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Issue 2 2010
5 April 2010
With the German Railway Reform in 1994, the sovereign functions were transferred from the former state railways Deutsche Bundesbahn and Deutsche Reichsbahn to the Eisenbahn-Bundesamt (EBA). These comprise primarily the issuing of approvals and the supervisory function. The approval function of the EBA encompasses the authorisation of technical products and systems in the form of authorisations for placing into service. It does extend, however, to ‘authorising’ companies by way of licences and issuing safety certificates and/or safety authorisations to railway undertakings and/or infrastructure managers based on an audit of their safety management systems. Since 2007, the EBA has thus been the safety authority pursuant to Article 16 of the Safety Directive.
5 April 2010
The economic recession has had a big impact on Germany’s railways – but restructuring of the industry is continuing, albeit at a slower pace. The 2008 credit crunch had a severe effect on manufacturing across Europe, with automobile assembly and construction hard hit. This had knock-on effects on the railways: steel and coal traffic in particular were down, taking rail freight carryings in Germany down by well over 10% last year.
5 April 2010
The Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (Association of German Transport Companies (VDV)) with approximately 550 ordinary members and more than 50 extraordinary members is the established address for many institutions in politics and administration, trade and industry, research and training for questions of public transport and rail freight traffic in Germany. Thus, the association also includes 147 railway passenger transport companies and 202 rail freight companies among its members.
5 April 2010
The Iberian region represents one of the most exciting opportunities for development and business opportunities, with considerable investment in both infrastructure and rolling stock alike. With this in mind, European Railway Review organised Iberian Rail Development 2010 which took place on 16-17 February 2010 in Madrid, Spain.
5 April 2010
TCDD, Turkish State Railways, is forging ahead with high-speed projects and other infrastructure developments to ensure they continue to provide effective, efficient and up-to-date passenger transportation for their country.
5 April 2010
TRAINOSE S.A. was founded in 2005, initially as a subsidiary of OSE S.A., but became independent of the OSE Group in 2009. Its operational and organisational split from the Hellenic Railways Holding Organisation was part of its initiated restructuring programme to fortify Greece’s railway business and consumer offering in the transnational competitive environment.
5 April 2010
ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG was established in October 2009 following the merger of ÖBB-Infrastruktur Bau AG and ÖBB-Infrastruktur Betrieb AG. Since the restructuring of ÖBB in the year 2005, both of these companies were operational subsidiaries under ÖBB-Holding. The interfaces between the two infrastructure companies, however, were too versatile. There were many overlaps and thus inefficiency, in particular with the maintenance and retrofitting of existing lines. The consolidation into one infrastructure company allowed ironing out overlaps and efficiently allocating assignments.
5 April 2010
The speed of today’s trains and the number of different regional specifications are factors posing stiffer challenges on modern track construction. Vossloh Fastening Systems is addressing these trends by developing new rail fastening systems for ballast-type tracks.
5 April 2010
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is responsible for the entire public transportation network of New York City. The largest in North America, MTA’s rail infrastructure is impressive, with 8.5 million passengers per day, operation of 8,934 railway cars and 734 stations, 3,310 kilometres of track and the budget in 2008 was 10.8 billion USD.
5 April 2010
Following the merger of the two companies ÖBB-Infrastruktur Bau AG and ÖBB-Infrastruktur Betrieb AG into ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG on 3 October 2009, the two divisions Construction and Maintenance and INFRA.service were also consolidated with effect from 1 January 2010 (see Figure 1).
5 April 2010
edilon)(sedra is a company active worldwide in the field of products for railway infrastructure projects. edilon)(sedra develops, manufactures and markets innovative, highly durable rail fastening systems for trains, trams, metros and crane tracks, which are an elementary part of the edilon)(sedra track systems.
5 April 2010
The Chinese railway dates back approximately 130 years. The first railway line, Wu-Song, was built in 1876 in Shanghai with a length of 14.5km and a track gauge of 762mm. The first railway built by Chinese engineers is the Jingzhang-Railway (Beijing to Zhangjiakou), finished between 1905 and 1909 with a total length of 201.1km, a small curve radius of 182.5m and four tunnels with a length of 1.6km. The Chief Engineer, Zhan Tianyou, who used a switchback to overcome a steep gradient, is called the father of China’s railway due to his achievement in construction of this railway line. Since that time, the Chinese railway has written its own story. At the beginning of the modern era, 21,810km of railway lines were in operation. Due to the economic reforms up until the late 1980s, the Chinese railway begun to grow significantly to meet the requirements of the growing economy and population. Over the last decade, the topic of high-speed railway has become a very important one for the Chinese railway industry.
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