All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1163
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News
Combinos withdrawn
URBAN operators in Potsdam and Basel withdrew their fleets of Combino trams on March 12-13, after Siemens Transportation Systems confirmed that bodyshell problems were emerging at high mileages. On March 1 Siemens revealed that high torsion forces in the articulations of cars with longer bogie centres were damaging the bolted ...
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Current collector shoes
ATTIKO Metro is to take delivery of 21 six-car trainsets from the Hanwah-Rotem consortium in Korea. Seven units in the fleet will be fitted with dual-voltage equipment to operate on existing routes electrified at 750 V DC third rail and on the new line being built to Eleftherios Venizelos airport ...
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High-power IGBTs drive Civia EMUs
INTRO: Development of high-power IGBTs able to accept line voltages up to 4 kV has simplified the traction package for Spanish National Railways’ new family of modular suburban trains, cutting weight and improving efficiencyBYLINE: Rafael Fern
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Cisalpino to expand tilt operations
INTERNATIONAL services operated by Cisalpino, which is owned 50:50 by Swiss Federal Railways and Trenitalia, are to be stepped up. The plan is geared to opening of the L
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Chinese food
SHANGHAI Rail Gourmet Co has been created as a station and on-board catering joint venture of Rail Gourmet and Shanghai Railway Administration. From April 18 it will serve 2500 meals per day on four fast trains linking Shanghai with Beijing. The 15-year agreement provides for expansion to further services and ...
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Lower Inn valley line will increase trans-Alpine capacity
INTRO: Under a €1·35bn project to improve capacity on the Brenner axis by 2010, work has begun on a 40 km second route along the Lower Inn valley in AustriaBYLINE: Martin PellizzariBrenner Eisenbahn GmbHSPEEDING the flow of international traffic across the Alps is one of the greatest challenges facing European ...
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High speed Canaries
LAST MONTH the Spanish Ministry of Development called tenders for two contracts to undertake studies for high speed routes on the Canary Islands, including feasibility, alignment options and traffic forecasts. Each contract has a budget of €601854 and should be completed with a period of 24 months.On Tenerife, an 80 ...
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Passenger News in Brief
This month CityNightLine plans to introduce refurbished double-deck sleeping cars on services to Amsterdam from Zürich and München. Replacing T2S vehicles, the modernised coaches offer single and double cabins in two classes, with and without showers.Suburban rail passengers in Melbourne can now send a text message to Connex Trains requesting ...
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Border rail link
MARKING the start of high speed construction between Barcelona and the French border, Spanish Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos visited works between Sils and Riudellots on March 9, where Sacyr and Scrinser are executing a €24·1m contract to build 7·3 km of alignment within 19 months.Elsewhere between Barcelona and Girona, contracts ...
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Two bids for Uruguayan upgrade
Director of Railways Juan Echeverz.While the private sector will tackle the core network, Echeverz said that upgrading work would begin within the next few months on a further 500 km, comprising the route ’that connects Salto with Paysandú and Fray Bentos’. This would be undertaken by former AFE personnel transferred ...
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BA bids opened
A CONSORTIUM OF Dycasa and Dragados Obras y Proyectos has presented the lowest bid of 95·2m pesos to undertake civil works for a 2·9 km extension of Line A in Buenos Aires from Primera Junta to Nazca, with intermediate stations at Pu
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Bombardier to axe seven plants
PRESIDENT & Chief Executive Officer Paul Tellier announced a reduction of 6600 jobs in rail manufacturing on March 17 after Bombardier Transportation recorded ’disappointing financial results’ in the last quarter of the year to January 31 2004. The cuts will be achieved by closing seven production sites in five countries ...
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Operators respond to bomb attacks
ON MARCH 4 French National Railways ordered 10000 staff out on to the tracks to look for bombs following threats from an unknown group called AZF. Letters to the Interior Ministry last December were followed by a ransom demand in February. AZF alerted the authorities to a bomb in the ...
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A marriage is arranged
ON FEBRUARY 24 the Hong Kong government instructed Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corp and Kowloon-Canton Railway Corp to start negotiations for a merger. The government said that the talks should be completed by August 31 and specified a number of key objectives.’To ensure that the public can benefit from ...
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FSCargo to stand alone
ITALIAN Railways has decided to restructure its freight operation as a stand-alone company later this year. After discussing the proposal with the Director of the Treasury at the Ministry of Finance Domenico Siniscalco, FS President & Administrator-General Giancarlo Cimoli informed the FS and Trenitalia boards on March 3 that the ...
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Off-centre load alarm
MOVING trains can be automatically weighed by SilverPoint+, which will warn operators of overweight or incorrectly loaded vehicles and send text alerts to the train crew’s mobile telephones.Installed without needing to modify the rails, SilverPoint+ reports axle, bogie and total weights, and compares front and rear weight readings. An option ...
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New airport branch
THE SPANISH Ministry of Development has begun public consultation on a new 4·9 km branch taking 1668mm gauge trains to Barcelona Airport, which is expected to cost €139·8m to build. As well as suburban services running through to destinations northeast of the city centre, the route would also be used ...
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AMEC adapts to handover
ENGINEERING contractor AMEC Spie is reorganising its rail business in advance of the handover of its UK rail maintenance work to Network Rail on July 24 (RG 12.03 p770).Maintenance currently accounts for one-third of AMEC Spie Rail’s £350m turnover, and according to Business Development Manager Barry Atkinson the company hopes ...
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Beijing metro accords
CONSTRUCTION of a fourth heavy metro line in Beijing is to be undertaken by a private-sector consortium including Hong Kong MTRCorp, which recently signed a concession in Shenzhen (RG 2.04 p65). The Chairman of Beijing Capital Group Liu Xiaoguang revealed on March 4 that the company had reached an agreement ...
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Funding package will improve access to high speed networks
SWITZERLAND’S Ministry of Transport is drawing up legislation that will authorise expenditure of up to SFr1·3bn on a series of projects to improve access to and from high speed networks in neighbouring countries. Unusually, this will see Swiss funds used as contributions towards major schemes in other countries. Because of ...