All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1327
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News
Passenger in Brief
n Chinese Railways has put into service a luxury six-car electric multiple-unit to carry tourists between Kunming and historic sites at Shilin. Built by Zhuzhou works, the Stone Forest Express can carry 602 passengers at a maximum speed of 120 km/h. The train is timetabled to cover the 130 ...
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Marie’s brave promise to boost light rail
AT A FORUM in London on July 8 the President of the Union of European Railway Industries Rolf Eckrodt and his counterpart at the International Union of Public Transport Jean-Paul Bailly signed a Memorandum of Understanding on terms and conditions for procurement contracts. Although largely symbolic, the MoU marks the ...
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Postal boost
NEXT YEAR will see the strengthening of postal traffic on German Railway, with the introduction of a network of Parcel Intercity trains. On July 15 DB President Johannes Ludewig signed a co-operation accord with his counterpart at Deutsche Post Dr Klaus Zimwinkel. Also participating in the event were the respective ...
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Railways Bill will force investment
A KEY ELEMENT of the Railways Bill introduced on July 7 by Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is the power given to the Rail Regulator to direct ’facility owners’, notably Railtrack, to invest in projects deemed necessary by the new Strategic Rail Authority. The SRA is being established primarily ...
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Family compartments back
FRENCH National Railways has started developing economy sleeping cars designed to attract families back to its 24 conventional overnight services. Each car would accommodate 46 passengers in 10 three-berth and 8 two-berth ’rooms’. These would have longitudinal berths above and below the windows, with the third bunks arranged on an ...
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Monserrat back on the rack
ON JULY 12 the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Jordi Pujol, announced that a rack railway will be built between Monistrol and Monserrat at a cost of Pts6·6bn. Construction is to get under way immediately, with opening envisaged by the spring of 2002.An Abt rack railway to Monserrat was ...
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Anglia Turbostars arrive
Anglia Railways is taking delivery of eight Class 170/2 Turbostar DMUs from Adtranz, which were to be introduced on the 185 km London - Norwich route from mid-July. With the start of the winter timetable on September 26, Anglia also hopes to deploy the trains on services from London to ...
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Alfa Pendular enters service
PORTUGUESE Railways launched regular operation of its Pendolino tilting trains between Lisboa and Porto on July 1, following an inaugural run on June 30. The special covered the 329 km between Porto and Lisboa Oriente in 2h 50min. Several sections were run at over 180 km/h, with a top speed ...
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A tough agenda
MAKING his first public speech as Rail Regulator at the Railway Forum on July 9, Tom Winsor described Britain’s railway industry as ’emerging from a period of regulatory uncertainty while the [new Labour] government has been completing its spring clean, and preparing to publish the SRA Bill’ (p484). His speech ...
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Eurotunnel secures 99-year concession
TWO YEARS after the British and French governments agreed in principle to extend Eurotunnel’s concession to 99 years, their action was approved by the Assemblée Nationale in Paris on June 30. The original 55-year concession granted in 1987 would have terminated in 2042. It was extended by 10 years in ...
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£7m revamp gives Caledonian Sleepers a quality upgrade
UK: Train operating company ScotRail was expected to unveil a new livery for its Caledonian Sleeper services at the end of last month, as part of a £7m upgrading of the service announced by Managing Director Alastair MacPherson on April 1. The company currently runs two 16-car trains to ...
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ú500m to boost LU
PUBLIC FUNDING to complete London Underground’s Jubilee line extension and continue investment in the rest of the network through to March 31 2001 was announced by Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott on July 15. The statement promised ’an extra £500m of resources’, but the nominal amount of new grant ...
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DB targets Paris with the ICE3
INTRO: ICE3 builders Siemens and Adtranz demonstrated the first complete ICE3 unit or German Railway at the Siemens test track in Wegberg-Wildenrath on July 9. Murray Hughes was on boardHEINZ KURZ, Head of Rolling StockTechnology and Train Systems at DB Reise&Touristik, German Railway’s long-distance passenger subsidiary, confirmed on July 9 ...
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VAL Line 2 reaches Tourcoing
AUGUST 18 sees the start of revenue operation on the Lille metro Line 2 extension from Fort de Mons to Tourcoing Centre, adding 12·5 route-km and 16 stations to the network. The extension was formally handed over to operator Transpole by the Lille Urban Community on June 21, ready for ...
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News in Brief - August 1999
Asia: International freight services between Russia and China began using the new 40 km cross-border line between Makhalino and Hunchun during June. Canada: Alberta RailNet took over the 586 km ex-CN route from Swan Landing to Hythe and Tangent on June 27. CN and CP have agreed to halt ...
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Guangzhou metro Line 1 services start
FULL revenue operation on the 18·5 km metro Line 1 in Guangzhou began on June 28. Limited passenger services have been running since February 16, following the formal completion of the line last December (RG 2.99 p71). Guangzhou becomes the fifth city in China with an operational metro. The ...
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Tense time in Taiwan
Council for Economic Planning & Development to seek ways to resolve THSRC’s problems, and that if the government received a formal request for funding, ’we would consider it carefully’.Given that a presidential election is due next March, the government is keen to keep the project moving forward, and Siew stated ...
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Sidetrack
INTRO: Barak building bridges OVER the last few years Israel Railways has recorded a marked increase in patronage, which has been attributed in part to the risks of terrorist attacks on buses in the region. Following the election of a new Labour government in May, IR General Manager Uzani is ...
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Publications
Schriftenreihe für Verkehr und Bahntechnik. Band 1. Feste Fahrbahn The first of a series of VDEI handbooks, this 156-page softback looks at all aspects of slab, grass and embedded track. Liberally illustrated with monochrome pictures and diagrams, it covers general construction methods and techniques, and the application of slab track ...