All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1014
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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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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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News in Brief
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has approved plans to build the 300 km/h Makkah - Jeddah - Madinah rail link using local financing, Transport Minister Dr Jabara Al-Suraisry announced in February. The minister said this would speed up the implementation of the project, which will begin this year and is ...
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Vossloh shunters in service
France: Fret SNCF is putting into service 160 Class 460 000 locomotives ordered to replace Class 63000 locos on shunting and local freight duties. The diesel-electrics were designed by Alstom, but are being built by Vossloh at its Valencia plant. Rated at 1 000 kW, they have Caterpillar 3508B engines, ...
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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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Dual listing
CRCC: China Railway Construction Corp raised 22·25bn yuan through an IPO on the Shanghai stock exchange at the end of February, with demand for shares running at 140 times the offering. After reducing the number of shares initially planned to be listed, 2·45 billion A shares were sold for 9·08 ...
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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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Industry News in Brief
Spanish rolling stock builder CAF has reported a pre-tax profit of €98m for 2007, a 130% increase on 2006. Turnover was up 9% to €874m, and the order book stood at €3·4bn on December 31 2007, 3% higher than the same date in 2006. American Railcar Industries announced on February ...
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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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Purchase of Pars Nova cleared
SKODA: The Czech competition authority has approved Skoda Transportation's planned purchase of Sumperk-based rolling stock firm Pars Nova, which specialises in the modernisation of DMUs (RG 12.07 p789), trams and other vehicles. Pars Nova has 840 staff, and recorded a profit of KC29m on turnover of KC1·3bn in 2006. Skoda ...
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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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Serco signs £500m Dubai metro contract
UAE: International services group Serco announced on April 10 that it had signed a contract with Dubai's Roads & Transport Authority covering the operation and maintenance of the emirate's first two metro lines (RG 4.08 p255). Serco had been named as preferred bidder in June 2007. The five-year operations contract ...
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NewsCounting the cost of competition
SBB plans widespread cost-cutting and job losses in a bid to counter the growing deficits at its freight business.
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PPP consortium builds Seoul's first automated metro line
SOUTH KOREA: Due to open in 2010, the 18·5 km first stage of the fully-automated Sin Bundang line will connect the rapidly-growing residential areas around Bundang with the capital's metro and suburban rail networks Construction work is well advanced in ...
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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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Tehran places €360m Chinese train order
IRAN: Tehran Urban & Suburban Railway Co signed a €360m contract with China Northern Locomotive & Rolling Stock Industry Group for 455 metro cars and 160 double-deck coaches on March 26. CNR said the contract is its largest-ever export order. CNR has delivered 1?408 coaches and 432 metro cars to ...
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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 ...