All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1370
-
News
INTELLIGENCE
CAPTION: Belgian National Railways has started test running with the first of 60 dual-system electric locos from GEC Alsthom subsidiary ACEC Transport. Known as Tractis, the SNCB Class 13s will be assembled by BN at Brugge using mechanical parts supplied from BelfortCAPTION: Two 150-tonne bogie drop pits being supplied to ...
-
News
INTELLIGENCE
Argentina: The government has insisted that the Unión Ferroviaria trade union finds a foreign partner before taking on a 30-year operating concession for the 1000mm gauge Ferrocarril Belgrano (RG 9.97 p560). The government would grant 40m pesos a year for five years for infrastructure work, but the 10m pesos annual ...
-
News
INSIDE INDUSTRY
CAPTION: The regional headquarters of Cubic Transportation Systems Far East Ltd was officially opened in Hong Kong on February 18 by Dr Cheng Hon-Kwan, Chairman of the Transport Advisory Committee
-
News
Industry
Austria: Bombardier Transportation of Canada has signed an agreement to purchase a 26% stake in ELIN EBG Traction GmbH, subject to regulatory approval. Initial co-operation will concentrate on development of regional trainsets derived from the Talent concept (p245).China: Leighton Contractors (Asia) Ltd of Hong Kong and RSA of Australia have ...
-
News
Managing high-speed infrastructure
INTRO: Gestor de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias has been established this year by the Spanish government to build and manage high-speed routes. GIF President Albert Vilalta explained the role of his organisation and its involvement in the Madrid - Barcelona - French border project to Robert PrestonGIF’s primary role today is the ...
-
News
Niche players happy with their lot
INTRO: While exploring new avenues away from their established core businesses, Spanish rolling stock builders Patentes Talgo and CAF are content to remain outside the larger international groupings, forming temporary alliances as requiredIN JUNE Patentes Talgo is due to begin dynamic tests of a low-cost prototype trainset for 225 km/h ...
-
News
Frontiers no obstacle to ÖBB’s future fleet
INTRO: Due to be delivered to Austrian Federal Railways from January 2000 is a fleet of up to 400 interoperable main line electrics with the ability to haul passenger trains at up to 230 km/h as well as heavy freightBYLINE: Ing Bernhard BenesProject ManagerClass 1016/1116Austrian Federal RailwaysIN JANUARY 2000 Austrian ...
-
News
Finance
Czech Republic: The government has approved annual grants of KC500m for CD to renew rolling stock during 1998-2001. France: European Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock announced on February 19 that EU contributions for TGV-Est would be limited to 2% of the total infrastructure cost. The French government had expected the ...
-
News
Faster but quieter
FRENCH Railways has begun to examine the production, maintenance and safety implications of a range of wheelset and rail combinations to reduce noise generated by high-speed trains. SNCF’s Research Division has directed the project, divided into the RONA (wheelsets), VONA (track) and MONA (grinding) subgroups. Development work has made use ...
-
News
News Extra
MAV gets fundsTENDERING was due to get under way last month for track and infrastructure work on two of Hungarian Railways’ strategic corridors, following the release of funding by the European Investment Bank. MAV Managing Director Istvan Sipos signed an agreement in Luxembourg on February 24 for a 20-year loan ...
-
News
Suburban expansion strategy
WITH municipal and regional elections due in June 1999, Madrid Regional Transport Authority is developing proposals for expanding the Spanish National Railways suburban network. The authority is to sign a new agreement with Renfe this year (p251) and local politicians are keen to gain closer control over suburban services.A key ...
-
News
Extension talks enter last lap
TRENES de Buenos Aires, operator of the Mitre and Sarmiento suburban systems in the Argentinian capital (RBR98 p42), has entered the final stages of renegotiating its 10-year concession with the federal government. In return for a 30-year extension, TBA is willing to pledge investment totalling US$1·8bn, including more electrification and ...
-
News
End of the line for Hopewell project
THAILAND: Sad news reaches us from the city of eternal metro planning: the Thai government appears to have dashed any remaining hopes of resurrecting Hopewell Holding's ambitious Berts project to build a 60 km network of elevated transit lines in Bangkok with motorways on top. With only rows of ...
-
News
Early sales yield huge profits
WHATEVER the ultimate outcome of privatisation in Britain, fortunes are being made by institutions and individuals - and especially by former British Rail managers who risked their own savings - as the original companies are sold on. March 6 saw bus operator FirstGroup agree terms to buy the 74·7% of ...
-
News
San Diegans to go double-deck
WASTING NO time in spending some of the $2·2bn in capital funding authorised by Congress late last year, Amtrak has awarded a $100m contract to GEC Alsthom Transportation Inc for eight new double-deck trainsets to be used in southern California’s San Diegan corridor. According to Amtrak West President Gil ...
-
News
EWS workhorses will deliver savings
INTRO: The biggest British loco order since steam days is ’no big deal’ in the eyes of Jim Fisk. Andrew Hellawell found out why English Welsh & Scottish Railway’s Engineering Director is so confident about the motive power soon to be arriving in drovesBRITAIN’S road freight industry has had ...
-
News
DB to test TBS
GERMAN RAILWAY’s infrastructure business DB Netz is due to begin work next month on a test installation of transmission-based signalling using equipment from Adtranz Signal. Trains between Kaiserslautern and Lauterecken are to start using the equipment at the beginning of 1999.Designated FFB (FunkFahrBetrieb), the system will use the European ...
-
News
Roman empire still crumbling
RAILWAY PRESIDENTS are frequently political appointments. None more so than in Italy, where Giorgio Crisci has been replaced by Claudio Dematté as President of Italian State Railways. A crisis swept through the 16000 route-km network in February, and rumours abounded of the entire management board resigning. It was not quite ...
-
News
Rebuilt couchettes to offer a quieter ride
BY THE END of May Revisiebedrijf Haarlem will have completed renovation of 27 couchette cars for DB AutoZug GmbH, the German Railway subsidiary running motorail services. Built in 1967 by Linke-Hofmann-Busch for use in trains run by private travel agencies such as Scharnow, Touropa, Hummel and Dr Tigges, they are ...
-
News
Composite reefers on test
LAST month Union Pacific began an 18-month performance test of 50 refrigerated wagons, carrying fresh and frozen produce between the western United States and major markets. Designed and built in conjunction with Trinity Industries and Hardcore DuPont Composites, UP’s first new reefer since 1971 features a 40% increase in payload ...