All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1131
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News
CAF profits increase
SPANISH train builder CAF made a pre-tax profit of €17·4m in 2004, an increase of 21% on 2003. EBITDA was €32·6m, and net profit was €14m. Sales in 2004 totalled €578m, up 16·8% on the previous year, with the Spanish domestic market accounting for 44% of sales. Contracts awarded during ...
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Industry News in Brief
ABB has reported earnings before interest and taxes of $1·1bn for 2004, up from $537m in 2003. Income was $201m, $980m up on 2003.Icon Polymer Group has invested £75000 in a Berstoff Rotocure machine which can produce rubber sheets up to 1·6 m wide for gangway diaphragms.CKD Kutn
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Passenger News in Brief
Indian Railways Catering & Tourism Corp and Intrex India have introduced Itz Cash pre-payment cards to provide access to on-line booking to customers without credit cards. FS launched its second TrenOK low-cost passenger service (RG 1.05 p13) on March 15, with tickets for the 5h trip between Roma and Bari ...
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Training in Brief
Indian Railways’ Vadadara staff college is to host training courses for staff from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand.From April 1 Britain’s Centre for Rail Skills will become part of GoSkills, the Sector Skills Council set up to cover the passenger transport industry. It will identify sources of funding for ...
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Private boxes in prospect
AT THE END of February Indian Minister of Railways Laloo Prasad Yadav published an unashamedly populist budget for IR’s 2005-06 financial year, with no fares increases at all and no rise in freight rates. Freight tariffs are, however, to be heavily simplified, with rates for 4000 different types of traffic ...
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East-west box test
BIDDING to win more freight traffic between China and Europe from ocean shipping, a trial container train was run from Hohhot to Frankfurt last month.Dispatched from the Inner Mongolian city on March 1, the train arrived in Frankfurt-am-Main on March 17 after a 9814 km journey. The westbound train carried ...
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BNDES to take stake in Ferronorte
LAST MONTH Brazilian federal investment bank BNDES was expecting to complete a deal to take a 31% stake in Ferronorte, by converting debt and providing new resources, with the aim of increasing capacity on the soya export corridor between Alto Araguaia and the port of Santos.Under the terms of an ...
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Civils and signals block speed-up on world's fastest line
PRESENTING a report to the Spanish Parliament on difficulties encountered with the Madrid - Lleida section of the Madrid - Barcelona high speed line, Development Minister Magdalena Álvarez said last month that the assessment confirmed 'the impossibility of operating the line with the features for which it was designed and ...
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NewsCrossrail bill introduced
A BILL to authorise construction of the east-west Crossrail Line 1 under central London was introduced to Parliament on February 22. Unlike an earlier private bill that failed in May 1994, the new hybrid bill is backed by the government. Transport Secretary Alistair Darling told MPs 'the case for ...
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i-Trans bids for research funding
WITH THE AIM of creating Europe’s leading centre for railway systems, 40 companies and 16 research bodies in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France have come together as i-Trans to bid for government funding under the p
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News
Dubai metro bids opened
A JAPANESE consortium of Mitsubishi, Obayashi and Kajima with Turkish civil engineering group Yapi Merkezi has submitted the lowest bid for the first phase of the Dubai automated light metro network.The final tenders for civil, mechanical and electrical work were opened by the Dubai Municipality’s LRT project office on February ...
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Barcelona works start
ON MARCH 3 Dragados and Tecsa began work on a €29·3m contract that forms the first part of a €220m programme to increase capacity at Barcelona Sants station in preparation for the arrival of high speed services (RG 9.04 p522). The first phase includes the construction of new through track ...
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Ballastless track meets design challenges
APART from a 6 km section close to the Belgian border where ballasted track is used, HSL-Zuid will have ballastless track throughout. On the basis of an evaluation of track types using a direct fastening system as a reference (RG 12.00 p819), Infraspeed BV chose the Rheda 2000¨ design as ...
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Austrian tunnels inch closer
NEW CREDIT guarantees to be issued for infrastructure projects by the European Investment Bank are likely to favour cross-border schemes designed as public-private partnerships such as the Brenner base tunnel.Last month Stefaan de Rynck, a spokesman for European Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot, cited the Brenner base tunnel as one scheme ...
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Dutch show attracts growing interest
INTRO: The fifth Rail-Tech Europe is being held at the Royal Dutch Jaarbeurs trade fair in Utrecht on April 4 - 7 WITH THREE high-profile new lines under construction and intense debate over the progress of the railway reform process, rail is a hot topic in the Netherlands at present. ...
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NewsWhich way to the airport?
Do airports need dedicated express shuttle trains, or should services be aimed at all rail users? Proposed changes to London's Gatwick Express are just one part of an international debate, which is complicated by local politics and geography.
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News
BAA invests in rail so cars don't choke airport growth
A quarter of air passengers already use rail to access London's three major airports. Vernon Murphy, Managing Director of BAA Rail, told Richard Hope that only a high-quality dedicated shuttle to the city combined with an expanding web of multi-purpose trains will entice more travellers out of their cars
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Plan Fret aid package approved
FINANCING arrangements for the restructuring of French National Railways’ loss-making freight business were approved by the European Commission on March 2. The three-year restructuring plan, which includes productivity and performance improvements, is intended to restore Fret SNCF to profitability by the end of 2006 (RG 3.05 p141). It was referred ...
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Siemens depots plan ahead
QUEST event simulation software is being used by Siemens to test proposed designs for train maintenance depots for the optimal use of staff and equipment.Dassault Systèmes subsidiary Delmia UK studied what Siemens required from the computer models used to plan activities in its depots. Finnish consultancy Delfoi then implemented the ...
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Sishen upgrade deal agreed
SOUTH AFRICAN transport holding group Transnet signed Heads of Agreement last month with mining company Kumba Resources, paving the way for upgrading of the Sishen - Saldanha iron ore line. Announced by Transnet CEO Maria Ramos on March 7, the agreement follows intensive negotiations since August 2004 (RG 3.05 p121). ...