All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1244
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Transnet backs away from fragmentation
WITHALMOST no warning, the number of Cape Town’s weekday commuter trains operated by Metrorail was cut by 13% from 641 to 557 from January 7. The company holds a concession from SA Rail Commuter Corporation to operate suburban services in major cites, and blamed a shortage of drivers after weekly ...
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Arriva wins Jutland regional concessions
UK-based public transport operator Arriva has been awarded the first two concessions to operate regional passenger services in Denmark, totalling 582route-km. The concessions were announced by the Ministry of Transport on January 8. Private operations are due to start in January 2003 under the seven-year contracts, which are worth a ...
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Argentina in crisis
THE FINANCIAL crisis that went on to engulf the nation before Christmas had spread to Argentina’s railways on December 12, when the first freight concession to be let to the private sector also became the first to suspend operations. The 660 staff at Ferroexpresso Pampeano (Fepsa) had not been paid ...
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Master Plan approved
LAST MONTH Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai approved a 20-year programme to upgrade the metre-gauge national rail network at an estimated cost of 161000bn dong. The government has agreed to provide credit loans from its development fund, and assist with negotiating soft loans from international suppliers.When DSVN sent its ...
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Amtrak reform proposals published
FOLLOWING its ruling that Amtrak could not become self-sufficient by December 2002 (RG 12.01 p799), the Amtrak Reform Council unveiled on January 11 its proposals for the future of the US national passenger rail operator, which had been adopted by an 8:1 vote. It recommended that the federal government should ...
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Irish passengers reach an all-time high
RECORD numbers of passengers were carried on Iarnród éireann during 2001, with 37·2 million journeys made. The inter-city, DART and suburban sectors each saw their highest ever individual traffic figures. In 2001 over 11·1 million inter-city journeys were made, continuing the upward trend of recent years. The Dublin - ...
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Alicante bidding
SPAIN’S Valencia regional government called bids on January 21 for construction of three sections of the Alicante - Benidorm - Altea light rail line, valued at €66·1m. Work on the Campello - Villajoyosa section and a bridge over the Río Amadorío began in December.The line will run underground from the ...
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Bay Area plans ahead
SAN FRANCISCO's Metropolitan Transportation Commission launched a 25-year transport plan on December 19, encompassing investment projects totalling $87·4bn. Public transport will receive 68% of the anticipated federal, state and local funding, with the most expensive single project being the planned BART extension from Fremont to San Jose (RG ...
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Tranz Rail slims again
THE GOVERNMENT of New Zealand announced on December 24 that it had completed the purchase of the Auckland corridor from Tranz Rail, paying NZ$75m with the balance of NZ$6m to follow once negotiations had been completed over train control, track maintenance and ’other interim services’ which Tranz Rail is to ...
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Crossrail rides again
THE CROSSRAIL project to build a regional metro under central London was officially launched on January 17 by Sir Christopher Benson, Chairman of Cross London Rail Links Ltd. A joint venture of the Strategic Rail Authority and Transport for London, the company has been allocated £154m of government funding for ...
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Koreans to accelerate high speed construction
SOUTH KOREAN President Kim Dae-Jung has instructed Transport Minister Lim In-Taik to bring forward construction of the second phase of the country’s high speed line programme by two years, with the aim of completing the Seoul - Pusan route in 2008 instead of 2010.KTX trains have been running on the ...
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LIRR commissions first M7 cars
The first of 326 Bombardier M-7 EMU vehicles purchased by the Long Island Rail Road for $700m are due to begin acceptance testing in March. The cars are brighter and more colourful than the current fleet of M-1s and M-3s, dating from the 1960s and 1970s. Following suggestions by customer ...
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Belgian M6 cars take to the rails
INTRO: Belgian National Railways expects to put its first M6 series double-deck inter-city coaches into service in MayPASSENGERS on the busy peak-hour services from Brussels to Oostende and Kortrijk are in for a treat. From mid-2002, Belgian National Railways will start to phase in the first of its M6 ...
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Line 3 changes in Delhi
THE INDIAN government is considering changes to the Delhi Metro project that would see Line 3, originally planned as a 13 km surface route from Trinagar to Nangloi, run a total of 23·5 km from Connaught Place to Dwarka. With 1·5 km underground, 2·3 km at grade and the remainder ...
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SkyTrain Line 2 opens
BRITISH COLUMBIA Rapid Transit inaugurated revenue services on the first section of Vancouver’s second SkyTrain line on January 5, serving two stations at Braid and Sapperton. The segment was handed over by the city’s Rapid Transit Project Office on December 17, allowing 10 days of trial operation before the launch. ...
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Expansion programme includes 11 km new line
BYLINE: Alejandro Nazar AnchorenaPresident, SubteSubterr
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Stub turnouts
Sir - Mention is made (RG 12.00 p836) of the installation by Switzerland’s Rigi Bahnen of a modern version of ’the stub turnout used on industrial railways in the 19th century’. Stub turnouts were also much-used by ’main line’ companies!JC Bourne clearly recorded, in 1839, stub turnouts at ’the entrance ...
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Sidetrack
Benguela birthdayONE HUNDRED years ago, in 1902, a British company was awarded a concession to build and operate a railway from the coast at Lobito Bay in Portuguese West Africa through the province of Angola. Construction started in 1903, but it took until 1931 before the Benguela Railway reached the ...
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Sidetrack
Massage servicesParis metro operator RATP recently offered passengers a free massage and a healthy snack of green tea and seaweed crackers at four stations. The initiative aimed to ’stop people for five to 10 minutes in their work day so they can take a break and chill out’, according to ...
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More roubles to be spent
REVIEWING developments on the Russian rail network in 2000, Minister of Railways Nikolai Aksyonenko noted at the annual meeting of the ministry’s board of management on December 26 that RZD carried 1300 million tonnes of freight last year, an increase of 11% over 1999. Given that both motive power and ...