Alpine stream of rolling stock orders
31 May 2005 | By James Abbott, Technical Editor
Switzerland and Austria are investing heavily in new locomotives for trans-Alpine freight work, along with regional trains for local passenger networks.
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Rail Articles
Assessing infrastructure development
31 May 2005 | By Martin Huber, Chief Executive Officer, Austrian Railways-Holding AG
Austrian Federal Railways (Österreichische Bundesbahnen – ÖBB) has embarked to gradually complete Austria’s rail infrastructure, based on the requirements specified for the 2020 target network to enable it to cope with current and future transport demand. Capacity, cost efficiency and maximum customer benefit are the main drivers of all initiatives…
Train braking performance determination
31 May 2005 | By Hans Paukert, Charge de Mission, UIC (International Union of Railways)
During their historical development, the railways in Europe have adopted their own technical standards and operating rules according to national requirements. As a result, the European railways use different train control systems (INDUSI, KVB, LZB, TVM, ATB etc.) and have different warning distances (400m to 6,000m). This situation constitutes a…
Projects in the Pan-European Corridor IV
31 May 2005 | By Ernst Schraud, Head of International Transportation and Railway Services Department, DE-Consult GmbH
The DE-Consult (Deutsche Eisenbahn-Consulting GmbH) a subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn AG (German Railways) with its vast worldwide experience, has for more than one and a half decades supported the development of railway sectors in Middle and Eastern European countries.
Development of freight wagons
31 May 2005 | By Evert Andersson, Professor and Per-Anders Jönsson, Researcher, KTH Railway Technology
European freight wagon designers have for a long time been guided by the principle that wagons must be capable of being used on all standard-gauge railway networks in Europe. For more than 50 years the International Union of Railways (UIC) has standardised many freight wagon components – in particular their…
LCC – an R&D project
31 May 2005 | By Jürgen Siegmann, Head of Track and Railway Operations, University of Berlin
Since 1997, the Department of Track and Railway Operations of the Technical University of Berlin has been led by Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Jürgen Siegmann, a distinguished expert in the field of railway operations who is frequently asked for his expertise by the industry. His department currently employs 13 assistants who…
Lateral separation cracks in concrete track slab
31 May 2005 | By Sascha Lay, Material Technologist, Pfleiderer track systems
This article will cover the effects of lateral separation cracks in the concrete track slab on the durability of the RHEDA 2000® ballastless track system. The RHEDA 2000® ballastless track system consists of a jointless concrete track slab with bi-block lattice-truss concrete sleepers, on a hydraulically bonded layer (HBL), as shown in…
Turning the tracks around
31 May 2005 | By Jesper Rasmussen, Chief Executive Officer, Rail Net Denmark (Banedanmark)
The challenges are plain for Danish rail infrastructure manager, Rail Net Denmark. A somewhat outdated rail and signal infrastructure are ripe for thorough renewals. The task is put in the hands of an organisation in the process of change, moving from being household of the state to a more independent…
Deutsche Bahn successfully implements SME campaign
2 March 2005 | By Jürgen Dornbach, Chairman of the Board of Management, DB RegioNetz Verkehrs- und Infrastruktur GmbH
It is barely 10 years since local passenger transport in Germany was frequently likened to an ‘ugly duckling’, not only by the general public, but also by the company itself. The image of local passenger services was summed up with attributes such as ‘too expensive, too inflexible, not particularly comfortable…
Nürnberg-München high speed line
2 March 2005 | By Eckart Fricke, Director Production II, Railion Deutschland AG and Wolfgang Feldwisch, Head of Large-Scale Projects, DB Netz AG
The Nürnberg-München line via Ingolstadt was entered in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan in 1985. The regional planning procedure got underway in July 1989 and in May 1992 the statutory public enquiry for the new-build project was initiated by what was then still Deutsche Bundesbahn. As from 1994, DB Netz…
Focussing on customer service
2 March 2005 | By Dirk Schulmeyer, Station Manager, DB Station & Service AG
High standards are demanded of a railway station as every journey by train starts and ends here. Stations not only link railway lines with each other, but also link railway lines with other transport modes such as bus, tram, car, bicycle and aeroplane. Travellers and visitors to larger stations in…
Railion goes East
2 March 2005 | By Klaus Kremper, CEO, Railion Deutschland AG and Member of the Executive Board, Stinnes AG
Observers in the logistics business, as well as in the media, have broadly interpreted the recent Railion strategy as an example of single-dimension expansion motivation. Such critics, however, have failed to perceive that the primary intention of Railion in this context is to develop international rail cargo transport throughout the…
Rolling stock market pauses in Germany
2 March 2005 | By James Abbott, Technical Editor
As the flotation of DB is debated, spending has been cut back at Germany’s state rail operator. Germany, the biggest market for rolling stock manufacturers in Europe, is drawing a breath. After massive investment in the past 15 years in the high speed network and big spending on the train…
The Betuweroute
2 March 2005 | By Patrick Buck, Director of Realisation, Project Organisation Betuweroute
In part 1 of his article on the Betuweroute project, Patrick Buck looks at the background and characteristics of the route.
Catching up…
2 March 2005 | By Alex Kremer, Director General, CFL
In every recent statistic about wealth and world markets, Luxembourg can be found in the top slot of GDP per capita listings, making Luxembourgers, at least in theory, somewhat wealthy people. As can be expected from this statistic, individual transportation is at an all-time high. This, in combination with Luxembourg’s…
