All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 940
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NewsLow cost coaches developed by RCF Kapurthala
INDIA: RCF Kapurthala has developed a range of stainless steel coaches which it says are 40% cheaper than the previous designs offered under a 2001 technology transfer agreement with LHB. The high cost of stainless steel cars has previously limited their use to the main Shatabdi and Rajdhani Express services. ...
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NewsWorld infrastructure market September 2009
Australia: ARTC signed an agreement with Leighton Contractors on July 29 creating the Upper Hunter Valley Alliance to deliver A$152m of works to increase rail capacity on the Hunter Valley coal corridor. Sub-alliance partners include Parsons Brinckerhoff, Coffey Geotechnics and KMH Environmental. Last month Siemens completed electrification of QR’s Jilalan ...
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NewsContracts - September 2009
Australia: The Victorian Department of Transport has awarded Unisys a six-year contract worth A$114m to modernise passenger information systems at 220 stations around Melbourne. Xstrata Coal has awarded Pacific National a 10-year haulage contract replacing existing contracts covering the Hunter Valley and Port Kembla regions from January 1. QR National ...
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NewsRail industry has cause for optimism, survey suggests
GLOBAL: A survey of 961 respondents across the rail, aviation and shipping industries by law firm Norton Rose has indicated that the rail industry is best placed to withstand the impact of the recession. Norton Rose launched its report detailing the results, entitled The Way Ahead for Transport, at ...
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NewsGrand designs from Ethiopian Railway Corp
ETHIOPIA: Dr Getachew Betru is a man with a vision. As Director of the Ethiopian Railway Corp, he has been charged by the country’s government with planning and developing a 5 000 km standard-gauge rail network over the next seven years. Through his business at GBA Consultancy, Dr Betru ...
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NewsAdonis builds momentum at UK’s High Speed Rail Summit
UK: Fresh from visits to China and South Korea where he had been looking at high speed rail developments, Secretary of State for Transport Lord Andrew Adonis told an audience of around 250 delegates at the HSR Summit in London on September 9 that the issue of high speed rail ...
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NewsCab signalling to bring 200 km/h to Poland
POLAND: The CMK fast line linking Warszawa with Silesia is to be equipped with ETCS Level 1 under a 50·1m zloty contract signed by infrastructure manager PKP PLK and Thales Rail Signalling Solutions on August 29. The work is being funded by PKP PLK and the state, but as ...
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NewsKolkata metro expands
INDIA: Governor of West Bengal Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Minister for Railways Mamata Banerjee flagged off the first train on a 5·1 km four-station extension of Kolkata's North-South Line from Tollygunge to Kavi Nazrul on August 22. Tollygunge station has been renamed Mahanayak Uttam Kumar, ...
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NewsMissing link unites Sofia metro Line 1
BULGARIA: Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, interim Mayor of Sofia Minko Gerdzikov and Japanese Ambassador Tsuneharu Takeda formally opened the latest section of Sofia metro Line 1 on September 8. Passenger services had started the previous day. The 2 km link between Serdika and Vasil Levski National Stadium joins the ...
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NewsDubai metro opens
UAE: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, will officially open the Dubai metro Red Line on September 9.Following months of speculation about the status of the metro project, RTA Chairman & Executive Director Mattar Al Tayer confirmed ...
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NewsAssociation of American Railroads voices PTC concerns
USA: The Association of American Railroads has registered objections to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Positive Train Control, issued by the Federal Railroad Administration on July 16. According to AAR, the proposal goes beyond what was mandated by Congress, and would therefore impose unnecessary burdens on the Class I ...
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NewsEIB to provide £1bn Crossrail loan
UK: Transport for London announced a £1bn loan agreement with the European Investment Bank on September 8. TfL and the Greater London Authority are responsible for contributing £7·7bn of the £15·9bn cost for the Crossrail east-west line across central London. Of this £7·7bn, £2·4bn is to be funded from ...
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NewsTasmanian rail sale deal agreed
AUSTRALIA: The Tasmanian government and Pacific National announced on September 7 that they had successfully concluded the 'lengthy and highly complex negotiations' for the state to buy the island's railways for A$32m. Subject to approval from the state parliament the transfer will be completed on December 1, with a ...
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NewsNS Hispeed launches HSL-Zuid services
NETHERLANDS: NS Hispeed launched Amsterdam - Rotterdam passenger services over HSL-Zuid on September 7, following a formal inauguration by the Dutch Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings and the mayors of Amsterdam, Haarlemmermeer and Rotterdam the previous day. The interim service comprises 17 weekday return trips, with Bombardier Traxx electric locomotives ...
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NewsLooking into stopping faster
BRAKING: An Inertia Dynamometer Test Rig now installed at Knorr-Bremse’s München plant can simulate extreme environmental conditions found in the hottest and coldest parts of the world, allowing the brake manufacturer to reproduce any requirements a high speed train operator may envisage. Knorr-Bremse has made a significant investment in ...
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NewsPeople in the News - September 2009
Recently-appointed President of national rail operator RENFE Operadora, Teófilo Serrano has named four additional members of the company’s executive management board. Enrique Urkijo Goitia becomes Director General of Strategic Development, Avelino Castro López Director General of Construction & Maintenance, Francisco Celso González Director General of Economics & Finance, and Jésus ...
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NewsMumbai Line 2 awarded
INDIA: Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority awarded the PPP contract for Mumbai Metro Line 2 to the sole bidder, a consortium of Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Infocomm and Canada’s SNC Lavalin, on July 29. The consortium is already building Line 1 which will connect Versova, Andheri and Ghatkopar. Work on ...
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NewsCitadis tram arrives in Istanbul
TURKEY: On September 1 Alstom delivered the first of 37 Citadis trams ordered by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. The vehicle left Alstom’s engineering and production centre in Valenciennes, France, on August 25 and travelled by road to Trieste in Italy, from where it was shipped to Turkey on August 29. The ...
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NewsTyva railway PPP signed
RUSSIA: Eniseiskaya Industrial Corp and the government of the Tyva republic signed a public-private partnership agreement for the construction of the Kyzyl - Kuragino railway during a visit by Federal Minister for Regional Development Viktor Basargin on August 28. Under terms agreed in February, the 98·6 rouble cost of ...