All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1172
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ZR upgrade funded
WHAT IS believed to be the first African concession in recent times where the private sector has secured bank finance to upgrade rail infrastructure achieved financial close on December 3. This cleared the way for a joint venture of New Limpopo Project Investments and Spoornet to take over management of ...
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Ferry link launched
CONSTRUCTION work has started for the planned Bohai Sea train ferry linking China’s Shandong and Liaoning provinces (RG 6.02 p285). Being developed at an estimated cost of 2·35bn yuan, the ferry service is expected to start in June 2006.The 147 km sea route between Yantai and Dalian will save up ...
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Sacramento expansion at risk
NEW Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced at the end of November that he planned to cut funding for 140 transport projects across California in a bid to reduce the state’s budget deficit. Among the schemes at risk is the $66m second phase of Sacramento Regional Transit District’s South Corridor light rail ...
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End of the phoney war
QUEENSLAND RAIL’S subsidiary Interail has launched a regular container service between Casino in New South Wales and the Port of Brisbane, QR Chief Executive Bob Scheuber told the AusRail conference on November 17. Referring to the imminent arrival of Pacific National on the QR network, Scheuber emphasised that the ’phoney ...
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Météor and Line E extended
TWO SHORT but significant extensions to the Paris urban rail network were officially inaugurated on December 16.The first sees the automated Météor metro Line 14 opened five years ago extended by 487m from Madeleine to St-Lazare at a cost of €128m. As well as providing interchange with SNCF suburban services, ...
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Java doubling
INDONESIAN President Megawati Soekarnoputri participated in celebrations at Cikampek on December 4 to inaugurate double track on a key section of the Javan north coast main line running east from Jakarta. According to Communications Minister Agum Gumelar, doubling the 135 km from Cikampek to Cirebon will raise capacity from 145 ...
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Rotterdam depot to serve international operators
NedTrain Cargo Support is to build maintenance facilities at Rotterdam Maasvlakte to serve the growing number of open access rail operators working out of the port. The first workshop will offer light wagon maintenance and running repair services, including lubrication and wheelset changes, and will be followed by a locomotive ...
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Debts but no trams
ALMOST EXACTLY 26 years ago, a decision was taken to build a light rail network in Lagos (RG 2.78 p47). Fast forward 25 years to December 2003, when a function was held to launch the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, and State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced that a US$135m ...
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Relentless progress to meet the deadlines
BYLINE: Ad van den DoolStrukton Railinfra bvStrukton Railinfra faces the challenge of laying 140 km of track and installing 220 km of overhead wires on the Betuwe Route in one year. After a selection process involving nine prequalified contracting consortia from various European countries, the contract for the trackwork and ...
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Pre-assembled turnouts cut installation times
BYLINE: Dr Peter Schulz and Chris van Dranen*INTRO: TURNOUTSfor the Betuwe Route are being supplied by BWG of Germany, working with its Dutch sister company WBN Wisselbouw. In 2000 WBN Wisselbouw supplied the turnouts used below the hump to the sorting sidings in the marshalling yard at Kijfhoek south of ...
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Cross-city link takes shape
Antwerpen's north-south junction will provide a direct connection for both conventional and high speed services to the north of the city
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Coupling up tram-trains
AVANTO tram-trains being built by Siemens for operation on SNCF’s Aulnay-sous-Bois - Bondy line in Paris will be fitted with automatically retractable couplers from Voith Turbo Scharfenberg.The couplers and covers will provide automatic mechanical and electrical connections between the 15 vehicles, which are expected to enter service on the converted ...
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Exposing the real infrastructure cost drivers
INTRO: Why are life-cycle infrastructure costs five times lower in the USA than in the Netherlands, but are 50% to 200% higher in Japan and Hong Kong? Jan Swier* shows how these huge cost differences can be explained, allowing them to be predicted more accuratelyOVER THE LAST 10 years, Netherlands ...
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Controversy dogs freight corridor
INTRO: Cost over-runs and political problems have conspired to delay the completion of the Betuwe Route, and questions are being asked about its viabilitysupply network. ProRail also awarded a €75m contract to Holland Railconsult and Alstom in the same month for the ETCS Level 2 train control system. Also in ...
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Nordharz contract
ON DECEMBER 9 Sachsen-Anhalt Transport Minister Karl-Heinz Daehre announced that the Land subsidiary Nahverkehrsservice Sachsen-Anhalt GmbH had selected Connex Regiobahn GmbH for a 12-year concession to operate regional services on the Nordharz network. The company will take over from DB Regio’s Südost business unit in December 2005. The Nordharz concession ...
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Transcontinental link completed
On January 15 the first FreightLink container train for Darwin will leave Adelaide, arriving at the Northern Territory port two days later. The inaugural service on the Alice Springs - Darwin marks the completion of the 150 year dream of linking Australia's Top End with the cities in the south ...
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Pyrenees link closer to start
AN OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT confirming the compulsory purchase of 170000m2 of farmland at La Jonquera was published by the Spanish Ministry of Development on December 4. The land will be required for the southern portal and access to the 8·2 km twin-bore cross-border tunnel that forms part of the new Figueres ...
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Chinese initiative
THREE German companies and Guangzhou Railway Group signed an agreement on December 2 to create a ’German high speed initiative’ in the Chinese city.Turnout maker BWG, track supplier Pfleiderer and Siemens will assist local rail operators, and the high speed initiative will support the development of a 127 km inter-city ...
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Car orders placed
PHOENIX light rail promoter Valley Metro Rail has selected Kinki Sharyo to supply 36 cars to operate the 32·3 km route at a cost of $115m. They will be 27·4m long, with partial low floors, and designed to operate in trains of up to three units. The deal includes options ...
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Capital’s metro grows
BEIJING Metro Corp announced on December 12 that trial passenger services on the city’s 19 km Line 4 would start on December 28, bringing the length of operational metro in the Chinese capital to 95 km. Built mainly above ground, the elevated light metro Line 4 runs east from an ...