All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 1404
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News
Siemens wins first Combino order
POTSDAM Transport (ViP) ordered a fleet of 48 modular Combino trams from Siemens Verkehrstechnik on December 12. They will be delivered in annual batches of four between 1998 and 2009. The Potsdam version is 30·5m long and 2·3m wide, with 74 seats and room for 110 standees at ...
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NSB chooses clamp locks
NORWEGIAN State Railways has chosen electro-hydraulic Clamp Lock point machines from Smith Industries Hydraulics Co for installation at Drammen near Oslo. NSB’s design demands meant that the original design used in Britain was enhanced by protection against harsh climatic conditions and addition of multiple secondary drives and detection, built into ...
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'This is not privatisation, it is a change to make the railway more competitive'
January 1 saw the hiving off of Danish State Railways' infrastructure business to form the new authority Banestyrelsen. Chris Jackson spoke to DSB Director General Henrik Hassenkam about the restructuring
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Italians buy open procurement
AS PART of a three-year strategic plan announced last year, Chief Executive of Italian State Railways Giancarlo Cimoli is planning to change the way FS treats its suppliers. Head of procurement Mauro Moretti says standard contracts will be agreed, and the fragmentary approach to purchase of spares will give way ...
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Sud-Est TGVs brought up-to-date
PASSENGERS on France’s Paris Sud-Est line are enjoying more space and a revised seating layout on the route’s TGV fleet. The first three sets refurbished by SNCF’s Bischheim works entered service at the end of last year, and the mid-life overhaul of a further 14 is due to be completed ...
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In Brief
n On December 20 Conrail’s board of directors voted to reject Norfolk Southern’s hostile all-cash bid for the business, after it had been raised to US$10·5bn to match CSX’s improved cash and stock offer of US$9·35bn. Conrail shareholders were due to vote on January 17 on a proposal to ...
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Jena branches open
Secretary for Transport Johannes Nitsch and Thuringen Economics & Infrastructure Minister Franz Schuster opened light rail routes serving the expanding suburb of Lobeda in Jena on December 16. A new line branches from north-south trunk route 1 into a housing area just north of Line 1’s Winzerla terminus and runs ...
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Best practice must cross the frontiers
THERE CAN be few better ways of implementing international best practice than by giving senior management hands-on experience of rail operations in different countries. With Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp now running rail freight in the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Great Britain, that is precisely what WC President Ed Burkhardt ...
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Storebaelt link promises network benefits
THE LONG-awaited fixed link across Denmark’s Great Belt is on course to carry its first revenue-earning train on April 1. When the road and rail link between the islands of Zealand and Fünen was authorised in 1987, it was scheduled to open for rail services on September 15 1993 and ...
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Connex Express launches Brighton belles
SEVEN Class 319 EMUs owned by Rolling Stock Company Porterbrook Leasing underwent repainting and refurbishment for the Connex Express service due to be launched on the London - Brighton route on January 27. Connex South Central, the CGEA subsidiary which won Great Britain’s Network SouthCentral passenger franchise in April, chose ...
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Infrastructure maintenance becomes big business
INTRO: By contracting out every aspect of infrastructure installation, renewal and maintenance, Railtrack has given British companies a head start in exploiting a market worth US$30bn a year - if other operators follow suitBYLINE: David Fison MA CEng FICE,Managing Director of Balfour Beatty Rail Ltd, told Richard Hope why buying ...
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Quality initiatives bear fruit
On December 23 Jean Boutanquoi, Director of SNCF’s Ile-de-France commuter business, presented the first results of quality initiatives introduced last June after a survey of customer opinion. They are focused on personal safety, punctuality, passenger information and ticket retailing.At the end of December, the first 170 of 240 extra personnel ...
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Storebaelt reverts to ballasted track
INTRO: Although slab track was originally to have been laid in the Storebaelt tunnel, failure to optimise the choice of track with the diameter of the tunnel at the design stage led to a compromise using ballasted trackBYLINE: Palle ReenbergProject Manager, TrackDSB Banetechnik StorebaeltDANISH STATE Railways was appointed by A/S ...
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Channel Tunnel Rail Link gets Royal Assent
ON December 18 the Act authorising construction of the 108 km Channel Tunnel Rail Link to St Pancras in London received Royal Assent. London & Continental Railways, which won the concession to finance and build CTRL in February 1996, is now free to acquire land, undertake detailed design, and prepare ...
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First phase of TGV Est approved
FRENCH Prime Minister Alain Juppé announced on December 23 that construction of the first phase of the long-planned TGV Est project will start in 1998. With the declaration of public utility agreed in May 1996, the way is now clear for SNCF to proceed with detailed design and land acquisitions.Although ...
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Akita shinkansen opens next month
JR EAST will launch direct shinkansen services on March 22 between Tokyo and Akita. Marketed as Komachi, they will be formed of Series E3 trainsets (RG 10.95 p663) running over the Tohoku shinkansen as far as Morioka and then on the regauged Tazawako line from Morioka to Omagari and Akita.Of ...
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1997 marks milestones for Øresund link
INTRO: Construction of the fixed road and rail link across the Baltic between Denmark and Sweden is well on course for opening in 2000.Chris Jackson took a look at progress TRACKLAYING is getting under way on the Danish approaches to the Øresund fixed link, which is due to provide road ...
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Swedes to revive Zambia Railways
ZAMBIA’S Ministry of Transport & Communications announced on November 22 that agreement had been reached for Swedish consultants to take over the management of Zambia Railways for two years, in order to rescue the struggling company and allow bulk freight including export copper traffic to be switched back from road ...
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Pointers
n Look for the Swiss government to authorise a further tranche of funds for the NEAT base tunnel works; SFr645m was requested on November 25.n Indian Railways is to invite international tenders shortly for the supply of advanced technology track maintenance machinery. n Watch for development in the United ...
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People
Mr Amos Uzani has been named General Manager of Israel Railways. A lawyer, he moves from the Ports Authority, where he was Deputy Manager, Personnel.Mr Jerry Davis, President of Union Pacific Railroad has been elected Chairman of the Association of American Railroads; he will succeed Mr John W Snow of ...