All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1232
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News
Roca bucks the trend
WITH the national economy effectively bankrupt, we reported in RG 2.02 (p61) that Argentina’s railways were in big trouble. Suburban operators Metropolitano and Ferrovías have both filed for bankruptcy protection. The government provided a cash injection to Fepsa in March to pay the wage bill and save the dismissal of ...
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Products in Brief
High Performance Display Systems has launched a portable plug-and-play full-colour LED display for text and video imagery and signage.Ultra-Tech Enterprises Inc has introduced Cab Signal Master, a microprocessor-based device for providing track and speed restriction data during testing of on-board signalling equipment.Altrix Heathcare is supplying mouth swab drug testing kits ...
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Industry News in Brief
On March 21 German civil engineering firm Philipp Holzmann requested the start of insolvency proceedings. Dresdner Bank, Commerzbank and HypoVereinsbank rejected a rescue plan.Dellner Couplers AB of Sweden is building a new factory at Gdynia in Poland. The SKr35m factory will open this summer, and is expected to employ up ...
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Passenger News in Brief
Ascom has supplied disposable contactless ticketing for RATP to use on the Orlyval airport peoplemover link in Paris.The TranSys consortium has installed 50 ’Queuebuster’ credit and debit card ticket vending machines at London Underground stations in a £4m contract.On April 5 VIA Rail announced it was prepared to continue operation ...
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Branch concessions
Spoornet has started to lease out lines with limited traffic, as part of a strategy to restore its General Freight Business to profitability. GFB accounts for around 70% of the company’s annual revenues. According to CEO Zandile Jakavula, a task force has been set up to look at the viability ...
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Theme park branch opens
A DOUBLE-TRACK branch 15·3 km in length between Pinto and San Martín de la Vega south of Madrid has been officially opened by Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, President of the regional government. Forming Route C-3a of Renfe’s Madrid suburban network, the new electrified line has cost €85m to build, including one ...
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Euregiobahn pushes the boundaries
TECHNICAL, political and administrative frontiers are also barriers to the success of international passenger services. So it is interesting to follow the progress of German Railway subsidiary Regionalbahn Rheinland GmbH. The company has teamed up with several partners in the Rhein-Maas region to develop a network of local services, linking ...
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Rails start to go boldly
What NASA describes as the ’first space railroad’ has been installed on the International Space Station. An initial 13m section of track was delivered by the shuttle Atlantis in April, and a further 100m is due to be added during the next two years.A transport vehicle runs along the ISS’s ...
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Smart wagon bogies
BY THE end of the year the first prototype lightweight ’Leila’ bogies should be on test. With financial support from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Research, Berlin Technical University is developing a new bogie design for smart freight wagons. Weighing around 4 tonnes, the bogies are being developed in conjunction with ...
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Costa Blanca LRT
VALENCIA regional government in Spain has awarded two contracts to upgrade and electrify 10 km of FGV’s Alacant - Dénia route between Finca Adoc and Salesianos, as part of a project to introduce dual-mode LRT services as far as Altea (RG 2.02 p66). A consortium of Azvisa, Contra and Mancobra ...
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Bilbao grows
REVENUE services were launched on the first section of Bilbao Metro Line 2 on April 13. Running from a junction with Line 1 at San Inazio to Urbinaga, the 5·8 km initial section of Line 2 tunnels under the Nervión river to reach the intermediate stations at Gurutzeta Cruces, Ansio, ...
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Perpignan - Figueres bids
THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL Commission developing the cross-border rail link between France and Spain has confirmed that all six shortlisted consortia had submitted bids by April 2 for the concession to finance, build and operate the45 km link. The six were shortlisted on November 30 2001 (RG 1.02 p6).Meeting in Madrid on ...
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US high speed bidding starts
FLORIDA Department of Transportation has received 10 responses to its Invitation to Prequalify for a public-private partnership to develop a high speed railway connecting the state’s major cities. No public funding has yet been allocated for the project, although voters passed a constitutional amendment in November 2000 mandating that the ...
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Victoria regauging begins
WORK IS to start this month on the first projects to regauge around 2000 km of freight lines in the Australian state of Victoria. The state government has allocated A$96m towards the five-year programme costing A$140m, which was announced a year ago (RG 6.01 p367), and formally approved last September. ...
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Base tunnel progress
A CONSORTIUM of Eiffage TP, GRA and Condotte d’Acqua has been awarded an €82m contract to dig a 4 km pilot bore from Villarodin-Bourget near Modane, which will be used to gain access to worksites on the Mont Cenis base tunnel between France and Italy. Blasted out of the rock, ...
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Mole cuts ballast faster
infrastructure maintenance contractor Jarvis Rail has introduced a 44 tonne self-propelled excavator able to cut a swathe of ballast up to 3800mm wide and 600mm deep in one pass. Supplied by mining equipment manufacturer DBT, the Mole has been adapted for rail use by Jarvis Rail’s On-Track Machines division. The ...
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Sharon backs IR ’new deal’
ISRAEL is planning to invest US$4bn in rail over the next five years, according to Transport Minister Dr Efrayim Sne. He announced in mid-March that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had approved in principle the 2002-06 plan which will be funded by a mix of public and private investment. A seven-year ...
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More French tram projects backed
CONSTRUCTION of three more light rail lines is to go ahead in southeast France, following the approval of five-year regional spending plans in Lyon and Grenoble. Work is expected to start next year on the 13·5 km Line C in Grenoble, as part of a €732m transport package proposed by ...
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Back from the brink
HAVING instigated a game of ’chicken’ with Congress over funding for its long-distance trains, it was Amtrak that blinked first. George Warrington, who is stepping down as President to join New Jersey Transit, announced on April 5 that he would not, after all, file the required 180-day notice for withdrawal ...
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Wagon suppliers await upturn
EUROPE’S rail freight business is in trouble - and yet politicians continue to predict a huge rise in traffic. We have no quarrel with the assessment that the potential is huge, but progress to date is shamefully slow. Elsewhere in this issue we offer some insight into the issues that ...