All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1321
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R&D optimises stainless-steel ore car bodies
INTRO: Faced with replacing half the bodies of its 2224 car fleet over five years, BHP Iron Ore worked with Lynx Engineering to develop an innovative design which not only boosts fuel efficiency but also cuts substantially the whole life cost of buying and maintaining rolling stockBYLINE: Mike Moynan, Alex ...
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Deli reconstruction blitz
Hungarian State Railways started a six-week renovation programme at Budapest Deli on August 30, with many services diverted to other stations. Funded from MAV’s HF11bn capital investment programme for 1999, the HF550m blitz includes platform reconstruction and rail renewals.
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Berlin interchange renewed
ANYONE who visited Friedrichstraße station in Berlin before the Iron Curtain fell would barely recognise it today. Last month German Railway completed a four-year rebuilding programme of this major interchange, and the grim building where east and west were strictly segregated - with the eastern platforms only accessible under the ...
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Rio governor backs metro
ANTHONY GAROTINHO, Governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, has approved a funding package for a short extension of metro Line 1 in the city’s Copacabana district. The deal clears the way for concessionaire Opportrans to start work on the 760m extension from the present Cardeal Arco Verde terminus ...
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TER autorails arrive
NOVEMBER 28 will see the start of revenue operation with French National Railways’ first Class X73500 lightweight diesel railcars. The ’Autorail TER’ units are due to enter service on the Strasbourg - Molsheim - St Dié line in Alsace. They will also replace bus services between Tours and Chinon in ...
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Corridor IV upgrade approved
THE CZECH government has approved the upgrading of CD’s north-south Corridor IV as part of its transport development strategy for 2000-10. The Decin - Praha - Horni Dvoriste route is to be rebuilt by 2005, taking priority over Corridor III linking Cheb, and Petrovice u Karviné (RG 6.95 p379).Over the ...
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Sir Alastair sets ground rules
RENEGOTIATION of passenger franchises awarded three years ago by Britain’s last Conservative government has been on the agenda since Labour came to power in May 1997, but only now are firm ground rules emerging. They were spelled out in two speeches on September 15 and 17 by Sir Alastair Morton, ...
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Alaska airport update
Tenders have been called for design of a new Alaska Railroad station as part of a US$200m reconstruction of Anchorage airport. The elevated station will have a 100 m long covered platform and a three storey building with a waiting room accommodating up to 250 people. The station would be ...
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Marmaray loan agreement signed
TURKEY: Minister of State Recep Onal and Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura signed a loan agreement in Ankara on August 19 releasing the first US$117m tranche of funding for the cross-Bosporus rail link. This follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed on March 26 under which Japan's Overseas Economic Co-operation ...
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Acela delayed
just as we publish our latest World Speed Survey (p659), which finds that the USA is one of only two countries where train performance has worsened in the last decade, comes news that the launch of 240 km/h Acela Express services on the Northeast Corridor will be delayed. On September ...
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Nordic Rail ’99 focuses on Europe
THE FIRST two Nordic Rail events in 1995 and 1997 were aimed at the railway industry in the Nordic region. In both cases, a conference was matched with a small trade exhibition. The next event being held in J
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Line 8 to Barajas
SEPTEMBER 8 saw the formal inauguration of the final 1·9 km of Madrid metro Line 8 from Barajas airport to Pueblo de Barajas. Costing Pts4bn, this short addition completes the city’s 1995-99 metro expansion programme. Line 8 now runs between Pueblo de Barajas and Mar de Cristal, where passengers must ...
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Line 5 heads São Paulo expansion
TENDERS were due to be submitted on September 16 for two tracklaying contracts on São Paulo metro Line 5 between Capão Redondo and Largo Treze. The contracts cover 9·5 km of ballastless double-track and 4 km of ballasted track for the maintenance depot and stabling sidings. Bids for M&E installations ...
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Finnish Sm4s enter service
DURING NOVEMBER, Finnish Railways will put into traffic its 10 new low-floor Sm4 EMUs on commuter services in the Helsinki region. Following demonstration runs on other routes, the air-conditioned sets will be assigned to the I and P services between Helsinki and Hiekkaharju.The 10 sets were ordered from Fiat Ferroviaria ...
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BB21 contracts
ONSEPTEMBER 1 Netherlands Railways’ infrastructure unit Railinfrabeheer awarded contracts totalling 90m guilders to Alstom Signalling and Adtranz Signal for development of its planned BB21 train control system. The three-year project will cover the design and installation of pilot equipment. BB21 will meet ERTMS/ETCS Level 2 and Level 3 specifications (RG ...
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World Speed Survey 1999
Quantity not quality as high-speed operators mark time The closing years of the 20th century have seen a consolidation in high-speed train performance, with more trains in the top categories but no services faster than in 1997. In our regular biennial survey of the fastest timetabled point-to-point journeys, Dr Colin ...
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Zambian turnround
In March 1998, a team from Hifab International AB of Sweden, in association with DE-Consult of Germany, began a 30-month contract to manage and restructure Zambia Railways Ltd on behalf of the Swedish International Development Agency. The management team found it was running a railway in far worse condition than ...
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Sidetrack
Make it easyFRENCH National Railways has made much play recently of the introduction of regular-interval timetables on TGV routes to Lille, Lyon and western France. How nice to see that good ideas eventually win their converts, even if it is a decade or two after everyone else.Not of course that ...
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Tren Urbano starts to take shape
INTRO: Construction of the initial heavy metro line serving the Puerto Rican capital San Juan is approaching the midway point, with the first cars expected to start test running early next year BYLINE: Klaus TiedemannProject Director, Siemens Transit TeamTOWARDS THE END of this year, a pre-series married-pair of metro cars ...
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Pointers
n Expect a programme for the privatisation of Estonian Railways to be published this month. Roads & Communications Minister Toivo Jurgenson hopes to complete the sale around the start of 2000, and expects to retain at least 33% of the shares.n Upgrading of the Tecate - Plaster City section of ...