All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1254
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News
Wheelset association formed
ON SEPTEMBER 20 the European Railway Wheels Association was launched at the 13th International Wheelset Congress in Roma, at which 84 papers were presented. The association aims to promote improvements in wheelset technology, focusing on safety, reliability and economy. It will provide the industry and public with information covering product ...
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Bangor & Aroostook sold
THE TROUBLED US-based Bangor & Aroostook Railroad System was sold to a railway management and investment consortium on October 4 for $62m. The group, which includes Ed Burkhardt’s Rail World Inc, reached agreement with Iron Road Railways to buy the network at the end of July. Other partners include ...
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Alstom sells stake in GTRM
AS PART of an ongoing portfolio review, Alstom Transport announced on September 27 that it had sold its 51% stake in British infrastructure maintenance company GTRM to its partner civil engineering group Carillion plc for a total of €82m (ú51m). This includes £34m in cash, dividends paid prior to completion, ...
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Airline crises benefit inter-city
WITH AIRLINES begging for state funds to stave off bankruptcy as traffic plunged in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the USA, some inter-city rail services are seeing a spectacular surge in business. In Australia, the collapse on September 13 of Air New Zealand subsidiary Ansett - ...
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Lyon - Torino moves ahead
LAST MONTH saw the legal formation of a company to manage preliminary engineering works for the proposed Mont Cenis base tunnel. Formally announced in mid-September, Lyon Torino Ferroviaire is owned 50:50 by Réseau Ferré de France and RFI. Headed by the local Préfet François Lepine, it has a registered office ...
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AGV becomes a reality
Running trials with the experimental Automotrice à Grande Vitesse began last month, and the train should reach 320 km/h on the Lille – Calais TGV line in early November
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Death of Railtrack clears the way to start again
JACK SHORT, the recently appointed Secretary General of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport, had an important message for delegates to the 28th IRCA-UIC Congress in Wien at the end of September. He said governments must provide a framework for railways that encourages innovation and productivity and that gives ...
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African wagon
KWIK Fab Projects has developed a low-cost, low-maintenance wagon for 40ft or smaller containers, aimed at metre and Cape gauge railways with limited resources. Designed to cost the same as a similar second-hand refurbished vehicle, drop side, stanchion and hopper models of the EA01 are available.Steel parts are protected from ...
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Railtrack enters administration
ON OCTOBER 7 the operator of Britain’s national railway network entered administration, after the High Court granted a Railway Administration Order at the request of Transport Secretary Stephen Byers. Alan Bloom, Chris Hill, Scott Martin and Mike Rollings of Ernst & Young were appointed ’joint special railway administrators’, charged with ...
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Line 3 opens to Canyelles
SEPTEMBER 21 saw the inauguration of the 2·4 km extension of Barcelona metro Line 3 to Canyelles. Serving the populous district of Nou Barris, the extension has intermediate stations at Mundet and Valldaura. The line has been built over the past three years at a cost of €84·1m; the Generalitat ...
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Touch-screen ticketing
LONDON Underground ’Queue Buster’ ticket machines being built by Cubic Transportation Systems are to use acoustic-wave touch screen colour displays from Planar.The 10·4 inch TFT active matrix liquid crystal screens are based on similar designs installed on the New York and Singapore metros last year. They feature high back-lighting to ...
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Training signallers through simulation
INTRO: Signalling and traffic control centres continue to grow, with the operator’s task increasingly assisted by features such as automatic route-setting and integrated train scheduling. But the size and complexity of such installations can create problems when incidents occur, making thorough preparation through training essential if staff are to manage ...
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Wagons for sale
FOLLOWING the merger of Brambles Industries Ltd and the support services division of GKN plc on August 7 to create the Brambles Group, the company is looking to restructure its business portfolio. Brambles Group is negotiating the divestment of its European wagon rental businesses, as it aims to focus on ...
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Publications
Modern Trains & Splendid StationsEdited by Martha ThorneA study of state-of-the-art station design, aimed at architects, designers and urban planners. With 25 drawings and 216 colour illustrations, this 160-page book focuses on the design and architecture of a number of recent projects across the world. The role of stations in ...
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Pointers
n Promoters of the 4500 km, A$10bn Australia Inland Rail Expressway linking Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin expect to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on October 26. This marks the start of construction of a new bridge across the Macintyre River, between Boggabilla, NSW, and Carrington, Queensland.n China’s Ministry of Railways has ...
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PEOPLE
The President of Rail World Inc Ed Burkhardt has been elected Chairman of the new Estonian Railways board (p654), and Railroad Development Corp Chairman Henry Posner III becomes a board member. Former Wisconsin Central Executive Vice President, Planning, Earl Currie becomes interim Managing Director of EVR, with former Tasrail Operations ...
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Polish wheelset plant opens
BYLINE: Andrzej Harassek reports from WarszawaITALIAN steel group Lucchini inaugurated a new wheelset department at its Warszawa steelworks on August 29. The plant was formally opened by the President of the Polish Senate Marek Borowski, who was joined at the ceremonies by Warszawa Mayor Pawel Piskorski, Lucchini’s President Antonino Marullo ...
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Metros
Australia: Transfield Construction has started work on a 2·2 km extension of Melbourne’s Mont Albert tram line, to Station Street, Box Hill.Egypt: National Authority for Tunnels has awarded the Interinfra consortium of Alstom, Vinci, Spie and Thales a €80m turnkey contract to extend Cairo metro Line 2 for 2·5 km ...