All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1297
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News
Regional AVEs
SPANISH National Railways has called tenders for a fleet of high speed trains for short distance services. The Madrid - Ciudad Real shuttles worked by the original AVE fleet have proved very popular, and Renfe plans to introduce similar services between other city pairs such as Córdoba - Sevilla and ...
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Automated metro washer
As part of its contract to supply rolling stock for the Tehran Metro, China’s Locomotive & Rolling Stock Industry Corp has also supplied an automated train washer developed by the Harbin Railway Institute of Science & Technology. The unit will clean both car ends, roof and sides; at a passing ...
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ATB tangle hits Dutch
THIS is the year by which Railned was to fit automatic train protection throughout the Dutch network, and all trains down to the level of track maintenance machines were to be equipped. It is not going to happen, but the transport ministry’s bungling attempts to impose deadlines, coupled with draconian ...
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Touch-screen ticket vending arrives
PASSENGERS on the London Underground had their first chance to use touch-screen ticket vending machines this summer. Installed by the TranSys consortium, the first machines replaced the existing Multifare TVMs at Temple and West Brompton stations. Over 60 stations were to be equipped by the end of July, and around ...
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Smart cards arrive in Paris
PARIS Transport Authority and French National Railways’ Ile de France business announced on July 11 that they had selected two suppliers for a programme to introduce smart card ticketing across the city’s metro, rail and bus networks.RATP has awarded a Fr60m contract to Ascom for the conversion of around 2000 ...
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STB wins another round
DESPITE last minute lobbying efforts, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Canadian National have lost the court battle to overturn a government suspension of railway mergers. On July 14 the Court of Appeals in Washington ruled 2:1 that the Surface Transportation Board was legally empowered to impose such a moratorium and ...
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Madrid heads south again
ON JULY 11, the Transport Secretary for the Madrid regional government, Luis Eduardo Cortés, announced plans for a further suburban rail branch, linking Atocha with the town of San Martín de la Vega, approximately 22 km south of the capital. Due to be built over an 18-month period at a ...
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Chopped again
ON JULY 10 the Queensland government announced it was dropping plans for a light rail line in central Brisbane. This is the second time that local politicians have ditched a light rail scheme for the state capital, the first occasion being when bids for a 14 km Briztram route (RG ...
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Dizzy after whizzy ride
CHINESE Premier Zhu Rongji levitated on July 2 at up to 400 km/h on the Transrapid maglev guideway in Germany’s Emsland. He was clearly impressed by his experience, although he confessed to suffering from ’a little dizziness’ after the trip, on which he was accompanied by German Transport Minister Reinhard ...
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AC diesels roll out
ON JUNE 28 the first of two prototype diesel locos being built for Chinese Railways was rolled out of the Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock Works. Derived from the proven DF4d, the six-axle 4000hp locos are part of CR’s strategy to develop AC transmissions, being equipped with the latest Siemens ...
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Line 9 approved
BARCELONA’s Metropolitan Transport Authority has approved plans to build a 35 km orbital metro line linking the city’s eastern, northern and western suburbs (MR 00 p30). The formal endorsement of Line 9 enables the Catalunya regional government to apply for European Union cohesion funding towards the estimated costs of Pts180bn ...
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IM2000 to monitor Spoornet infrastructure
ON JUNE 29 Spoornet Chief Executive Officer Zandile Jakavula formally took delivery of South Africa’s first high-tech Infrastructure Measuring Car from Hermann H
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Upset in Ukraine
THE FINDINGS of a team of government investigators into the running of the 22510 route-km broad gauge Ukrainian Railways network have caused a sensation. Following publication of a detailed report for the National Security Council, President Kuchma decided to take drastic action. The ensuing presidential decree demands nothing less than ...
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Tilt TGVs to Toulouse
FRENCH National Railways is set to introduce tilting TGV services in 2005 on the Limousin route from Paris to Toulouse via Orléans and Limoges, following the signing of a financing agreement with the government and local regions. The deal was announced in Limoges on May 30 by Minister of Public ...
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SBB rethinks
SWISS Federal Railways is reviewing the level of service provided at stations. Ideas range from setting up a subsidiary to run stations with a travel agency and a full range of ticketing to franchise partnerships with Kuoni. Smaller stations may be run by third parties, and ’public stations’ ...
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Publications
Rolling contact fatigue of railway wheelsby Anders EkbergHigher speeds and axleloads have tended to increase the forces acting on railway wheels. At the same time, reductions in curvature and bogie optimisation have tended to shift the main causes of wheel rim damage from wear to fatigue. In his doctoral thesis, ...
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Smallest state in privatisation vanguard
Estonia is on course to be the first former Soviet state to transfer rail operations to the private sector. Richard Hope reports keen bidding for rapidly growing transit freight through the port of Tallinn, although thereis a tussle over passenger subsidies
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Pointers
n Look for the state government of New South Wales to announce plans for the privatisation of Freightcorp; the A$1bn sale has been approved in principle by the cabinet, and discussions with local rail unions are expected to start later this month.n Construction of a new commuter rail route in ...