All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1359
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Georgian BOT plan
THE GEORGIAN government is planning to invite bids this month for a build-operate-tender concession to complete its share of the planned rail link between Tbilisi and the Turkish town of Kars. No bids were received when the project was tendered earlier this year (RG 1.98 p7).The work includes upgrading of ...
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Integral GRP car body on trial in Dortmund
WORKING with Dortmunder Stadtwerke and Duewag, Siemens Verkehrstechnik has developed a 10m GRP centre section for a Stadtbahn B80C/6 car. The objective is to reduce weight by around 25%, leading to energy savings and lower life-cycle costs.Test Car 343 is the last of 12 to receive a centre section, which ...
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WestRail bids out
LAST MONTH Kowloon - Canton Railway Corp invited prequalification bids for 12 construction contracts on Hong Kong’s WestRail link to Tuen Mun. According to project director James Blake, the five packages into which the route was split for design have been subdivided to provide more opportunities for local contractors to ...
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Banverket pursues upgrading strategy
INTRO: Bo Bylund has successfully recrafted the structure of Sweden’s national infrastructure authority. Now he wants to take Banverket forward from the nightmare of the Hallandsås tunnel problems to deliver improvements which will help reinforce rail’s competitive positionTHIS YEAR marks two important steps for Banverket. The first came on January ...
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‘Effetto bang’ kills Milano - Genova
THINK OF A reason for abandoning plans to build a high speed railway, and you will find it among those cited by Italian Environment Minister Edo Ronchi for cancelling the 135 km line from Milano to Genova. Announcing his decision on July 15, Ronchi produced a 20-page ruling that referred ...
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Banestyrelsen sets investment plans
INTRO: Changing domestic and international requirements are moulding plans to build a ’better railway’. Andrew Hellawell asked Thomas Ostenfeld, Director of Sector Planning, and Leif Lilja, Project Manager for the Ringsted new line, how investment is being focused on projects generating the best returnWITH A YEAR’S head start, DSB’s Storeb
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Balkan bids called
TENDERS are due by August 17 for construction of the 25 km Slovenian section of the Murska Sabota - Hodos - Zalalovo link to Hungary. Formally approved by the two governments last year (RG 7.97 p432), the 44 km link will be partially funded from the European Union’s Phare programme. ...
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Passenger aspirations drive seat design
Seating manufacturers are exploring design solutions to give passengers both the comfort and facilities they need. Lighter, stronger, cheaper and more flexible are the operators’ demands, whilst passengers want to be pampered during the journey. Although the advent of compact in-seat entertainment equipment has made it possible to keep passengers ...
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Coal drives Central Asian links
CONSTRUCTION work has started on a north-south rail link in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan, opening up mineral reserves in the centre of the republic. Starting from the terminus of the existing line through the capital Bishkek at Balykchy (formerly Issyk-Kul), the route runs southwest to Kochgorka, where the ...
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Sydney expansion approved
NEW SOUTH WALES Transport Minister Carl Scully announced on July 5 that the government had approved construction of a 28 km orbital rail link between Paramatta and Chatswood through Sydney’s north-western suburbs. Costed at A$1·4bn, the line will take six years to build. Detailed planning and environmental impact reviews are ...
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Alstom unveils modular diesel family
ON June 18 at Alstom Transporte’s Albuixech plant outside Valencia, Israel Railways Director General Amos Uzani took delivery of the first of eight 3000hp Co-Co GA-3000 diesel-electric locomotives. Expected to leave Spain for Israel within a month, the freight locomotive was to join the first seven of ten 3000hp Bo-Bo ...
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Airport bidders named
LAST MONTH was due to see the signing of an agreement between the Bureau of Taiwan High Speed Rail and the Chang Sheng International Development Co for construction of a 35 km rail link from Taipei to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport. Chang Sheng was selected as preferred bidder by the ...
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Marina line to go ahead
CONSTRUCTION of a fourth metro line in Singapore will get under way in 2000, following a government decision in June to push ahead with the 13 km Marina line to serve the New Downtown area taking shape on reclaimed land around Marina Bay. First proposed as a light rail line ...
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Houston battleground hots up again
UNION PACIFIC has another fight on its hands. On July 8 a coalition of shippers, industries, railways and elected officials filed a request with the Surface Transportation Board that seeks to end UP’s near monopoly in the Houston region. The plan is one of several deposited with the STB aimed ...
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Access charging directive promises hotter debate
PROMOTERS of open access regimes are chipping away relentlessly at the barriers put in place by European railways. Championed by European Commssioner for Transport Neil Kinnock, they are determined to see the walls come down. Their cause may be helped by divisions within the railways’ camp, but those entrenched in ...
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Madrid opens Line 8
THE King and Queen of Spain officially opened the first section of Madrid Metro’s Line 8 on June 24. Built at a cost of Pts8·9bn, the 2·6 km route runs from Mar de Cristal on Line 4 to Campo de las Naciones, serving the Madrid fair grounds and the Juan ...
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LRT becomes SkyTrain 2
VANCOUVER’s planned east-west light rail line is to be built as a second fully-automated SkyTrain route, compatible with BC Transit’s existing Waterfront - New Westminster - Surrey line. The change of policy was confirmed on June 24, when Bombardier announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the ...
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Øresund sets July 1 2000 target date
INTRO: As construction work passed the half-way stage, Andrew Hellawell viewed construction sites around Kastrup, and took a stroll in the immersed tube tunnelØRESUNDSKONSORTIET has set the provisional date for opening the fixed link between Denmark and Sweden. Of course, this is dependent on keeping to time through the rest ...
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Track in the swamp
JULY 1 sees the formal launch of the Australian Rail Track Corp, the 'one-stop' infrastructure access body being set up following negotiations between the federal and state transport ministers. It will initially control the trans-Australia routes from Broken Hill and Wodonga (Victoria) to Kalgoorlie and Alice Springs, and market paths ...