All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1379
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News
Ankara opens
REVENUE services on Ankara’s 14·6 km metro serving the western portion of the capital began on Monday December 29, following inauguration ceremonies the previous day. The first heavy metro in Turkey, the US$1bn line started in 1991 was completed almost a year late.Running below Atatürk Boulevard, the metro links the ...
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Airport link bids
FEBRUARY 21 is due to see the selection of a preferred bidder for the concession to build a high-speed rail link between Taipei and Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport, with a contract to be signed by the end of April. Five prequalified consortia presented proposals to the Bureau of Taiwan High ...
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Double-deck air-con
FAIVELEY has begun delivering roof-mounted air-conditioning equipment for the 76 TER2N double-deck EMUs for SNCF regional services in Provence-Alpes-C
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The year of the electronic air brake
INTRO: North America is grasping the benefits of electronic brake application on long freight trains; with over a dozen pilot projects clocking up more than 160 million wagon-km in revenue service, 1998 may be a turning point in braking technologyBYLINE: Doug KlinkVice PresidentTSM IncElectric control from the driver’s cab of ...
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Advertising ambassador
EUROSTAR (UK) Ltd has appointed Sports & Outdoor Media to market sponsorship of its trains, including external and internal branding and complementary promotional opportunities on-board and at terminals. Managing Director Hamish Taylor believes ’high-profile, international organisations’ may be interested in using what Eurostar calls ’the longest billboard in Europe’. Eurostar ...
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Russia adopts the European model
THE COUNCIL of the Federation, the upper chamber of Russia’s Parliament, held hearings on December 22 at which the government’s latest strategy for restructuring the national railway was endorsed. It follows the European model of a state infrastructure authority providing track access to competing train operators. Formal adoption of the ...
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Adding capacity in QR’s coal corridors
INTRO: With coal from central Queensland in demand from over 30 countries, QR is investing to raise throughput on its busy heavy haul routes linking mines and portsDISCUSSION about the environmental problems caused by burning fossil fuels is not exactly taboo at Queensland Railways’ Coal & Minerals Group, but it’s ...
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Open access freight
ON JANUARY 16 Australian operator Great Northern Rail Services Pty Ltd of Gisborne launched the first fully-independent intrastate train on the tracks of the Victoria state rail network, hauling infrastructure materials from Melbourne to Newport via Tottenham. With a fleet of nine regaugable broad/standard-gauge diesel locos, GNRS has achieved full ...
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Iranians to build AC diesels
ISLAMIC Iranian Republic Railways (RAI) has ordered 100 diesel locomotives from GEC Alsthom to haul 140 km/h passenger trains and freights at up to 110 km/h. The 4300hp AD43C Co-Cos will be powered by Ruston 16RK215 diesel engines using Onix IGBT-based asynchronous traction drives. Under the US$125m contract announced on ...
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Angel worth £395m
BRITISH rolling stock leasing company Angel Train Contracts was sold on December 19 to Royal Bank of Scotland by the GRS Holdings consortium of Nomura International, Babcock & Brown and Prideaux & Associates which bought it debt-free from the government in November 1995 for £696m. Debt funding worth £690m for ...
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Royal Thalys pioneers first 300 km/h inter-capitals route
The final piece of the TGV Nord-Europe jigsaw was slotted into place on December 10 when an inaugural Royal Thalys carried King Albert II and Queen Paola from Brussels to Paris and back to mark completion of the 71 km Belgian section of the 314·6 km high speed route. Murray ...
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X2000 to China
A SEVEN-car X2000 tilting trainset was dispatched from the Adtranz works in Västerås on January 14 for a two-year demonstration programme in China. Due to arrive next month, the train is being sent under an agreement between Adtranz and the semi-autonomous Guangshen Railway Corp. After commissioning, the X2000 is ...
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CPR to spend C$1bn in 1998
CANADIAN PACIFIC Railway is to invest C$1bn on capital projects during 1998, under a spending plan announced on December 17. This comfortably exceeds CPR’s previous record spend of C$700m in 1997, and will bring the total investment since 1995 to almost C$3bn. Almost half of the money, C$450m, will pay ...
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Suburban rebuild
FRENCH Railways, the Syndicat des Transports Parisiens and the Ile-de-France region are to share the cost of a Fr190m programme to rebuild the suburban section of Paris Nord station. Work to is due to begin after France hosts the football World Cup between June 10 and July 12, and is ...
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PUBLICATIONS
Conference Papers: ÖVG Convention on Optimising Railway TrackAt this conference in Graz in September 1997 subjects discussed ranged from capacity management and track maintenance strategy on the home railway ÖBB to track inspection and maintenance planning in New York, further development of heavy load switches on Union Pacific, development of ...
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Selective Train Protection
Subject to successful completion of trials, Redifon MEL is to offer the Train Protection & Warning System which has been developed for Railtrack as a cheaper alternative to full automatic train protection. TPWS builds on British Rail’s long-established Automatic Warning System which alerts the driver of a train approaching a ...
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PR privatisation ’this year’
PAKISTAN Railways is to be fully privatised by the end of 1998, according to Federal Railways Minister Yaqub Khan Nasar. He said in November that the government had decided that the only solution to PR’s financial problems was ’to restructure rail transport’. Endorsing the proposals of a special committee formed ...
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Pointers
German Railway is drawing up plans for a dual-mode electro-diesel version of its CargoSprinter freight trainset; a proposal is due to go to the board of management shortly.A new California High Speed Rail Authority was created in November to develop a 1100 km network linking key cities such as San ...
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PEOPLE
Michael Blythe and Bruce Baird have been nominated Directors of Australia’s National Rail Corp for three years.James Struthers has been appointed Finance Director for Eurostar (UK). Linda Bohlinger has been named Executive Director of Tri-County Commuter Rail Authority in Florida. She takes over from Jeffrey D Jackson who has become ...
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Pontinha opened
METROPOLITANO de Lisboa has completed a 1.5 km extension of its northwestern route from Colégio Militar to Pontinha, with an intermediate station at Carnide. Started four years ago, the work has been delayed by bad weather and geological problems. Construction was contracted to the Metrogal consortium incuding Construçoes Técnicas and ...