All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1022
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News
Zimbabwe powered down
DESPITE the growing environmental argument in favour of electric traction, news reaches us that electric working has been suspended on Zimbabwe's only electrified line. Diesel locos are now hauling all trains on the 313 km single-track route between Harare and Dabuka. According to NRZ General Manager Air Commodore Mike Karakadzai, ...
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Swiss to help with wires to Lindau
ELECTRICALLY-powered tilting trains will link München and Zürich in 3 h 15 min by 2015. Swiss Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger and his German counterpart Wolfgang Tiefensee signed up to this objective on February 15 in Memmingen, roughly midway between the two cities. Upgrading and electrification of the route at 15 ...
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Derailment detection demonstration
THE EFFECTIVENESS of the latest version of Knorr-Bremse's wagon derailment detector was demonstrated during full-scale trials at the former Berlin-Schöneweide marshalling yard. SBB Cargo has also been undertaking field testing of the EDT101 detectors, which are installed at each end of the vehicle. A spring-mass valve automatically opens the main ...
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Inspection and recording train
SPANISH infrastructure authority ADIF has named its high speed inspection and recording train 'Seneca' in honour of the Roman philosopher who was born in Córdoba around 4 BC. Comprising one 4000 kW power car, three cars and a driving trailer, it has already reached a speed of 363 km/h ...
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Australia looks to Europe for train control technology
RailCorp is considering ETCS Level 1 to improve safety and create additional capacity on the increasingly-congested network around Sydney. A trial to evaluate how ETCS can best be adapted for the Australian environment is now underway in the Blue Mountains
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NewsVeolia buys Rail4chem
GERMANY: Rail4chem is to be sold to Veolia Cargo, the shareholders of the Essen-based private freight operator announced on February 20. Subject to regulatory approval, the transaction will be completed in the first half of 2008. The parties have agreed not to disclose the price. Rail4chem will be merged with ...
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Finance February 2008
Canada: The Regional & Remote Passenger Rail Services programme is providing C$4·2m to support Algoma Central Railway passenger services to otherwise inaccessible areas between Sault Ste Marie and Hearst until April 2009. Montréal transport authority STM has unveiled a C$1·5bn capital spending plan for 2008-10, allocating C$942m to the metro ...
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All-night party people
FOLLOWING the withdrawal of the last domestic sleeping car services in France with the December timetable change, SNCF has launched a campaign to promote overnight rail travel. Among the strategies to tempt the 18 to 30 age range back to the rails is the Overnight Party Train, offering ...
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Pointers February 2008
Iranian national railway RAI plans to call tenders this month for the electrification of the Tehran - Mashhad line, along with the supply of 70 electric locomotives. Lithuania's Ministry of Transport & Communications is developing a proposal to seek EU assistance to upgrade the 104 km Vilnius - Kainas line. ...
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European Rail Agency 'driven by the imperative of competitiveness'
Established to advise the European Commission and co-ordinate technical specifications for interoperability and safety, the European Railway Agency has increasingly become a hub for communication within the railway industry. Chris Jackson talks to Executive Director Marcel Verslype
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Best practice in safety
ERA's first biennial report on railway safety is due to be published in the spring of 2008, and will - for the first time - bring together safety data from Europe's railways on a comparable basis. 'Everyone said "railways are safe", but no-one could prove it', comments the Head ...
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NewsAn open passenger market beckons
The European market for international passenger services will be opened up to competition from January 2010. Murray Hughes investigates what preparations are being made
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Grappling with the challenges of ERTMS
THE DECISION in the TSI to make ERA the Systems Authority for the European Rail Traffic Management System was clearly a pragmatic move, although one that was not intended when the agency was set up. 'Of course, ETCS was a long-standing project before ERA was formed', says Pio Guido, ...
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Eight aspects of interoperability
MORE THAN a quarter of ERA's permanent staff work in the Interoperability Unit, dealing with the TSIs and other technical aspects, as laid down in articles 12 to 19 of the ERA's founding regulation (Table I). Interoperability Adviser Kai Brandstack says ERA is co-operating closely with the various European and ...
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NewsVTG buys into US leasing market
HAMBURG-based wagon leasing company VTG has announced its entry into the North American market with the acquisition of Texas Railcar Leasing Co. An agreement was reached with the family-owned business in December, with the transaction expected to be completed early this year. Financial terms were not disclosed. Founded 20 years ...
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AMT orders commuter cars
CANADA: Montréal transport authority AMT has placed a C$386m order with sole bidder Bombardier for 160 double-deck commuter coaches. The base order was for 30 cars with options for 130, but the provincial government exercised all the options immediately. The province is meeting 75% of the cost, and deliveries will ...
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Intelligence February 2008
Austria: ÖBB has unveiled the first of 12 coaches that have been rebuilt as multi-purpose cars with a compartment for disabled passengers; seats in the compartment convert into berths for use on overnight trains. Canada: CN has agreed to purchase the Athabasca Northern Railway serving the oil sands of northern ...
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Selling 5 000 tickets at once
CHINA'S Ministry of Railways is revamping the country's national railway ticketing and seat reservation system using technology from Sybase, the company which supplied a previous generation of ticketing databases in 1996. The upgraded system will be able to handle more than 4½ million ticket sales a day, with 5 000 ...