Passenger rail news – Page 256
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News
Los Angeles is going gated
USA: The board of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has voted to approve a 10-year, $46m lease contract with Cubic Transportation Systems which will see the installation of 379 faregates at all Red and Purple line stations and selected light rail stops where it is architecturally feasible. MTA ...
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DB launches Touch&Travel pilot
TELEPHONE Ticketing: The first 200 test users began using Touch&Travel mobile phone e-ticketing in Germany on February 29, in a pilot for a system which DB and development partner Vodfone hope to introduce nationally in 2010. The initial trials cover suburban trains in Berlin, local transport in Potsdam, and Berlin ...
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State funding deal
USA: Responding to an 88% increase in ridership on state-supported inter-city services between 1996 and 2006, the Department of Transportation has unveiled a grant programme to support efforts by individual states to fund enhancements to passenger rail operations. 'Rail passengers demand improved service and quality and this grant programme will ...
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Piezoelectric floor not such a bright idea
JAPAN: East Japan Railway has announced the results of its experiments with a 6 m² piezoelectric floor covering, which was fitted at the ticket gates of a Tokyo station where it used the movement of passengers to generate electricity. It worked, but only just. Production peaked at 10 kW-sec ...
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Metrorail revitalisation
SOUTH AFRICA: SARCC Chief Executive Lucky Montana has unveiled a three-stage investment strategy costing R18bn. This is aimed at providing additional services for the 2010 football World Cup, and creating a sustainable commuter network to serve the major cities after the tournament. Montana hopes that 96% of Sarcc's 4 600 ...
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NewsSlow starter is close to high speed launch
The political and environmental climate is right for further expansion of high speed rail
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News
Trinidad rapid rail consortium confirmed
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: The Trinitrain consortium of Bouygues Construction, Alstom Transport and RATP Développement announced on April 11 that it had been selected by the government and its National Infrastructure Development Co to design, build, operate and maintain a two-line passenger rail system on Trinidad. The 'express' rail lines will ...
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Irish reopenings cleared
IRELAND: The government has approved the Railway Order permitting the reinstatement of the 7·5 km Clonsilla - Dunboyne route. Closed in 1963, the line is scheduled to reopen in 2010 as the first phase of the Navan line reopening project under the Transport 21 investment programme. The country's largest park ...
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Not so hot
NETHERLANDS:?National operator NS and infrastructure manager ProRail have been conducting trials with a patio heater on the platforms at Amsterdam Amstel station. Passengers standing on the platforms in the open air and feeling the cold can obtain 4 min of free warmth at the press of a button. The trials ...
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HighJet to compete with Pendolinos
CZECH REPUBLIC: Travel agent and bus operator Student Agency has announced plans to launch a Praha - Ostrava inter-city service by 2011. Chairman Radim Jancura said SA intends to purchase six electric trainsets from Siemens or Stadler for KC2bn. Branded HighJet, they will run in direct competition with Czech Railways' ...
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NewsTangshan rolls out its first 350 km/h train
CHINA: On April 11 Tangshan Locomotive & Rolling Stock Works rolled out the first CRH3 high speed train to be produced in China. The manufacturer said at the launch that the CRH3 is the first Chinese-built train to be designed for a top speed of 350 km/h, and marks the ...
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Free travel aims to move more passengers
AUSTRALIA: Melbourne commuter services scheduled to arrive before 07.00 can be used free of charge from March 31, under a plan to reduce crowding on the busiest services. 'Early Bird' tickets providing free morning travel are to be offered across all 15 Connex-operated lines, state Premier John Brumby announced on ...
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Airport link SPV
INDIA: Karnataka state government has created Bangalore Airport Rail Link Ltd as special purpose vehicle to develop a fast connection to the new international airport which is due to open on May 11. The partially-elevated line would start at a city centre terminal at BRV Grounds on Mahatma Gandhi Road ...
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NewsThameslink EMU procurement begins
UK: The Department for Transport announced on April 9 that it has begun the procurement of between 900 and 1 300 dual-voltage EMU cars as part of the £5·5bn Thameslink Programme to upgrade north-south commuter routes through London (RG 3.08 p172). Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said approximately 1 100 cars ...
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Veolia pulls out of Stuttgart S-Bahn bidding race
GERMANY: Veolia has withdrawn from the bidding process to run the Stuttgart S-Bahn. Announcing the decision on February 13, Andreas Winter, Head of Market Development & Communication for Veolia-Verkehr-Gruppe in Germany, said that his company was convinced that competitive bidding was possible for 'complex S-Bahnen and large urban public transport ...
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NewsTibet cruise train financed
CHINA: HSH Nordbank has completed a deal with RailPartners to finance the Tangula luxury trains which will run from Beijing to Yunnan and Lhasa from September (RG 8.07 p492). The bank is providing US$30m of the US$95m project financing, with RailPartners shareholders including TZG Holdings of Shanghai and Hong Kong ...
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NewsThrough ticketing is the missing element
Jean-Marc Charoud, Director for Network Development at French infrastructure company RFF, told EuroRail 2008 delegates on February 26 that trains 'will completely kill air traffic between Paris and Bordeaux' once the LGV Sud-Atlantique project is completed. This prediction is undoubtedly correct, but it is worth recalling that timings of around ...
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NewsHigh speed operators spread their wings
Europe's well-established high speed sector is broadening its horizons to improve access to its services. Speakers at Terrapinn's EuroRail 2008 conference in Milano explained how high speed rail can benefit from improved integration both on the ground and in the air
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InterCity fleet renewal poised to start
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn will call tenders later this year for 100 to 130 trainsets to replace its fleet of loco-hauled EuroCity and InterCity trains. Likely to be fixed-formation eight-car sets, they will be built to match the standards of DB's ICE fleet. In the meantime DB is evaluating offers for ...
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San Diego Sprinter opens at last
USA: Packed trains marked the first day of revenue service on the $486m 35 km Sprinter line which connects Oceanside with Escondido in California's San Diego County. Two earlier start dates had been missed because of problems with signals and level crossings. The California Public Utilities Commission issued a letter ...