All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1170
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Madrid metro expansion continues
THE NEWLY-ELECTED President of the Madrid regional government, Esperanza Aguirre, has unveiled a €3·7bn programme to add another 72·7 km to the city’s metro network by the time her term of office comes to an end in 2007. The programme comprises 15 individual projects, combining 42·1 km of extensions to ...
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Wiring completed
ELECTRIFICATION of the northernmost connection between Russia’s Northern and October railways was completed on December 25, boosting capacity for freight services from the Urals and Siberia to the White Sea port of Murmansk. Russian Railways’ Vice-President Valentin Gapanovich, October Railway President Gennadi Komarov and Northern Railway President Vasiliy Bilokha joined ...
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Civia debuts
ON JANUARY 20 Renfe President Miguel Corsini joined Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos, President of the Madrid Regional Government Esperanza Aguirre and Mayor of Madrid Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón to mark the start of passenger service with the Civia commuter EMU. Six of the initial 14 trains ordered from Alstom, Bombardier, CAF and ...
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Darling says fragmentedUK structure must change
EVER since Alistair Darling became Secretary of State for Transport in May 2002 he has firmly ruled out fundamental restructuring as a cure for the two dominant problems facing Britain’s railways: a huge rise in infrastructure costs, and poor performance that sees one in five passenger trains late or cancelled. ...
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Budget shortfall hits DB plans
THE PRESIDENT of the Association of German Transport Undertakings Dipl-Kfm Günter Elste warned on January 13 that the political objective of switching traffic from road to rail was in jeopardy. This, he suggested, was directly attributable to cuts in government funding for expansion and development of the national rail network, ...
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Brussels car order
ON DECEMBER 12 the board of Brussels public transport operator STIB selected CAF as general contractor for the supply of 15 six-car metro trainsets, at a cost of €121·6m. The contract was due to be signed in January, after the regional government had approved the funding, and will include options ...
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Broadband sound
A TRAIN horn producing closely-confined broadband sound has been developed by Brigade Electronics. It is currently on test fitted to an Electrostar EMU based at South Central’s Brighton depot, where local residents have complained about frequent disturbance from horns.Based on the firm’s bbs-tek reversing alarm, the broadband horn meets UK ...
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Passenger News in Brief
On December 15 French Transport Minister Gilles de Robien, SNCF President Louis Gallois and RFF President Jean-Pierre Duport signed an agreement to make rail travel easier for disabled people. By 2007 access is to be improved at 70% of stations in France, and accommodation for wheelchair travellers on trains is ...
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Ticketing in Brief
DB and VDV have introduced City-Ticket, allowing passengers travelling over 100 km using a BahnCard to complete their journey by bus, tram and metro in 46 German cities without further payment. It is hoped to expand City-Ticket to all cities of over 120000 residents. The Ontario provincial government has allocated ...
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Industry News in Brief
Australia:Oz-Tek Solutions Pty is to manufacture under licence from North American Technologies Group a range of composite plastic sleepers up to 5·5m long, using a production line at a New South Wales factory owned by Nepean Rubber & Plastic.China:Sinopec Corp and China Railway Material & Supplies Corp have established Sinopec ...
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Bergen to start light rail tendering
BERGEN city council’s light rail project office, Bybanekontoret, expects to start prequalification next month for supply of vehicles to operate a projected two-line network in Norway’s second city. Subject to approval of funding by the national parliament, a contract should be awarded at the beginning of 2005. Plans for four ...
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BDZ faces change
LASTMONTH Bulgarian Transport Minister Nikolai Vassilev unveiled a package of 50 measures to revitalise the national railway operator BDZ. Restructuring of the railway’s management will result in 1280 redundancies among administrative staff this year. Routes totalling 308 km will be offered as concessions, and private operators will be allowed to ...
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Bangkok Blue line ready
PRINCESS Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand formally 'opened' the Blue line of the Bangkok metro on January 11, following successful completion of trial runs with a Siemens-built three-car trainset. Linking Hualampong and Bang Sue, the 22 km route is officially known as the Chaloem Ratchamongkhon line. Transport Minister Suriya ...
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Ballastless track design
ON DISPLAY at the Mena Rail event in Dubai in December was a slab track design developed by two German companies, Naumburger Bauunion and ThyssenKrupp GfT Gleistechnik. The suppliers said that NBU track was suitable for speeds of up to 220 km/h and also for light rail projects.The NBU track ...
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Perpignan - Figueres award
ON DECEMBER 26 the governments of France and Spain announced that TP Ferro has been selected as preferred bidder for the concession to design, finance, build and operate the 44·4 km route between Perpignan and Figueres. It was hoped to sign the 50-year concession contract within a matter of weeks, ...
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Lausanne to join the automated metro club
Construction of Switzerland's first driverless metro is now expected to start in the spring
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Australia's last frontier is conquered
John Kirk was in Adelaide to watch the departure of the first train to Darwin
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NEG wins Greater Anglia
LATE DECEMBER saw the UK Strategic Rail Authority make significant progress with negotiating replacements for several passenger train franchises. On December 22 SRA named National Express Group as preferred bidder for Greater Anglia. This combines the Anglia and Great Eastern franchises with the West Anglia portion of WAGN, bringing almost ...
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Regauging pushes ahead
INAUGURATING broad-gauge services on the reconstructed line between Mangalore and Kabakaputtur, Indian Railways Minister Nitish Kumar announced on December 28 that trains would be running on the whole Bangalore - Mangalore corridor by January 1 2005.Construction of the 166 km new line between Bangalore and Hassan has been completed (RG ...
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AGC to revitalise regional routes
SNCF has ordered up to 500 Bombardier-built AGC multiple-units to replace life-expired DMUs and EMUs on regional services. Funded by regional authorities, the family will include diesel, electric and dual-mode versions