All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1280
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Ministers commit to Lyon - Torino
ON JANUARY 29 during an intergovernmental summit held in Torino, French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot joined Italian Transport Minister Pierluigi Bersani and Minister of Public Works Mario Nesi to sign an agreement setting out the immediate programme of studies to be undertaken for a new line between Lyon and Torino. ...
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Circular revival
SINDH Province Transport Minister Dewan Mohammed Yousuf Farooqui announced on February 2 that passenger services would be re-introduced on the Karachi Circular Railway on May 1. The line will be operated by a new Urban Railway Board formed by Karachi Metropolitan Council, with technical assistance from Pakistan Railways.A provincial committee ...
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Cross channel market gains
Eurostar Group has reported strong year-on-year growth for the full year of 2000. During the period sales revenue across the Eurostar business increased by 12% to £439m, up from £393m in 1999 (excluding exchange rate movements). Sales volumes increased by 9%. The corresponding figures for 1999 were a 6% increase ...
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Wisconsin Central sells to CN
CANADIAN National revealed on January 30 that it had reached agreement to buy the North American operations of Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp for US$1·2bn. CN will acquire WCTC’s common stock for US$17·15 per share, and take over approximately US$400m of debt. The deal will give CN control of WC’s Chicago ...
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NY car orders
NEW YORK’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority board approved a US$419m order on January 24 for 350 more R142 subway cars, to be supplied by Bombardier Transportation in 2002-03. The deal includes an option for 200 vehicles in the existing contract for 680, plus 150 cars to meet traffic growth.Bombardier began delivering ...
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Reform calls must be heeded
FOR SOME TIME now pressure has been building up for Indian Railways to update its management structure to cope better with growing competition from road and air, and to improve the organisation’s financial health. Among recent calls for reform was a report prepared by the Confederation of Indian Industry at ...
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Passenger News in Brief
The Great South Pacific Express, a joint venture between Queensland Rail and Venice Simplon Orient Express, is operating to altered schedules during the January to March wet season, running only on standard gauge lines south of Brisbane and through New South Wales. Running in North Queensland will recommence in April, ...
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Minneapolis breaks ground
WITH A large tent sheltering them from the cold, elected officials and civic leaders in Minneapolis broke ground for the Hiawatha Avenue light rail line on January 17. Led by Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, the ceremony was held at the site of the future maintenance depot just south of the ...
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Breakeven close
PAKISTAN RAILWAYS is starting to reap the benefits of a sustained programme to eliminate inefficiencies and fraud begun last year (RG 3.00 p135). According to General Manager, Operations, Iqbal Samad Khan, PR succeeded in reducing its overdraft with the State Bank of Pakistan from Rs4bn in 1999 to Rs1·2bn last ...
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Franchise replacement bogged down
AS BRITAIN’S Strategic Rail Authority dropped the ’shadow’ from its title on February 1, it became clear that a key part of its as yet unpublished strategy had fallen seriously behind schedule. Of the 25 passenger franchises awarded when British Rail was privatised, 18 run for about seven years, and ...
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Bid suspended
INJUDICIOUS remarks during an interview with De Volkskrant have resulted in German Railway and Arriva Nederland being suspended temporarily from the bidding process for a concession to operate high speed trains on HSL-Zuid. DB’s officials not only said the proposed access charges were far too high, but went on to ...
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Benapole reopens
INDIAN Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee and Bangladesh Communications Minister Anwar Hossain Manju joined ceremonies at Benapole on January 21 to mark the reopening of the cross-border rail link through Petrapole. They ’flagged off’ a special freight train conveying 35 wagonloads of wheat bound for Nawapara, near Jessore.Closed since 1976, the ...
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Six light rail routes in Basque investment plan
New light rail/metro routes for the cities of San Sebasti
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Baltic privatisation in turmoil
JUST WHEN it appeared that privatisation of Estonia’s modest rail network was going smoothly (RG 1.01 p6), the whole process seems to be back in the melting pot. On January 17 a court in Tallinn ordered that the sale of the dominant freight operation to preferred bidder Rail Estonia must ...
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Balkan initiative
BULGARIAN Transport Minister Petko Tabakov announced on January 29 that US consultancy Arkadis had been selected to undertake exploratory work on the planned Sofia - Skopje rail link. The company was chosen from a shortlist of seven bidders as part of the US-funded Initiative for Southeast Balkans Development (RG 10.99 ...
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Alstom spreads its wings
AS PLANNED at the time of its June 1998 flotation, Alstom has become independent, with the sale of most of the residual stakes held by former owners Marconi and Alcatel. The two groups succeeded in placing the majority of their 24% stakes in Alstom with institutional and private ...
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Alcobendas open
The latest extension to the Renfe’s Madrid suburban network opened on February 9, when C1 services were diverted from their northern terminus of Tres Cantos to a 7·1 km branch from Cantoblanco Universidad to Alcobendas-San Sebasti
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Alameda Corridor set to open next year
INTRO: A grade-separated freight railway is being built to boost capacity between Los Angeles and Long Beach. Julian Wolinsky reports on progress SINCE WORK began in April 1997, progress on building the ambitious and expensive Alameda Corridor has been swift and without major controversy, the latter a rare circumstance in ...
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Seven Nozomis an hour to challenge the airlines
INTRO: Faced with growing competition from deregulated airlines, JR Central plans to run seven ultra-fast Nozomi trains every hour between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka. JR Central President Yoshiyuki Kasai revealed his strategy to Murray Hughes in NagoyaAFTER many years of continuous growth, traffic volume on the Tokaido Shinkansen peaked in the ...
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Upgrade accords
RUSSIAN Minister of Railways Nikolai Aksyonenko signed a co-operation agreement with Siemens AG board member Volker Jung on January 23, during a visit to Germany. It covers technical assistance and supply of equipment by Siemens Transportation Systems for modernisation of signalling and train control, construction of locomotives and rolling stock, ...