Details of millions of dollars in cost blow-outs on the Bracks Government's ambitious regional fast-rail project are being kept hidden from taxpayers, the State Opposition claims. Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder has obtained details of recent payments for the project made by the Government since July, worth more than $56 million.
NSW Transport Minister Michael Costa today staked his political credibility on a new timetable to fix Sydney's troubled rail networ
HERITAGE PROTECTION COULD THWART THE STATE GOVERTMENT PLANS FOR A MULTI MILLION DOLLAR UPGRADE OF THE NORTH MELBROURNE RAILWAY STATION THE OPPOSITION CLAIMS.
BRITAIN'S top law enforcement official, in political trouble over allegations he used his influence to aid a woman he was romantically involved with, said today he would repay the cost of a government-issued train voucher he gave her
NOT many people can say they've been hit by a train and survived to tell the tale.
GOVERNMENTS are masters of spin. Thus the Bracks Government has accepted the challenge of making a virtue of the combination of increased public transport fares and reduced services.
The Greens have called on the New South Wales Government to urgently inject money into rural rail services.
SOUTH Coast rail timetables will remain unchanged, despite the NSW Government announcing a major shakeup to CityRail services yesterday. The Carr Government has staked its political future on a revamped timetable which will apply to all lines except the Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra and South Coast lines.
A MAN has died after being hit by a train in Sydney's inner-west today. An ambulance spokesman said the man was struck at Newtown station about 12.37pm (AEDT). The circumstances of the death are uncertain.
Marjorie Gook is the last surviving WW1 war widow in the Northern Territory.
The city's crippling train crisis and drastic service cuts under proposed timetable changes have prompted a group of civic and business leaders to demand an immediate start to a light-rail mass-transit network. Increasingly frustrated at the Carr Government's failure to commit to a long-term public-transport policy for the rapidly expanding inner ring of suburbs, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, yesterday hosted leaders of city business groups concerned about deteriorating transit options and how these may hurt CBD commerce.
The main improvement train users were desperately seeking - faster, more frequent services - has been ignored in the draft CityRail timetable, the NSW Commuter Council has warned. Kevin Parish, chairman of the lobby group representing the state's commuters, said despite his organisation working with the State Government on the timetable for six months, the draft fell well short of what was needed.
A leading Melbourne transport chief supports new tram services for Clayton and Doncaster.
The State Government has not withdrawn $3.7 million it allocated to the Lake Weeroona tram project - yet. A spokesman for State and Regional Development Minister John Brumby yesterday confirmed the tram funding was still on the table.
Stakeholders will meet in Canberra today to discuss the future of the Tumut to Cootamundra rail line in southern New South Wales.
Pakistani and Indian officials Thursday failed to reach an agreement on the time frame for resuming a train service between two border towns in Sindh and Rajasthan.
Bombardier, the struggling Canadian aircraft and train maker, brought the number of job cuts this year to 10,000 yesterday when it said a further 2,200 would have to go in its railway business.
A 116-year-old bridge on the old North Australia Railway has been recognised today for its national engineering heritage significance.
A major operation to lift four 95-tonne beams into place on the second New North Road rail bridge has been carried out over the last weekend of November and will continue through the first weekend of December.
New North Road is being temporarily closed for the duration of the work over the two weekends, while a crane lifts the concrete beams into place alongside the existing rail bridge.
An engineering and technological first for New Zealand will begin carrying passengers on Auckland’s rail network this month.
The SD “driving cab” is a unique type of carriage that increases train efficiency and capacity.
An Auckland Regional Council text message information system for rail passengers has won a BearingPoint innovation award.
The information service was established by the ARC in conjunction with Toll NZ in May, to keep passengers up-to-date on train services. It won top honours in the Local Government section of the awards held last night.
Pakistan and India have agreed to restore a second rail link between the two countries, which was severed nearly 40 years ago.
As Sydney grapples with how to accommodate its future population, a report to RailCorp has warned that building residential apartments over railway lines is "inherently problematic", could pose safety risks and inhibit growth of the rail network.
SEVENTY-EIGHT people were injured, one seriously, when a goods train ignored a stop sign and smashed into the rear of an inter-city passenger train in southeastern Italy, rescue workers and police said on Friday.
Between April 2004 and early 2005, construction work will take place on the section of railway that runs from Boston Road Station in Mt Eden to Morningside.
The more CityRail changes, the more the trains stay the same, writes Joseph Kerr. "Railway officials threw away their controversial new timetables last night as Sydney's suburban train services became hopelessly snarled. With trains running an hour or more late, drivers and guards were given hurried new routing instructions as they pulled into stations. Indicator boards flashed like pinball machines and confused commuters strained to hear muffled announcements before cramming into already packed peak-hour trains.
A passenger train and a car collided at an Adelaide crossing overnight, police said today.
We have had 107 sightings for this week which is 21 sightings more than last week. The total number of sightings for the year to date is 5715 (last years sightings on day 339 was 3947).
The operators of Gatwick Airport have accused rail bosses of trying to "murder" the airport's non-stop rail service to central London.
New South Wales Nationals leader Andrew Stoner says the Carr Government is ignoring problems in the country rail system because it is distracted by Cityrail's problems.
Queensland's only surviving diesel tilt train was secretly grounded on Friday night after an inquiry into last month's train crash found major structural flaws in the wheel housing of the derailed train.
Transport enthusiast David Jones has loved trains since he was a small boy and has dedicated a large part of his life to restoring them. So it was a dream come true when his restoration of an 1870s AB1 rail car -- believed to be oldest rail carriage in the state -- was completed yesterday.
A return train trip from Bendigo to Melbourne will rise to just over $50 under price increases announced by the State Government.
Members of the public gathered in Sydney to fight against the proposed sale of an historic tram depot.
Work on the $617 million Regional Fast Rail project has been hit by a union ban on James Hardie products.
The New South Wales Government says it would consider a proposal to extend the Casino to Murwillumbah rail line in northern NSW into southern Queensland.
Three times in the last 30 years, Honolulu has tried to come up with a new mass transit system. Three times, it has failed. Even so, a majority of O'ahu residents still want a new rail transit system and are willing to pay more in taxes for it, according to a government survey
Melbourne's remaining fleet of W-class trams is yet to fully return more than four years after they were withdrawn amid safety concerns.
Unions have stepped up their campaign to renationalise the railways by calling for an end to the "nightmare" of privatisation.
Asia's ooming industries want to buy Australian coal and mining companies have plenty to sell, but bottlenecks at ports and rail lines mean they are increasingly having to turn export business away.
Commuters in Melbourne's south-east will face train delays of at least 30 minutes today after lightning struck signalling equipment last night.
When the train from Homebush arrived at Central at 10.51am yesterday - 13 minutes late - commuters were already furious. Many were bound for stations further along the City Circle, but were told the train was terminating, as part of CityRail's two-week trial of its new timetable.
The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) says four groups have submitted bids for a key London-to-Scotland train operating franchise.
State-owned Russian Railways, or RZD, which owns one of the world's biggest railway systems, plans to rebalance its traffic next year by encouraging more cargoes to be exported via land borders and by reducing shipments via major ports.
Mining giant WMC Resources is seeking state and federal approval to transport yellowcake uranium on the Adelaide-to-Darwin railway.
Plans to scrap the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) just three years after it was created have been defended by Transport Secretary Alistair Darling.
Melbourne commuters could face train delays on their way home tonight after train operator Connex said it could not guarantee damage caused by overnight thunderstorms would be repaired in time for the evening rush.
A MAN escaped with only minor injuries when his tractor was hit by a train on a south-west NSW level crossing today
Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel is facing a revolt from haulage companies over plans to increase its prices.
Fire crews are working to remove the bodies of two people killed in a crash between a train and a van on a level crossing before investigators move in.
The railway line through Wagga Wagga, in southern NSW, is closed this morning as police investigate the circumstances surrounding a fatality at the Kapooka Bridge.
Ministers have made it clear who controls the purse strings of the railways through a clause buried deep in the Railways Bill.
Russia’s anti-trust authorities launched a case Monday against state-owned Russian Railways for putting unwarranted pressure on the nation’s only private railway company.
Indian Railways is set to take the competition head on. With its share in cargo transport falling, the railways are planning to make freight charges flexible on some routes to attract greater volumes.
Entrepreneur and Reserve Bank director Robert Gerard, who is the 49th richest man in Australia, is believed to have paid about $500,000 to charter the train for the 3000km trip.
Great Southern Railway yesterday refused to comment.
But it is known scheduled services will run as usual.
Mr Gerard's charter train, which will have about 20 carriages, is expected to leave Keswick station in Adelaide on New Year's Eve and be near Coober Pedy at midnight.
The Northern Territory Government has indicated it will not oppose plans to transport yellowcake uranium on the Adelaide to Darwin railway.
The railway line through Wagga Wagga, in southern NSW, is closed this morning as police investigate the circumstances surrounding a fatality at the Kapooka Bridge.
Products more dangerous than uranium ore were being transported on the Alice Springs to Darwin Railway, WMC Resources said yesterday.
Now that Florida Governor Jeb Bush has succeeded in getting voters to repeal the high-speed rail project they approved in 2000, he wants the panel overseeing the train venture to close up shop.
A large part of London's Waterloo station will lie idle after 2007 unless the Government spends at least £100m on a massive programme of engineering, according to a train company chief.
According to a survey by Eurocontrol, the market share of the low-cost airlines in Germany is currently rising at a faster rate than in other European countries. One of the reasons for this development is that German rail companies are also in a worse tax position than their European competitors.
There'S good news and bad news for rail commuters in the Hawkesbury. The good news: a new timetable will bring increased services for commuters. The bad news: there's another 10 months of frustrating travel until the timetable is introduced.
Vintage buses will take to the streets of Sydney tomorrow to protest the sale of the historic Tempe Bus Museum to developers.
Train services in three southern Thai provinces were temporarily halted today following simultaneous bomb explosions on railway tracks in a region stalked by an escalating Muslim insurgency, officials said.
A PROMISE to extend train services to South Morang has been broken by the State Government.
QUEENSLAND Rail has been operating coal trains with dangerous defects for almost a year despite an investigation that found a crucial component was prone to cracking.
Security services have thwarted a planned attack on London similar to the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, the British capital's police chief said overnight.
In a big policy shift, the State Government will build a rail link to Sydney's south-west but still refuses to run trains to the north-west, and will instead concentrate on upgrading the bus network.
A rail car loaded with firecrackers exploded in the central Chinese province of Hunan, injuring 20 people, the official Xinhua News Agency reported today.
Construction and engineering group Downer EDI Ltd will design and supply 13 locomotives for BHP Billiton Iron Ore Pty Ltd.
The troubles of Warrnambool's V/Line passenger train service was the furthermost thing from the minds of the Chatsworth Kindergarten children yesterday as they set off on what was, for most of them, their first train ride.
Transperth's Central Monitoring Room is the latest link in a sophisticated transport surveillance system being established by the state government.
The Federal Opposition says $660,000 of taxpayers' money given to the Beaudesert Shire Railway Support Group through the Regional Partnerships Program has been wasted.
Engineers are scouring eBay in search of vital components to keep signals and information boards working on the London underground, it emerged yesterday.
Hi Guy's,
We have had 91 sightings for this week which is 16 sightings less than last
week. The total number of sightings for the year to date is 5806 (last years
sightings on day 346 was 4062).
New truck and rail facilities will need to be built at Enfield capable of shifting 300,000 containers a year - with a separate freight line next to the western or southern lines supporting deliveries to a transfer station in the city's outer suburbs, leaked cabinet papers show.
The plan for an 11km gondola ride, inspired by a councillor's ratepayer-funded trip on the Cairns Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, is on the Shire of Kalamunda 25 plan.
Container trucks will be hit with a levy to push more freight onto trains under a sweeping State Government strategy, but it will not be enough to prevent the number of semi-trailers on Sydney's roads doubling to almost 2 million within six years.
There are claims central Victorian students could be restricted in their future study options because of delays in the regional fast rail project.
Rail passengers faced the most radical change in services in almost 40 years yesterday as new timetables were introduced across the country.
The Swiss Federal Railways’ new timetable, the biggest revamp in recent times, has gone into service without a hitch and only a few late trains.
Magnetic strips and actors in vintage clothing transformed the Nevada State Railroad Museum tracks and trains into the Golden Spike of 1869 for a national television commercial.
DRIVERS and the trucking industry say they are being wrongly targeted by a NSW government plan to levy heavy-vehicle freight to fund infrastructure upgrades.
Australia's longest-serving trams mark their 75th anniversary today.
The Independent Member for Tamworth, Peter Draper, has voiced concern that bus services between Tamworth and Moree could become a permanent fixture.
Germany's two biggest cities were brought closer together yesterday with the launch of a high-speed train line that cuts the journey time between Berlin and Hamburg to just 90 minutes.
The Victorian Government has defended a $200-million blowout to install a $750-million train-stopping safety system for four regional fast rail lines.
South coast train services are running to normal timetables today after a fierce thunderstorm moved through the NSW Illawarra.
THE closure of the Manjimup to Picton rail line would result in an extra 100 truck movements a day through Donnybrook, according to Shire president Bruce Hearman.
Two passenger trains have collided head-on in the northern Indian state of Punjab, killing 50 people and injuring about 150, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said.
A central Victorian rail lobby group has applauded moves to further improve safety on the regional fast rail service.
The NSW Government has agreed to cut passenger rail services into Newcastle's central business district and develop a new bus and rail interchange at Broadmeadow.
What other railway website gives you the opportunity to chat LIVE with Scott McGregor?
Scrapping trams in Sydney was a big mistake that had left the city with "traffic sewers", an urban transport expert said today.
Authorities say negligence caused a head-on collision between two packed trains that killed 38 people in northern India, as police searched for two railway officials blamed for the tragedy.
After more than 20 years of bitter debate the death knell has finally sounded for suburban rail services in Newcastle.
Maitland commuters will turn away from the public transport system in droves, flooding the already congested New England Highway. That was the prediction of opponents yesterday to a State Government plan issued by transport minister Michael Costa to cut the rail line into Newcastle.
The Sydney rail network may get 208 single-deck train carriages as part of RailCorp's order of 498 new air-conditioned carriages - the first move away from double-deck carriages in 40 years.
The NSW Government may deliver a late Christmas present to commuters, with rail services expected to resume from Werris Creek to Moree early next year.
The fast-rail project, an easy and persuasive promise to regional voters, is proving more costly and difficult to deliver than expected when Steve Bracks led Labor to a surprise victory over the Kennett government in 1999.
Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals was yesterday served up a surprise victory by the National Competition Council in its battle to gain access to BHP Billiton's jealously guarded Mount Newman iron ore railway line in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The general manager of Cootamundra Shire Council says the Cootamundra to Tumut rail freight line needs to be reopened as current transport arrangements are detrimental to the region.
Rail unions in New South Wales have withdrawn their threat of industrial action after accepting the first phase of a two-stage pay deal with RailCorp.
Ministry of Railways announced on Wednesday that China will begin building high speed railways, which carry trains traveling at 200 kilometers per hour or faster, in 2005.
A transport lobby group has raised more questions about the need for fast trains in regional Victoria.
t sounds like the rock'n'roll tour from hell - eight shows in three days, with 4,500km of travelling in between. Veteran Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes has just completed that punishing schedule as guest performer on board the Indian-Pacific's annual Christmas Outback train.
China's Ministry of Railways is inviting foreign companies to be consultants and supervisors for the contruction of high speed railways that will begin in 2005.
If Maitland residents don't fight to save the rail line into Newcastle, they will be the ones who will pay the most dearly when it is gone. That is one of the messages that came out an emergency strategy meeting held by the Newcastle and Maitland Save Our Rail groups in Newcastle today.
A decision by Pacific National to indefinitely suspend all rail services to Portland because of grain harvest uncertainties has angered key stakeholders who rely on rail for other freight services.
Deutsche Bahn raised its prices last week but can still compete with other means of transport.
A MAN is in critical condition after being hit by a train in south-west Sydney today.
Several alternatives to the Port of Melbourne have been touted. Foremost, with its natural deep harbour, is Hastings, 80 kilometres south-east of Melbourne on Western Port. Other contenders are the bulk ports of Geelong and Portland. It has also been suggested that containers could be moved by rail to and from Melbourne from Sydney or Darwin.
ONE man is dead and a woman is seriously injured after their car was struck by a train at a crossing in the Brisbane suburb of Murarrie.
AN 84-year-old man was killed and his female companion critically injured when a freight train hit their car at a railway crossing in Brisbane early today. The train hit the Nissan Pulsar car at a railway crossing on Queensport Road at Murrarie, in Brisbane's east, around 8.30am (AEST), police said.
Hi Guy's, We have had 98 sightings for this week which is 7 sightings more than last week. The total number of sightings for the year to date is 5904 (last years sightings on day 353 was 4167). Fourteen of the sightings were on the B/G which included 9140 goods from Mildura three times.
ROADWORKS in Brisbane's inner west have uncovered more than old tram tracks that lay hidden below the hot bitumen surface for decades.
TRAINS aren't the only things being affected by the recent heat and Christmas rush. Lifts at Central and Town Hall stations have been constantly breaking down over the past week and inconveniencing shoppers.
A Goldfields steam train was back hissing along the rails between Maldon and Castlemaine yesterday after a break of 28 years and 15 days.
The original Virginia & Truckee Railroad was built in a year. Its resurrection will take considerably longer, but not for a lack of determination.
The steam train between Maldon and Castlemaine is back in service after almost three decades. The restored K160 locomotive pulling five carriages arrived in Castlemaine at about 11 am yesterday for the official re-opening of the branch line.
Delhi went ‘underground’ on Sunday with the opening of a four kilometre new stretch of the metro rail.
COMMUTERS on Victoria's new fast-rail trains will be the first in 100 years to go thirsty while travelling from regional centres to the city.
For the duration of the New Year holidays, the Russian railways will run more than 500 additional trains, including 20 express trains for school students, Russian Railways Company said Monday.
The Northern Ireland Government today signalled that the axe may not fall on the threatened Londonderry and Larne railway lines.
Rail operators that fail to run their trains on time will be excluded from bidding for extra chunks of the national network under tough new rules for franchise competitions.
The Victorian Liberal Party is stepping up pressure on the State Government to explain why work is yet to begin on standardising railways between Mildura and Portland.
THE number of safety incidents on level-crossings in the state has doubled since October, 2002, when four people were killed in a train crash at Salisbury. Rail authorities say the increase – from 153 to 300 and among the nation's highest – is due to better reporting s a result of the school bus crash at the level-crossing.
Victoria's department of infrastructure has no real regard for Victorian owned public property. You only have to take a look around the Victorian Rail Network to get an appreciation of the total mess the system has become under the consecutive victorian goverments.
SAFETY devices which may have prevented Sydney's Waterfall train crash have been installed on all suburban NSW trains.
ALBURY council will seek assurances from the Victorian Government that V/Line broad gauge trains will continue to run to Albury if and when the Wodonga rail bypass is built. Deputy Mayor Cr Kevan Porter raised the issue this week, citing a Border Mail report that the 5.7km bypass would carry only a standard gauge line.
A TRAIN trip between Bendigo and Melbourne will take only 84 minutes under the new Fast Rail timetable released by V/Line yesterday.
Victorian Transport Minister Peter Batchelor says a new Ballarat fast-train timetable will also mean better services to Ararat and the Wimmera. Mr Batchelor says the Ballarat timetable released yesterday is still a draft, and work is still continuing on more services to Ararat and extra bus services for the Wimmera.
Beijing and Moscow had agreed to improve railway links to handle an expected increase in Russian oil exports to China and more trade over the next two years, the Chinese Ministry of Railways said. Russia is expected to export 15 million tonnes (105 million barrels) of crude to China in 2006, the ministry said on its website.
V/Line has dismissed criticism about its draft timetable for the Bendigo fast rail line for 2006.
JUST a handful of train services on the Fast Rail project will meet the State Government's promised travel times.
SINGLETON Council has vowed to do whatever it can to stop the State Government's plan to cut the rail line between Broadmead-ow and Newcastle.
A light rail network through Sydney's city centre is in doubt after one of its main supporters, the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, ruled out paying for part of it. Despite widespread support for the proposal, aimed at alleviating inner-city traffic congestion, the cost is one of the main obstacles in drawn-out talks between local and state governments.
The Western Australian Government says the third new Prospector train will be delivered today.
OPPOSITION Transport spokesman Terry Mulder believes the people of Ballarat should feel "hugely let down" by the State Government's draft 2006 timetable for regional rail travel in Victoria. Mr Mulder said the launch of the new timetable, which offers nine extra services on the Melbourne line each weekday, confirmed that $750 million of taxpayers' money had "gone down the gurgler".
Trains will run more frequently to regional Victoria, but the promised fast services will be rare. Only three weekday morning train services would meet the Bracks Government's much-trumpeted fast rail time targets for regional Victoria under a proposed timetable for 2006.
FCL has moved up one rung of the rail transport ladder. From being simply a freight forwarder, we now have our own train - jointly with CRT, and operated by Queensland Rail (QR) - running into our own rail siding.
One of the messages of the Christmas story is that our salvation is to be found in a place where we are least likely to look: among poor and forgotten people. The Frankfurter Nicholas Initiative is a German group dedicated to reminding people of St Nicholas, the fourth-century priest who was the inspiration behind the bearded fellow in the red suit who is set to visit all the children in the world over the next day or two.
The spirit of Christmas is certainly alive in the streets of Cowra.
POLICE are not treating as suspicious the death of a man struck by a train in inner-western Sydney today.
VICTORIAN trains will not need to terminate in Wodonga once the railway bypassed the city, Wodonga council chief executive Mr Peter Marshall said yesterday. “The conversion of the broad gauge line to standard gauge will be completed by the time the rail bypass is opened in mid-2007,” he said.
THE most striking evidence of Port Fairy's railway history has been formally added to the state's Heritage Register with hopes of full restoration.
John Dixon says Westgate will not compete with Patrick Corp or P&O. The Salta Enterprises offshoot has won the right to redevelop the Victoria Dock, writes Philip Hopkins. John Dixon is the new kid on the docks. As group managing director of Westgate Ports, the Port of Melbourne's latest private investor, he is set to help push the port into a new era.
The Queen of the Sea chugged slowly up the sandy, palm-fringed coast of eastern Sri Lanka, carrying hundreds of residents from the capital to visit relatives or enjoy a day at the sunny resorts near the town of Galle. The train had almost reached its destination on Sunday when the tsunami struck - a wall of water some 10 metres high, enveloping the Queen and lifting its carriages off the track into a thick marsh, killing at least 802 people.
Passengers travelling to Kalgoorlie on the Prospector train will be forced to take a bus for part of the journey because a freight train has broken down on the Western Australian line.
Train services from Moree to Sydney will resume today after being out of action because of flooding near Baan Baa earlier this week.
PERTH'S first six-car train will make its debut journey tomorrow, with the demand for New Year's Eve public transport expected to reach record levels, the State Government said today.