All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1135
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News
Security in Brief
Background classical music is to be played over the public address systems of 35 London Underground stations maintained by Metronet in an effort to deter people not intending to travel from loitering in the stations. Tests at four District Line stations found that reports of physical and verbal abuse fell ...
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Thanlwin river road and rail bridge inaugurated
MYANMAR: The inauguration of Myanmar's longest bridge on February 5 has completed Myanma Railways' long coastal route serving Mon state in the southeast of the country. Linking Moktama and Mawlamyine over the Thanlwin river, the 27-span road and rail bridge is 2346m long, with approaches each side bringing the total ...
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Brakes renamed
WESTINGHOUSE Brakes UKLtd announced on February 11 that the company’s name had been changed to Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems (UK) Ltd.Knorr-Bremse will retain the Westinghouse Brakes and Westinghouse Platform Screen Doors brands for its international business. Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems will offer a maintenance support service for the UK and Ireland under ...
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Boring contract
CONTRACTS worth €80m have been awarded for a trial bore on the alignment of the proposed base tunnel for the Lyon - Torino high speed line.Lyon-Torino Ferroviaire, the bilateral joint venture company steering the project, announced on February 8 that it had selected a consortium led by CMC of Ravenna, ...
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iDTGV woos internet bookers
SNCF announced on January 14 that the iDTGV project had struck a resounding chord with its clientele. It revealed that there had been 261000 visitors to the idtgv.com website, generating 57000 ticket sales in the first eight weeks of booking. The first 4000 seats were sold within 24h, and average ...
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Tanzania Railways Corp bids go in
TANZANIA: March 9 is the deadline for shortlisted bidders to submit proposals for a 25-year concession to operate the Tanzania Railways Corp network. Financial bids are to be opened on April 27, and the government hopes to name a preferred bidder in June 2005. The aim is to hand control ...
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Istanbul railway upgrading bids in
TURKEY: Eight consortia have submitted prequalification bids for a contract to upgrade TCDD's existing railways in Istanbul as part of the Marmaray cross-Bosporus project (RG 5.04 p251). Five bidders are due to be shortlisted this month to tender for Contract CR1, which covers upgrading of the Sirkeci - Halkali and ...
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Line H car bids in
ON FEBRUARY 3 Buenos Aires metro construction authority SBASE formally opened the bids to supply rolling stock for Line H. It is now considering the technical content of the bids, with the financial offers to be considered at a later date.Bids have been received from Alstom and a consortium of ...
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Running trials begin as civil works finish
CEREMONIES staged on January 27 at Tainan station on Taiwan High Speed Railway Corp’s 346 km high speed line between Taipei and Kaohsiung culminated in the arrival of a Series 700T trainset at the platform. Nearly 500 guests then boarded the train for a short ride at low speed.Participating in ...
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Bang in Bangkok
THE FAILURE of a driver to follow the correct procedure when isolating brakes on a failed three-car train that was being coupled to another unit sent to haul it back to the depot is believed to have led to the collision on Bangkok’s underground metro line at 09.15 on January ...
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Angers confirms light rail plan
MAYOR OF Angers Jean-Claude Antonini announced on February 10 that the city had decided to adopt steel-wheeled technology for its north-south light rail line, after a study found that rubber-tyred alternatives were insufficiently proven. The 16th largest city in France hopes to get planning approval for the 12 km route ...
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Bush budget bashes Amtrak
ON FEBRUARY 7 the Bush government published the federal budget for 2006. Described as an austerity spending plan, it suggests that road and transit spending be cut by more than 3% to $59·5bn.Much of the reduction would come at the expense of Amtrak, which is allocated no funding next year ...
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Chemical alley
LAST MONTH the Canadian government announced that it had reached agreement with the US-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, which the US government describes as a public charity, to help fund construction of a 17·7 km railway to carry chemical weapons in central Russia.The line will link a weapons store near Planovy ...
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Railways slow to react to airline threat
OBSERVERS of long-distance international passenger travel by train across Europe may well have concluded that the future outlook is pretty bleak. Their pessimism was confirmed at the EuroRail 2005 conference on January 26-27 in Berlin, where a panel discussion found that such services were likely to survive only in ...
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Bulgarian modernisation programme aims to win back lost traffic
Split into infrastructure and operating businesses in January 2002, Bulgaria's national railway must secure its future in a competitive market environment
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Icebergs ahead on the European freight voyage
JEAN-PIERRE DUPORT, President of Réseau Ferré de France, warned delegates to a colloquium on freight infrastructure held at the headquarters of the International Union of Railways in Paris on February 10 that ’icebergs’ threatened the future of Europe’s rail freight business.Judging by the reaction of some delegates, the icebergs may ...
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Freight reform tops the agenda
INTRO: With passenger traffic growing steadily, long-term profitability at SNCF will depend on the restructuring of its freight business which reaches a crucial stage in 2005. Robert Preston spoke to SNCF Executive Vice-President Guillaume Pepy in ParisFRENCHNATIONALRailways Executive Vice-President Guillaume Pepy expects to be able to report ’a substantial profit’ ...
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Advanced asset maintenance
TRADITIONAL approaches to asset maintenance based on fixed-interval component replacement and overhaul are not merely inadequate, they are a liability, AEA Technology Rail believes.Maintenance management processes influence safety, reliability and cost in the highly capital-intensive rail industry, providing operators with an incentive to modernise the methods used. Practices are evolving ...
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Transmitton buys ADT
TRANSMITTON announced on February 1 that it has acquired 100% of the share capital of ADT Rail Systems Ltd, which designs and supplies condition-monitoring equipment for the railway industry.ADT Rail Systems’ On Track suite of monitoring products can be used to obtain data on the performance of equipment including power ...
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Across the border
RUSSIAN and Finnish railway representatives agreed on January 18 to cut the St Petersburg - Helsinki journey time from 5h45min to under 3h30min by 2008. Line speeds are to be increased in both countries, and border formalities carried out on board moving trains. RZD and VRare anticipating 500000 passengers per ...