All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1283
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News
Paris smart card conversion starts
THIS MONTH is due to see the start of conversion work on around 2000 gate controllers on the Paris metro network to accept contactless smart cards as well as magnetic stripe tickets. To be completed by July, the work is being undertaken by Ascom under a contract worth around Fr60m ...
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London's smart card draws nearer
IN MAY the TranSys consortium will be unveiling the branding for the contactless smart card system that passengers on London Underground and the city's buses will begin to use from August 17 2002. TranSys Marketing Director Nicole Carroll reports that the current proposition has been 'very well received' by focus ...
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Politicians broker next compromise
ANOTHER faltering step was taken on November 22 in the tortuous process of introducing competition into the European rail freight industry. Strongly opposed by France from the outset, the liberalisers have had to give way on several counts, and the agreement falls far short of what was once envisaged.Building on ...
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Trunk haul brings return
CONCESSIONED in April 1999, Cameroon operator Camrail returned a profit in its first year. Major participant in Camrail is the Comazar consortium with a 72·1% interest; Comazar is 31·6% owned by South Africa’s Transnet, 30·72% by the South African Infrastructure Fund, 20·4% by the transport group Bollore, and 12·8% by ...
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Passenger News in Brief
Hong Kong metro operator MTR Corp has started installing bright red straps between vehicles on some trains, to alert visually-impaired passengers and prevent them mistaking the space for a door and falling into the gap. The fitting of 95 trainsets on the three urban lines is due to be completed ...
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Products in Brief
Transport & Travel Research Ltd is undertaking the European Commission funded GENESYS research and development project to reduce energy consumption on urban rail services through better driver training. A spreadsheet model is used to calculate energy consumption, and this is used to encourage staff to drive in a more energy ...
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Barcelona progress
LAST MONTH Barcelona transport administration ATM signed the formal concession contracts for the city’s planned 16·8 km light rail line. The GroupTramMet consortium led by FCC Construcción, which includes CGEA Transport and Alstom, will design, build operate and maintain the network, which is due to open between the city and ...
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View from the bank
ON DECEMBER 5 Deutsche VerkehrsBank published a study1 suggesting that investment in transport will total US$300bn a year for the next decade. ’The Global Transport Market - a Tremendous Investment Opportunity’ estimates that US$45bn is being spent every year on ’rail infrastructure improvements’, and that by 2004 annual spending on ...
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Back to health
The fortunes of two small stations on Taiwan’s West Coast main line have been revived by - of all things - a car advertisement. Television marketing for a Volkswagen minibus was designed to appeal to the Chinese sense of good fortune with a pun based on their names. Pairing Yungkang ...
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On autotransformers
Sir - The article on catenary upgrading on the West Coast Main Line (RG 11.00 p735) was extremely interesting, but there are, however, always pitfalls in making claims for ’firsts’. Sometime in the mid-1960s Railway Gazette published an article, based on Japanese sources, reporting on the development of a ’new’ ...
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News
Australia the ’big loser’ in Speedrail dumping
FURY ERUPTED in Australia in the wake of the federal government’s decision on December 11 that it would not provide financial support for the Sydney - Canberra Speedrail project. A formal announcement the following day attempted to disguise the abandonment of the A$4·5bn scheme by calling for a feasibility study ...
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Trans-Asia links approved
PROPOSALS for the US$2·5bn trans-Asia rail network linking Singapore to Kunming were endorsed by local heads of government at the 4th Asean Summit held on November 25. Feasibility studies for the scheme had been approved by a meeting of Asean Transport Ministers in Brunei in September (RG 11.00 p696). Malaysia's ...
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Diet asked to approve total sell-off
THIS MONTH may be decisive for the future of the three JR companies on Honshu. Following a government decision on December 7, the Diet is being asked to approve a bill authorising sale of the remaining government-held shares in the three companies - just 12·5% of East Japan Railway’s shares ...
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Separation finds another fan
CHANGE is coming to Austria. Newly-appointed Transport Minister Monika Forstinger has made it clear that she favours the European Commission’s view on rail policy (p3), and will campaign for competition. Until now Austria had interpreted Directives on separation of infrastructure and operations somewhat loosely - and indeed it was not ...
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Railion recruits another member
WHILE EUROPE's politicians wrestle with ways to introduce competition between operators (below), the national railways continue in their slow march towards a series of alliances. Earlier rumours about Danish State Railways' freight business, DSB Gods, were confirmed on December 15 when it joined the Railion holding group formed by German ...
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Kiley unveils PPP alternative
COMISSIONER of Transport for London Robert Kiley unveiled his programme for the ’rehabilitation and management’ of London Underground on December 13. Appointed by TfL Chairman and Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, the former head of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority had been asked by the mayor to review the government’s ...
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Asian shuttle starts after signing
JANUARY 10 is due to see the launch of a container shuttle service from Uzbekistan to the Gulf via Sarakhs, following the signing of an accord in Tehran during November between Uzbekiston Temir Yollari and Iranian Islamic Republic Railways.According to UTY Operations Director Farhod Jalalov, the shuttle will run from ...
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Talgo at home and abroad
BEYOND the glittering prize of the Madrid - Barcelona high speed train contract, Spanish rolling stock manufacturer Patentes Talgo sees a promising future in what CEO Francisco de Lorenzo describes as its ’very open’ home market. The government’s 2000-07 Railway Infrastructure Programme, costed at Pts4·7bn, combines the construction of high-speed ...
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NewsEarthworks 60% complete on first section of Libyan network
MOHAMMED Abdulsamed Ali, Chairman of the Railways Executive Board in Libya, has revealed details of progress with building a 3170 km national network. The Great Socialist Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is planning to spend US$10bn on two major routes, the first of which is currently under construction. This will not be ...
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Line 5 funding
BEIJING Municipal Government has set up a subsidiary company to raise international and private sector funding for the construction of a new metro line in the capital. The north-south Line 5 will link Songjiazhuang in Fengtai district with Taipingshuang in neighbouring Changping county. Construction of the route - one of ...