All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1286
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News
Swiss dig deep
ON OCTOBER 3 Swiss Federal Railways allocated SFr145m to fund design and preparatory works for a second underground station beneath Zürich Hbf. The existing S-Bahn through platforms under Museumstrasse on the east of the station are approaching capacity, and the intention is to build a second four-track through station to ...
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STB debates merger strategy
THE FUTURE SHAPE of North American railroading was signalled on October 3, when the US Surface Transportation Board issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on proposed mergers. Releasing its proposed regulations for public and industry comment, the STB said the package ’represents a major shift in basis from the pro-merger ...
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Manila deal
LAST MONTH saw the signing of a ´20bn contract for Japanese companies to supply rolling stock and other M&E systems for Manila metro Line 2. Toshiba and Marubeni are to supply a fleet of 72 wide-bodied EMU cars for the 14 km line, which is being built to a heavier ...
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CPR outsources maintenance
MORE THAN 75% of Canadian Pacific Railway’s diesel loco fleet will be maintained and repaired by contractors, following an expansion of the programme announced on September 25. CPR has contracted OmniTRAX Locomotive Canada to supervise ’field servicing’ of about 175 diesel locos, most of them low-horsepower units assigned to yard ...
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HV connections
THE 25 kV busline connecting the power cars of the Alstom-Fiat Pendolino trainsets is being developed by the Raychem Wire & Harness Division of Tyco Electronics Corp. Rigid polymeric terminations and bushings, together with a specially-developed spiral connector are used to transfer power between vehicles, where the restricted British loading ...
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Thalys to topple the competition
NEXT summer Air France is proposing to withdraw its five daily flights between Paris and Brussels. For the moment nothing firm has been signed, and Air France says that it is still looking at the proposal. But with Thalys departures at half-hourly intervals during peak periods and hourly for ...
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Communications platform
HARDWARE and software to integrate broad-band and internet-protocol communications networks have been developed for the transport industry by Neumann Elektronik of Mülheim an der Ruhr. Neumann’s new Multifunctional Digital Communications system (MDK) was unveiled in September at the InnoTrans 2000 show in Berlin.MDK will allow operators to manage all communications ...
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Colour coding
PORTLAND light rail operator Tri-Max hopes to break ground this month for its 9·3 km Red line along Interstate Avenue, connecting the Rose Quarter and Expo Center. Scheduled to open in September 2004, this is costed at $350m. On September 20 Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater signed an agreement to provide ...
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Maintaining the West Coast fleet
INTRO: Through a train service provision agreement, the builders of the tilting fleet for Virgin Trains’ West Coast franchise now maintain the existing rolling stock. West Coast Traincare Managing Director Ron Temple reveals to Robert Preston his strategy for the new trains and the need to improve reliability of the ...
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Citadis orders placed
ON OCTOBER 6, Alstom Transport confirmed that it had signed contracts worth 67m euros to supply and maintain Citadis 300 low-floor light rail cars for Melbourne franchise operator Yarra Trams. Under the deal Alstom will supply 31 cars with options for a further five, and maintain them for 15 years. ...
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Catenary spring tensioner
At Railtex Pfisterer will be presenting its Tensorex spring tensioner for catenary contact and messenger wires, of which over 500 units have been supplied since the first application in 1997. Designed to provide a low-maintenance alternative to weight-based tensioning systems, Tensorex is available in two versions allowing for a maximum ...
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Carbon fibre composites strengthen iron and steel structures
BYLINE: Dr Paul S Hill MA MBA PhD MIM CEngTechnical ManagerDML CompositesBONDING plates made from carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) to concrete bridges is now becoming accepted practice. However, the application of this strengthening technique to metal structures has yet to be exploited on a similar scale.London Underground has been ...
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Complex structure of Britain’s railway starts to crack
PUNCTUALITY and on-time performance on Britain’s rail network were sacrificed on the altar of safety on October 19, when Railtrack imposed 81 emergency speed restrictions on main lines. It followed the derailment at Hatfield of Great North Eastern Railway’s 12.10 inter-city service from London to Leeds two days earlier. The ...
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Passenger in Brief
Following pilot projects with Spar at Leatherhead and Costcutter at Cooden Beach, Connex is looking to establish a joint venture with ’a major retailer’ to set up convenience stores at over 100 stations in southeast England. The 118m2 Cooden Beach shop is run by six Connex staff trained by Costcutter ...
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Industry in Brief
Europe: The Railcert BV subsidiary of TÜV Süddeutschland and Holland Railconsult has been approved by the Netherlands Ministry of Transport as a Notified Body able to certify compliance with EU Directive 96/48 on the interoperability of high speed rail systems.The European Commission has approved the takeover by Siemens of three ...
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Congress boosts rail funding
ON OCTOBER 6 the US Congress approved a total of $58bn in funding for the Department of Transportation during the 2001 fiscal year starting on October 1. The package includes $6·3bn for the federal transit programme, 8·2% more than last year in line with TEA 21 commitments. There will be ...
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EVR bidding hots up
FINAL BIDS are due this month for the 66% stake in Estonian National Railways currently up for sale, and the government hopes to select the winning bidder by the end of the year. Bidders are being asked to offer an initial payment and commitments to network upgrading totalling around ...
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Béziers line boosted
FRENCH Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot joined RFF President Claude Martinand and SNCF President Louis Gallois at Saint-Chély d’Apcher on October 13 to mark the start of work on upgrading the Clermont-Ferrand - Neussargues - Béziers line. Participating in a renewal programme running from September 4 to October 20, the minister ...
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Balfour Beatty buys wiring unit
BALFOUR BEATTY of Great Britain announced on September 20 that it was to acquire the Adtranz Fixed Installations business for 153m euros (RG 10.00 p636). Supplying electrification and traction power supply systems, this business unit has 1400 employees. Profit before interest and tax was 16·2m euros last year on sales ...
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AVE tenders go in
ON SEPTEMBER 29 Spanish National Railways received three bids to supply high speed trains for the Madrid - Barcelona route, from Alstom/CAF, Siemens, and Talgo/Adtranz. Although shortlisted, AnsaldoBreda declined to submit a final bid. Renfe intends to order between 26 and 40 trainsets capable of 350 km/h before the end ...