All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1253
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News
NS contract delayed
NETHERLANDS Transport Minister Tineke Netelenbos has agreed to postpone the start of Netherlands Railways’ 10-year operating contract, to give the railway time to recover from its current performance problems (RG 9.01 p555). Under the deal, NS will be given a ’pre-franchise’ monopoly of the core network, with the minister reserving ...
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Ensuring consistency and continuity
INTRO: Over the past six months, the stake-holders in the European Rail Research Institute have been reviewing its long-term role in the changing shape of railway researchBYLINE: Drs Gunnar GustafssonManaging Director,European Rail Research InstituteCHANGE has become a way of life for the world’s railways, sweeping through the industry for a ...
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Forstinger favours on-rail competition ...
SPEAKING at the IRCA-UIC World Railway Congress in Wien on September 25, held jointly with the European Conference of Ministers of Transport, Austrian Transport Minister Dipl-Ing Dr Monika Forstinger announced a 30-year National Transport Plan. Of a total spend of Sch644bn, as much as Sch400bn is earmarked for rail, although ...
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Managing clients
Sir - I am a final year student on the University of Reading’s MBA course on Construction & Real Estate and I am in the early days of a dissertation entitled ’Managing the client in railway construction projects’.The hypothesis which I am seeking to prove is that the role of ...
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Wagon checking
LYNXRAIL has commissioned an Automated Train Examiner for BHP Iron Ore Railways. It uses machine vision technology and expert system software to measure component wear, detecting and reporting critical faults.Installed at the lineside, ATEx works at speeds up to 140 km/h. As a train passes, cameras and microphones take 135 ...
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CTRL charges too high, says Gallois
SNCF President Louis Gallois asserted last month that high track access charges for using the Channel Tunnel Rail Link 'will make it hard to have a viable Eurostar service' into St Pancras when Section 2 is completed in 2007. He also told the Financial Times that 'we will lose Waterloo' ...
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Research centre ready
EAST JAPAN Railway is to open a new technical research & development centre in December, built at a total cost of ´6·6bn. The facility is located at Omiya, 30 km north of Tokyo, on the site of a former training centre which has been moved north to Shirakawa. JR-East will ...
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Developing a standard metro car
INTRO: As the number of metros in South Korea increases, the range of vehicle types in use has proliferated. Following extensive research, specifications have been developed for a future standard metro trainset BYLINE: Kwan-Sup LeeDirector General, Urban Transit Engineering Department, Korea Railroad Research InstituteNOW undergoing safety and reliability tests on ...
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Calgary light rail grows
CEREMONIES were held on October 5 to dedicate the first extension of Calgary’s C-Train light rail network to be completed in 11 years. The 3·5 km, two-station extension of the south line to Canyon Meadows and Fish Creek-Lacombe (146 Avenue) opened for revenue service on October 9, following the Canadian ...
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Byers sees 'a golden opportunity'
UK: Far from showing signs of contrition over the storm and upheaval that his October 7 decision had generated, Secretary of State for Transport Stephen Byers told the House of Commons on October 15 that 'the administration of Railtrack provides us with a golden opportunity to create a railway system ...
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Bureaucratic overkill
Sir - The Institute of Logistics & Transport’s report Railway Health & Safety Regulatory Strategy (RG 10.01 p664) appears to be a most apt and timely warning against the bureaucratic safety overkill that has been inflicted on Britain’s railways over the last decade or so. Indeed, Part 2 of Lord ...
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Industry News in Brief
Siemens Duewag Schienenfahrzeuge GmbH and Siemens Krauss Maffei Lokomotiven GmbH were formally merged into Siemens AG with effect from October 1.International Engineering plc and Queensland Rail are planning to bid jointly for expansion and rebuilding projects on the State Railway of Thailand network. International Engineering is also planning to invest ...
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Brave Efforrt collapses
FROM October 1, the OverNight Express that was launched in May 2000 as a mixed passenger and freight operation between Amsterdam and Milano ceased to carry freight. It then became just another sleepers and seats operation, but that too was due to be withdrawn from October 28.Six months ago, ONE ...
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Double-layer capacitors store surplus braking energy
INTRO: Electricity savings exceeding 20% have been recorded in tests on K
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Boldness needed
FURTHER DETAILS are emerging about the Rakesh Mohan committee’s report into restructuring of Indian Railways (RG 9.01 p557). Speaking to The Hindu Business Line, Dr Mohan put much of the blame for IR’s current financial problems on poor investment decisions in the last decade, in particular the gauge conversion programme ...
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Moving block does work
Sir - In your October issue, you published an article on the Invensys TBS100 transmission-based train control system and the trade-offs between a distance-to-go implementation and a moving block design (RG 10.01 p689).I found the article very informative, but it is important to stress that the problems which it associated ...
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Four bidders in NRC/FC sale
A PREFERRED BIDDER is expected to be announced this month for the sale of Australia’s National Rail Corp and New South Wales’ FreightCorp. The joint trade sale was launched with a call for expressions of interest on September 4, following a formal announcement by the federal government and the state ...
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Zürich vote backs S-Bahn expansion
IN A REFERENDUM on September 23, the residents of all 182 districts in Zürich approved plans for a fourth expansion of the city’s S-Bahn network. The vote clears the way for a cantonal grant of SFr580m towards the SFr1·45bn scheme.The biggest element in the package is the construction by 2012 ...
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More AVE contracts
MEETING on October 5, the Spanish cabinet authorised high speed infrastructure authority GIF to tender further sections of the Córdoba - M