All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1140
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News
Intelligence
Australia: Queensland has amended its rail safety investigation laws to match national standards, retrospectively dated to cover the diesel tilt train derailment north of Bundaberg on November 16 (p16).QR has increased capacity on its Cairns - Melbourne intermodal services by 50% with the introduction of new rolling stock, and the ...
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Passenger information news
DURING refurbishment of the 75 D78 trainsets used on London Underground's District Line, passenger information displays from Focon will be fitted to the six-car units. The company will also supply displays for use on the 47 eight-car trains to be built by Bombardier for the Victoria Line. On the D78 ...
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Report highlights signalling renewal
THE UK’s Office of Rail Regulation published on November 29 its first annual report on how Network Rail is meeting the stewardship requirements of its licence, ORR’s targets, and those set in its own Business Plan. Covering the year to March 31 2004, it includes subsequent developments judged to be ...
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Lloyd’s registers growth
RAIL business at Lloyd’s Register ’grew very strongly’ in the 12 months to June 30, Executive Chairman David G Moorhouse announced on November 24.The group’s Energy & Transportation division income was up 4% on the previous year. Within the division Oil & Gas income grew 5%, Industry fell 5%, and ...
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Infrastructure fund launched
FRENCH transport infrastructure finance agency AFITF is to be fully operational on January 1 2005, following the publication on December 1 of its establishing decree. AFITF’s 12-strong board will have six members nominated by the government, one MP, one senator, two local politicians and two ’qualified persons’.Drawing on the dividends ...
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RATP to run Firenze light rail
ON DECEMBER 8 Paris Transport Authority announced that its international subsidiary RATP Développement had won the concession to design, build and operate the light rail network in Firenze. The three-line network serving Firenze and the neighbouring municipality of Scandicci will eventually total 29·5 km. Construction work is already underway on ...
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Finance
Angola: Finance Minister Andre Luí Brandão has announced plans to spend US$4bn rehabilitating 2722 km of track in four phases over the next 11 years. The US$78m first phase is nearing completion, the second will see US$90m of modernisation work, and the third and fourth would involve extensions to neighbouring ...
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Moscow opens Expo monorail
DEMONSTRATION services began running on Russia's first monorail on November 20, following the award of an operating certificate earlier in the month. According to Moscow Deputy Mayor Petr Aksenov, revenue service on the 8·6 km elevated line will start early in 2005. Connecting Timiryazevskaya metro station in the north of ...
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Koralm tunnel exploration
CONSTRUCTION of Austrian Federal Railways’ planned Klagenfurt - Graz high speed line moved a step closer on December 4, when work began on pilot bores for the 32·8 km Koralm tunnel.New line authority HL-AG has been developing plans for the 130 km Koralmbahn since 1995, and a preferred route was ...
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ERA at the gates of Europe
When Marcel Verslype takes office as Executive Director of the European Railway Agency on January 1, one of his earliest tasks will be to appoint the staff who will oversee the establishment of the entity which will in many ways determine the future of Europe's railways. Recruitment was in hand ...
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Not green enough yet
RAIL’S assumed environmental advantage (RG 12.04 p811) took a few more knocks on November 19 at a high-level conference on railways and the environment in Berlin attended by around 200 representatives from business and politics.The 22 senior railway managers from 17 European countries who were present, along with rail executives ...
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News
Long Dragon to offer fire retardant panels
AN AGREEMENT for the joint development of composite components for train interiors has been announced by GE Advanced Materials and China Railway Long Dragon New Composite Materials Co.The high-strength panels, ceilings, floors and sidewalls will be made by China’s largest interior component maker using Rail-Lite composites supplied by Azdel, a ...
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Hiroshima develops low-floor LRV
IN MARCH, Hiroshima Electric Railway will put into service the first 100% low-floor tram to be built entirely in Japan.Designated U3·ALFA, the car has been developed by Kinki Sharyo, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Toyo Electric Manufacturing. It consists of five articulated sections on three bogies, two of which are powered. ...
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Repowered by Deutz
OSTMECKLENBURGISCHE Bahnwerk has rebuilt a former German Railway V200.1 diesel-hydraulic locomotive for Würzburg-based operator EBW.Previously used by Prignitzer Railway, and before that Hellenic Railways Organisation, the 40-year old BB loco has had its Maybach engines replaced with two Deutz TBD620V12 engines with turbocharging and charge air cooling producing 1087 kW ...
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On the decks
EXPANSION joints in concrete and steel bridges in Italy and Portugal have been waterproofed using Sentinel Algaflex TW reinforced elastomer sheet. Sentinel Algaflex TW is designed for use with the supplier’s Eliminator and Hytec bridge deck waterproofing, and it has a continuous upper surface to prevent any ingress of ballast ...
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Investment delays will damage the future of railways in eastern Europe
RAIL’S historically high market share of freight and passenger traffic in eastern Europe is in peril. This threat comes not just from unfettered road competition buoyed up by government spending on motorways, but from the failure of governments to support their railways as they try to restructure into business entities.There ...
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C-Train still growing
FIVE LIGHT RAIL investment projects are included in Calgary’s five-year transport infrastructure programme for 2005-10, approved in November. Total cost of the package is put at C$2bn, including 35 road schemes. The light rail elements are valued at C$354m. The funding will be shared equally between the Province of Alberta ...
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Cross-border revival
MEETING in Islamabad on December 2-3, officials from the Pakistan and Indian railways boards agreed to reopen a second rail route between the two countries.The metre-gauge link between Khokhrapa in Sindh province and Munaba in Rajasthan has been out of use since 1965. According to PR Board Secretary Zaeem Ahmed ...
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ERTMS development reaches the critical point
With installation of ETCS Level 1 underway in several countries, feedback from pilot projects is helping to fine-tune the technical specifications for Level 2. Growing pressure to upgrade the railways of eastern Europe may trigger the high-volume orders needed to make ERTMS cost-effective