All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1352
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News
High speed rail reaches maturity
BYLINE: Philippe RoumeguèreDirector GeneralInternational Union of RailwaysMORE THAN three decades have passed since Japan’s pioneering bullet trains carried their first passengers. Over 5·5 billion people have since ridden the trains whose performance surpassed the previous limits of conventional railway technology. Around 700 million people have experienced high speed rail travel ...
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UP restructures for growth
On August 18 Chairman & CEO Dick Davidson announced a major reorganisation of Union Pacific’s rail operations. This reverses a centralisation plan adopted more than 10 years ago, since when the acquisition of three railways has doubled UP’s size and made it unwieldy. ’We’re trying to flip the pyramid’, said ...
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WestRail gets the go-ahead
THIS MONTH will see the formal start of work on the first phase of Hong Kong’s ambitious WestRail link between Kowloon and Tuen Mun, following the final approval of the project by the region’s government on September 15. Transport Secretary Nicholas Ng said the project would generate 13000 jobs and ...
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GSM-R gathers speed
ANY DOUBT that GSM-R might fail to become the standard radio platform for Europe’s railways can be set aside. The June decision by the board of Deutsche Bahn AG to replace eight disparate analogue radio systems with a single GSM-R radio network will result shortly in a service supplier agreement ...
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Outsiders to help FS restructure
CONSULTANTS are due to submit bids on October 8 for a contract worth up to 2·5bn lire to help Italian State Railways with restructuring. Whoever wins this enviable little task will have their work cut out, but as a consultant they will have the benefit of being one step removed ...
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Frankfurt offers seamless transfer
From September 21 Lufthansa passengers travelling through Frankfurt from Düsseldorf, K
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SBB launches fleet update
SWISS Federal Railways is to spend up to SFr290m a year on modernisation of its inter-city rolling stock fleet. Covering new build and refurbishment, the programme was launched on August 26 when SBB announced a SFr143m order for a third series of double-deck coaches. This will include 19 first ...
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Muni metro extends
SAN FRANCISCO Municipal Railway began through services to the CalTrain terminal at 4th & King Streets on August 22, when the N-Judah route was extended from Embarcadero. The through service from Ocean Beach replaces the route E shuttle which has served the extension since January 10. Through running was delayed ...
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Shinkansen fleet expands
BYLINE: Yoshihiko SatoGeneral Manager, Transport & Rolling Stock DepartmentEast Japan RailwayFOLLOWING THE inauguration of three new routes last year, JR East has ordered extra trains to expand its Series E2, E3 and E4 fleets, and has launched a drive to refurbish older units.In March 1997 we opened the Akita mini-shinkansen, ...
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Eurotunnel tries on-board fire suppression
INTRO: Sprinklers inside freight shuttle wagons are the favoured option for protecting the Channel Tunnel from the costly damage caused by the November 1996 fire. Richard Hope watched a full-scale test in a specially constructed wind tunnelPERCHED INCONGRUOUSLY on a concrete apron behind Darchem Engineering’s works in Stillington, County Durham, ...
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éole opens in June
FRENCH National Railways confirmed at the end of August that the first phase of its cross-Paris RER Line E is to open on June 26 next year. The Est-Ouest Liaison Express (éole) will eventually connect the Est and St Lazare suburban networks, but the first phase provides for selected services ...
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Embankment reinforcement
MONITORING under traffic conditions of an 80m embankment built in Hannover on the route to Celle using Fortrac¨ 80/30-20 geogrids from Huesker Synthetic has revealed minimal deformation in the millimetre range over a period of 12 months. Using one vertical and two horizontal inclinometers, monitoring followed approval of the geogrid ...
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Derailment detectors
BACK in 1994 Swiss Federal Railways had two lucky escapes. The first was in March when a broken axle caused a train of petrol wagons to derail and catch fire at Zürich Affoltern. Five houses were burnt down and petrol leaking into sewers exploded, blasting manhole covers into the streets; ...
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Deregulation demands portable qualifications
PRIVATISATION, deregulation and restructuring of the world railway industry have highlighted a need for recognised qualifications for staff at all levels, according to Gerard Langes, CEO of Transport & Distribution Training Australia. Addressing a seminar in London on September 10 organised by Rail Training International, he instanced a private firm ...
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Rival trains cut Kowloon-Guangzhou timings
August 28 saw the introduction of faster trains between Kowloon and Guangzhou, cutting journey times for the 174 km non-stop journey from 105 to 90min and bringing the promise of increased capacity on this busy route.Five round trips were providing the through service between the two cities up to that ...
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High speed on conventional lines
INTRO: Raising the maximum speed on conventional lines to 225 or 250 km/h is now feasible, depending on investment resources, the technology available and the legislative background. Much of the technical knowledge is in place to make the required advance, but translating it into a coherent overall package is proving ...
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Revenue conundrum must be solved
NOTWITHSTANDING the low impact of the much-publicised Trans-European Freight Freeways, big changes are afoot on the European freight scene. There are encouraging signs, with the Community of European Railways reporting rail freight in the first three months of the year to be 9·4% up on the 1997 figures, with steady ...
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Prime contractor manages pilot section of Nürnberg - Ingolstadt line
INTRO: German Railway has handed management of the construction programme for the first section of the 88 km Nürnberg - Ingolstadt high speed line to civil engineering specialists Leonhard Weiss. Murray Hughes reports from NürnbergTUCKED away in the southeast suburbs of Nürnberg is a busy railway construction site. Managed from ...
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CTRL construction under way
THIS MONTH is due to see the start of work on the long-planned high-speed rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel. Private-sector promoter London & Continental Railways announced preferred bidders for the first civil engineering contracts on September 10. The four contracts totalling £320m will be formally signed this ...
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Subte concession renegotiated
BUENOS Aires metro and Urquiza commuter concessionaire Metrovías has agreed a new contract with the federal government extending the 20-year term by four years to 2017 and abolishing the charges for use of infrastructure and rolling stock. Requiring approval from the parliamentary privatisation committee and the BA city council, the ...