The railway news is a mix of much of the same. The UK's HS2 project must go ahead according to some...otherwise prosperity and wealth will not be spread across the country. So several reports show support for the project, though there is still the lingering doubt about the project voiced in features such as "Does the UK need high speed rail?"
Well, apparently China does need high speed rail. And the prospective bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics has galvanized the Chinese authorities to build a 174km route connecting two key cities.
Kenya also welcomes Chinese input into its railway infrastructure.. and India's Delhi to Amritsar high speed route gets back on track, as is the Kuala Lumpur to Singapore project.
Keeping on the track exercises US minds after another fuel carrying train derails in Mississippi.
And in London, Crossrail completes an unprecedented fortnight of tunnelling milestones.
Read on.......
Headlines........
Building Up a Head of Steam - a visit to Llangollen(News North Wales)
Panoramic View of Bond Street Eastern Ticket Hall site... (Peter S Lewis)
Crossrail completes unprecedented fortnight of tunnelling milestones
Summary:
Crossrail has delivered an unprecedented fortnight of construction progress ranging from completion of new train tunnels to three spectacular tunnel boring machine breakthroughs.
Crossrail’s western tunnels are now structurally complete with tunnelling machine (TBM) Ada reaching the end of her journey at Farringdon on 24 January, having set out from Royal Oak near Paddington in August 2012. This follows the arrival of her sister machine Phyllis at Farringdon in October 2013.
Over in southeast London, TBM Sophia has completed Crossrail’s first tunnel beneath the Thames, arriving at the North Woolwich Portal on 29 January, having started south of the river in Plumstead last August.
TBM Jessica has also completed her tunnelling journey from Pudding Mill Lane and broke through into one of Europe’s largest mined caverns beneath Stepney Green on 3 February.
In addition, tunnelling machine Elizabeth made a spectacular entrance into the new Crossrail station at Whitechapel on 20 January on her journey from Limmo Peninsula to Farringdon. Her sister machine Victoria also broke through into Stepney Green on 30 January.
Crossrail has also finished civil construction of the first of two new Bond Street station ticket halls. The western ticket hall on Davies Street is five storeys underground, with works starting earlier this month on a passenger tunnel to connect the Crossrail ticket hall to the existing underground station.
The milestones continue Crossrail’s impressive construction progress, which recently passed the halfway mark on time and within budget. In 2014 the project will transition from major civil engineering work to station and tunnel fit-out. 30km out of 42km of bored tunnels are now complete.
Andrew Wolstenholme OBE, Crossrail Chief Executive said: “The tunnelling teams deserve tremendous credit for their safe and efficient progress in constructing this major new railway under London. The end is now in sight for Crossrail tunnelling with over 70 per cent of the new rail tunnels now constructed. The next major element of the Crossrail programme will now begin with the fit-out of our tunnels and stations.”
The 150 metre long, 1,000 tonne machines create 6.2m diameter tunnels by installing precast concrete segments in rings to line the tunnel. They are pushed forward by hydraulic rams and positioned using lasers and Global Positioning Systems.
Ada’s 6.9 kilometre journey has been particularly challenging for engineers, successfully navigating a complex web of Tube lines, building foundation piles and infrastructure up to 30 metres beneath central London. This included passing less than a metre above the operational Northern line at Tottenham Court Road.
More than 72,000 pre-cast concrete segments have been used to line the western tunnels and about two million tonnes of earth has been excavated, destined for a new RSPB nature reserve at Wallasea Island, Essex.
Now that Sophia’s journey has finished, her sister Mary will shortly be launched from the Woolwich box to complete the final section of tunnelling on Crossrail’s southeast section. With the arrival of TBM Jessica at Stepney, an eighth tunnelling machine, Ellie, will commence her journey from Pudding Mill Lane to Stepney later this month.
TBM Jessica will be taken to Limmo Peninsula for reassembly where she will construct the new Crossrail tunnels between Limmo and Victoria Dock Portal.
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Other News...
Mumbai monorail opens - Railway Gazette
New section of Moscow metro Line 8 opens - Railway Gazette
Zambian Copperbelt railway agreement - Railway Gazette
Weekly newsletter 29/01/14 | The UK's Only Main Line Heritage Railway(GCR)
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