All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1373
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News
Procurement politics
WE SHOULD by now be seeing some evidence that European directives on public procurement are generating a positive effect, n’est-ce pas? Yet rolling stock procurement practice looks depressingly familiar. In Britain, nearly all orders in the last few months have gone to the local plants of GEC Alsthom and Adtranz, ...
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Points on a roll
THE Austroroll system for moving switch blades developed by Enzesfeld-Caro Metallwerke AG has been tested by main line, regional and metro operators throughout Europe, with recent trials conducted by Eurotunnel, Danish State Railways and Wiener Verkehrsbetriebe.Austroroll has been adopted as standard for Type B and C points by Austrian Federal ...
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Pointers
n The Railtrack board is due to consider a business case in the next few weeks for concentrating control of the British railway network into nine management centres, starting with an installation in Manchester to be built between 2001 and 2005.n Argentina’s interior ministry and the provinces of Chubut and ...
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PEOPLE
George Chen has been appointed Chairman of BC Transit.Mike Kinski has been named Chief Executive of Stagecoach Holdings, a post relinquished by Chairman Brian Souter, who will concentrate on business development.Joseph E Arsenault has been appointed Director, Systems Development, for Norfolk Southern. Carlos Roman of Spanish National Railways has been ...
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Tough restructuring starts to pay off
INTRO: Siemens Verkehrstechnik is mid-way through a programme of restructuring and divestments designed to return the business to profitability. Chris Jackson spoke to SVT President Dr Wolfram Martinsen in Sacramento last month ’THERE IS no shortcut or painless way to address the challenges we are facing ... the railway business ...
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Olympic S-Bahn revived
BERLIN S-Bahn trains returned to the city’s famous Olympiastadion station on January 16, with the reinstatement of a further 4·8 km section of the network disused since 1980. The Westkreuz - Pichelsberg line serves the Charlottenburg quarter in the northwest of the city, with intermediate stations at Eichkamp, Heerstra§e and ...
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Midwest Rail Upgrade nears mid point
INTRO: In preparation for the planned break-up of Conrail between CSX and Norfolk Southern, CSX is investing US$220m in upgrading 435 route-km of main line between central Ohio and ChicagoTHIS MONTH will see further progress towards completion of the first phase of a major route upgrading programme in western Ohio ...
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Metros
Australia: Victoria’s Public Transport Corp has called tenders for construction of 1·6 km of tram route in Melbourne, along Exhibition Street to connect with the Wattle Park line.Bulgaria: Sofia Metro opened a 5 km section of its first line on January 28. China: Creative Star Ltd had sold 3·7million Octopus ...
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Market
Australia: On February 10 Queensland Rail ordered 38 heavy-haul diesel locos from Evans Deakins’ subsidiary Clyde Engineering for A$132m to work coal trains in the Bowen basin; EDI’s Manufacturing & Construction Division will supply 350 coal wagons for A$34m. ANI will build 700 wagons and supply bogies and components for ...
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Seattle makes a start
CENTRAL Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority has awarded a $23m contract for conceptual and preliminary engineering for Seattle’s planned Link light rail network (RG 1.98 p33). This will connect the communities of Seattle, Tukwila and SeaTac airport, with a separate route joining central Tacoma with Tacoma Dome commuter rail station. ...
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Managing maintenance on the world’s longest rail network
INTRO: Dense traffic, a difficult climate and an 87000 route-km network mean that maintaining Russian Railways’ track and infrastructure is a major challenge. Modern management methods and up-to-date machinery are being introduced, but the need to cater for fast passenger trains means that possession times on heavily used corridors will ...
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Smoothing the Northern line ride
UNDER a contract worth over £4m, Metalastik Vibration Control Systems is supplying rubber/metal suspension components for bogies being built by Adtranz at Derby for London Underground’s Northern line trains under construction at GEC Alsthom Metro-Cammell near Birmingham. For the bogies, Metalastik is supplying primary and secondary suspension springs, flexible frame ...
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Karachi MTP revived
GROUNDBREAKING ceremonies for Karachi’s long-planned light rail line are scheduled for August 14, according to Sindh senior minister Dr Farooq Sattar. He told the provincial assembly on January 2 that the Memorandum of Understanding for a 30-year BOT concession signed with a Canadian/Turkish consortium in January 1996 had been reactivated ...
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INTELLIGENCE
CAPTION: Ferrovie Nord Milano has outshopped the first of its refurbished EA750 series EMUs, which are being modified to operate on the cross-city Passante route (RG 1.98 p48). Apart from a new livery, the main change is to provide a switch to transfer the passenger emergency alarm to an audible ...
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Passenger information reaches out
AS RAILWAY operators come under more pressure to increase ridership, both for commercial purposes and because governments are seeking modal transfer for environmental reasons, there is a clear need for passenger information systems to extend their scope. In this new market, the potential traveller is the new focus of PI.Computer-based ...
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Industry News
China: Full production of wheelsets is expected to begin in April or May at Datong ABC Castings Co Ltd, a joint venture between ABC Rail Products Corp of the USA and the Ministry of Railways. Construction of the facility followed the signature of a joint venture agreement in March 1996.Metalastik ...
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IR independence
THE GOVERNMENT of Israel has introduced legislation to transfer control of the country’s railways from the Port Authority to a separate state-owned company. Intended to give the railways more independence and management flexibility, the move announced last year will efectively see IR revert to its pre-1988 status. Director-General A Uzani ...
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Heathrow luminaire
Station lighting for the Heathrow Express airport terminal stations due to open in June was specially developed by Crompton Lighting under a £500000 contract. Sophisticated optical design software ensured that the fluorescent platform lighting conformed to the architect’s requirements, giving a pleasant ambience on the platforms and no glare for ...
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Now it’s Rail Gourmet UK
Six months after SAirGroup’s SAirRelations division bought European Rail Catering on June 29 (RG 8.97 p515), the British train catering organisation has been renamed Rail Gourmet UK Ltd. Terry Coyle retains his position as Managing Director, reporting to Edy Fischer, Chairman & CEO of Rail Gourmet Group.Despite already operating in ...