All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1181

  • News

    PUBLICATIONS

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    Trans-Canada Rail Guideby Melissa Graham’If we cannot export the scenery, we shall have to import the tourists’, said the General Manager of Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885. The surviving trans-Canadian train services remain popular tourist attractions, and no other mode of travel so well conveys a sense of the country’s ...

  • News

    Pointers

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    Pending the completion of track repairs between Santo Tomé and Santa Fe, Trenes de Buenos Aires expects to begin operating a weekly service between the Argentinian capital and Santa Fe this month. The first train ran as far as Santo Tomé on August 1. On board was Transport Secretary Ricardo ...

  • News

    Timetable planner

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    VIRIATO is a timetable planning and co-ordination tool designed to handle the increasing numbers of parties involved in modern service planning processes. Different timetable proposals can be generated and stored for comparison, using common data for the train specifications. Train graphs can be produced, and the software is available in ...

  • News

    PEOPLE

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    Aurangzeb Khan (left) has become General Manager of Pakistan Railways on the retirement of Iqbal Samad Khan. Gulrez Hasmey has become Chief Commercial Manager, Freight, succeeding Nazir Ahmad who was appointed Additional General Manager Freight on the retirement of Mian Abdul Qayyum. Muhammad Aslam has been appointed Chief Personnel Officer, ...

  • News

    Tilt trains out

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    GERMAN Railway was taken by surprise on July 24 when the Federal Railway Office (EBA) suddenly ordered the withdrawal of the 20-strong fleet of Class 605 ICE tilting diesel sets, citing a report suggesting there were problems with fatigue resistance of the axles. Class 605 was intended to bring ICE ...

  • News

    Metros

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    China: UK firm Smith Bros & Webb has won orders totalling £500000 to supply metro car washing plants to the Shenzhen and Guangzhou metros. Daewoo Construction Co Ltd expects to begin civil engineering work this month on the 22 km, 9·5bn yuan Shenyang metro network.This month is expected to see ...

  • News

    Market

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    Australia: Queensland Rail has been awarded a A$2·4m contract running to December 2005 for rail grinding on WestNet Rail’s 1067mm gauge lines in Western Australia.Brazil: CVRD has announced plans to buy 77 diesel locomoties and 2010 wagons to handle traffic rising at 9% a year. China:Bombardier Sifang Power (Qingdao) Transportation ...

  • News

    Stand-off over Pilbara ore line

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    ATTEMPTS to stitch together a coalition of three groups holding rights to work virgin iron ore deposits in the Central Pilbara region of Western Australia, northwest of Newman, broke down at the end of July. However, a strong market with prospects for growing demand, especially in China, is piling on ...

  • News

    On-board internet

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    UK inter-city train operator GNER announced on August 11 that it is preparing a business case to install broadband internet access on its trains. Subject to the outcome of a pilot project between King’s Cross and Scotland for three months starting in mid-September, GNER plans to fit the equipment to ...

  • News

    Secaucus interchange opens

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    UNDER CONSTRUCTION for more than eight years, the $450m Secaucus Transfer interchange in New Jersey will see its first fare-paying passengers on September 6. However, NJ Transit board decided on July 31 that the multilevel station linking 10 of its 11 commuter rail routes will initially be open only at ...

  • News

    Intelligent pantograph on trial

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: Ralf Roman Rossberg reports on tests with an actively-controlled pantograph GERMAN Railway and Bombardier have developed an actively-controlled pantograph to permit operation at higher speeds without costly alterations to overhead line equipment. The single-arm ASP design is also expected to reduce contact noise by 10dB(A) and to halve wear ...

  • News

    Hybrid railcar

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    EAST JAPAN Railway has completed the first trial runs with its ’environmentally-friendly’ New Energy Train, a hybrid diesel-electric railcar designated Series E991. The tests were conducted on the 40 km Utsonomiya - Nikko line. The 19·5m long 1067mm gauge vehicle has a top speed of 100 km/h. It is driven ...

  • News

    Tranz Rail sale on hold

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    ON AUGUST 13 New Zealand’s Tranz Rail confirmed that ’there have been limited discussions’ with Toll Holdings of Australia about improvements to the company’s most recent offer, submitted on July 9. The offer for NZ$0·95 per share required 90% acceptance by August 29 and replaced Toll’s previous takeover bid (RG ...

  • News

    Hit by trams

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    Carillion plc issued a trading update on July 10, in advance of an interim results announcement on September 10. Profit in Construction Services for the six months to June 30 is likely to be £10m less than expected, owing to difficulties with the Nottingham Express Transit light rail public-private partnership ...

  • News

    Infrastructure industry heads for Manchester

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    THE INFRARAIL 2003 exhibition will be held at the G-MEX centre in Manchester from September 16 to 18. Every aspect of infrastructure work will be on show, from civil engineering to fare collection and staff recruitment.Aimed at all companies involved in the rail infrastructure market, Infrarail will be of interest ...

  • News

    LA Gold line inaugurated

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    JULY 28 saw the start of revenue services on the 22 km Gold line light rail route linking Los Angeles and Pasadena, following a weekend of free rides. Local politicians and MTA board members participated in a dedication ceremony at Union Station on July 25, including Los Angeles Mayor James ...

  • News

    Green Kid is a smaller Goat

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    GREEN Kid is the latest hybrid shunting locomotive developed by RailPower Technologies. Smaller than the firm’s Green Goat (RG 11.01 p786), Green Kid is designed for operation in grain terminals, ports and other industrial sites where the duty cycle is less harsh than the busy shunting yards Green Goat is ...

  • News

    Ticket and gate orders

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    ASCOM has won a €50m order from SNCF to supply automatic access control gates for 120 stations in Ile de France. As well as delivery and installation over the next five years, the contract covers maintenance and servicing for 10 years. The gates will be able to read both magnetic ...

  • News

    Gantry mill installed

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    A HENRY Liné Macbormill 249 CNC gantry mill for machining switch and crossing components has been installed at Balfour Beatty Rail Track Systems’ Sandiacre works near Nottingham. Supplied by M-Tech (UK), the 4 + 1 axis machine is fitted with Siemens 840D controls and has a 20m x-axis. The main ...

  • News

    Miscalculation topples FLEX

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    A CAUTIONARY tale reaches us from Schleswig-Holstein, where newly-established operator FLEX-Verkehrs AG took over InterRegio services between Hamburg and Flensburg from German Railway on December 15 last year. A subsidiary of Norddeutsche Nahverkehrsgesellschaft mbH, FLEX had an ambitious programme to develop services over the route, and had launched with a ...