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Rail Articles

British rolling stock market enters a lull

3 November 2005 | By James Abbott, Technical Editor

The post-privatisation train building gold rush in the UK is over. Rolling stock manufacturers face a lean time over the next few years. Privatisation of the British railway industry has not eased the boom-and-bust nature of the rolling stock supply sector. If anything, it has made it worse. A boom…

RFF project progress

3 November 2005 | By Jean-Marie Larose, Deputy Strategy and Development Manager, Réseau Ferré de France (RFF)

Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), the owner and manager of the railway infrastructure in France, is a publicly-owned entity, responsible for the management and development of the rail network and prime contractor for new lines, especially new high-speed rail links.

The railway of the third millennium

3 November 2005 | By Mauro Moretti, Managing Director, RFI (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana)

The Euro is not sufficient to unite Europe: an international railways system is needed to sweep away the borders between the different States by overcoming technological barriers and to compete with air, inland-water and road transport.

GSM-R: where are we today?

3 November 2005 | By Klaus Konrad, Project Manager, UIC Project ERTMS/GSM-R Member of Global Railway Review Editorial Board

My last report in Global Railway Review was in Issue 2 2004, when my focus was on the progress of the development and the implementation of GSM-R in Europe. At that stage, GSM-R implementation had started or was ongoing in several countries. In some of the early implementing railways, GSM-R…

GSM-R for railways in Europe

3 November 2005 | By Ronald Kossatz, Managing Director, FW Fernmeldewerk München-Aubing GmbH

The new technology for railway radio transmission is GSM-R. Deutsche Bahn AG is taking the initiative, and other railway companies are also currently planning and building their systems.

Where is Europe’s end?

3 November 2005 | By Tadeusz Augustowski, Chairman of the Management Board & General Director of PKP headquarters

More than one year has already passed since the European Union was enlarged by the ten new Member States. In Poland, appraisals of economic and social effects of this historical event are, by and large, positive. A lot of expectations have been satisfied, while most of the misgivings expressed before…

The mechatronic bogie – a novel design

3 November 2005 | By Günther Himmelstein, Bogies Advanced Technology Chief Engineer, Bombardier Transportation

Conventional bogie designs suffer from a fundamental conflict of contradicting requirements: Either they are running stable at high speed, but are by no means track friendly when negotiating curves due to their stiff wheel set guidance, or they are able to smoothly follow curved tracks through radial orientation of the…

Innovative solutions to old problems

3 November 2005 | By Willem van Ginkel, Track Expert, ProRail

Railways are of great social importance. In The Netherlands, a million passengers take the train each day and an increasing amount of freight traffic also goes by rail. Without a safe and reliable network with sufficient capacity, everything would grind to a halt. It is one of the tasks of…

Development of railway security policies

3 November 2005 | By Jacques Colliard, Senior Security Advisor, UIC

After having long assumed responsibility for technical aspects linked to traffic safety and installations, railway undertakings have progressively been taking over management of the day-to-day security problems of persons and trains.

RailML – a standard interface for railway data

3 November 2005 | By Vasco Paul Kolmorgen, Coordinator of the RailML group, Dresden, Germany and Dr. Daniel Huerlimann, Coordinator of the RailML group, Zurich, Switzerland

As the number of different railway simulation and operation programmes increase, developing and maintaining individual interfaces will become impractical. Therefore, RailML has been developed using the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) to simplify data transfer through the use of a common data structure – a simple and efficient way to transfer…

An overall view of maintenance

23 August 2005 | By Vivianne Karlsson, Senior Advisor Maintenance & Strategic Planning, Banverket

The task of Banverket, the Swedish National Rail Administration, to safeguard the state-owned railway infrastructure is performed with the aid of significant maintenance so as to ensure its operations achieve the transport policy goals set out by Sweden’s Government. Maintenance is a link in securing a transport system for the…

The start of a new century for Norwegian railways

23 August 2005 | By Steinar Killi, Director General, Norwegian National Rail Administration (Jernbaneverket)

Norwegian railway history is both long and eventful, as was evident in 2004 when we celebrated its 150th anniversary. Besides offering a chance for a nostalgic look back, the anniversary year also provided an excellent opportunity for looking forward. In actual fact, the year 2004 provided many causes for celebration.

The Finnish-Russian joint rail project

23 August 2005 | By Kari Ruohonen, Investment Director, Finnish Rail Administration

A joint project between Finland and Russia will gradually shorten the journey time on the Helsinki-St. Petersburg line to approximately three hours. Modernising the rail connection between Helsinki and St. Petersburg is one of the most important joint development projects between Finland and the Russian Federation. In the background is…

SJ prepares to defend its market share

23 August 2005 | By James Abbott, Technical Editor

An ambitious program of improved services is underway for Swedish State Railways as it squares up to face fierce competition from land, sea and air, including other rail operators in the regional market.

CORADIA LIREX for Stockholm

23 August 2005 | By Carsten Fischer, Engineering Manager – CORADIA LIREX Platform, ALSTOM Transport

From the LIREX Experimental to the CORADIA LIREX for Stockholm – how a new generation test vehicle became a series train...