All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1279
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News
Real-time wireless information
On February 8 London’s Docklands Light Railway officially began trials of Velocity on-board news and advertising programme display equipment. Four of the DLR’s articulated vehicles have been fitted with eight high-contrast TFT screens.The screens show a 15 min programme of news, sport, transport information and advertisements, with content tailored to ...
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London station implodes
Demolition firm Greenspoon Bros imploded the old station tower block building at London, Ontario, on February 4. Two days earlier, VIA Rail Canada had unveiled its final plans for a new station, which is due to open in time for the Canada Summer Games. The passenger operator is investing C$6·4m ...
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Help Point trial
On January 4 Transport for London began trials of an Emergency Help Point at Addington Village bus/Tramlink interchange. A two-way audio-visual ISDN link between passengers and a 24 h control centre allows passengers to see and hear the controller. When an alarm is pressed, the CCTV captures four still frames; ...
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How the rail shattered at Hatfield
The second interim report into the Hatfield derailment on October 17 2000, issued by Britain’s Health & Safety Executive on January 23, includes an astonishing reconstruction of the first 35m of the high rail curving north at 1462m radius from the initial transverse fracture. As the 6m section reproduced below ...
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Government prepares to privatise national network
INTRO: Taiwan’s Minister of Transport & Communications Mrs Chu-Lan Yeh envisages that a privatised national railway will one day complement the role of high speed line operator Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation. Murray Hughes interviewed her in TaipeiHughes: You have a very unusual situation in Taiwan in that a private ...
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Laval goes out to tender
BIDS for construction of Montréal’s Orange line extension to Laval were called last month, following the allocation of C$378·8m by the Québec provincial government. On January 26 Transport Minister Guy Chevrette confirmed that the province would fund 100% of the capital cost, and announced that a request for bids would ...
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Lhasa go-ahead
CHINA’S State Planning Council announced on February 8 the go-ahead for construction of the long-planned rail link from Golmud to the Tibetan city of Lhasa. One of four routes studied by the Ministry of Railways, the 1118 km line is the shortest option, and is costed at around 20bn yuan. ...
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Wash and go
GERMAN train washer specialist Kärcher has installed several new plants for Swiss and German railways. The plant at Hof in Bayern uses a preheating system to allow it to operate at temperatures down to -5°C, and recycles 70% of the water used.Frankfurt-H
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Gauteng rail initiative
PROPOSALS to develop a fast rail network linking Pretoria, Johannesburg, Johannesburg International Airport and Sandton are set to move forward, with a conference to be held in May for potential suppliers and private-sector investors in the proposed public-private partnership. The aim is to close a BOT deal during 2002, ...
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Metro overhaul must go forward
ON MAY 21-24 the International Union of Public Transport will hold its 54th Congress. Host city for this event will be London, where delegates will have the opportunity to see at first hand what private operation can do for rail commuter services. They will also be able to explore London’s ...
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Finance
Spain: The Ministry of Development has allocated Pts4·4bn this year for removing or upgrading level crossings, in addition to Pts4·5bn to be provided by Renfe and FEVE. At the end of 2000 there were 3849 level crossings still in use.Sudan: The Chinese government has agreed to lend US$22m to fund ...
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Hikari Rail Star starts to reverse fall in market share
INTRO: Shojiro Nan-ya, President of West Japan Railway, believes that the latest design of Shinkansen rolling stock is winning back traffic lost to air. Murray Hughes met him in JapanALTHOUGH immensely successful, Japan’s Shinkansen is not invincible. Both JR Central’s Tokaido Shinkansen and the Sanyo Shinkansen between Shin-Osaka and Fukuoka ...
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Samjota Express runs on
Delegations from India and Pakistan have agreed to continue running the bi-weekly Samjota Express between Lahore and Amritsar for another three years. Indian Railway Board member S Bhandari and Abdul Qayyum of Pakistan Railways signed a new agreement in January after a review of the level of rail services between ...
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East-west fast link
French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot has asked RFF and SNCF to complete feasibility studies for the first stage of a ’fast link’ project that would see RER Line E connected to the national network beyond its current western terminus at Haussmann Saint-Lazare. Expected to be complete by 2007 at cost ...
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First Desiro UK shell ready
SIEMENS was due to complete the first bodyshell for its Desiro UK electric multiple-unit fleet last month. Unveiling a full-scale mock-up of a 20m driving power car on February 5 in Britain, Siemens said that the trains will be supplied from its Krefeld and Wien plants, with bogies from SGP ...
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Delhi makes progress
ON FEBRUARY 3, Delhi Metro Rail Corp completed the launching of the Yamuna bridge, which forms the centrepiece of its 8·3 km initial section of Line 2 between Shahdara and Tiz Hazari (MR 00 p32). The incrementally-launched 555m long 12-span bridge has a 25-segment girder weighing 14000 tonnes. Built by ...
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DB’s high speed programme regains momentum
THE ANNOUNCEMENT on February 14 that German Railway is to proceed with the stalled Stuttgart 21 project and construction of a new high speed line over the 65 km between Wendlingen, southeast of Stuttgart, and Ulm suggests that it has managed to garner strong support for its programme of major ...
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DB joins loco leasing pool
GERMAN Railway revealed on February 2 that it had reached agreement with Austrian Federal Railways to form a joint locomotive leasing pool. An initial fleet of 50 locos is being allocated: 25 of DB’s Siemens-built Class 152 freight locos and 25 of ÖBB’s similar Class 1016 Taurus design. According to ...
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Contractors offer more efficient renewals
INTRO: Track renewals would be cheaper and more efficient on the French national network if private sector contractors were allowed a larger share of the workMANY FRENCH people remember December 1995. In that month a long-running industrial dispute at French National Railways erupted into a full-blown strike. Paris was all ...
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Ground improvement offers consistent subgrade stiffness
INTRO: Field tests are to start shortly into methods of improving the stiffness of the subgrade without disrupting commercial services. The Isert project is being carried out by the University of Birmingham with Railtrack and a group of suppliers. Methods to be tested include mixing or injection of chemical stabilisers, ...