All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 673
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NewsPorto Alegre train maintenance contract awarded
BRAZIL: Porto Alegre metro operator Trensurb has awarded CAF Brasil Indústria e Comércio a R$79·7m contract to maintain its fleet of 25 trainsets for five years. The contract covers preventive and corrective maintenance of the four-car trainsets. Trensurb plans to invite tenders soon for the maintenance of the 15 ...
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NewsUrban rail news in brief - July 2014
Korea Engineering & Construction has signed a memorandum of understanding to undertake a feasibility study for a 13·6 km light rail line in Davao City on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. A 1·8 km extension of Minsk metro Line 1 from Petrovshchina to Malinovka opened on ...
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NewsPalermo tram unveiled
ITALY: The first tram for Palermo was officially launched by Mayor Leoluca Orlando on July 14. The vehicle ran from the Roccella depot to Scaffa Square, where it was presented to the public. Transport authority AMAT ordered 17 100% low-floor Flexity Outlook trams from Bombardier Transportation in 2006 for ...
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NewsSpeciality lubricants for reliable rail traffic
Klüber Lubrication: Experts from Klüber Lubrication will be pleased to answer any questions regarding the lubrication of railway components, drawing on the company’s comprehensive range of speciality products. ‘When developing lubricants for the rail sector, Klüber Lubrication is especially focused on making them environmentally friendly’, says Thomas Kamprath, Market Manager, ...
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NewsFootbath luxury in Yamagata Shinkansen trainset
JAPAN: East Japan Railway will put into service a luxury trainset on its Yamagata Shinkansen with effect from July 19, as part of an ongoing programme to refresh the line’s fleet of mini-shinkansen trainsets. Known as Toreiyu from a combination of Train + Soleil, the six-car trainset has been rebuilt ...
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NewsNews in Brief - July 2014
The Dutch cabinet has allocated an extra €1·1bn for rail projects. Platforms and a subway at Amsterdam Centraal are to be widened a cost of €431m, tracks lowered in Vucht to remove level crossings and a curve for freight trains built at Meteren. Norway’s Ministry of Transport has exercised ...
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NewsSpot timetable weaknesses
NETHERLANDS: Infrastructure manager ProRail has recently deployed OpenTimeTable planning software which provides an interactive way of accessing operational data to help identify weaknesses in timetabling that can lead to delays. OTT was originally developed in-house by SBB, which has used it across its timetabling department since 2007. OTT is now ...
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NewsNEB signs Netz Ostbrandenburg operating contract
GERMANY: The Länder of Brandenburg and Berlin signed contracts for local railway company Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn to operate Netz Ostbrandenburg regional passenger services on July 10. The services on routes north and east of Berlin were tendered as two lots totalling 5 million train-km/year, with NEB named as the winner ...
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NewsSénat approves French railway reforms
FRANCE: The government’s draft legislation to restructure the rail sector passed its reading in the Sénat by 188 votes to 150 on July 10. The revised text had been adopted by 355 votes to 168 during a reading in the Assemblée Nationale on June 24. Under an accelerated process, the ...
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NewsWorld rolling stock market July 2014
Africa: Tazara has placed a US$9·5m order for 18 passenger coaches and spare parts for delivery from China in late 2015. Brazil: Vale has taken delivery of the first of 39 coaches ordered for the Carajás Railway from Astra Vagoane Calatori of Romania for US$556m (RG 6.14 p18). The ...
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NewsCzech-German cross-border reopening
EUROPE: Passenger services returned to the line between Dolní Poustevna in the Czech Republic and Sebnitz in Germany on July 4, almost 70 years after it closed in the aftermath of World War II. The reopened route is used by eight Route U28 return services a day between Rumburk and ...
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NewsShift2Rail joins Horizon 2020 launch
EUROPE: Following its formal adoption by the European Union’s Council of Ministers on June 16, the Shift2Rail Joint Technology Initiative was launched at a conference in Brussels on July 9 alongside six other JTIs under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research programme. The conference marked the start of calls for ...
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NewsBombardier opens Bogie Technical Centre
GERMANY: Bombardier Transportation inaugurated a new Bogie Technical Centre at its Siegen site on July 10. Bringing together the specialist engineers and tools needed for the development, testing and certification of Bombardier’s bogie portfolio, the technical centre is located alongside the company’s bogie headquarters and final assembly, wheelset and repair ...
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NewsLightweight rolling stock components
VOITH: Lightweight components and faster maintenance turnaround times will be the focus of the Voith stand, where visitors will be able to inspect the nose of an ICx trainset as well as energy absorbers, drive components and a new SA3 coupler, while learning more about the company’s servicing concepts. An ...
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NewsSBB orders Stadler EMUs
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways announced two firm orders for Stadler Rail to supply additional electric multiple-units on June 9. A SFr397m order covers 19 six-car double-deck EMUs to be delivered from late 2018. These will enable service frequencies to be increase on the Zürich S-Bahn network. The second order ...
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NewsBratislava orders 30 ForCity Plus trams
SLOVAKIA: Bratislava transport authority DPB has excercised an option for Škoda Transportation to supply a further 30 ForCity Plus trams and provide 15 years of maintenance support. The order covers 15 bi-directional Type 30T trams for delivery in late 2015 at a cost of €39·3m, and 15 unidirectional Type 29T ...
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NewsRussia One tram prototype revealed
RUSSIA: An unusually-styled prototype tram was unveiled at the Innoprom 2014 industrial exhibition in Yekaterinburg on July 9. Branded Russia One or R1, it has been developed by the Uraltransmash tram manufacturing subsidiary of defence and rolling stock supplier Uralvagonzavod, in partnership with design agency OKB Atom. According to the ...
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NewsRift Valley Railways capital investment plans
AFRICA: Kenya – Uganda railway concessionaire Rift Valley Railways plans to make capital investments totalling more than US$100m during the current year. On July 8 the operator announced the final US$69·6m drawdown from a US$164m debt facility which was raised from international financiers in 2011 to fund a US$287m five-year ...
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NewsHot springs at InnoTrans 2014
CONTITECH: Air spring systems designed for use in extremely hot or cold conditions in Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan will be showcased on the ContiTech stand. These will include the newly-developed K air spring designed to withstand temperatures as low as -50°C. ContiTech will also be presenting air actuators ...
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NewsDiesel-hydraulic locomotive developed
ROMANIA: A 1 260 hp diesel-hydraulic locomotive for shunting and light freight applications has been developed by Grampet Group’s Electroputere VFU rolling stock manufacturing and Reloc Craiova refurbishment subsidiaries. Branded ‘Terra Nova’, the four-axle locomotive is targeted at export markets. Initial discussions have begun with potential customers, while certification tests ...