All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1183
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Passenger News in Brief
Free wireless internet access is being made available to first class passengers on some Montréal - Toronto VIA Rail services as part of a four-month trial by Bell Canada, Intel and PointShot Wireless.Suzhou Schindler Elevator Co has won a 66m yuan contract to supply 97 escalators to Guangzhou Metro. Installation ...
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Industry in Brief
UVZ & AVR has begun constructing a rolling stock assembly works at Ahtme in northeast Estonia. The first two assembly lines will be installed in November, and the Russian-Estonian joint stock company expects to employ up to 400 people to produce up to 3000 passenger carriages and tank wagons per ...
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Sena line boost
THE WORLD Bank confirmed on August 7 that it had agreed in principle to assist with the restoration of the 553 kmSena line in Mozambique. Linking Beira with the Moatize coalfields and the Malawi border, the line has been out of use for 20 years because of the civil war, ...
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Malaysian bidding hots up
A DOMESTIC consortium of Malaysia Mining Corp and Gamuda Bhd has submitted a bid to double-track the country’s north-south main line. MMC Chief Executive Ismail Shahudin said in mid-July that the companies believed the work could be completed within three years of a contract being signed.The Malaysian government had already ...
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Nine bid for Line A
A TOTAL OF nine groups have submitted bids to prequalify for a contract to build the 3·5 km extension of Buenos Aires metro Line A from Primera Junta to Nazca. With intermediate stations at Puan, Carabobo and Flores, the extension is expected to take three years to build within a ...
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Rivals skirmish over Beijing - Shanghai
WITH maglev technology effectively ruled out for the 1300 km high speed line planned between Beijing and Shanghai (RG 8.03 p484), a serious battle is shaping up between rival interests promoting Japanese Shinkansen, French TGV and German ICE technology. Already it is looking like a re-run of the fight to ...
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Mannheim tests grooved rails with elastic bearings
BYLINE: Anabel HengelmannGetzner Werkstoffe GmbHIN THE search for a smoother ride for street-running tram and light rail lines, Getzner Werkstoffe has been developing an elastic support structure for grooved rails over the past two or three years, in co-operation with Mannheimer Versorgungs- und Verkehrsgesellschaft AG. The system combines external ...
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Battery power
SAFT is supplying three 24V batteries for each of the 23 three-car diesel multiple-units being built by CAF for Northern Ireland Railways. The underframe-mounted batteries comprise 20 SRX 190 FR cells, designed to deliver short-duration high current discharges of up to 1 min at five times normal capacity when starting ...
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Batignolles sale
AS PART of its strategy to focus on services and reduce its exposure to cyclical construction activities, Amec has signed an agreement to sell 51% of French construction business Spie Batignolles to management buy-out vehicle Financière Spie Batignolles for €15·3m. The management offer was announced in May, and completion of ...
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Ballast machine cleans up
BERLIN-BASED contractor MGW Gleis- & Weichenbau GmbH & Co KG is using an RM 95-700 high capacity ballast cleaning machine from Plasser & Theurer for maintenance work on the German rail network. The eight-axle articulated hydraulic machine offers a precise, laser-aligned cutting of the subgrade, with integrated supply of new ...
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Authority will revive SLR
PLANS FOR a comprehensive revival of Sri Lanka’s rail network were announced by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesignhe on August 11. Consultants are to be appointed to look at improving the management structure, whilst Indian engineers will start on urgent repairs, he said. The Prime Minister also hopes to see services ...
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Intermodal fly ash in bulk
CEMENT maker RMC Rugby has ordered 40 intermodal H-type ISO-Veyor units from inBulk Technologies for transporting fly ash from power stations.The H-type is a cylindrical vessel with 34m3 capacity constructed within the dimensions of a 30ft ISO container, and can be handled and transported using the same equipment. Once it ...
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North Rail approved
THE PHILIPPINES government announced on August 8 that it had approved plans for construction of the first stage of the planned North Rail express commuter railway, at an estimated cost of 27·6bn pesos. The project has been cleared by the Investment Co-ordination Committee of the National Economic Development Authority. NEDA ...
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Angolan restoration
LAST MONTH was due to see the start of work on rehabilitating Angola’s 1067mm gauge Caminhos de Ferro do Luanda. This runs eastwards for 424 km from the Atlantic coast to Malanje, with a southern branch to Dondo. In recent years trains have only been running between Luanda and Dondo.Transport ...
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Amtrak reform bill goes to Congress
INTRO: Julian Wolinsky reports on the latest developments in the saga of the US long-distance passenger trainOn August 5 the US administration presented its Passenger Rail Reform Bill to Congress, proposing the breaking up of Amtrak and privatisation of some parts, together with the devolving of control and financial responsibility ...
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Alpine plan cleared
PLANS TO introduce rolling motorway services over the 175 km Fréjus corridor between Aiton-Bourganeuf in France and Orbassano in Italy have been cleared by the European Commission. On August 4 the EC confirmed that it had given the go-ahead for the formation of Autoroute Ferroviaire Alpine, a 50:50 joint venture ...
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RZD reforms move ahead
ON OCTOBER 1 Russian Railways will begin life as a joint stock company, OAO RZD, marking the start of the second phase of the railway reform programme. The company will remain 100% state-owned, according to Vice-Minister of Railways Anna Belova.Reviewing progress with the reform programme on July 25, Mrs Belova ...
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Financial rescue agreed
ALSTOM announced on August 6 that it had secured a comprehensive financial package with the agreement of more than 30 of its banks. This will enable the company to repay its existing debt facilities which mature in the first half of 2004, as well as providing short and medium-term liquidity.The ...
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Cost control tops the agenda as refranchising moves ahead
INTRO: With the complex relationships of the privatised rail industry driving costs and subsidies to record levels, politicians are asking whether Britain still needs its railways. Murray Hughes looks at recent developmentsTEN YEARS have passed since the Railways Act 1993, the legislation passed by John Major’s Conservative government that brought ...
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Smart card accord
RAIL and bus operators in the Greater Tokyo region have agreed to introduce a common smart card by 2006 that can be used on services run by 53 organisations. Around six million passengers use the Suica smart card introduced by JR-East in 2001, and two other rail operators have smart ...