All articles by Railway Gazette International – Page 969
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NewsFreight maglev on test
USA: We reported last year that Union Pacific had commissioned a study into an 8 km maglev conveyor to shuttle containers between the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and its Intermodal Container Transfer Facility. Suitable technology is now under development in San Diego, where General Atomics has built ...
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NewsPeople in the News - February 2009
In a decision made at a shareholders meeting on January 9 Czeslaw Warsewicz has been replaced as President of PKP Intercity by former PKP PLK President Krzysztof Celinski, while Technical Director Krzysztof Sopa has been succeeded by Krzysztof Kolodziejski. PKP PLK board members Miroslaw Pawlowski and Józef Jezewicz have ...
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NewsKochi metro funding approved
INDIA: The government approved the funding model for the proposed Rs30·5bn Kochi Metro on January 20. This will be a joint venture between the central government and the state of Kerala. The 26 km elevated metro connecting Tripunithura and Aluva is expected to take three years to ...
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NewsPointers February 2009
The project to build a high speed line between Buenos Aires and Córdoba is ‘on stand-by’ due to the current financial crisis according to Patrick Kron, Chairman & CEO of Alstom. ‘When conditions return to normal, I hope the project can be realised and that is a decision for the ...
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NewsGE to supply Hangzhou metro supervision systems
CHINA: Hangzhou Metro has awarded GE Transportation a contract to supply its RailEdge integrated supervision and control systems for the 54 km Line 1 which is scheduled to open at the end of 2011. RailEdge brings together applications for traffic control, scheduling & planning, supervisory control, passenger information, security ...
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NewsMelbourne orders 20 more X'Trapolis EMUs
AUSTRALIA: Premier of Victoria John Brumby announced on February 6 that the state government had exercised an option for a further 20 six-car Alstom X'Trapolis suburban EMUs. The €170m order is an option on a €160m January 2008 contract for 18 units. They will be used in Melbourne, where 58 ...
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NewsAlstom wins Downtown Line track contract
SINGAPORE: The Land Transport Authority has awarded Alstom Transport an S$238·5m contract for track work on the Downtown Line now under construction. The contract awarded on January 30 covers the design, supply and installation of 70 km of track with a 750 V DC third rail power supply on ...
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NewsThalys metamorphosis
REFURBISHMENT: With a dramatic laser show and wreaths of smoke, the first refurbished Thalys trainset was presented to a select group of VIPs and invited guests at the Forest TGV depot in Brussels last month.
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NewsMayor of Angers visits first tram
FRANCE: Mayor Jean-Claude Antonini led a delegation of city officials to Alstom's La Rochelle plant on January 30 to view the first of 17 Citadis 302 trams ordered for Angers. The 32·4m long and 2·4 m wide trams have a strong visual identity which was developed by Angers ...
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NewsLocomotive with local technology
INDIA: The first diesel-electric locomotive fitted with Indian-designed IGBT traction converters and microprocessor controls has entered service following a month of intensive trials. The Diesel Locomotive Works at Varanasi originally began production under a 1961 technology transfer agreement with Alco. A further agreement with EMD in 1995 led to increased ...
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NewsBrigam buys Oleo International
UK: Brigam Ltd has bought Oleo International from the administrators of Wagon plc, which went into administration at the end of last year. The deal includes Oleo Buffers Shanghai Co Ltd in China and Oleo Inc in the USA. 'We have been interested in acquiring Oleo for many years' ...
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NewsAlstom ATC for Santiago Line 1 extension
CHILE: Metro de Santiago has awarded Alstom Transport a €5·3m contract to supply, install and commission Sacem automatic train control on the Escuela Militar - Los Dominicos extension which is now under construction. The 3·8 km addition to Line 1 is expected to open by December. Sacem will allow ...
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NewsBahn 2030 vision emerges
SWITZERLAND: Further expansion of the national rail network is envisaged in ambitious plans outlined in December by the transport ministry. Following completion of the successful Bahn 2000 investment project, attention switched to a more limited programme of improvements to the rail network known as Zukünftigen Entwicklung der Bahninfrastruktur (RG ...
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NewsCisalpino problems continue
SWITZERLAND: SBB continues to wrestle with the problems caused by late delivery from Alstom of Class 610 tilting trainsets ordered in 2004 for Cisalpino services to and from Milano. The difficulties have been made worse by frequent faults with the ETR470 sets currently diagrammed for this service, and SBB has ...
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NewsUncertainty clouds a record year
EUROPE: Announcing its 2008 results on January 13, Eurostar reported that it had carried a record 9·11 million passengers in the 12 months, up 10·3% on the year before. Revenue from ticket sales rose by 10·9% to £664m. The leap in traffic followed the switch from Waterloo to St Pancras ...
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NewsMaribor plant to close
SLOVENIA: Siemens' rolling stock plant in Maribor is to close by the end of September, the government said on January 20. Siemens had been negotiating to sell the plant to Heung Il, but the Korean firm pulled out because of the global financial crisis. Subsequent discussions for a sale ...
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NewsProduction starts at IRICO rail plant
IRAN: Production has begun at Iran Khodro Rail Industries' rolling stock factory at Abhar in northwest Iran, the company announced on February 4. The start of work follows the formal inauguration of the US$45m first phase of the plant by the Minister of Industries & Mines on December 22. ...
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NewsExtra funds will speed up French investment
FRANCE: Announcing a further package of measures to relaunch the economy on February 2, Prime Minister François Fillon revealed that an additional €300m is to be invested in the rail network. Addressing the inter-ministerial committee charged by President Sarkozy with revitalising the economy, Fillon said that more than 1 ...
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NewsStation names prove profitable
UAE: Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority has raised 1·8bn dirham for transport investment by selling the rights to name stations on the Red and Green metro lines. RTA has also awarded a consortium of SMRT Media, Kassab Media and Wellmark Communications a 10-year concession to manage advertising sites on trains ...
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News20-year GSM-R support contract signed
NORWAY: Infrastructure manager Jernbaneverket and Nokia Siemens Networks have signed a 20-year communications support agreement. The contract covers hardware, spares, and software support for the GSM-R mobile network supplied by Nokia Siemens Networks which has been in operation for more than a year. 'The service contract with ...