All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1320
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News
TRAX ready to open early
UTAH TRANSIT Authority is to celebrate the opening of its 24 km TRAX light rail line between Salt Lake City and suburban Sandy on December 4; revenue service will start two days later. The board of directors voted on August 25 to open the line four months early.The $312m line ...
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Tri-Rail doubling funded
FLORIDA commuter operator Tri-Rail has put together a $220m funding package which will enable it to complete the double-tracking of its 114 km Miami - Palm Beach route two years earlier than planned. CSX Transportation, which owns the line, has offered Tri-Rail a $55m interest-free loan, which will be combined ...
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Don’t race the train
A REPORT by Railned, the body responsible for managing Netherlands Railway’s infrastructure, reveals that 40% of collisions on level crossings are due to reckless disregard by road users for their own safety. This follows a study which analysed 6152 incidents at around 1000 locations during the 12 years from 1985 ...
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Dieter
CAPTION: After almost six years English Welsh &Scottish Railway has finally been granted a safety case certificate to run Class 92 locos between Wembley and Crewe, where reed track circuits in Watford tunnel might be affected by three-phase traction harmonics. Dieter suggests there might have been an easier way to ...
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CSXT restructures
FOUR Service Groups are to take over responsibility for commercial and operating functions at CSX Transportation under a major reorganisation announced by newly-appointed President Ronald J Conway on August 11. Designed to ’promote customer focus and speed the decision-making process’, the groups will be focused on the railway’s principal product ...
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Cross-border joint venture
A MAJOR assault on the cross-border markets from Oslo to Stockholm, G
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'We must create our own core competences'
JR East Chairman Shuichiro Yamanouchi challenges current thinking on research, suggesting railways can no longer rely on suppliers to develop new products and processes. In this interview with Murray Hughes, Yamanouchi outlines a three-pronged strategy for survival while Japan's economy bounces on the bump stops
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Commuter stations planned
Dallas Area Rapid Transit has called bids for a new station at Esters Road in West Irving, which will form part of a 4·8 km extension of the Trinity Railway Express commuter service due to open next year. It will have a canopied platform with a high block for disabled ...
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Tazara sale moves closer
TRANSPORT Ministers in Tanzania and Zambia have agreed in principle to award concessions for the rehabilitation and operation of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway, subject to formal approval by the two governments. The agreement was reached on August 29 at a meeting in Ndola of the international council of ministers which oversees ...
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The spirit of your city
INTRO: Alstom Transport’s Citadis low-floor tram family was unveiled at La Rochelle on September 2. Chris Jackson took a rideON A WARM sunny afternoon, a dark blue low-floor tram decorated with seagulls is being put through its paces on the Alstom test track in the French port of La Rochelle. ...
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UP celebrates triple tracking
ON AUGUST 24 Union Pacific announced that it had completed the triple-tracking of its original main line across Nebraska between Gibbon and North Platte. Upgrading the 174 route-km to accommodate up to 140 trains per day running at 113 km/h has cost $327m.UP’s Central Corridor is a key link between ...
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Cold clean carbodies
CAR BODY design is set for radical change. Since the earliest days of railways, rolling stock has been fabricated using ’hot and dirty’ manufacturing processes. Now the days of welding large metal structures are numbered, and they are set to give way to ’cold and clean’ processes like bonding, bolting ...
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Subte car order placed
BUENOS AIRES metro concessionaire Metrovías has ordered 16 five-car EMUs from Alstom Transport to re-equip Line A between Plaza de Mayo and Primera Junta. The deal is valued at 186m euros, and the first deliveries are due 18 months after the contract has been signed.The stainless steel cars are to ...
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First capacity review by SSRA
THE WEST Midlands region surrounding Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city after London, has been selected for the first network capacity review to be undertaken by the ’shadow’ Strategic Rail Authority. Pending legislation to establish the SRA formally, staff of the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising and the British Railways Board ...
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CVRD to buy FCA
LAST MONTH Brazilian mining group Companhia Vale do Rio Doce announced that it had reached agreement to take over Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica, in which it already holds a 12·5% stake. With the backing of its parent steel conglomerate CSN, which also owns 12·5%, CVRD will pay R$218m for the 75% stake ...
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Lounges target business market
IN THEIR continuing efforts to increase ridership as subsidy levels decline, Britain’s inter-city train operators are paying particular attention to the lucrative first class market by offering improved facilities for business travellers. Virgin Trains, holder of the West Coast franchise, opened new first class lounges at Manchester Piccadilly and Stoke-on-Trent ...
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Passenger in Brief
n Swiss Federal Railways and tour operator Kuoni have signed a co-operation agreement to develop rail tourism in Europe. SBB is to take a stake in Kuoni-owned Railtour Suisse and Kuoni will invest in the SBB subsidiary RailAway. To secure a larger share of the short breaks and leisure travel ...
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Steel sleeper breakthrough
Up to now, steel sleepers have typically been used in developing countries where speeds are modest, the climate is dry, wood is vulnerable to termites, and track circuits are short if they exist at all. Steel is normally more expensive than wood or concrete, and the perception has been that ...
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Boxtel rebuild
Work on a new station building for Boxtel in the Netherlands began on September 9, undertaken by NS Railinfrabeheer as part of a programme to quadruple the Boxtel - Eindhoven route. The original station building, dating from 1872 and situated on an island platform, was demolished in July last year. ...
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Car Care prolongs body life
Wagons carrying iron ore or coal are susceptible to rapid deterioration of the body due to corrosion and abrasion. Repairs to carbon steel bodies may be needed after as little as four years, and they rarely last beyond 16 to 20 years6. In South Africa, Spoornet’s coal wagons operating on ...