All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 948
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NewsGiving advice
SYSTRA: The engineering consultancy has launched a business specialising in advice on environmental and sustainability issues. Systra Conseil will have 100 staff in 12 countries. President & CEO Philippe Citroen said Systra Conseil could draw on ‘a lot of expertise across the company’ to advise politicians and decision makers ...
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NewsWorld infrastructure market July 2009
Argentina: The federal government has awarded a contract worth 30m pesos for track renewals in Entre Ríos, covering the routes from Paraná to Concepción del Uruguay and Concordia. Provincial rail agency Uefer is refurbishing five cars for passenger service. Australia: ARTC has awarded John Holland and GHD a $250m contract ...
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NewsRFF initiates Paris RER Line D upgrade
FRANCE: The board of Réseau Ferré de France approved a €115m investment package to start the modernisation of Paris RER Line D on July 9. Linking Orry-la-Ville, Melun, and Malesherbes with a total route length of 160 km, Line D is currently being used by 550 000 passengers/day, which is ...
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NewsFreightliner PowerHaul locomotives ready for testing
UK: GE Transportation is about to begin dynamic testing the first two of 30 PowerHaul locomotives it is building for Freightliner. Locomotives 70001 and 70002 will be subjected to more than 170 tests including ride quality, gauging and electromagnetic compatibility using the 6 km test track at GE Transportation's plant ...
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NewsTime to build for the future
EVOLUTION: Engineers with vision have an essential role to play in driving the revitalisation of Europe’s railways to meet the needs of a modern society.
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NewsTweeting train passengers update from the crowd
PASSENGER INFORMATION: A service alerting passengers to ‘crowd sourced’ information about train delays has been developed by Ben Smith, an IT consultant specialising in mobile technologies who commutes into London by rail. @uktrains provides news on disruption via the Twitter website, which allows people to publish 140 character messages. ...
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NewsTailored times
PASSENGER INFORMATION: Mobile applications company mxData has launched LiveTrain, providing UK customers of mobile phone company Orange with location-based timetable and live train running information from National Rail Enquiries. The second phase of LiveTrain will offer enhanced WAP and web services with service disruption information and enhanced planning capabilities. ...
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NewsAnsaldoBreda to supply Fortaleza metro trains
BRAZIL: AnsaldoBreda signed a €86m contract to supply 20 trains for the Fortaleza metro on July 6. The air-conditioned metre-gauge EMUs will be 40 m long with capacity for 445 passengers and a top speed of 120 km/h. The 23 km South Line of Metrofor will run from Vila da ...
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NewsSupercapacitors to be tested on Paris STEEM tram
FRANCE: Paris transport operator RATP and Alstom are to launch a one-year trial of a supercapacitor on-board energy storage system, following approval by Certifer for the equipment to be used in revenue service. Developed under the STEEM research and development project, the supercapacitor technology has been fitted to one of ...
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NewsSaudi Landbridge PFI to be reviewed
SAUDI ARABIA: Discussions which are now underway regarding the possible transfer of management oversight of the delayed Saudi Landbridge project could see the 945 km Riyadh - Jeddah line built by the public sector. The project is currently being managed by Saudi Railways Organisation, which runs the existing railway between ...
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NewsFyra brand for Amsterdam - Brussels high speed
EUROPE: Amsterdam - Brussels high speed services will be branded 'Fyra', NS Hispeed and SNCB revealed on July 7. The announcement at NedTrain's Watergraafsmeer high speed train depot was accompanied by a formal presentation of the prototype of the AnsaldoBreda 250 km/h V250 trainsets, previously known as 'Albatros'. NS ...
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NewsShanghai Line 8 extension open for business
CHINA: The second phase of Shanghai metro Line 8 entered service at 08.00 on July 5 when the first train left Lianhang Road station. On board were 220 local residents who had been invited to join the inaugural trip along the extended route, which is now 37·5 km long ...
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NewsElectric shunter delivered to SBB
SWITZERLAND: The first of 21 Stadler Ee 922 electric shunting locomotives ordered by Swiss Federal Railways was formally handed over on July 3. The locomotives will be deployed shunting passenger stock at seven major stations by the end of 2010, replacing Ee 3/3 locomotives dating back as far as the ...
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NewsCatalan cargo shuttle
SPAIN: Cargometro launched a swap body shuttle carrying car parts between the Port of Barcelona and the SEAT plant in Martorell on June 4, using the 17·5 km dual-gauge freight route between Can Tunis and Castellbisbal built under the Madrid – Barcelona high speed programme. This is expected to remove ...
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NewsPassenger revival
ARGENTINA: The federal government has taken delivery of the latest batch of second-hand stock from Spain. Transport Secretary Ricardo Jaime said the 10 Class 319 diesel locomotives would be deployed on the Sarmiento and Roca commuter networks in Buenos Aires, and to haul long-distance services between Buenos Aires ...
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NewsLinz orders more Cityrunners
AUSTRIA: Bombardier Transportation has received a €69m order from transport operator Linz Linien GmbH to supply a further 23 Flexity Outlook trams. They will be a development of the 33 Cityrunners which have been in service in Linz since 2001, and were the first 100% low-floor trams with conventional wheelset ...
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NewsAlstom to supply Athens metro extensions
GREECE: Alstom Transport and Athens metro operator Attiko Metro signed a €15m contract on June 26 for the supply of Iconis automatic train supervision and passenger information equipment for extensions of lines 2 and 3. These projects form part of the development plan to link the metro to the ...
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NewsAnother attempt at restructuring Eurostar
EUROPE: The UK government, SNCF and SNCB are negotiating the transformation of Eurostar's tri-national structure into a single company, Secretary of State for Transport Lord Adonis told the upper house of the UK parliament on June 25. An agreement is expected later this year. There have been several previous ...
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NewsPresident opens Astana locomotive plant
KAZAKHSTAN: President Nursultan Nazarbayev inaugurated GE Transportation’s locomotive assembly plant in Astana on July 3. Later this year staff at the 43000 m² plant will begin assembling 300 Evolution Series locomotives for state railway KTZ using parts supplied from the USA under a US$650m order for a total ...