All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1133
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News
Light rail study
PROPOSALS are being developed for a light rail line in Guatemala City, the country’s Ministry of Communications & Transport announced at the end of January. The project would form part of a US$100m expansion of the capital’s bus network now underway.The line would follow a disused railway alignment running 10 ...
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PKPloses less
POLISHState Railways’ passenger business made a loss of 760m zloty in 2004, an improvement on the 1 245m loss in 2003, President Janusz Detlaff said in January. However, ticket sales fell from 1·20bn to 1·18bn zloty. To try to stem the flow of passengers to other modes, tenders are to ...
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Saudi Landbridge ready to launch
The prequalification process is expected to start this month for a concession to develop a rail corridor across the Arabian peninsula, with the aim of having trains running by 2010. Chris Jackson reports
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NewsKeeping Luas up to speed
INTRO: Maintenance of rolling stock and infrastructure on the two light rail routes in Dublin has been contracted to Alstom WELL BEFORE the first cars began running on Dublin's two light rail lines last year, Ireland's Railway Procurement Agency had put in place two contracts for the ...
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Intelligence
Australia: A decision to use TPWS and TPWS+ to halt trains that approach curves or junctions too fast is being blamed for an increase in the cost of Victoria’s Regional Fast Rail project A$750m (RG 12.04 p840). Canada: On February 4 the GO Transit board approved a budget of C$173m ...
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Unsaturated images
WIDE variations and rapid changes in ambient light levels occurring on a moving train can cause saturation of the images recorded by onboard CCTV cameras, but Tokyu Car’s digital video cameras have adaptive wide dynamic ranges to provide improved image quality.The cameras are supplied in a thin housing which is ...
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Heavy haul PPPs
SOUTH AFRICAN iron ore producer Kumba Resources announced on January 26 that it had reached an agreement in principle with Transnet over capacity expansion on the Sishen - Saldanha heavy haul railway.Kumba had criticised Spoornet’s failure to respond to growing demand, and proposed buying its own trains (RG 2.05 p59). ...
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Guangzhou to keep out intruders
Security is a key feature of the design of the integrated operations control centre which Thales and HollySys are supplying to Guangzhou Metro Corp under a contract announced on January 10.The OCC for Line 4 is the first which Thales has designed with a specific focus on preventing malicious damage ...
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Mowgly gets moving
A CONSORTIUM has been established to study the implementation of open standards for the provision of broadband internet access on trains, aircraft and ships.Launched on January 1, Mobile Wideband Global Link System (Mowgly) is a two-year project to carry out business analysis, engineering studies and performance evaluation of satellite-based communications. ...
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Vision of a freight revolution
JANUARY 1 marked the formal start of the New Opera study into the feasibility of developing a dedicated rail freight network in Europe (RG 7.04 p399). Speaking to around 250 freight specialists at an RFF freight infrastructure colloquium in Paris on February 10, Vice-Chairman of the European Freight & Logistics ...
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Fleet renewals
ON JANUARY 28 Chicago Transit Authority issued a request for proposals for 206 metro cars, with options that could bring the total to 706. Bids are due in mid-2005, with deliveries to begin in 2008. The new cars are intended to replace the 2200 series Budd vehicles dating from 1969-70 ...
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Firefly illumination
PHOTO luminescent exit route markers are being supplied for 555 New Jersey Transit passenger coaches by Lin Industries and International Nameplate Supplies. By the end of 2005 NJT’s entire passenger fleet will have been equipped with a total of 90000 Firefly photo luminescent dots, which are designed to be easily ...
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Finance
Bulgaria: BDZ-EAD has proposed floating a limited issue of shares on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange in order to raise capital to fund its future development strategy now awaiting board approval (p162).China: Kowloon - Canton Railway has launched a property development scheme at Wu Kai Sha on the recently-opened Ma On ...
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Intelligent trains provide real-time feedback
Vehicle information systems using mobile phone technology provide real-time tracking of equipment condition and help to optimise fleet availability
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Faster to Genève
PLANS to cut 30 min off the Paris - Genève journey moved ahead on January 31 when the French Ministry of Transport issued a Declaration of Public Utility for the reconstruction of the Haut Bugey line between Bourg-en-Bresse and Bellegarde. Upgrading and electrification of the single-track branch and construction of ...
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Xining express
CHINESE Railways announced at the end of January that work is to start this year on a second double-track railway from Lanzhou to Xining at a cost of 4bn yuan.The electrified line is being designed for 200 km/h passenger trains, bringing the 169·9 km trip between the capitals of Gansu ...
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Iran invests in network expansion
PLANS TO invest US$2·5bn in expansion and modernisation of Iran’s rail network were announced in January by RAI President Mohammad Saeedi Nejad.The 2005-10 development plan envisages the acquisition of 180 new locomotives, 8800 freight wagons and 500 coaches, helping to lift the network’s annual capacity to 50 million tonnes of ...
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SNCF sets service level on TGV Est
ON FEBRUARY 2 SNCF announced details of services planned over the TGV Est Européen line when it opens on June 15 2007.In contrast to other French high speed lines where there has been a gradual build-up, TGV Est Européen will offer frequent services from day one with 85% of the ...
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Easing the strain
BACK injuries can be a problem for maintenance staff working underneath trains, so Metronet asked Harmill Systems to develop a trolley-mounted access seat which would improve the ergonomics of working in a depot inspection pit on London Underground. The 60m long pit at the Waterloo & City Line depot ...
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Dubai metro to start in May
CONSTRUCTION work on the two-line metro network in Dubai is expected to start on May 5, with a target completion date of September 9 2009. The timescale was announced last month by the Municipality’s Director-General Qassim Sultan, who chairs the metro steering committee.Technical bidding for the 70 km network (RG ...