All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1184

  • News

    Pendeltåg X60 EMU takes shape

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    Harry Hondius MSc reports from Salzgitter NOW UNDER construction at the Alstom LHB plant in Salzgitter are the first cars for a fleet of innovative articulated low-floor cars to operate Pendeltåg suburban services in Stockholm. Ordered last year by Storstockholms Lokaltrafik AB, they are derived from the Lirex experimental multiple-unit ...

  • News

    Preparations for InnoTrans 2004 are already well advanced

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: Letter from InnoTransInnoTrans 2004 looks set to repeat the success of previous years. With 12 months still to go before this event starts on September 21 2004, Messe Berlin has already received a record number of applications. The amount of display space that has been reserved is almost equivalent ...

  • News

    Intelligence September 2003

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    Argentina: The Entre Ríos provincial government has signed an agreement with ALL Mesopot? mica that will see the Concepción del Uruguay - Paran? route re-opened to freight traffic with new terminals at Estación Parera and Nogoy? . A daily Basavilbaso - Villaguay passenger service is also planned. ALL Central ...

  • News

    BHP line to carry 100 million tonnes

    2003-09-01T10:00:00Z

    BHP BILLITON has accelerated plans that will expand the capacity of its 426 km railway from Newman to Port Hedland to 100 million net tonnes/year by the end of 2004. In the year ended June 30 2002 the line carried 71 million tonnes. Announcing investment totalling A$77m on July 25, ...

  • News

    Tube transfers to TfL

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    AT 00.01 on July 15, responsibility for London Underground Ltd was transferred from the UK Secretary of State for Transport to Transport for London. The handover followed the award of 30-year concessions to Tube Lines and Metronet under the Public-Private Partnership, and saw the abolition of London Regional Transport, which ...

  • News

    Visualisation software

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    MADRID Metro has begun using ILOG’s Solver software for its staff scheduling, and the same company’s Views package to display network data to aid the real-time supervision of depots and lines. In May French National Railways deployed ILOG Views to create visual displays which are used to show the location ...

  • News

    Pyrenean project progress

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    MEETING on July 11, the Spanish cabinet approved bids from four consortia seeking pre-qualification for the concession to build and operate the 45 km route from Figueres to Perpignan in France. A second tender was issued after the intergovernmental commission announced on April 16 that no further progress could be ...

  • News

    TENs programme is revised

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    FORMER Transport Commissioner Karel van Miert presented a report on the future development of the Trans-European Transport Networks to the European Commission on June 30. Compiled by a group of experts appointed by transport ministers of the 15 current and the 12 future member states, the report includes recommendations on ...

  • News

    Polish takeover

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    ZIELONA Gora-based wagon builder and component supplier Zastal Wagony SA has been purchased by Tabor Szynowy Opole SA. Zastal Wagony SA became a Tabor subsidiary in May, with Robert Siwulski as General Director, Janusz Kapala as Technical Director and Janina Krol as Commercial Director. In addition to new general and ...

  • News

    Weighing up your passengers

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    AEA Technology Rail has developed an electronic version of its Passenger Load Determination System, used to assess the number of passengers on a train at any given time. Developed from AEA’s existing PLD which already tracks around 2 million passenger-journeys a week, the updated e-PLD is expected to be simpler ...

  • News

    Oslo ring opens

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    CEREMONIES will be held on August 20 to mark the opening of the first stage of Oslo Sporveier’s metro ring line, although revenue services are scheduled to start on August 17. The 2·9 km section from Ullevål Stadion to Storo will be served by an extension of Line 5 which ...

  • News

    Managing maintenance on the Tokaido Shinkansen

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: The infrastructure on Japan’s oldest high speed line has gradually been improved to allow operation at 270 km/h, with curve realignment, the introduction of composite sleepers and improved standards for maintenance work. Plans are being drawn up to strengthen major structures from 2017Dr-Eng Masaki SekiHead of Track Maintenance & ...

  • News

    Madrid start

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    SPANISH Development Minister Francisco Álvarez-Cascos joined Mayor of Madrid Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón at Nuevos Ministerios on July 8 to mark the formal start of work on the second cross-city rail tunnel that will carry suburban services between Atocha and Chamartín. The project is expected to cost a total of €259m. Work ...

  • News

    Luas still on track

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    Sir - Your report ’Luas lags behind’ (RG 7.03 p424) gives a pessimistic, and at times rather sensationalist picture of the progress of the Dublin light rail project.The original cost estimates you quote from the Dublin Transportation Initiative strategic study of 1991-94 (in Irish pounds, not euros) referred to the ...

  • News

    Low-cost signalling on low-density lines

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    INTRO: An EU-funded research programme is developing cost-effective train location and signalling for secondary lines, using satellite positioning technology that may have future benefits in ERTMS applicationsBYLINE: Pierre Mertens, Jean-Pierre Franckart and Antonin Starck *BYLINE: * Pierre Mertens is Locoprol Project Co-ordinator at Alstom Transport Information Systems, Jean-Pierre Franckart is ...

  • News

    Krakow upgrade

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    TURKISH civil engineering group Güris Insaat ve Mühendislik AS has been awarded a €31bn contract to rebuild a 3·7 km section of north-south tram route in Krakow as a segregated light rail line. Funded by EBRD and EIB, the contract was formally signed in Krakow on July 9. The work ...

  • News

    IR safety plan

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    INDIAN Railways was due to adopt a 10-year Railway Corporate Safety Plan last month, allocating 4% of turnover for investment in safety equipment. The plan was discussed by the IR Board on July 14, following discussions with the railway unions. It will provide around Rs16bn a year until 2013, on ...

  • News

    Lirex to test innovative transformer

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    BYLINE: Harry Hondius MScNEXT SPRING, the Lirex experimental diesel railcar developed for German Railway is to be converted into a hybrid electro-diesel trainset, with the replacement of one diesel generator set by a 15 kV 162/3Hz transformer. The new medium-frequency ’e-transformer’ is being developed jointly on an exclusive basis by ...

  • News

    Simulating India’s trains

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    INDIAN Railways has awarded Corys TESS a contract worth over €20m to supply and maintain for 10 years locomotive driver training simulators. The project is part of a rolling programme to improve safety across the Indian rail network.Representing four different types of passenger and freight locos used by IR, the ...

  • News

    Maglev lagging in high speed race

    2003-08-01T10:00:00Z

    WHEN Peer Steinbrück, President of the Land of Nordrhein-Westfalen, sensibly decided on June 27 to dump plans to build a 79 km Transrapid maglev line between Dortmund and Düsseldorf, he was calling a halt to a project that had driven a deep rift in the local coalition of Social Democrats ...