All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1242
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News
High speed laboratory
SPAIN’s Ministry of Development is to establish a high speed research facility that will test components as well as signalling and control systems. Work will also be directed towards ensuring interoperability across the Spanish high speed network. Funding to establish the facility will be provided by Cedex, the ministry’s research ...
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Simple heating
COLD spots in coaches, including vestibules and toilets, can be eliminated using Taipale Flex-El, a 0·2mm thick heating film developed in Finland. This is powered by the vehicle’s electrical supply. It requires no maintenance, and can be installed unobtrusively behind panels or under the floor. Flex-El can raise the ...
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Hand-held readers on test
TRIALS of a hand-held portable smart card ticket reader are to begin on Northern Ireland Railways this summer.NIR is introducing smart card ticketing as part of a £6m Translink scheme to integrate the province’s trains and buses. Rather than equip stations with barriers, NIR is to issue on-train staff with ...
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Restructuring the French reforms
A SITE NEAR Baudrecourt in Lorraine has been chosen for a ceremony on January 28 to mark the start of work on TGV Est, France’s next high speed line. For the first time infrastructure company Réseau Ferré de France rather than SNCF will be responsible for managing construction. It is ...
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Two traction fleets modernised
WITH the economy of Croatia starting to grow again following the war with Serbia in 1991-95, Croatian Railways (HZ) is gradually restoring services as demand builds up. HZ has secured loans from the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development to fund a modernisation programme, and some ...
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NewsFire suppression
EUROTUNNEL is installing water mist fire suppression from Fogtec Brandschutz on seven HGV shuttle trains. Each vehicle is to be fitted with 30 Fogtec water nozzles, spaced at 1m intervals. Activated by infra-red sensors, the nozzles do not have moving parts, and are modular for ease of servicing. Wind tunnel ...
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Finance
China: Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China are providing 3bn yuan and 2bn yuan loans respectively to the Shanghai Transrapid maglev scheme. Agricultural Bank of China is providing an 8bn yuan credit extension to Shanghai’s Yangpu metro project. Due to open in 2005, the 23 km Line 8 ...
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In favour of vertical integration
Sir - Please count me as a ’vertical integrationist’ (RG 1.02 p3). The brave reforms of Great Britain’s railways have quite obviously not produced the intended results. One can admire the courage of the proponents, and the political will for implementation, but objectively one cannot dismiss the negatives. These include ...
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Tseung Kwan O Extension prepares to open
INTRO: Civil engineering and tracklaying is now complete on Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway’s HK$20bn Tseung Kwan O extension. A critical part of the project has been interfacing the new line with existing infrastructureBYLINE: David SortonProject Manager, Hong Kong MTR CorpINSTALLATION of power supplies and signalling is well advanced on ...
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Eskisehir starts
NEXT MONTH will see the start of construction work on the 14·5 km light rail network in Eskisehir. The line will be built under a US$121m turnkey contract awarded by the municipality to a consortium of local engineering group Yapi Merkezi and Bombardier. The project is being financed by 20-year ...
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Enterprise refurbishment underway
NORTHERN Ireland Railways is refurbishing 14 De Dietrich carriages used on the flagship Belfast - Dublin Enterprise cross-border services. According to NIR Engineering Executive M McGreevy, the vehicles, built in 1997, are being refurbished at a cost of up to £150000 each to ensure a high-quality passenger environment ’before they ...
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Metro-North to refit EMUs
OVER the next six years about $150m is to be spent refurbishing 241 M-2 EMU cars used on Metro-North Commuter Railroad’s New Haven line. The 25-year-old fleet is in a rundown condition, with 30 to 60 cars sidelined for repairs most weekdays. The overhaul should keep the cars running for ...
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Electronic seat reservations
VIRGIN Trains’ Pendolino and Voyager trains are fitted with VMS2000 Electronic Seat Reservation equipment. This automatically retrieves data from the national reservations system and displays it above the seat, removing the need for paper labels.In the past data has had to be manually uploaded to electronic displays. Using a dual-processor ...
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Electrification upgrade
CROATIAN Railways awarded design contracts on December 12 for renovation and upgrading of electrification equipment on its two sections of the Budapest - Sarajevo - Ploce Corridor Vc, which total 129 km. VPS Design of Zagreb will be responsible for the northern section linking Beli Manastir on the Hungarian border ...
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Dual-mode LRVs ordered
REGIONALBAHN Kassel GmbH announced on December 21 that it had ordered 28 dual-system light rail vehicles to work regional services. These will be operated in conjunction with city tram operator Kasseler Verkehrsgesellschaft, enabling through services from electrified and non-electrified local rail routes onto the city centre tram network.Alstom Transport will ...
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Dr Yellow UK
RAILTRACK is to invest heavily in automated infrastructure monitoring as part of its new engineering strategy following the Hatfield derailment in October 2000 (RG 12.00 p810). Technical Director Richard Middleton stressed last month that this ’is all about measuring and monitoring and verifying the condition of the infrastructure. We have ...
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Metro refurbishment pays dividends
INTRO: Private sector concessionaire Metrovías has let contracts worth US$700m under a comprehensive investment programme designed to win back passengers to the metro network in Buenos Aires. Traffic has grown by 78% since the concession beganBYLINE: Juan OrdoñezExecutive Vice-PresidentMetrovíasTURNING what had traditionally been a loss-making activity into a profitable and ...
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Dieter
CAPTION: Midland Metro users literally got the goat in December, when they found one wandering around the platform at West Bromwich. They were even more surprised when the animal ran on board the next tram. While some intrepid passengers sat stroking the goat, the vehicle was driven to the depot, ...
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Siemens to take over ICE depot
SIEMENS Transportation Systems has signed a letter of intent with German Railway and the Land of Bavaria to keep open the Nürnberg ICE maintenance facility. DB had planned to close the depot as part of a workshop rationalisation strategy. It is now to be taken over by Siemens, on undisclosed ...