All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1365
-
News
Tanayong cars ready to start trials
ON APRIL 17 Siemens SGP Transport Systems unveiled in Wien the first of 35 three-car metro sets for the Bangkok Mass Transit System. The blue, white and red-flashed vehicles are due to enter service in early 2000.They form part of a DM4bn turnkey contract for Tanayong subsidiary Bangkok Mass Transit ...
-
News
Canadian cutback
ON MAY 11 Canadian National announced plans to ’rationalise’ a further 2650 route-km of secondary lines, under the Canada Transportation Act. CN plans to transfer around 2087 route-km to short lines and close the rest. According to President & CEO Paul Tellier, ’CN’s objective is to create a low-cost growth-oriented ...
-
News
CAF scoops DC order
WASHINGTON Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has selected a consortium of CAF and US defence contractor AAI Corp to build 100 new cars for the Washington DC metro network. The $212m contract will bring the MetroRail fleet to 864 cars; the original 298 cars were built by Rohr Industries and the ...
-
News
Konstal to build Warszawa cars
ON APRIL 21, GEC Alsthom confirmed that it had won a 479m zloty contract to supply EMUs to operate the 11 km northern extension of Warszawa metro Line 1, which is due to be completed between Politechnika and the steelworks at Mlociny in 2004. The metro was expected to inaugurate ...
-
News
PadVIEW watches brakes
ARRAYS of video cameras installed below track next to carriage washers are monitoring disc brake pad wear on Kowloon - Canton Railway’s fleet of EMUs. In addition to the two KCR installations, Silverlink has one at its Bletchley depot in Great Britain.Computer analysis of the video image determines the thickness ...
-
News
Ground vibration boom
RAILWAY-generated ground vibrations can cause significant disturbance for residents of nearby buildings. As speeds rise, the intensity of vibrations generated by trains generally inceases. Recent theoretical investigations of ground vibrations from high-speed trains undertaken at Nottingham Trent University have contributed to a better understanding of why this should be. Researchers ...
-
News
Bombardier targets market leadership
Two international units will centralise control of Bombardier Transportation's recently acquired European operations. Chris Jackson spoke to President Jean-Yves Leblanc about his strategy
-
News
London terminus offers bike hire
BRITAIN’S first dedicated on-station cycle hire and storage facility was opened in London at Victoria station on April 21 by Transport Minister Glenda Jackson, who was joined by Railtrack Commercial Director Richard Middleton and Clive Long, Managing Director of Bike `N’ Rack.Commuters arriving at Victoria can either hire or collect ...
-
News
Briztram bidding
THE QUEENSLAND government has invited expressions of interest for a concession to finance, design, build, operate and maintain a light rail network in Brisbane, costed at A$230m. Bids are due by June 16.The government confirmed in May that it had selected a preferred route for the 14 km initial line. ...
-
News
Best practice wins the passengers
INTRO: Continuing growth in air traffic is offering the rail mode more opportunities to develop high quality links to airports. With several launches this year and more in 1999, railways are taking advantage of their ability to provide fast and comfortable service. Freight links too are poised to take off ...
-
News
Swiss ’ready to start’ on Gotthard base tunnel
ON MAY 8 Swiss Federal Railways issued a statement saying that ’the Gotthard base tunnel is ready for construction to begin’. Four days later it announced the founding of AlpTransit Gotthard AG with start-up capital of SFr5m to plan and build the 57 km tunnel.Both announcements followed the conclusion of ...
-
News
Ballast cleaners handle higher volumes
TRACK MAINTENANCE engineers from Russia, Bulgaria and Austria are gather beside a siding in the outskirts of the Austrian city of Linz. In front of them stretches a combination of track maintenance machines gleaming in fresh yellow paint.Focus of interest is an RM801 ballast cleaner just completed in Plasser ...
-
News
Wisconsin sets the pace in Europe and Australasia
INTRO: Ed Burkhardt’s vision of how rail can win freight and make profits is capturing enthusiastic converts in some unlikely places, as Richard Hope discovered ED BURKHARDT is unique. That often overworked adjective is justified by the fact that nobody else has hands-on experience of carrying freight profitably by rail ...
-
News
München - Augsburg quadrupling work begins
DESPITE driving rain, ceremonies were held on May 4 in the Bavarian town of Kissing to mark the start of work on four-tracking of German Railway's trunk line between München and Augsburg. Taking part were the Federal Finance Minister Dr Theo Waigel, Bavarian President Dr Edmund Stoiber and DB Board ...
-
News
Passenger numbers increase in North America
VIA RAIL Canada’s annual report, released on April 22, revealed increased ridership and reduced government subsidy for 1997. Passenger revenue increased to C$179m, 7% higher than in 1996, while government funding fell to C$229m, of which C$196m was for operating expenses; operating subsidy should drop further to C$178m this year.Amtrak’s ...
-
News
GEC Alsthom scoops West Coast signalling
Railtrack’s Commercial Director, Richard Middleton, named GEC Alsthom on May 15 as preferred bidder for a contract to develop, test and install on the West Coast main line transmission-based signalling conforming to Level 3 of the European Train Control System. He expected a contract worth ’between £0·5bn and £1bn’ to ...
-
News
Miami airport rail link opens
Tri-Rail opened a commuter rail station at Miami International Airport on April 27, following its dedication by US Transportation Secretary Rodney E Slater on April 9. The project cost $18m and included 1·6 km of track linking the existing line to the airport. A 4min ride on a bus shuttle ...
-
News
Airport Express brings the plane to town
INTRO: MTR Corporation’s Airport Railway will open next month to connect the centre of Hong Kong with Chek Lap Kok. The aim has been to make the link an extension of the airport, achieving seamless rail-air integrationBYLINE: Jack C K SoChairmanMTR CorporationON July 6 MTR Corporation will begin operating its ...
-
News
JFK rail link to go ahead
NOTICE TO PROCEED with design, and construction of a fully automated light metro serving New York’s John F Kennedy International was issued by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey on May 5. The Board of Commissioners had selected the AirRail Transit Consortium of Skanska USA, Bombardier Transit ...
-
News
Chinese agenda
HUGE EFFORTS are being made this month to knit together a complex patchwork of finance deals and partnerships that would allow the US$17bn build-operate-and-transfer deal for the 345 km Taipei - Kaohsiung high speed line to go ahead. If it does, Taiwan High Speed Rail Consortium will be launched on ...