All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1092

  • News

    The Hejaz Railway

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    Book review

  • News

    Sarmiento goes underground

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    ON FEBRUARY 21 Argentina’s President Néstor Kirchner launched the tendering process for a US$300m project to build a 7·1 km four-track tunnel between Caballito and Villa Luro in Buenos Aires. Part of a level crossing elimination project on the 37 km Sarmiento commuter route between Once and Moreno, it is ...

  • News

    Locos to fit in a tight spot

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    FOUR custom-designed battery locos have been built by Clayton Equipment for use by London Underground PPP contractor Metronet in a five-month modernisation programme for the Waterloo & City Line which begins this month (p178). Designed to suit the restricted loading gauge, sharp curves and steep gradients of the 2·37 ...

  • News

    Tight fit on the traverser

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    THEARRIVAL of the five-section Cobra low-floor LRVs, which are 36m long, and the extension of 23 Tram 2000 cars to 28 m with the addition of a low-floor centre section, posed a problem for Zürich tram operator VBZ. The overhaul bays at the main workshop are laid out on either ...

  • News

    Leoliner firm sold

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    LEIPZIG Transport authority has sold a 51% stake in its Leoliner Fahrzeug-Bau Leipzig subsidiary to crane builder Kirow Leipzig for an undisclosed price. An additional 25% stake will be transferred in July 2008 under the terms of the agreement which was announced on January 25, and this will be followed ...

  • News

    Finished railway is waiting for trains

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    WHEN the second section of HSL-Zuid is completed at the end of this year, passengers hoping to ride over the new line will have some time to wait.Neither the Thalys trainsets nor the V250 EMUs ordered from AnsaldoBreda for services between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Brussels will be ready to run ...

  • News

    Exposition Line

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    ON MARCH 3 the Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority in Los Angeles approved a $420m design and build contract with a joint venture of FCI, Fluor and Parsons for the 13·7 km first phase of the Exposition light rail line. The deal followed the issuing of a Record of Decision ...

  • News

    Explosive machines to be tested

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    A TICKET vending machine which can detect traces of explosives on the hands of users was demonstrated by Cubic Corp and GE Security at the American Public Transportation Association’s annual conference in Washington DC on March 7.Built by Cubic, the ticket machine incorporates GE’s Itemiser FX fingertip trace detection analyser. ...

  • News

    Light rail expansion resumes

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: With a series of legal challenges successfully resolved last year, preliminary works are now underway for the next phase of light rail development in Strasbourg. The 2007-08 programme will add 13·5 km to the CTS network, including Line E that will provide a new north-south link across the cityON ...

  • News

    Nürnberg S-Bahn expands

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    FOUR-TRACKING of Germany's oldest railway between Nürnberg and Fürth is the centrepiece of a €160m investment programme to expand S-Bahn services to the 38 km Nürnberg - Fürth - Erlangen - Forchheim route over the next four years. An agreement signed by DB Chairman Hartmut Mehdorn and Bayern Transport Minister ...

  • News

    Sell-out mooted in Estonia

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    THE ACRIMONIOUS dispute between Baltic Rail Services, the majority shareholder in Eesti Raudtee, and the Estonian government has escalated to the highest level, with Prime Minister Andrus Ansip being asked last month to answer questions on the subject in Parliament. BRS is seeking damages from the government, accusing it of ...

  • News

    Protos EMU order

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    AWARDED the concession to operate the Amersfoort - Ede-Wageningen line from December 2006 (RG 12.05 p756), Connexxion has ordered five two-car EMUs to operate the first electrified branch in the Netherlands to be tendered.Rather than opting for an established supplier of 1·5 kV DC rolling stock, the operator has awarded ...

  • News

    Dublin Docklands work starts

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    IRISH Minister for Transport Martin Cullen announced on March 9 the start of work for a new station which will serve Dublin's Docklands area. The island platform station will be served by Maynooth - Dublin commuter services from 2007, providing an alternative terminus to relieve Connolly station. Passengers will have ...

  • News

    DMU into service

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    BELARUS Railways has put into service the first of two diesel multiple-units ordered from Latvian manufacturer RVR at a cost of US$3m each.The end vehicles of the six-car set are powered by Zvezda engines built in St Petersburg, with Russian-built transmissions. Designed to offer a similar level of comfort to ...

  • News

    Keeping the data to hand

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    ENGINEERINGstaff working for the Rail Business Unit of steel maker and infrastructure services company Corus have begun using Gotive H41 hand-held computers to record data from track inspections.’Over the years we have accumulated a substantial amount of paper-based information which has then been manually transferred to a spreadsheet for analysis’, ...

  • News

    Cut-off underway

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    WORK BEGAN on February 24 on the construction of the 975 km Taiyuan - Zhongwei line in northern China.Due for completion by 2010 at a cost of 30bn yuan, the line will shorten the route from Beijing to Zhongwei, the capital of the Ningxia region (RG 8.05 p479). It will ...

  • News

    Cross-border freight

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    CITING growing congestion on the busy Wien - Graz corridor, where there is little prospect of completing the proposed Semmering base tunnel before 2016, the Austrian government has called in the independent Gy

  • News

    Indian freight corridor plans progress

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    APPROVED by the Lok Sabha on March 11, the Indian Railways budget for 2006-07 includes funding to plan a network of high-capacity freight corridors. Having completed a pre-feasibility study, Rites has been commissioned to draw up more detailed proposals by the end of this year for two routes costing Rs220bn ...

  • News

    Contractors poised to hand over first section of HSL-Zuid

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: This month Infraspeed should receive a Certificate of Availability following completion of the southern section of HSL-Zuid. Trials at the line speed of 300 km/h were due to be completed last month, while testing on the northern section will finish in the autumnSWEEPING across the flat Dutch landscape between ...

  • News

    Israeli expansion continues

    2006-04-01T10:00:00Z

    TRANSPORT MINISTER Meir Shitrit announced on February 15 that Israel Railways had started work on building a 70 km double-track railway between Ashkelon and Be’er Sheva, which is due to be completed by 2010. Expected to cost US$300m, the line will serve the towns of Sederot, Netivot and Ofaqim. The ...