All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1002
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NewsA long haul on the Lunatic Express
KENYA: Barely 18 months after the Rift Valley Railways consortium finally took control of the 900 km Kenya-Uganda railway on November 1 2006, pressure is growing for the 25-year concession to be cancelled. RVR is clearly having a tough time, with the railway linking Mombasa with Nairobi and Kampala having ...
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Banks agree train lease venture
RAILPOOL: This month HSH Nordbank and KfW IPEX-Bank are to launch Railpool, a joint venture to lease rolling stock to private operators. München-based Railpool plans to place orders for locomotives and passenger and freight vehicles once the company is formally established. 'The aim is to create the first one-stop ...
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London - Cornwall Night Riviera revamped
UK: First Great Western relaunched its London - Penzance Night Riviera service with modernised rolling stock on June 23. The 18 Mk III sleeper and seating cars have been refurbished by Wolverton-based Railcare at a cost of £2m, with Michael Rodber acting as design consultant. FirstGroup said it had worked ...
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NewsOver the top
SWITZERLAND: The first of 13 four-car EMUs being built jointly by Alstom and Bombardier for BLS local services on the original Lötschberg route was rolled out in May. The silver and grey livery is enhanced with images of the Bern - Brig line to highlight the appeal to tourists of ...
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Products & Technology in brief
CNR Changchun has completed in-service testing of a CW720 bogie developed for New Zealand's 1 067 mm gauge network. Toll had awarded a contract for the supply of 50 air-sprung bolsterless bogies in March 2007. Manusa has updated its platform screen door range with the addition of the ...
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NewsCAF wins Saudi passenger train order
SAUDI ARABIA: On July 4 Spanish rolling stock manufacturer CAF announced it had signed a €104·9m contract to supply Saudi Railways Organisation with eight 200 km/h passenger trainsets. Each set will be formed of a diesel-electric locomotive and five steel-bodied coaches, designed to operate in desert conditions and ...
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NewsPointers July 2008
Transport Minister Michael Henry has announced a three-year project to revive the moribund rail network in Jamaica, starting with the main lines linking Kingston, Spanish Town and Montego Bay. A loan from the Chinese government is expected to cover 85% of the US$354m cost, with Chinese manufacturers to supply five ...
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DB sacked over S-Bahn quality failings
GERMANY: A dispute erupted in the Ruhr area on June 12 when local transport agency Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr announced that it had decided to cancel its S-Bahn operating contract with DB Regio Nordrhein-Westfalen with immediate effect. An extraordinary resolution to do so had been approved during a meeting of VRR's contracting ...
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Wabtec completes purchase of POLI
POLI: Wabtec Corp announced on July 1 that it had completed it acquisition of braking equipment manufacturer POLI SpA for €53m. POLI employs 500 people in Italy and Macedonia, and has annual sales of €30m, primarily in Europe. 'We will begin immediately to integrate our existing products and technological ...
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Court rules against TCI
USA: A district court judge in New York has ruled that two hedge funds seeking greater influence over CSX policy 'deliberately violated' US securities law. The court denied the railroad's request for an injunction to prevent the funds from voting their shares at the CSX annual meeting on June 25, ...
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NewsGE wins US$60m signalling contract
BRAZIL: Mining company Vale has awarded GE Transportation a US$60m contract to overhaul signalling and communication systems on the EFVM network. To be completed by 2010, the project covers the port of Tubarão and 600 km of metre-gauge double track between Vitória and iron ore mines in the state ...
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NewsTramlink transferred to Transport for London
UK: Ownership of the Tramlink light rail system in Croydon was transferred to Transport for London on June 27. Tramtrack Croydon Ltd held a 99-year private finance initiative concession to build and operate the 28 km network, but on March 17 the shareholders accepted TfL's offer to purchase the business ...
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NewsCustomising ballastless track to suit different conditions
TRACK:?Contractors can now choose from a variety of ballastless trackforms to suit the requirements of different projects ranging from urban tunnels to high speed lines.
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NewsDSB issues IC4 ultimatum
DENMARK: Another chapter in the painful saga of DSB's 200 km/h IC4 inter-city DMUs opened in June, when the state-owned operator issued an ultimatum to AnsaldoBreda. With delivery now more than five years behind schedule, DSB has told its Italian supplier that if 14 functional trains have not been delivered ...
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NewsPreferred bidder selected for CDG Express concession
FRANCE: Minister of State for Environment, Energy & Sustainable Development Jean-Louis Borloo and Transport Secretary Dominique Bussereau announced on July 1 that they had selected a preferred bidder to finance, build and manage the Charles de Gaulle Express airport rail link. Five consortia had been prequalified in January 2007 to ...
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NewsKiwiRail launch marks end of 'failed' privatisation
NEW ZEALAND: Prime Minister Helen Clark unveiled KiwiRail as the name for the rail and ferry operations which were transferred from Toll New Zealand into government ownership on July 1. Services will initially be unchanged, with KiwiRail controlled by an establishment board chaired by former Prime Minister Jim Bolger; ...
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People in the News - July 2008
Antonio Tajani was appointed Transport Commissioner for the European Union on June 16. The Italian MEP succeeds Jacques Barrot, who has taken over responsibility for justice and migration following the departure of Franco Frattini. Tajani has committed to continue with Barrot's rail policy initiatives, and to promote trans-European rail freight ...
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Brilliant orange
SWITZERLAND: The unprecedented invasion of Swiss cities by football fans attending the UEFA European Championship forced SBB into an unusual strategic re-think. The effervescent performances of the Netherlands team in the group stage of the tournament offered an additional incentive for thousands of Dutch supporters to travel with their team. ...
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Frankfurt LRV handed over
GERMANY: Frankfurt Transport Authority VGF has taken delivery of the first of 146 Flexity Swift light rail vehicles which are being built by Bombardier. A further 11 will be supplied from the Bautzen factory this year, with deliveries continuing until autumn 2015. The bi-directional vehicles have been custom designed for ...