All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1260
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News
Not commercial
Sir - In ’Maglev all the rage again’ (RG 8.01 p504), you described Shanghai’s Transrapid as ’the world’s first commercial maglev project’. Surely, this depends on how you define commercial.The maglev peoplemover at Birmingham Airport was ordered 20 years ago, inaugurated in 1984, and is now being converted to cable ...
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Coal line revived
QUEENSLAND’S state government is expected to approve revised proposals for a railway between coal mines near Brigalow in the Darling Downs and Tarong, where a second power station is to be built (RG 1.99 p6). The original planed route has been revised to take account of local issues, and land ...
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Catering swap
SWISSAIR Group’s railway catering contractor Rail Gourmet and station catering company Gourmet Nova are to be transferred to the Compass Group under the terms of a recently-signed asset exchange agreement. The non-binding understanding will see Swissair’s rail operations transferred to Compass in exchange for airline catering business Eurest In-flight. There ...
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Trinity and Thrall Car to merge
US WAGON builders Trinity Industries and Thrall Car Manufacturing announced on August 13 that they are to merge by the end of this year. As Thrall is a privately-owned company, the deal provides for it to be acquired for US$165m and 7 million Trinity shares. Extra payments worth up to ...
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Tide on the turn in the Cape
SPOORNET’S financial results for the year which ended in March show an impressive turnround, with ’net profit’ rising from R84m a year earlier to R605m on turnover of R10bn. Announcing this in late July, Spoornet attributed the improvement to cost savings and better service to customers, with tonnes carried up ...
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Canal Street line starts
GROUNDBREAKING ceremonies were held on July 20 for the Canal Street tram line in New Orleans, with construction expected to start this month. Costing $157m, the 6·6 km line between the Mississippi River and the cemeteries is due to be completed in early 2004. On July 24 the Regional Transportation ...
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Station upgrades brought forward
GERMAN Railway is to accelerate its planned 20-year upgrade of stations to take place over 10 years, according to board member for Property & Passenger Stations Dieter Ullsperger. He says DB will invest DM1bn/year in station improvement work. The investment is intended to increase the revenue from commercial space at ...
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British infrastructure show grows
OVER 200 organisations are expected to attend the Infrarail 2001 exhibition in London. Serving the British railway infrastructure market, leading players in the business will be at the Wembley Exhibition Halls from September 18 to 20.Infrastructure spending in Britain is running at high levels, with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, ...
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Freight growth checked but prospects still bright
INTRO: After a year that combined massive rail disruption with lower taxes on heavier lorries, Richard Hope asked the Strategic Rail Authority’s Executive Director, Freight, Julia Clarke, to assess prospects for hitting the government’s target of 80% more tonne-km by 2010BYLINE: Julia ClarkeExecutive Director, Freight, Strategic Rail AuthorityDESPITE MOUNTING evidence ...
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Industry News in Brief
Siemens has negotiated a framework agreement to take over Praha-based rolling stock maker CKD Dopravní, currently controlled by state banking company Konsoldiacní Banka (RG 4.00 p253). An agreement to buy 61% of the shares for KC750m is expected to be signed by the end of September. Trams and metro cars ...
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Bosnia wires to be restored
BOSNIA: Work began on July 2 to reinstate war-damaged overhead electrification on the Sarajevo - Doboj line, which forms part of Pan-European Corridor Vc from Budapest to Ploce. This will allow electric traction to be restored to the 205 km route by June 2 next year. 120 track-km of overhead ...
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Genesis boosts CPR as sale looms
AT THE END of this month, shareholders of Canadian Pacific Ltd should approve a plan to divide its holdings into five publicly-owned trading companies. Subject to favourable court and tax authority rulings, Canadian Pacific Railway expects to be trading as an independent entity in 2002.CPR results for April to June ...
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Mineral traffic boosted
THE Cardiff-based minor works subsidiary of construction group John Mowlem & Co, Hocking Rail, has been awarded a fourth contract for work on Ghana Railway Corp’s western main line serving the port of Takoradi. The US$80000 deal follows three previous projects to assist with track rehabilitation and the acquisition of ...
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CTA Blue line rehabilitation
WORK is to get under way shortly on the long-awaited refurbishment of Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue line Douglas branch in the southwest of the city. On July 11 the CTA board awarded a $317m contract to Kiewit Construction and Delgado Erectors for reconstruction of the 10·6 km between Hoyne and ...
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Derailment blocks Goonyella line
FOR THE third time since the electrified heavy haul coal line linking Goonyella mine to the port of Hay Point opened in 1971, a massive derailment on July 1 closed this vital export route. This time it took Queensland Rail four days to clear the double track and repair the ...
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Jerusalem bids
On July 26 detailed tender documents for Line 1 of Jerusalem’s proposed LRT network were published by the municipality and Israel’s Transport and Finance ministries. Prequalified bidders Passim, Adanim, City Pass and Ariel now have six months to return their bids for a 30-year build-operate-transfer concession covering the 13·8 km ...
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Fines not the answer
EVERY TIME an illegal immigrant arrives in Britain, the carrier responsible becomes liable for a £2000 fine. Introduced last March, this policy prompted English Welsh & Scottish Railway to threaten to withdraw its freight services through the Channel Tunnel, which had become a favoured means of access to Britain by ...
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Ankara extends
CONSTRUCTION of the 17·7 km Batikent - Sincan metro extension in Ankara was due to get under way on August 18, following the award of a US$151m contract to Guris Insaat ve Muhendislik. This covers civil engineering on the western extension, which will add 12 stations to the heavy metro ...
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Amtrak restructures to cut costs
ON JULY 27 America’s National Railroad Passenger Corp announced that it will implement a corporate restructuring programme with effect from October 1, in a bid to improve its bottom line by up to US$85m a year. Amtrak plans to offer early retirement and other incentives to reduce its management ...