All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1081
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News
Reims and Angers choose APS
ON JULY 13 the Communauté d'agglomeration Reims Métropole signed a €1·4bn turnkey contract with the Alstom-led MARS consortium for construction of an 11·2 km light rail line, and for the operation of trams and buses in the city over 30 years from January 1 2008. The Mobilité Agglomération Rémoise ...
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Always informed
STAFF in ticket offices and depots need to be kept informed of unexpected incidents which bring changes to service patterns, and this requires near-instant communication across an operator’s business. But pagers and mobile phones get turned off if staff see the messages as a low priority, multiple text messages go ...
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Airport rail links must focus on service
Germany is world leader in terms of connecting its major airports to the national rail network, but Dr-Ing Edmund Krieger argues that the investment in hardware is not yet being matched by 'software' improvements in terms of services and passenger handling
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Sendai airport line nears completion
EAST JAPAN Railway plans to open the 7·1 km rail link to Sendai airport early in 2007 - before the end of the current financial year. Seen as a key element in plans to open up the Tohoku region, the scheme takes the form of a public-private partnership which is ...
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Buenos Aires branches revived
UNDER A 180m pesos investment programme funded by the Argentinian government, work was expected to begin this month to renew track on four diesel-worked sections of the Buenos Aires commuter network. On TBA’s Sarmiento route, the Moreno - Mercedes and Merlo - Lobos sections are to be upgraded, together with ...
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Spie sale terms agreed
AMEC has agreed terms for the sale of AMEC Spie to a new company controlled by private equity firm PAI. The £707m sale was expected to be completed last month, with AMEC to record an exceptional profit on disposal of £295m which will be used to pay down debt.AMEC Spie ...
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Granada light rail funding agreed
CONSTRUCTION of a 15·5 km light rail route in the Spanish city of Granada is expected to begin this autumn, following the signature of funding agreements by the Andalucía regional government and the municipalities of Granada, Armilla, Albolote and Maracena on July 12.Excluding rolling stock, the project is expected to ...
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Africa needs to cut border delays
ACCORDING TO Spoornet CEO Siyabonga Gama, delays to freight trains at international borders on the Cape gauge network serving southern Africa are costing the region US$48bn a year. Gama told the ninth AfricaRail conference near Johannesburg on June 28 that it could take up to 12 days to get a ...
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Tough times at AEA
REPORTING its results for the year to March 31, on June 8 AEA Technology announced an adjusted operating loss of £2·1m at its Rail division, compared with a loss of £0·6m in 2004-05. Turnover was £46·7m, down from £59·8m in 2004-05.’Significant and necessary change’ in the Rail business over the ...
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US$47m Belgrano spend proposed
THE GOVERNOR of Argentina’s Salta province, Juan Carlos Romero, has presented a plan that would see US$47m invested in the metre-gauge Belgrano network (RG 7.06 p376) to restore key routes over a 16-month period. The 500 km identified as priority routes under the plan include Embarcación - Formosa, Joaquín V ...
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Iris 320 casts an expert eye over the French network
SNCF has completed a €33·5m programme to convert a TGV Réseau trainset for inspecting track, overhead electrification, signalling and telecommunications systems at speeds up to 320 km/h. Laurent Charlier reports
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Intelligence August 2006
Bangladesh: Work will begin this month to convert the metre gauge line between Joydepur and Kamlapur station in Dhaka to dual metre and 1676mm gauge by October 2007. A contract awarded to Chinese company First Metallic Construction Co in January 2000 failed because of financial complexities, so BR ...
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Metros August 2006
Algeria: Alstom is to supply 29 Citadis trams for the 16·3 km light rail line planned for Alger (RG 7.06 p378). Brazil: São Paulo state governor Claudio Lembo inaugurated Chacara Klabin station on Line 2 of the city's metro on May 9. Designed by Semaly to provide an interchange with ...
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Line 15 proposed
SHANGHAI’s city planners have announced their intention to develop another north-south metro line across the rapidly-growing conurbation.Due to be completed after 2010, Line 15 will connect the Shanghai University campus in Baoshan with the Purple Bamboo Industrial Park in Minhang. The final alignment has not been settled, but the line ...
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NewsEIB provides €10bn for PEIT
UNDER AN AGREEMENT signed in Madrid on July 4 by its President Philippe Maystadt, the European Investment Bank is to provide up to €10bn in 2007-13 to support the Spanish Ministry of Development's PEIT strategic infrastructure and transport investment plan. PEIT has a total budget of €249bn for 2005-20, of ...
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UltraCaps win out in energy storage
Richard Hope explains how double-layer capacitors have broken through the economic barriers to capturing braking energy on a Mannheim light rail vehicle
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Upgrade underway
MAY 25 saw the start of upgrading work on the initial 37·7 km section of the Plovdiv - Svilengrad line in Bulgaria.Reconstruction and electrification of the section from Krumovo on the outskirts of Plovdiv as far as Parvomai is being project managed by Greek contractor Tema SA. Local firm Rubicon ...
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NewsSpotting trouble
USA: BNSF Railway is enlisting railway enthusiasts to help prevent attacks by terrorists and others bent on disrupting the transport network. Since the September 11 attacks, some enthusiasts have complained of harassment by railway police while taking photos of trains and otherwise enjoying their hobby, despite enthusiast groups arguing ...
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Victoria to spend
PROPOSALS to invest more than A$3bn in the state rail network over the next 10 years were announced by Victoria Premier Steve Bracks and Transport Minister Peter Batchelor on May 17. The Transport & Liveability Statement envisages investment totalling A$10·5bn; it provides A$2·9bn for rail improvements and A$200m for level ...
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Singer success
EARLY results from the Singer project were announced in Ljubljana on June 8. The Slovenian Intermodal Gateway to European Rail project is being supported for the first two years by the EU’s Marco Polo programme (RG 11.04 p728). The aim is to develop ’an international network of unaccompanied services’ between ...