All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 943
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NewsMontréal tram route announced
CANADA: On August 14 the city of Montréal released a study into proposals for a new tram line which had been commissioned from a consortium of Genivar and Systra. The consultants recommend that the first line should begin in Old Montréal, then take a serpentine route following Peel, De ...
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NewsVR Group restructures in the face of market changes
FINLAND: National railway operating company VR Group announced a major corporate restructuring on August 20, as a response to the economic recession and 'sudden and partially permanent changes' in the markets it serves, particularly in the forest products sector. Freight traffic in the first six months of 2009 was 30% ...
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NewsThree extensions approved for Chicago 'L'
USA: Chicago Transit Authority board adopted locally preferred alternatives for three proposed ‘L’ extensions on August 3, a critical step in applying for federal funding. The projects include: Red Line: an 8·5 km expansion south from the existing 95th Street terminal to 130th Street with four new ...
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NewsFaster to Extremadura
SPAIN: Tenders are to be called in the last quarter of this year for the construction of a gauge-changing facility at Brazatortas-Veredas, enabling trains from Mérida and Badajoz to use the high speed line from Córdoba to reach Madrid. The work is expected to take 10 months ...
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NewsThree locos replace five on 13 000 tonne coal haul
AUSTRALIA: The first three of 23 Class 7100 25 kV electric locomotives being built for Pacific National by Siemens Mobility's München-Allach plant have entered service in Queensland. The 1 067 mm gauge locomotives were ordered in 2007, and deliveries will run to mid-2010. Three Class 7100s will replace five ...
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NewsNew York MTA capital programme released
USA: New York MTA published its preliminary US$25·5bn 2010–14 capital programme for public consultation in August, together with a 2010-29 Twenty Year Needs assessment. The documents identify MTA’s long-term needs and a short-term plan to start addressing them within current budgets. The detailed plan is due to be submitted ...
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NewsLa Réunion picks tram-train concessionaire
FRANCE: The regional council in La Réunion selected the Tram'Tiss consortium as preferred bidder for the PPP concession to develop the Indian Ocean island's ambitious interurban tram-train route on August 13. Led by Bouygues, Bombardier and Veolia, the consortium also includes Colas, local architects and financial partners such as ...
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NewsVancouver's Canada Line opens ahead of schedule
CANADA: Tens of thousands of people sampled the new Canada Line during eight hours of free rides on August 17, an opening that was more than three months ahead of schedule and within a budget of just over C$2bn. The crush of passengers, 30 000 just during the first ...
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NewsMultiple uses of broadband
CCTV: Transmission of live security camera images and diagnostic data, plus multimedia passenger information and wi-fi access, are part of the roll-out of broadband links on trains operated by Catalan regional rail operator FGC. The technology has been developed over two years by FGC and Alstom at a cost of ...
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NewsKowloon Southern Link connects East and West Rail
CHINA: The Kowloon Southern Link opened for revenue service on August 16, finally connecting the ex-Kowloon-Canton Railway West Rail and East Rail routes. Passengers using West Rail to and from Tuen Mun in the Northwest New Territories previously had to change to MTR's Tung Chung line at Nam Cheong ...
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NewsFinal Class 395 docks in Southampton
UK: The ship carrying the last of 29 Hitachi Class 395 electric multiple-units for High Speed 1 domestic services arrived in the Port of Southampton on August 16. The trainset was delivered from Japan to the UK onboard Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics' roll-on, roll-off ship MV Tamesis, travelling 20 600 ...
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NewsAbuja backs concessioning strategy
NIGERIA: After more than two decades of abortive attempts to patch up or reconstruct NRC’s ailing 1 067 mm gauge rail network, the government is now looking to hand the whole lot to the private sector. According to Transport Minister Alhaji Ibrahim Bio, legislation is being prepared that will pave ...
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NewsReaching up
PANTOGRAPH: Indian Railways needed a pantograph suitable for contact wires at 7 450 mm as well as the standard 5 500 mm when assessing electric haulage of double-stack container trains. Kolkata-based Stone India responded by developing the Universal Intelli-Panto. It has features which will be incorporated into Stone India’s standard ...
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NewsSpotting soft spots
USA: Researchers from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln are testing prototype wagon-mounted equipment designed to identify trackbed soft spots where there is risk of rail distortion leading to derailment. The project has received $150 000 from the FRA. The prototype is mounted on a Union Pacific coal wagon which ...
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NewsNew York orders flywheel energy storage
USA: Long Island Rail Road is to use carbon fibre flywheels to store energy regenerated during braking for reuse when trains accelerate, helping to lower energy consumption and reduce the peak power demand which can impose high power supply costs on rail operators. The $5·2m pilot project on ...
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NewsAmbitious investment plans face cash shortfall
UK: The announcement on July 23 by Secretary of State for Transport Lord Adonis that the Great Western Main Line linking London, Bristol, Cardiff and Swansea is to be electrified at 25 kV 50 Hz comes almost exactly 25 years after the go-ahead for the UK’s last main line electrification. ...
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NewsAlabama Warrior Railway launched
USA: Short line company Watco Transportation Services launched Alabama Warrior Railway on August 7. The 24 km railway in Birmingham, Alabama, connects with BNSF, Norfolk Southern and CSX. The main traffic is coal for Walter Coke Inc, with other customers including LaFarge, US Pipe, Cemex, Harrison Gypsum and Performance Minerals. ...
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NewsTaiwan high speed rail refinancing agreed
TAIWAN: When it opened in May 2007, the Taipei - Kaohsiung route was hailed as ‘the world’s first privately-funded high speed line’, but Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp has been finding times tough. Whilst traffic has risen steadily to an average of 87 000 passengers/day for the first half of ...
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NewsSkoda wins Slovak push-pull orders
SLOVAKIA: National operator ZSSK has awarded Skoda Transportation the first export order for the 109E locomotive design which was unveiled last year. As well as two locomotives, the Czech firm will also supply 10 three-car double-deck push-pull trainsets and modernise 10 existing electric locomotives for Slovakia. Contracts totalling €83m ...
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NewsHigh speed scramble
USA: As expected, the decision by the Obama administration to allocate $8bn of stimulus funding for high speed rail development, followed by $5bn from the transport budget over the next five years, has triggered a flood of interest across the country. Earlier this year the federal government invited proposals ...