All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1174
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Line 4 foreshadows urban expansion
SPEAKING at the Central & Eastern European Rail summit on November 27, Deputy Director-General for Economics of Budapest Transport Tam
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Jerusalem in under 30min
FUNDING for the long-planned high speed line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and other major projects was allocated in Israel's budget for the next five years announced on December 1; for the first time the rail spend this year (US$800m) will exceed that allocated for roads (US$780m). On ...
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Market January 2004
Austria: ÖBB has placed a €215m order with Bombardier and Elin for 60 more four-car Talent regional and commuter EMUs, to be delivered fom July 2005 to the end of 2006. Canada: Canadian Pacific has signed a seven-year IT outsourcing contract with IBM worth C$200m, under which 100 employees ...
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Metros January 2004
Australia: Victoria's Transport Minister Peter Batchelor plans to sign a new Melbourne tram franchise imminently. It is expected that Yarra Trams will operate the entire network following the withdrawal of NationalExpress. Brazil: Technical and economic bids are due on January 6 from six shortlisted companies to carry out a ...
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Pointers January 2004
During a high-level summit in Marrakech last month, the transport ministers of Morocco and Spain reaffirmed their commitment to building a fixed link under the Strait of Gibraltar. €27m will be provided over two years to fund design of the 38·7 km twin rail tunnels, with the aim of calling ...
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Tracklaying underway on Taiwan's first high speed line
Civil engineering is well advanced on the 345 km line between Taipei and Kaohsiung, and the first trainset is due to roll out at the end of this month
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NewsUrban rail news in brief - December 2003
Tender are due to be called next month for supply of dual-system rolling stock to operate the Randstad Rail network in the Netherlands. Den Haag light rail operator HTM is to buy 21 low-floor cars to run through services from the west of the city to the Zoetermeer line, requiring ...
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Spanish railway reform bill passed
SPAIN: On October 29 the lower house of the Spanish parliament approved the Railway Sector Law, transposing recent European Union directives and notably legislating for the separation of infrastructure from operations on the national network. It is due to come into effect six months after publication in the Spanish official ...
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Schlumberger sells
ON SEPTEMBER 22 Schlumberger Ltd announced that it had signed a binding agreement with IT services provider Atos Origin for the sale of the majority of the SchlumbergerSema businesses, including Transport which incorporates the former British Rail Business Systems.If approved by Atos shareholders the transaction is expected to close in ...
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Wheel works roll-out
NEDTRAIN officially opened its upgraded running gear refurbishment plant in Haarlem on September 5. Life-expired machinery has been replaced to ensure reliability and improve productivity at the works, which processes around 4000 wheelsets every year. The decision to upgrade the wheelset and bogie plant was taken in 2001, and all ...
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PEOPLE
Jirí Klutvor has been appointed Deputy General Manager, Commerce & Operations, at Czech Railways following restructuring on September 1 (p682). Vlastimil Nesetril becomes Deputy General Manager, Infrastructure. Vladimir Filip has been named Director of Finance, with Stanislav Brablík as Director of Economic Management, Josef Sedivy as Director of Accounts & ...
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Overbrook revival
PITTSBURGH light rail operator Port Authority Transit started test running last month on its 8·8 km Overbrook line, following a 10-year closure for rebuilding from tram to light rail standards. A diesel-hauled test train ran on September 15, after which the overhead line was energised to permit trial running from ...
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Toll takes over Tranz Rail
ON OCTOBER 10 Australian transport and logistics group Toll Holdings declared its bid for New Zealand's Tranz Rail unconditional. Toll already holds a 50% stake in Australia's Pacific National. The company confirmed that it now had a majority of directors on the Tranz Rail board, and announced that Mark Rowsthorn ...
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Second SCC opened
ITALIAN infrastructure manager RFI put into service its second SCC traffic control centre on September 22. Located in Bari, the new centre controls the 650 km Adriatica main line between Bari and Bologna, including 77 stations. The route currently handles around 600 trains/day.Linked to existing local interlockings, the control equipment ...
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Rhein-Neckar ready to open
THE TIMETABLE change on December 14 will see the launch of Germany’s latest S-Bahn network. Following a €260m infrastructure upgrading programme, S-Bahn Rhein-Neckar will take over four routes radiating from Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg with a total length of 240 km. Major works in the project include the construction of ...
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ÖBB to be restructured
AUSTRIAN Federal Railways is to be restructured next year into a state-owned holding company and five independent subsidiaries, under proposals announced by the government on October 2. Separate business units will be created to manage passenger services, freight, infrastructure construction, network operation and maintenance, and personnel.Two days earlier Finance Minister ...
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OAO RZD up and running
ON October 1 Russian Railways was formally launched as a state-owned joint stock company, responsible for all operations and commercial activities formerly undertaken by the Ministry of Railway Transport. The handover followed a week of frantic activity, which began on September 23 with a special decree appointing Minister of Railways ...
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NSW subsidy squeeze threatens passengers
THE RELEASE in September of an interim report from the inquiry into sustainable transport in New South Wales poses the threat of a substantial reduction in the current level of subsidy for Sydney’s CityRail commuter trains, and perhaps even more so for Countrylink’s skeletal passenger services. Together, the trains consume ...
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Patience needed
ALSTOM plans to offer a 3·2m wide version of its AGV high speed train with distributed power in the bidding for the Beijing - Shanghai project. At the moment it is not clear whether Alstom will be bidding alone or as part of the EuroTrain consortium formed with Siemens to ...