIT has a contract to provide Copilotpc onboard equipment and GPRS communications for 129 trams, 226 buses and 41 other vehicles operated by Rotterdam transport ...
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NewsPointers March 2009
Ferrocarriles de Gran Canaria SA has been set up by the island government to manage the construction of a railway on Gran Canaria. A technical consultant will be employed to prepare tenders for project planning on the section between the capital and San Bartolomé de Tirajana, on which construction is ...
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NewsBNSF explores the fuel cell
USA: A hydrogen-powered shunting locomotive now being assembled will serve as a testbed for reducing diesel fuel use by North America’s railroads. David Lustig reports from Topeka.
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NewsInaugural train begins Laos royal visit
LAOS: Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand presided over the inaugural cross-border rail journey into Laos on March 5. Following a ceremony at Nong Khai station, the princess travelled across the Mekong to Tha Na Laeng, where she began a two-day official visit to Laos. The Thai-Lao Friendship bridge ...
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NewsAgreement reached on Tyva railway
RUSSIA: A protocol confirming the route of the planned 415 km railway from Kuragino to Kyzyl was signed by the Tyva republic's head of government Sholban Kara-ool and Eniseiskaya Industrial Corp CEO Dmitry Sahno on February 27. An extension of the Russian Railways network to Kyzyl, the capital of ...