All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1382
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News
Hannover - Berlin close to completion
ALTHOUGH work is forging ahead along almost all the 247 km alignment of the Hannover - Berlin high speed line, contractors face tight deadlines to finish in time for the already revised opening date of October this year. Nearly all the route in former East Germany comprises new alignment laid ...
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Work begins on St Petersburg terminal
ON November 17 the joint venture of Taylor Woodrow International Ltd and Skanska Construction Co Ltd began work on the US$250m St Petersburg rail terminal development for High Speed Railways Russian Shareholding Company (RAO VSM). GIBB Ltd is supervising the construction project under a US$7.5m contract from RAO VSM, which ...
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JR companies may have to bear more JNR debts
DESPITE a long and sometimes acrimonious campaign, it would seem that the JR companies may lose their battle with the government which wants them to assume more of the former Japanese National Railways’ debt, currently amounting to no less than
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Baltimore opens LRT extensions
DECEMBER 5 saw the dedication of two long-awaited light rail branches in Baltimore, which opened to revenue services the next day. The short city-centre spur to Penn Station and the line to Baltimore-Washington International Airport coincided with the completion of a major expansion at BWI.Baltimore is now the only US ...
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Business plan to be backed by investment
INTRO: Italian State Railways is implementing a four-year business plan aimed at driving the business into the black. With many projects already under way, the 70000bn lire plan means that 150000bn lire will have been invested in 1994-2006THIS MONTH sees Italian State Railways take one more step towards a commercial ...
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Telescopic axles speed gauge-changing
DB Cargo has begun trials of bogie wagons equipped with telescopic axles for use on both 1435mm and 1520mm gauges. Following tests on a 15m long gauge-changing installation at German Railway’s Research & Technology Centre in Minden, service trials are scheduled to be completed by the end of 1998.The DB ...
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Light rail to augment expanding network
INTRO: Preliminary engineering has started for two light rail lines in Vancouver, British Columbia, to augment existing mini-metro and commuter rail routes. Construction is due to get under way in 1999, with the first low-floor cars running by 2005. William D Middleton reportsA 33 km light rail network will be ...
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Rio auction
BIDS FOR a 20-year concession to operate the two-line Rio de Janeiro metro, with an option for a 20-year extension, were due to be submitted to the state government on December 11. Conditions for the auction were published on November 14, setting the minimum bid at 25m reais, plus an ...
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Amtrak boosts ridership
IN a little over two months following its introduction on July 11, Amtrak’s overnight Boston - Newport News Twilight Shoreliner service recorded a 28% increase in ridership and a 36% increase in revenue on its predecessor, the Boston - Washington DC Night Owl. According to Northeast Corridor President George D ...
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Ambitious plans
IN A NOTABLE shift in policy, the Turkish Transport & Communications Ministry announced in December that investment in railway upgrading and new construction is to be stepped up. Speaking two weeks ahead of a National Railway Congress held in Istanbul on December 15-17, Transport Minister Necdet Menzir indicated that railways ...
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GEC Alsthom to be floated
ALCATEL Alsthom of France and Britain’s GEC announced in December that they had agreed to float their eight-year-old energy and transport joint venture GEC Alsthom during the first half of 1998. Each of the partners will retain 24% of the shares, with the remaining 52% to be listed on the ...
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Airport branch
A LIGHT RAIL extension to Portland International Airport could be open within three years, as a result of a public-private partnership proposed by engineering and construction firm Bechtel. The company is planning a $500m office development on a vacant site near the airport entrance, and has put forward plans for ...
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Lifting turnouts by air bag
BYLINE: Chen Zhaoming, Li Luoshu and Zhow Xianping*INTRO: Turnout replacement work on Chinese Railways’ Beijing - Guangzhou route has been speeded up by the use of air bags in place of manual liftingAIR BAGS were first used to lift preassembled turnouts on Chinese Railways during work at Langfang, Xushui and ...
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UK passenger-km 'to double by 2010'
RAILTRACK has warned the government that it expects total passenger-km on Britain's national rail network to double within 13 years, leading to a serious shortage of track capacity in key areas. Giving evidence before the House of Commons Transport Sub-Committee on November 26, Chief Executive Gerald Corbett said the forecast ...
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Passante aims for completion in 2003
INTRO: Following the official opening of the first section between Bovisa and Porta Venezia, completion of Milano’s cross-city route is now expected to take a further five years. Robert Preston reportsOFFICIAL OPENING of the first section of Milano’s Passante cross-city suburban railway was scheduled to take place on December 21. ...
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Line 2 gets under way
GROUNDBREAKING ceremonies for Manila light metro Line 2 were held on November 15, with President Fidel Ramos inaugurating the project at a site in Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City. To be financed by Japan’s Overseas Economic Co-operation Fund, the 14 km elevated line is to be completed by 2001.Costed at ...
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Rail Business Report 1998
SUBSCRIBERS should receive with this issue a copy of our annual Rail Business Report. A review of investment and market developments during 1997 reveals that around 2000 electric locomotives are on order, under construction or planned as options on existing tenders. This sector alone is worth about US$7bn, while orders ...
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Vaglia tunnel advances at 10m a day
CONSTRUCTION of Italy’s third high speed railway is forging ahead. Following completion of the Roma - Firenze direttissima in 1992, preliminary work began two years later on the 220 km Roma - Napoli leg of the Alta Velocità network, and the main civil engineering work got under way in 1995 ...
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Sidetrack
GNER bluesBritain’s East Coast Main Line fleet has again proved vulnerable to heat, some years after a spate of cooling failures on the IC125 high-speed diesel train power cars. With much of Britain basking in unusually high summer temperatures, franchisee Great North Eastern Railway was struggling to keep its electric ...
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Publications
Jane’s Urban Transport Systems 1997-98Five ex-Soviet cities and Bamako, Mali, are the new city entries in the 16th edition of this illustrated annual. There are 12 industry sections featuring numerous additional companies, but there have also been many deletions. Detailed coverage of the bewildering variety of complete vehicles, components and ...