Branch Line News International (ISSN 1354-0947), a newsletter about the world's railway geography and infrastructure. 1999 archived text Paragraphs in issues BLN 841 of 09-Jan-1999 to BLN 852 of 19-Jun-1999 are referenced by BLN issue number, but the reference system changed at the end of 1999 second quarter, and the Rinbad paragraphs thereafter are numbered consecutively in a new four-digit series beginning 0001 in the Rinbad pages issued as an optional supplement with BLN 853 of 03-Jul-1999. Last issue of 1999 was BLN 864 of 18-Dec-1999. BLN 841.01][FR] Paris métro: At some point during 1998 Rue Montmartre station was renamed Grands Boulevards. BLN 841.02][FR] Rivesaltes - Estagel - Axat - St.Martin-Lys (- Quillan): (Ball 73A1-72B1) Daily stone trains run on this freight-only SNCF branch, which may see a new tourist-train operation in summer 1999 to St.Martin-Lys, just beyond Axat. In the longer-term track may be relaid on the 7km north to Quillan, reconnecting the line with the Carcassonne - Limoux - Quillan passenger branch (BLN 815.0568). (Today's Railways, #37, January 1999) BLN 841.03][FR] Bédarieux - Lamalou-les-Bains - Mons La Trivalle: (BLN 797.0101; Ball 73B3-73A3) Local-authority finance may allow operation of the Train Touristique Lamalou - Mons La Trivalle, closed for safety reasons in September 1996, to restart in summer 1999. (Today's Railways, #37, January 1999) BLN 841.04][DE] Passenger closures in Sachsen-Anhalt: According to Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, the province of Sachsen-Anhalt are to reduce financial support, leading to passenger closure of the following underused lines by May 1999 or earlier, and eventual elimination of all passenger services used by fewer than 300 travellers a day. On the positive side a new curve (presumably facing east, towards Magdeburg) is to be built at Blumenberg on to the Blumenberg - Eilsleben line, which is also to have higher speeds and more services. Ball atlas Average daily passenger load / references / remarks Elbingerode (Harz) - Königshütte (Harz) 27B1 24 end section of Rubelandbahn, sole German 25kV line Schönebeck - Blumenberg 28A1 12 Blumenberg - Egeln 28A1 12 Haldensleben - Weferlingen 28A2-27B2 69 BLN 742.0342, 769.010, 774.0110 Haldensleben - Eilsleben 28A2-27B2 97 BLN 733.0153 Schönhausen (Elbe) - Jerichow 28B3 37 BLN 767.0504 Jerichow - Genthin 28B3 58 Jerichow - Güsen (Kreis Genthin) 28B3-28B2 37 BLN 767.0504 Güsen (Kreis Genthin) - Ziesar 28B2 28 BLN 765.0462, 767.0504, 772.070 Loburg - Altengrabow 28B2 5 BLN 729.089; was to close end-Dec 1998 Querfurt - Vitzenburg 42A3-42A2 8-14 BLN 803.0255, 810.0436; already closed? Grosskorbetha - Deuben (bei Zeitz) 42B2 29 BLN 776.0155 Zeitz - Osterfeld (bei Zeitz) 42B2 57 BLN 841.05][DE] (Stendal -) Bostel - Niedergörne: (BLN 745.015, 772.070, 836.0495; Ball 28A3-28B3) The branch (entirely in Sachsen-Anhalt, not Brandenburg) closed to passengers 31 December 1995 and was once thought likely to close completely after the demolition, begun in 1994, of the Russian-design nuclear power-station at Niedergörne. In late 1998 it was still in freight use for its whole length. BLN 841.06][DE] Treysa - Homberg (- Malsfeld) and Treysa - Oberaula (- Bad Hersfeld): (BLN 812.0491; Ball 40A1) The Frankfurt am Main - Kassel main line opened in stages in 1849-50 and from 2 January to 4 March 1850 Treysa, in the Schwalm valley between Marburg and Kassel, was its temporary western terminus. After the Franco-Prussian war, the town gained a second railway when the Kanonenbahn, one of a series of lines built mainly for German military traffic to Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine), opened from Treysa east to Malsfeld on 1 August 1879 and beyond Malsfeld to Leinefelde in 1880. Treysa's third railway linked it to the existing Oberaula - Bad Hersfeld line. The steep and curved Treysa - Oberaula section opened 1 August 1907, diverging from the main line at a junction to the south of the river Schwalm, facing away from Treysa's original station on the north side. A new station was built south of the river, as were a locomotive-depot and a small marshalling-yard, but Treysa old station building, now a Bierstube, still stands in the fork between the lines to Malsfeld and Kassel. During World War I the Kanonenbahn fulfilled its intended military purpose, but in World War II railways were less important, though it became a useful alternative route in May 1943 when the Treysa - Kassel line was inundated following destruction of the Eder dam in the famous raid by British Lancaster bombers. As the Kanonenbahn bypassed most major towns, passenger traffic was never of great importance. Treysa - Malsfeld passenger trains were withdrawn in 1981, and Homberg - Malsfeld closed completely, leaving the 20km Treysa - Homberg freight branch with gradually deteriorating track till its closure at the end of 1998. The 34km Treysa - Oberaula line lost all its freight traffic in 1995. During the 1990s, preservation group Eisenbahnfreunde Schwalm-Knüll took over Treysa locomotive-shed, basing three 2-10-0 steam locomotives there to work occasional excursion trains on the branches. A special steam train on 5 December 1998 was advertised as the last such working to Homberg, though it seems EFSK will continue to run on the more scenic Oberaula branch. BLN 841.07][DE] Special trains to Hannover?: (BLN 821.097; Ball 26B2) The CeBIT 1999 event is on 18-24 March. BLN 841.08][DE] Frankfurt-am-Main S-Bahn: (Ball 50A3) Rhein-Main Verkehrsverbund, the regional passenger transport authority, were advertising in November 1998 the imminent opening of two new S-Bahn stations: Oberursel-Stierstadt on Frankfurt West - Friedrichsdorf line S5 was to open by 'end 1998' and Frankfurt-am-Main Messe between Galluswarte and West on lines S3,4,5,6 (and trailed as 'Messe/Torhaus' in the 1998-99 Kursbuch) would open 'early in 1999'. (RMV Kunden Express 9804/11) BLN 841.09][DE] Miltach - Konzell-Streifenau: Though shown in the 1998 Ball atlas (61A2), this branch had been lifted near the junction at Miltach by November 1998, and the nearby Blaibach (Niederbayern) - Viechtach - Gotteszell line (BLN 811.0465; Ball 61B2) remained severed at Blaibach, still as in 1997 with a 200m gap where roadworks had removed a bridge and part of an embankment, though track seemed in place beyond. BLN 841.010][AT] Salzburg - Bürmoos - Lamprechtshausen: (Ball 72B2) In October 1998 building work was in progress at the site of the former Lokalbahnhof. The new underground Lokalbahn platforms of Salzburger Stadtwerke Verkehrsbetrieb beneath the main ÖBB station are now numbered 1 and 2, and not 40 and 41 (BLN 807.0362). Freight continues to be significant on the Lokalbahn. In the exchange sidings at Salzburg-Itzling, the first station to the north and site of the SVB depot, an ÖBB Class 2068 diesel locomotive was exchanging two vans with SVB electric E64. A Konzept Stadtbahn Salzburg poster in SVB trains shows a proposed extension of the line continuing under the city with nine new stations, but no dates are given. BLN 841.011][AT] Marchtrenk - Traun (- Linz): (Ball 73B3) The 1998 Ball atlas shows this 1994 cut-off line incorrectly. As noted in BLN 761.0389, its west end is at Marchtrenk station and its east end is a triangular junction between Traun and Ansfelden stations. BLN 841.012][SE] Stockholm suburban: (Ball 29-30) Nationalised operator SJ in December 1998 lost the five-year (2000-2004) contract to operate Stockholm's Pendeltĺg (= 'shuttle-train') suburban lines to the CityPendeln consortium, 51% owned by the French operator VIA-GTI, 39% by Go-Ahead (the Newcastle-based bus group who are also franchisees of Thames Trains and, with VIA-GTI, Thameslink) and 10% by Swedish train-operator BK-Tĺg. Other unsuccessful bidders were Stagecoach's Swebus subsidiary and Vivendi's Linjebuss subsidiary. (The Scotsman, 17 December 1998) Bus-operators Linjebuss already run Roslagsbanan, Stockholm's unusual 891mm-gauge 1500V dc commuter line (BLN 829.0311). BLN 841.013][IT] Palermo Centrale - Vespro - Notarbartolo - Giachery (- Palermo Marittima): (Ball 59A3) The November 1998 ADL tour did not include the line as advertised, but a BLN reporter visited Giachery on the frequent Palermo Metro service, which uses Class 668 diesel railcars though this section is electrified. (Beyond, the branch is freight-only to Marittima.) A few Palermo Metro trains reverse at Palermo Brancaccio, enabling all sides of the triangle outside Centrale to be covered on one return trip if the timetable is studied closely. Between Vespro and Notarbartolo a new suburban station is under construction involving also a new tunnel. The short freight branch shown in Ball south from Notarbartolo to Palermo Lolli is in fact a yard, more or less parallel to the running line. North-west of Notarbartolo, a district where one is advised not to linger and not to leave the station, the Palermo Notarbartolo - Carini (- Trapani) single line is unelectrified and has halts at Francia and Cardillo, not shown in Ball. New alignments for double track and new stations are evident in several places, and may have been there for some time since the second track at Carini, not yet in use, already has bushes growing through the ballast. The works are in connection with the future Carini - Palermo Aeroporto branch which diverges on the north side along the coast west of Carini, but it was impossible to ascertain an opening date (unsurprising, in Italy). BLN 841.014][IT] Eccellente - Tropea - Rosarno: (Ball 61A3) This electrified single-track coastal loop seems to have been the original main line to the toe of Italy before the inland route via the 6km Francica tunnel opened. Local trains run through from Lamezia Terme Centrale with some running forward to Villa San Giovanni. Northbound on the 11:45 from Villa San Giovanni on 16 November 1998 the elderly Class 636 locomotive in faded brown paint lost time and as the FS train ran into Gioia Tauro station, Ferrovie della Calabria railcar #221 failed to wait and was seen departing on the 950mm-gauge Gioia Tauro Cinquefrondi line (BLN 795.074). By Lamezia Terme 30 minutes had been lost, and the onward FS connection to Paola was not held either. BLN 841.015][GR] Pirghos - Katakolo: (Ball 65A2) Rather than repair poor track, OSE closed this 12km metre-gauge branch of the Greek Peloponnese system from 28 October 1998. (Today's Railways, #37, January 1999) BLN 841.016][CH][DE] Romanshorn - Kreuzlingen - Stein am Rhein - Etzwilen - Schaffhausen: (BLN 836.0519; Ball 89A2-88B3-68B2) Swiss private operators Mittelthurgaubahn promised more frequent trains as a condition of being awarded the right to operate this SBB line for a period of years, and their basic hourly service plan is: Stein am Rhein - Etzwilen - Schaffhausen Romanshorn - Kreuzlingen - Stein am Rhein - Etzwilen - Schaffhausen Rorschach - Romanshorn - Kreuzlingen - Konstanz - Singen - Engen Weinfelden - Kreuzlingen - Konstanz - Singen - Engen Wil - Weinfelden However, while MThB await delivery of all ten of their new light electric units, the traditional service pattern of through-running between Rorschach and Schaffhausen continues, since the SBB Class 540 units still used have pantographs that do not suit DB overhead wiring and they do not enter Germany. SBB have extended their Winterthur - Romanshorn local trains to Rorschach to maintain their interest in the Romanshorn - Rorschach Hafen - Rorschach line, so on the Rorschach Hafen - Rorschach section east along the Bodensee three operators, SBB, MThB and RHB, now share the traffic (BLN 836.0522). The operating pattern at Konstanz is not quite as described in BLN 836.0519. Passengers from Switzerland alighting at Konstanz go to the south end of the island platform and use a pedestrian level-crossing protected by a gate to cross the tracks to the customs-post in the station building. German passengers boarding MThB trains at Konstanz for stations to Singen and Engen reach the island platform by the subway further north near the centre of the station. BLN 841.017][CH] Lauterbrunnen - Grütschalp - Mürren: (BLN 839.0603; Ball 93A1) An enquirer was told locally that the stock for the inaccessible Grütschalp - Mürren section was supplied as a kit of parts and assembled at the top. BLN 841.018][HU] Budapest - Esztergom - Komárom: (Ball 44B2-42B1) MÁV say that, because of the condition of the bridge over the river Duna (BLN 835.0473) and poor track, Budapest - Esztergom trains will no longer be locomotive-hauled from the summer 1999 timetable-change. The two pairs of international trains via the Esztergom - Komárom line (BLN 804.0293) will cease. BLN 841.019][HU] Budapest-Ferencváros - Köbánya-Kispest: (BLN 789.0441, 797.0119; EGTRE HU99/1; Ball 44B2) This connecting curve has timetabled MÁV staff trains as well as its few long-distance services. Other short-haul staff workings operate Ferencváros - Rákos and Ferencváros - Kelenföld, and some of these run all the way to the far end of Ferencváros freight-yard. Since MÁV have sold off their mail-handling area at Budapest Nyugati (= west) station, mail trains are to use Budapest-Keleti (= east) beginning some time in 1999, perhaps as early as February. Budapest - Szeged overnight mail-and-passenger trains will reverse at Ferencváros and use the Ferencváros - Köbánya-Kispest curve, but it is not yet clear whether passengers will be carried on the short run between Keleti and Köbánya-Kispest. BLN 841.020][SK] Poprad-Tatry - Starý Smokovec - Štrbské Pleso and Starý Smokovec - Tatranská Lomnica: (Ball 43A2) The T-shaped system of the metre-gauge 1500V dc Tatranské Elektrické Zeleznice serves the Vysoké Tatry, the 'high Tatras', a winter-sports and summer-tourist area in Slovakia's highest mountains. The TEZ, part of ZSR, has connections with ZSR standard-gauge at all three ends. At the southern end TEZ cars originally started in the street outside Poprad-Tatry station and ran through part of the town, but since early 1992 the modern island-platform metre-gauge station has been on top of and at right-angles to the main-line junction station beneath, and the 1960s-built light-rail cars, similar to Tatra T3 town trams, depart north on a viaduct giving views to the west over the station-yard and the depots for both gauges. The 1970-built metre-gauge depot was retained and is accessed from the 1992 elevated route by a steeply-graded connection curving down and under the viaduct. The deviation avoiding the former town tracks is quite lengthy and the original 1908 alignment is not regained until open countryside appears, more than halfway to the first station and passing-loop at Velký Slavkov. Some 13km north of Poprad-Tatry, the junction at the middle of the T, Starý Smokovec, has a 1.9km funicular starting some distance from the station and running from Smokovecký výstup to Hrebienok. At the western end of the TEZ, 16km from the junction, Štrbské Pleso has a modern station building with low platforms and is also the upper terminus of the 4.8km Štrbské Pleso - Štrba metre-gauge rack line that forms the link down to the ZSR standard-gauge at Štrba. Steam-worked when it opened in 1896, the rack line closed in 1932 but was electrified and reopened in 1970, with Swiss (SLM/BBC) stock, an unusual purchase for an eastern-bloc country. At the eastern end, 6km from the junction, the TEZ terminates at Tatranská Lomnica, alongside the terminal platform of the diesel-railcar worked Studený Potok - Tatranská Lomnica branch (Studený Potok = 'cold brook'). Some distance away through the woods is the lower station of the 6km Tatranská Lomnica - Lomnický štit aerial cableway, running in three sections high into the mountains. The future of the TEZ lines seems secure, and in 1998 ZSR ordered fourteen new metre-gauge three-car units of Stadler GTW design for delivery in 2000-01. BLN 841.021][IL] Israel: During the Jewish Sabbath, from Friday afternoon till Saturday sunset, and on certain religious holidays, no rail traffic moves, and thus an unusual feature of the passenger services is that their resumption on Saturday evenings varies with the seasonal length of daylight. Rakevet Israel run regular passenger trains on a standard-gauge network of some 300km, and freight on some 180km more, with 80km of line out of use. On the Tel-Aviv - Zomet Remez - Haifa - Nahariyya - Bezet line several passenger trains an hour run from Tel-Aviv north along the coast to the major port of Haifa and on to Nahariyya, but only an occasional freight train works to Bezet, 3km from the troubled border with Lebanon. Beyond Bezet the coastal line, built by British army engineers in 1942, has been removed or destroyed by war. The relatively recent city-centre connection between Tel-Aviv's main and south stations (Tel-Aviv Merkaz - Tel Aviv Hashalom) led to the easterly loop line round the city (Tel-Aviv Merkaz / Tel-Aviv Barukh - Tel-Aviv Zafon - Rosh Ha'ayin - Lod) losing its passenger trains, but it remains as a freight line. The former inland route north to Haifa along the western edge of Palestinian West Bank territory appears to survive only as two short freight stubs (Rosh Ha'ayin - Kefar Sava and Zomet Remez - Hadera Mizrah) at the south and north ends respectively. Southward, on the Tel-Aviv - Lod - Be'er Ya'akov - Rehovot - Ashdod - Ashqelon line, passenger trains run fairly frequently to Rehovot but only two a day reach Ashdod Darom station. Eastward, the slow, sinuous and steep (Tel-Aviv -) Lod - Na'an - Jerusalem route did have one passenger train each way, but the line is closed for reconstruction work. Lod - Na'an may reopen February 1999 and Na'an - Jerusalem end-1999. During the Lod - Na'an closure, the pair of (Tel-Aviv -) Lod - Na'an - Qiryat Gat - Be'er Sheva passenger trains are diverted via Lod - Ashdod and the Ashdod - Ashqelon - Qiryat Gat link, normally freight-only and used by phosphate and fertiliser trains off the long mineral lines in the Negev south-east of Be'er Sheva (Be'er Sheva - Mamshit - Nahal Zin and Mamshit - Zefa), as they head for the coast to take the Ashdod harbour branch. Track remains out of use on the Ashqelon - Erez - Gaza - Rafiah line running the length of the Palestinian Gaza Strip between Erez in Israel and Rafiah in Egypt, on the British strategic wartime route that once linked Haifa with Cairo (BLN 784.0345, 793.023, 797.0121, 802.0246). (IBSE) BLN 841.022][AU] Belgrave - Emerald - Lakeside - Gembrook: Opened 18 December 1900 eastwards from the splendidly-named terminus of the Melbourne - Ringwood - Upper Ferntree Gully 1600mm-gauge line, the 762mm-gauge 'Puffing Billy' railway is now probably Australia's best-known preservation operation. The line was blocked by a landslip east of Belgrave on 3 August 1953, and since it was already planned to extend the broad-gauge, the narrow-gauge Upper Ferntree Gully - Belgrave section closed 23 February 1958, reopening as broad-gauge, on a different alignment in a few places, on 18 February 1962. Despite the formation of the Puffing Billy Preservation Society, the track beyond Lakeside to Gembrook was lifted in 1961. The narrow-gauge line was reopened in stages from a new terminus a short distance from the new broad-gauge station at Belgrave, to Emerald in 1965, to Lakeside in 1975 and to Gembrook on 18 October 1998. Between Lakeside and Gembrook three timber trestle bridges have been rebuilt. The longest, up to 15m high and over 60m long, is somewhat more impressive than the one at the Belgrave end of the line which appears on many publicity photographs. The new station at Gembrook is a short distance beyond the original station, on the site of the former engine-shed. Tramways of 914mm and 1067mm-gauge once operated from here, and a long-term project is the extension of the railway over the former tramway towards Beenak. BLN 841.023][US] Reno, NV - Truckee, CA - Norden - Colfax - Auburn - Sacramento, CA: Monday 10 May 1999 is the 130th anniversary of the 'golden spike' being driven at Promontory Point, UT, now itself bypassed by trains. Completion of the first US transcontinental main line is being celebrated also on the challenging section through the Sierra Nevada mountains in California on the Central Pacific (later Southern Pacific, today Union Pacific) Donner Pass route, largely built by Chinese labour. During the preceding weekend the Colfax Historical Society are planning a 'historical railroading program' including a Friday visit to various sites along this section. BLN 841.024][MZ][SZ][[ZA] Maputo - Goba CFM - Phuzumoya SR - Golela SAS - Durban: In September 1998 an international passenger service was running on the 1067mm-gauge line from Moçambique's capital, Maputo (Lourenço Marques in Portuguese colonial times), south over the otherwise freight-only Swaziland Railway via Golela on South Africa's Spoornet to Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province. This was said to be the only passenger working out of Maputo, and perhaps on the Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique, so the Maputo - Komatipoort - Johannesburg train (BLN 740.0314) is presumably not now running. To the north, at the mouth of the river Limpopo, at least part of the 147km 762mm-gauge line from Xai-Xai to Mauéle and Chicomo had been operating during 1998, though in September it was out of use allegedly due to lack of wood fuel for the serviceable 1925-built Baldwin 2-8-0 #06 at Xai Xai. Much further north, on the isolated 160km 1067mm-gauge Quelimane - Mocuba line, a freight train was running at least the c.65km out to Namacurra most days, hauled by Quelimane-based Baldwin 2-8-2 #412. Stored at Quelimane was an elderly streamlined diesel railcar, still with its original Michelin rubber tyres. (World Steam, December 1998) BLN 842.025][BE] Knokke - Oostende - De Panne: light rail: (Ball 7A3) A Sunday-evening end-of-service working from the north uses the single-track metre-gauge loop via K.Janssenslaan and IJzerstraat to serve the Oostende town-centre stop at Maria-Joséplein before returning to the main tram-station and the nearby depot sidings. The Adinkerke extension to De Panne NMBS opened 1 July 1998, and the layout and tram-station seem complete (BLN 832.0371). BLN 842.026][BE] Charleroi light rail: (BLN 840.0612; Ball 8B1 not shown) Arriving and departing cars used to use opposite sides of an island platform at the metre-gauge tram-terminus outside Charleroi Sud SNCB station, but the revised balloon-loop layout opened 20 August 1996 has the platforms at an angle to each other. The eastern side of the present Réseau Métro Léger is in an area formerly served by the town tramway of Societé des Transports Intercommunaux de Charleroi, whose last route, running in the street to Châtelineau, ceased 30 June 1974. Single-line working on the Vicinal generally did use signals, albeit simple two-aspect ones. The first car to enter a single-line section, from whichever end, triggered a relay that set the signals in its direction to white and turned the opposing signals to red. Thus they all remained until the car triggered another relay as it cleared the far end of the section. This system remains in use on the Anderlues section beyond the Réseau Métro. From 15 February 1931 to 2 June 1973 the Vicinal ran Charleroi - Anderlues - Binche - Mons, and when Binche - Mons closed the trams were diverted, from 3 June 1973, to run Charleroi - Anderlues - Binche - La Louvičre. The attractive Anderlues - Binche - La Louvičre section through the countryside and mining villages in turn closed 29 August 1993, leaving only Charleroi - Anderlues. Within Anderlues, the short Surschiste - Monument cut-off line avoiding Anderlues Jonction opened 1 November 1941, to speed up service on Charleroi - Mons route #90. Its eastern junction, at the tram-stop once named 'Fontaine l'Évęque Puits No.2', and now variously 'Surchiste' and 'Surschiste' (TEC official usage is not consistent), was on 1 January 1999 still in place, with disused track, wiring and signals, though its western junction at Anderlues Monument is totally removed. The direct line is formally recorded by TEC as operating until 28 August 1993, but BLN 769.05 offered some evidence that it was actually out of use earlier that summer. Later, from some date in 1994-95, the cut-off was temporarily reopened until 27 October 1995 (BLN 752.0146, 760.0370, 767.0501, 773.090). The present passenger terminus, reached via Anderlues Jonction and Anderlues Rue de la Station, is a passing-loop in the street at Monument, beyond which a section of the old route to Binche curves some 100m south into a field as far as the next former passing-loop, now used as headshunt sidings by cars lying over between workings. BLN 842.027][BE] Antwerpen - Herentals - Mol - Neerpelt: (BLN 837.0551, 839.0594; Ball 9B3) Due to the radical engineering works to make it a three-level station with high-speed through platforms, on 30 December 1998 Antwerpen-Centraal still had only three tracks (1, 2 and 3) in passenger use, with track 4 holding an engineering train. Brussel - Amsterdam InterCity trains no longer reverse in Centraal but run direct Antwerpen-Berchem - Antwerpen-Oost. Neerpelt services temporarily run from Oost, picking up passengers from Centraal at Berchem. At Neerpelt, connection between the xx:29 arrival and the xx:31 departure is difficult, for the hourly steam-heated push-pull sets, with a 1960s-built Class 62 diesel at the Antwerpen end, are timed for a 58-minute layover at the branch terminus, and it is therefore not uncommon for the return train to Antwerpen to begin to move from platform 1 as soon as the incoming train has cleared the points into platform 2. Once empty, the incoming train runs on to the northern end of the Neerpelt - Eksel (- Houthalen) line, using it as a headshunt to transfer to platform 1 for loading. BLN 842.028][BE] (Vilvoorde - Delta -) Huizingen - Y Buizingen (- Halle): (BLN 733.0152; Ball 10B1; SNCB/NMBS 26) This southern section of the eastern ring line round the Belgian capital was taken out of use in May 1994 during remodelling of Y Buizingen, the junction with the Brussel/Bruxelles - Halle (- Lille) main line north of Halle. Freight traffic soon resumed, but Halle station is still being radically rebuilt, largely underground, and has insufficient platform capacity to handle the local trains off this line. They have therefore continued to turn back at Huizingen, with a Huizingen - Halle bus link. However, the Belgian public timetable's (very large) supplement of 27 September 1998 shows the last southbound train, the 19:36 from Mechelen, running through to Halle, reopening this section of line to passengers. (Trans-fer, #110, December 1998) BLN 842.029][BE] Dinant - Bertrix (- Virton - Athus SNCB - Rodange CFL): (BLN 722.018, 779.0214; Ball 17A3-17A2) The 25kV 50Hz electrification project for the Athus-Meuse freight route, essentially for Antwerpen - Luxembourg traffic, is proceeding with ponderous slowness. On 2 January 1999 Ligne 166 still had several sections with masts only, though a few had overhead wires, seen to good effect from the end of the 1955-built Class 45 single diesel-hydraulic cars that work the passenger service. Many of the new bi-directional signals were in place but not yet in use. The Libramont - Bertrix section of Ligne 165, similarly worked, likewise had masts only. No sign of recent activity by engineering trains was seen in the area . BLN 842.030][NL] Den Haag HS - Voorburg: (BLN 824.0173; EGTRE NL99/1; Ball 3B2) The first 1998-99 winter-sports charter for Ski Express via the west-to-east Binckhorst curve was to run on 18 December, calling at Den Haag HS 20:54, returning at 09:12 on 26 December. In 1997-98 NS refused to service their competitor's trains and a court upheld this refusal, so in 1998-99 the stock, hired from a German tour-operator in Münster, is to be serviced at Emmerich, thereafter running empty to Rotterdam CS for loading. The charter train, said to cater for a somewhat down-market clientele, runs Rotterdam - Den Haag - Utrecht and thence south via Germany, returning by the same route, SNCB/NMBS having refused it a path on the Belgian network. A few more trains are planned from mid-January, if enough customers book. BLN 842.031][DE] (Neuruppin -) Neuruppin Rheinsberger Tor - Herzberg (Mark): (BLN 828.0283; Ball 20A1) Trains were to be replaced by buses from 13 December 1998. Rebuilding and electrification of Velten (Mark) - Kremmen - Neuruppin Rheinsberger Tor - Neuruppin (BLN 771.055; Ball 31B3-20A1) is proceeding but reopening has been postponed to 30 May 1999. (IBSE) BLN 842.032][DE][BE] Stolberg (Rheinland) - Walheim DB - Raeren SNCB: (BLN 775.0134; Ball 37A1-DE, 10A2-BE) The cross-border section of this line has long been out of regular use, though NATO appear to have regarded it as a strategic link (BLN 836.0491). In 1994, a German group associated with the Belgian Vennbahn operation began running a number of summer tourist trains connecting with those on the Belgian preserved line. However, Walheim viaduct needs repairs, and the costs seem unlikely to be found by the preservation group, so the connecting trains are unlikely to run in summer 1999. (Trans-fer, #110, December 1998) BLN 842.033][DE] Wünschendorf (Elster) - Seelingstädt (bei Werdau) - Werdau: (Ball 42B1; KBS542) Poor track is to lead to closure of this 30km line from a date yet to be fixed, and consideration is being given to diversion of Gera - Zwickau trains by the 14km Greiz - Neumark (Sachsen) line to the south (ex-KBS543; freight-only since June 1997; BLN 803.0255). The Vogtlandbahn are also interested in a passenger service on this line. (IBSE) BLN 842.034][DE] (Oberkleen -) Pohl Göns - Butzbach Ost - Griedel - Gambach - Münzenberg (- Lich - Grünberg Süd) and Griedel - Bad Neuheim Nord: (BLN 840.0617; Ball 49B3) A BLN reporter who lived and worked in Butzbach in 1968-69 recalls the sparse and erratic Butzbach-Licher Eisenbahn passenger trains, limited to Butzbach Ost - Bad Nauheim Nord, reversing just east of Griedel, with no regular passenger working east towards Gambach and Münzenberg. Münzenberg - Lich track was in place but out of use. A Butzbach - Bad Nauheim journey using the train both ways had to be planned with care, for it was not easy to tell from the public timetable which BLE services were buses and which were trains, but he was rewarded by a steam locomotive hauling a railcar trailer with a panoramic front-view. Though the alignment of local streets, houses and gardens certainly suggested that a south-to-east curve had once existed at Butzbach, this could not be confirmed locally. Historical timetable evidence would not be conclusive, since apparent workings tightly timed between Butzbach Ost BLE and Butzbach DB may have been buses. Another recollection is of using several railbuses on a Butzbach - Giessen - Wetzlar - Albshausen - Grävenwiesbach - Friedrichsdorf - Friedberg - Butzbach round-trip, over the now-closed Grävenwiesbach - Albshausen line, which is planned for partial reopening (Grävenwiesbach - Brandoberndorf ; BLN 823.0155). BLN 842.035][DE] München S-Bahn: (BLN 836.0506; Ball 71B3) On 29 November 1998, the planned opening day of the Neufahrn - Hallbergmoos link, a BLN reporter used it to travel from München Hbf to the airport. The fairly empty S1 train split at Neufahrn, the front portion continuing north-east to Freising and only the rear portion going east to Flughafen München. After the flying junction north of Neufahrn, the train ran across featureless terrain, later paralleling a motorway until the flat junction with line 8 just before Besucherpark station. From here it ran wrong-line to the airport, taking passengers at Besucherpark by surprise, for they visibly expected a city-bound service on that track. The single journey took 40 minutes. Airborne visitors to the city might incline to the view that, rather than two slow stopping services from the centre to the airport via different routes, offering a fast service by one of the routes would have been more welcome. BLN 842.036][DE][CH] Waldshut DB - Koblenz SBB: (BLN 735.0186, 779.0227; Ball 68A1, 87B3) Electrification work is under way on this 3km international passenger-only link across the river Rhein. (Eisenbahn Amateur, 10/98) BLN 842.037][AT] Jenbach - Fügen-Hart - Mayrhofen: (Ball 80A3) On the 32km 760mm-gauge Zillertalbahn, the first 11km south from Jenbach to Fügen-Hart are to be equipped with three-rail dual-gauge track to increase the capacity of the line by enabling through standard-gauge freight vehicles from ÖBB to be handled without needing to be loaded on narrow-gauge transporters at Jenbach yard. (LCGB Bulletin, 1/99) BLN 842.038][PT] Ermidas-Sado - Sines: (Ball 26A1) In contrast to winter 1997-98 (BLN 825.0210) the freight-only Sines branch during November 1998 was busy with five or six trains a day carrying imported coal for Pego power-station on the river Tejo. Usually hauled by two or three French-built Class 19xx diesel locomotives, trains were running round the clock, taking about 45 minutes to traverse the 48km branch, loading from the stockpile at Sines docks and returning some 2h30min later. The intermediate block-post at Santiago do Cacém seems now to be switched out, as an economy measure. BLN 842.039][PT] Évora - Estremoz: (BLN 806.0342; Ball 26B2-27A2) In November 1998 the Linha de Évora still had a daily Monday-Friday freight (#97531 Évora c.06:15 - 08:45 Estremoz 12:00 - 15:00 Évora #97520) usually shunting at Ameixal, the station before Estremoz, though most traffic, largely fertiliser, was for Estremoz itself. BLN 842.040][IT] San Giorgio di Nogaro - Palmanova: (Ball 44A1) At the end of 1998 this 12km cut-off route seemed out of use, and the one-train-a-day service (BLN 797.0114) no longer appears in the HAFAS computer timetable. BLN 842.041][IT] (Roma - Villa Literno -) San Marcellino-Frignano - Gricignano-Teverola (- Caserta): (EGTRE; Ball 53Bl) Since 28 September 1998 Roma - Bari Pendolino trains have added to the workings on the Aversa avoiding line, but these run Roma - Caserta non-stop. When one is based at Napoli a more convenient way to travel on this curve is to join its sole semi-fast service at Villa Literno at 15:51. The train takes the northernmost of the four tracks before San Marcellino-Frignano, passes that station and diverges on to single track without any further main-line connections. Passing behind the town, well away from Aversa station, the avoiding line comes alongside the double Napoli - Caserta main line and though making a connection continues as a parallel single track as far as Gricignano-Teverola. Why this particular southbound train (D2399 14:18 Roma - Villa Literno - Caserta - Cancello - Acerra - Napoli) is so routed is not known, and there is no similar northbound working. If the circuitous route is for pathing reasons in the Napoli area, this was not effective on 9 November 1998, for a lengthy signal-stop approaching Napoli Centrale gave an 11-minute late arrival. BLN 842.042][IT] Napoli - Cancello - Benevento: (Ball 53B1-54A1) Ferrovie Benevento-Napoli operate green-and-cream electric railcars from bay platform 4 at Napoli Centrale over FS to Cancello and beyond over their own single line to Benevento. FS also run a few trains over FBN including one of the rare through workings on the Benevento - Campobasso line (BLN 795.072), which may account for an Italy Railcard, valid only on FS, being accepted on the private line on 18 November 1998. Three-car electric unit E508, 1991-built, worked the 08:30 from Napoli, the next departure being 31/2 hours later. The single FBN line diverges immediately after the FS station at Cancello and calls at the first of a set of small stations with long names, San Felice a Cancello-Arienzo. After San Maria a Vico, the track climbs high above a pleasant river valley which it then threads all the way, passing other wordy stations serving groups of villages determined to have their names included: San Martino Valle Caudina-Montesarchio-Pannarano, Tufara Valle-Arpaise-Ceppaloni and Arpaia-Airola-San Agata dei Gotti. Asking for a ticket from one to the other in poor Italian would probably be enough to make you miss the train. The FBN headquarters and depot are at Benevento Appia where a new two-car electric unit, still unnumbered, was seen, before the train curved in over a river bridge to use the main platform 1 at Benevento FS station. As soon as passengers had descended the unit reversed empty to Appia depot. The next FBN departure was three hours away. BLN 842.043][IT] (Taranto -) Sibari - Castiglione Cosentino (- Cosenza): (BLN 832.0397; Ball 58A2-58A1) Work on the new tunnel at San Marco Roggiano has stopped, presumably delaying the already protracted electrification. BLN 842.044][IT][SI] Villa Opicina FS - Kreplje SZ: (Ball 44A3-IT; 45B2-SI) This former freight link between Italy and Slovenia seemed used only for storage of wagons when seen in August 1998 from a northbound train passing the junction at Kreplje on the Sezana - Kreplje - Nova Gorica line. BLN 842.045][CH] Lauterbrunnen - Grütschalp - Mürren: (BLN 839.0603, 841.017; Ball 93A1) Cars Be 4/4 21-23 for the 550V dc metre-gauge Grütschalp - Mürren section were delivered on 10-11 May 1967. They arrived complete at Interlaken Ost over SBB and were hauled on their own bogies up the BOB to Lauterbrunnen, where the bogies were removed and the cars shifted by road low-loader the short distance to the foot of the funicular. Mounted on special accommodation bogies they were hauled up the incline one at a time, balanced by a normal funicular car. Just short of the top, they were hoisted off on to a temporary track round the north of Grütschalp station and pushed into their depot. Assembly at the top would amount essentially to reuniting the vehicles with their bogies. Eisenbahn Kurier's EK-Special #18, 100 Jahre Berner Oberland Bahnen, pp116-7, described and illustrated the operation, as also did Schweizer Eisenbahn-Revue, 6/1991, p170. Grütschalp station has since been extended, probably blocking the site of the temporary track, so when the present stock needs replaced another plan may be needed. BLN 842.046][CZ] (Praha-Smíchov -) Praha-Zlicín - Hostivice - Jenec zastávka - Stredokluky (- Zákolany zastávka - Podlešín): (Ball 35A2-35A3; CD121) Praha-Zlicín CD station and Zlicín station on Praha Metro Line B are a very long walk apart. The CD station's former name of Repy is rather more appropriate, and indeed is the name of the nearby tram terminus. Heading north, the Hostivice - Stredokluky section once took a much more direct route, but the main runway of Praha Ruzyne airport cuts across this, and the later railway alignment presumably dates from the time when this runway was extended. A cement-unloading terminal remains at the northern end of the old route. Possibly because of a further runway extension, the later Hostivice - Stredokluky route is now itself closed, with disused track intact but very overgrown, even by the standards of Czech branch lines. The 1994-95 CD timetable showed seven pairs of trains a day on line 121, but a footnote then seemed to indicate bus substitution was imminent on the Hostivice - Stredokluky section, and certainly all subsequent timetables have shown a bus service. Most of the buses run from Jenec rather than Hostivice, making reasonable connections with trains on the Praha - Hostivice - Jenec - Klodno - Chomutov line 120. Even when trains are several minutes late the bus connections seem to be held. Nearby, two former curves are out of use as running lines. Stored wagons occupy the north-to-south Hostivice avoiding line that crosses above line 120. The former Rudná u Prahy avoiding line, not shown in Ball, is severed at the north-west end but is used as a siding at the south-west end. BLN 842.047][CZ] Sokolov - Kraslice - Hranicna CD (- Klingenthal DB): (BLN 752.0166, 802.0237; Ball 35A1) The Kraslice - Hranicna section, reported as reopened to passengers 2 January 1995 but definitely closed again by April 1997, has a passenger service once more, operated by private company Viamont with hired CD Class 714 traction and stock. (LCGB Bulletin, 1/99) BLN 842.048][HU] Mátramindszent - Mátranovák-Homokterenye: (BLN 840.0628; Ball 43A1; MÁV 83) As part of a Hungarian railway enthusiasts' weekend planned there on 9-11 July 1999 by the Tolnay Lajos railway club (TLVK), through carriages are to work to Mátranovák, and passenger trips, probably hauled by a Class M43 or M44 diesel locomotive, are to operate on this 5km closed MÁV branch. BLN 842.049][HU] Budapest: Szemeretelep - Pestszentlörinc-Kavicsbánya - Soroksár: (Ball 44B2 not shown) An unelectrified connection runs from Szemeretelep, south-east of Köbánya-Kispest on line 100a near Ferihegy airport, serves Pestszentlörinc-Kavicsbánya freight depot, heads south-west to intersect with line 142 at a flat crossing (with a north-to-west curve) just north of Pestimre-felsö station, and joins line 150a at Soroksár, south of Pesterzsébet. Before 1990 it was used by freight trains from the Soviet Union entering Hungary at Záhony on the Ukrainian border, which were routed via Szemeretelep - Soroksar and then an on-street line (now removed) leading to the southern end of Budapest- Ferencváros yard. In spring 1997 a couple of international passenger trains ran via Szemeretelep - Soroksár to avoid lines blocked by floods following heavy rains, and it would be a potential route for the Budapest-Keleti - Szeged mail trains (BLN 841.019) to avoid reversal - though not with electric traction. However the flat crossing became damaged and was limiting trains on line 142 to 20km/h, so in mid-December 1998 MÁV removed it, preventing through-running on the link-line. This may be temporary, for the line is regarded as being of strategic importance. If it is restored it would make an interesting route for a charter-train. BLN 842.050][CN] Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui - Hung Hom - Tai Wai - Lo Wu - Shenzhen - Changping - Guangzhou: (BLN 840.0638) The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation's East Rail project comprises two elements: the Tsim Sha Tsui - Hung Hom extension, from the former site of Hong Kong's main-line terminus north-east under Kowloon in a 1.5km tunnel to its present site, replacing a surface route unwisely closed in 1975, and the completely new 10.3km Tai Wai - Ma On Shan branch. Plans are to award design contracts by March 1999, begin construction in February 2000 and have trains running by June 2004. From the mainland perspective, the section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway south of the junction at Changping has become part of China's Jing-Jiu line, stretching 2407km from Beijing to Jiulong, Jiulong being the approximate mandarin pronunciation of the two characters pronounced Kowloon in Cantonese. In spring 1998 the non-stop Hung Hom - Guangzhou service of five or six through trains a day was still diesel-hauled, but Continental Railway Journal for winter 1998-99 reported electrification ready by 31 July and electric services running from 28 August. The November 1998 Quail atlas shows 25kV 50Hz wiring extending from Kowloon (Hung Hom) beyond Lo Wu on the Hong Kong border, north through Shenzhen, to just beyond Guangzhou Dong (= Canton East) station, though not reaching Guangzhou main station. As well as the double-deck Ktt train, a TGV and a tilting X2000 set are reportedly being tried on the line. Hung Hom, Shenzhen and Guangzhou all have large new station facilities, including separate accommodation at Guangzhou with passport and customs controls for Hong Kong passengers. Although the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is now part of the People's Republic of China, border formalities remain, with duty-free shops at the terminal stations and a duty-free trolley on the through trains, perhaps unique to this rail route. BLN 843.051][FR] (Paris -) Dreux - Argentan - Folligny - Granville: (BLN 771.047, 815.0562, 840.0608; Ball 23A2-22B2) Extensive upgrading for up to 160km/h running is nearing completion, and the line's new X72500 three-car diesel units may begin working from May. (Today's Railways, February 1999) As 1999 began, the Briouze - Bagnoles-de-l'Orne-Tessé-la-Madeleine branch (Ball 22B2) was seen to be severed from the main line and severed again at a level-crossing some 500m south of Briouze. Flers - Domfront has been lifted. The Cerisi-Belle-Étoile - Caen line is out of use and overgrown at Cerisi. BLN 843.052][FR] St.Hilaire-de-Chaléons - Paimboeuf: (Ball 32A1) Closed to passengers 15 May 1939, this 27km branch saw its last remaining freight customer, Octel at Paimboeuf, despatch the last revenue train on 29 May 1998. Empty wagons were cleared on 24 July, and the line is out of use. The (Nantes -) Ste.Pazanne - St.Hilaire-de-Chaléons - Pornic line has for many years had a summer-only passenger service. (L'Écho du Rail, #190, December 1998) BLN 843.053][FR] Culmont-Chalindrey - Belfort: (Ball 39A3-40B2) The Vitrey-Vernois - Bourbonne-les-Bains branch has been lifted, as has nearby Jussey - Passavant, whose bridge over the main line has also been removed. At Port d'Atelier-Amance the north-to-east side of the triangle remains in place but out of use, with no sign of a south-to-east curve having existed. Between Grattery and Vaivre the north-to-west side of the triangle has been lifted while the east-to-west side, the Vaivre - Gray line, is in place but severed. The Lure - Loulans-les-Forges line remains in place but is out of use. BLN 843.054][FR] Bussičre-Galant - Oradour-sur-Vayres: (BLN 792.0492; Ball 53A2-53A3) The branch track is still in place but from Bussičre station a buffer-stop can be seen blocking the line just before the road overbridge - presumably protecting SNCF traffic from runaway rail-cyclists. BLN 843.055][FR] (Orange -) Sarrians (Vaucluse) - Carpentras: (BLN 783.0295; Ball 65A1) Passenger services from Orange ceased 2 October 1938 and the line is now legally abandoned (déclassée) though not lifted (déposée). A preservation group organised an open day on 14 November 1998 at Aubignan-Loriol station, mid-point of this 9km section, to present a project for a rail-cycle (vélorail) operation. [L'Association Rail Ventoux Nostalgie, Le Sanglas, F-84840 Lamotte-du-Rhône, +33 4 90 16 92 00] (L'Écho du Rail, #191, December 1998) BLN 843.056][FR] Aix-en-Provence - Marseille: (BLN 760.0367; Ball 75B3-75B2) At the beginning of 1999, the Aix-en-Provence - Rognac line seemed in use at the Aix end, as did the Gardanne - Carnoules line at the Gardanne end. BLN 843.057][FR] (Cannes -) Ranguin - Mouans-Sartoux - Grasse: (BLN 825.0204; Ball 77A3) Closed to passengers 2 October 1938 and out of regular use since 28 January 1991, the section beyond Ranguin on 27 November 1998 saw a special train from Cannes (railcar X2217) chartered by the community of Mouans-Sartoux to mark their restoration of the local passenger station building. Politicians present from the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur regional council confirmed they hoped to include in their next proposals to central government the reopening to passengers, and the electrification, of the Cannes - Grasse line. (L'Écho du Rail, #191, December 1998) BLN 843.058][FR] Nice - Digne-les-Bains: (BLN 836.0487; Ball 77B3-67A1-66Bl) The extensive metre-gauge Chemins de Fer du Sud de la France or Réseau Sud-France reached not only north-west to Digne, but once had lengthy lines to the west (Nice - Vence - Grasse - Draguignan - Meyrargues) and south-west (St.Raphaël - St.Tropez - Toulon). Since 1925 the system has been known as the Chemins de fer de la Provence, whose sole remaining line is Nice - Digne, opened in sections 1891-1911. CP remain a Réseau d'Interęt Général even though central government seem to have devolved ownership and control to SYMA, the Syndicat Méditerranée Alpes, a local-authority consortium. Actual operators from 1 July 1974 to 31 December 1987 were CFTA (Societé Générale de Chemins de Fer et de Transports Automobiles) after which a joint venture of CFTA and bus company TNL (Transports de Nice et du Littoral) was formed and, as the Societé Nouvelle des Chemins de fer de Provence, ran the line from 1 January 1988. SYMA met on 22 December 1998 to decide the letting of the operating contract from 1 January 1999. Staff hopes were dashed when SNCF did not bid. With the vote tied seven-all, SYMA's chairman gave his casting vote in favour of CFTA (now a subsidiary of the multinational utility company Vivendi), whereupon the union Confédération Générale du Travail called an immediate strike. In mid-January all trains had been strikebound since 22 December, though over half the services were being covered by buses, crewed by non-striking staff. (La Vie du Rail, 12 November 1987; Voie Étroite, #168, October-November 1998; La Vie du Rail, #2679, 13 January 1999) BLN 843.059][DE] (Braunschweig -) Weddel - Ehmen - Fallersleben: (BLN 836.0493; Ball 27A2 incorrectly shown) The new single-track Weddeler Schleife (the 'Weddel loop') has high-speed connections at both ends, but Weddel has a flat junction and Fallersleben a flying one. As with many new lines, the railway environment has in places been much disfigured by high 'environmental' walls, and it is not easy to see from the train exactly where the old Braunschweig Ost - Lehre - Ehmen route trailed in. BLN 843.060][DE] Köln - Bonn by ICE for a local fare: (Ball 36A3-36B1) Since May 1998 a 34km run on a DB InterCityExpress has been possible with only a local Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg ticket. The southbound ICE842 Otto Lilienthal from Berlin (and the northbound EC25 Franz Liszt from Budapest) are available to ticket-holders without the usual supplements because they fill a late-evening gap in the regular-interval timetable of Regional Express trains. (Blickpunkt Strassenbahn, 5/98) BLN 843.061][DE][AT] Kiefersfelden - Wachtl am Thiersee: (Ball 71B1 not shown) Heidelberger Zement operate an overhead-wired 5km 900mm-gauge industrial railway from limestone quarries at Wachtl am Thiersee in Tirol, Austria, to their Portland-cement factory at Kiefersfelden in Bayern, Germany. Originally used solely by limestone trains, in 1990 the line saw its first summer-weekend passenger Wachtl-Express, employing three ex-Wendelsteinbahn coaches, and in 1994 it received some backing from Bavarian provincial and local authorities and from DB. Its scheduled though infrequent summer tourist trains are unusual in running over an international route. BLN 843.062][SE] (Sundsvall -) Nyland - Örnsköldsvik - Husum - Umeĺ: (Ball 15A3-7A2) North of Sundsvall, the south-to-north main line (Stambanan) heads inland and the two main coastal towns are served by branches, Mellansel - Örnsköldsvik and Vännäs - Umeĺ. A Nyland - Umeĺ high-speed coastal railway, the Bothnia Line (Botniabanan), is being considered, but must be a longer-term project for the infrastructure company Banverket. BLN 843.063][FI] Helsinki metro: The 4km Itäkeskus - Vuosaari branch to the north-east opened in August 1998, with a burrowing junction entirely in tunnel and two intermediate stations. At the formal opening ceremony in September an official said that further extension of the c.20km 1524mm-gauge system was planned, from the existing Mellunmaki - Itäkeskus - Ruoholahti line westward to Espoo. (partly from Today's Railways, #37, January 1999) BLN 843.064][PT] Aveiro - Sernada do Vouga - Espinho: (BLN 697.08; Ball 17A3) Though now together described as the Linha do Vouga, the two metre-gauge routes to Sernada are still worked separately. Much of the service is provided by buses, and some of the trains are short workings, so a through rail journey is not easy. Freight traffic ceased in the 1970s, and Aveiro's former transhipment facilities and goods-shed are disused, with the metre-gauge sidings holding only track-maintenance wagons. On 25 November 1998, the 10:41 Aveiro - Sernada train, an Allen railcar and trailer, left from platform 4 at the north-east end of the station. The many level-crossings on the line are guarded by female crossing-keepers, each with her red 'stop' flag furled and held vertical to indicate 'line clear' as the train passes. Men with flags also string a chain across the carriageway to give the train priority over road traffic, on the single track embedded in the road surface across the high stone viaduct on the approach to Sernada. The Sernada - Viseu line, closed to passengers and to all traffic 1 January 1990 (BLN 697.08), is lost under vegetation at the junction immediately beyond the station. An extensive depot was seen to hold three steam locomotives (2-6-0T #E97, E113 and 4-6-0T #VV12 apparently in good order) and one diesel (#069006), plus many more Allen railcars and trailers than are needed to work present services, and no fewer than four Class 019 three-car diesel units. One of the latter, #019416, formed the 12:39 Sernada - Espinho service, giving a very noisy, cold and draughty ride north. As on the journey reported in BLN 780.0244, the train called at many stations and halts omitted from the tables of CP's Guia Horário Oficial, and shown in the Ball atlas as closed. Traffic was light till the unit neared Espinho, where no traces of goods-yard, transhipment-shed or depot remain. The metre-gauge terminal bay platforms are numbered 1 and 2, as also are the two through platforms for the main-line services! Most of the passengers joined the 14:51 broad-gauge train which reversed at Porto Campanhă for Porto Săo Bento. BLN 843.065][IT] Sacile - Maniago - Pinzano - Gemona del Friuli: (Ball 43B1-44A2; FS 187) This line has virtually no service east of Maniago except on Sundays and holidays (BLN 797.0113). Running at the foot of the Alps, it is quite scenic, but the reason for its odd service pattern is not obvious. A BLN reporter on 1 January 1999 was the only passenger on his eastbound train, and a westbound train was empty. BLN 843.066][IT] Terni - Sulmona: (Ball 50B1-53B3) This single-track cross-country FS line, worked by diesel railcars, is very scenic. Beyond Rieti it climbs tortuously eastwards through the mountains before dropping into a broad valley at the foot of the Gran Sasso d'Italia. This is the highest part of the Apennines, whose summit is Corno Grande (2912m). Snow was down to below 2000m on 26 December 1998. BLN 843.067][IT] Terni - Perugia Ponte San Giovanni - Sansepolcro: (BLN 802.0233; Ball 50B1-50A3) The private Ferrovia Centrale Umbra, with its short and steeply graded branch from Perugia Ponte San Giovanni to Perugia Sant'Anna, is standard-gauge, but the northern end may once have been narrow-gauge. The line was electrified, but when the 3000V dc equipment needed renewal it was simply abandoned. Passenger trains are now diesel railcars similar to those of FS. Some of the old electric railcars passed to Ferrovie del Gargano (BLN 796.093), but a significant number remain dumped at Umbertide depot. BLN 843.068][IT] Rocchetta San Antonio-Lacedonia - Lioni - Avellino: (BLN 796.095; Ball 54Bl) Rocchetta San Antonio-Lacedonia has a few houses for railway staff clustered around a five-platform station with a post-office on the platform. Respectively 14km and 19km from the villages whose names it bears, it is still the meeting point of four routes. Only the north-south Foggia - Potenza line has anything other than a very sparse service. A small diesel shunter was stabled inside an otherwise empty three-road locomotive-shed near the deserted goods sidings. On 18 November 1998 BLN's reporter stood alone on this remote station anxiously awaiting the scheduled 11:50 arrival of the first train from Avellino to form the 12:40 return, the only through train of the day, all other services being by bus. A single Class 668 diesel railcar eventually arrived empty at 12:35, and after a five minute turn-round departed on time. A young man on military service returning from home in Brindisi across the country to his base at Avellino was the only other passenger. Some raucous schoolchildren travelled two stations home from Lioni, but otherwise all was quiet until a few people joined closer to Avellino. The 119km took 21/2 hours across the mountainous central spine of Italy, passing through many tunnels and over numerous rivers and viaducts, with views of hill towns remote from the stations purporting to serve them. At Castelfranci, an insignificant halt, a country footpath crossed the line by a new footbridge. Montemarano and Paternopoli also have station footbridges, all on a line with few trains while passengers still have to walk across the tracks at many busy main-line stations elsewhere. Avellino was reached late despite the undemanding schedule, but there was still ample time to note the barber's shop open for business at the five-platform station, not over-endowed with trains. One of the array of lower-quadrant signals was pulled off for the departure of the 16:00 single Class 668 railcar north on the Mercato San Severino - Avellino - Benevento line, sparsely-trafficked with a five-hour gap in the morning. After Benevento Porta Rufina with its rusty passing-loop comes Benevento Arco Traiano, a station not shown in Ball nor in a 1976 timetable, before a lengthy river bridge brings the single track alongside the FS depot into Benevento main station. BLN 843.069][IT] Bari Nord - Barletta: (BLN 832.0394; Ball 56A1-55A2) Standard-gauge Ferrotranviaria have FS siding connections at both Bari and Barletta, but no evidence was seen of any freight in December 1998. FT have their own station at Bari and seem to have little to do with FS. (In Bari itself, trolleybus wires remain, but no vehicles were seen.) The Bari - Palese - Bitonto section of the FT line is being doubled, but it has been rerouted away from the town-centre at Palese, apparently to facilitate construction of a bypass road. At Barletta FT trains arrive at an island platform with an engineer's depot between it and the FS platforms. BLN 843.070][IT] Palermo Centrale - Giachery: (BLN 841.013; Ball 59A3) ADL point out that the branch was included as an integral part of their November 1998 Sicily tour. After taking participants by road to Giachery both tour-leaders returned with the party up the branch on a Palermo Metro service train to Palermo Centrale. BLN 843.071][GR] Diakopto - Kalavrita: (Ball 66A2-65B2) This scenic but loss-making 23km 750mm-gauge rack-and-adhesion line is unusual for its electric locomotives with diesel-generator tenders. OSE (Organismos Sidirodromon Ellados = Greek railways) want to transfer operation to a local body, and to hurry the negotiations have threatened no further maintenance spending and possible closure. (Eisenbahn Amateur, 5/98) BLN 843.072][NO] (Oslo -) Ski - Mysen - Rakkestad - Sarpsborg: (BLN 738.0267; EGTRE NO99/4; Ball 21A3) Leaving from Oslo Sentral platform 18, part of the new south-side expansion for the Gardermobane airport line, train #183, the 16:20 Oslo - Sarpsborg, was on 14 September 1998 an SJ electric locomotive hauling seven well-loaded Swedish coaches. On the sparsely-trafficked Mysen - Rakkestad - Sarpsborg section, five stations are shown in the timetable but at least five more halts were seen, typically with tiny half-coach-length platforms - and this sizeable train was booked to serve all these on request. It did call to drop people at two points between Mysen and Rakkestad, but south of Rakkestad, BLN's reporter was the only passenger on the entire train and, with no-one hailing it to board, all stations and halts were ignored as it sped to Sarpsborg. There the locomotive ran round and stabled the stock in a siding, perhaps to form the next day's northbound train #158, the 05:52 Sarpsborg - Mysen - Oslo Sentral. The east-to-south Sarpsborg avoiding curve, still incomplete in summer 1994, seemed in use, presumably for freight and perhaps diverted passenger trains via Mysen while the main Ski - Moss - Sarpsborg (- Kornsjř NSB - Göteborg SJ) route is being upgraded. BLN 843.073][CH] Landquart - Klosters: (BLN 784.0337; Ball 95B2-96A3) Between the 786m Fuchsenwinkel tunnel and Furna station, a new passing-loop with a 90km/h limit on the through track is to be ready in late 1999 to cope with more traffic on the metre-gauge Rhätische Bahn single line after opening of their Klosters - Susch / Lavin 21.5km Vereinatunnel (BLN 840.0626), which is now planned for 19 November 1999 according to Today's Railways #38. BLN 843.074][HU][AT] Szombathely MÁV - Rechnitz SRB (- Oberwart ÖBB): (BLN 838.0578; Ball 46B3-HU, 84B3-AT) On the Hungarian side the track now ends in a textile factory at Szombathely, to which freight traffic occasionally runs. Beyond, the running line was abandoned in 1973, though the embankment is mostly in place, and in 1997 a few bridges remained. BLN 843.075][AM] Armenia: Once part of the Soviet Union's Transcaucasian Railway, managed from Tbilisi in Georgia, the all-electric rail system of now-independent Armenia has suffered badly in the last decade. Traffic has fallen precipitously since Soviet days, 1995 passenger km being down to 47% of the 1989 figure, and freight a mere 8%. Though the border with Georgia seems to be open (BLN 791.0485), Armenia does not enjoy good relations with either of its other neighbours, Azerbaijan and Turkey, and rail traffic no longer crosses their frontiers. A 333km main line, (Sadakhlo -) Ayrum - Spitak - Gyumri - Masis - Ararat - Yerash (- Velidag), starts from the border with Georgia in the north, and runs mainly parallel to the border with Turkey in the west, to reach the border with Azerbaijan's Naxcivan/Nakhichevan exclave in the south. Another c.178km main line (Masis - Yerevan - Nurnus - Razdan - Barxudarli) runs from the junction at Masis north to Yerevan and onward to the Azerbaijan border, with a 56km belt line (Masis - Nurnus) offering an alternative route avoiding the capital city of Yerevan. Masis has the country's principal marshalling-yard (in 1998 little used) and the 14km Masis - Yerevan section has its only double track. Gyumri (formerly Leninakan) and Yerevan have maintenance and repair facilities. North of Yerevan a 145km branch (Razdan - Sotk) runs along the north side of Lake Sevan to Sotk (or Zod), a former gold-mining centre whose mine is said to be closed, perhaps temporarily. A short 16km branch (Gyumri - Akhurian) runs west to the closed Turkish border-station on the line to Kars. Other branches serve industrial areas (Gyumri - Maralik, 38km; Oktembri - Arsaluis, ?km; Masis - Karmir Blur, 14km) and bring the total route length to 798km, or 845km according to another report. Maximum speed is theoretically 74km/h, but with many local restrictions, including lengths where the limit is as low as 15km/h. Many facilities on the railway remain damaged following the 1988 earthquake centred on Spitak, 50km north of Gyumri, and indeed help from the UN World Food Programme was continuing in 1998. (mainly from Continental Railway Journal, winter 1998-99) BLN 843.076][JO] Wadi el Abyad / El Hasa - Ma'an - Batn el Ghul - Aqaba: (BLN 840.0636) By mid-2001 the Wisconsin Central-led operating consortium are to add two significant extensions (22km and 16km) to the 300km Aqaba Railway section of the 1050mm-gauge former Hejaz Railway, serving a new mine and an industrial area near Aqaba and increasing annual traffic from 3 to 10 million tonnes by 2002. (Financial Times, 25 November 1998) BLN 843.077][SG] Singapore light rail: The elevated Bukit Panjang light-rail line will pass very close to numerous apartment-blocks, but the modesty of residents is to be preserved by special windows in the vehicles that cease to be transparent as they pass. Embedded within the window glass are two layers of clear polyester film with a polymer/liquid-crystal layer between. When a small alternating current is applied to the film, the liquid-crystal layer allows light through and makes the window transparent. When the current is cut off, the liquid-crystal molecules adopt a random pattern, preventing passengers looking out. The train location system is to de-energise the windows at appropriate points where the line is near to residential buildings. (International Railway Journal, December 1998) BLN 843.078][EC] Ecuador: (BLN 840.0643) A 'timetable' obtained in January 1999 for the passenger trains of Empresa Nacional de Ferrocarriles del Estado (ENFE or Ferrocarriles Ecuatorianos) is a simple typescript list with no intermediate timings. Text in square brackets has been added for BLN. 07:00 daily San Lorenzo - Ibarra autoferro 07:00 daily Ibarra - San Lorenzo autoferro [no service Ibarra - Quito] [no service Quito - Ibarra] 08:00 SO Quito (Chimbacalle - Riobamba [unadvertised Riobamba - Quito] 08:00 SuO Quito (Chimbacalle) - Cotopaxi 14:30 SuO Cotopaxi - Quito 07:00 MTThSO Riobamba - Huigra autoferro 14:00 MTThSO Huigra - Riobamba autoferro 07:00 WFSuO Riobamba - Huigra [diesel loco-hauled] mixto 14:00 WFSuO Huigra - Riobamba mixto [no service Huigra - Bucay - Duran (for Guayaquil)] [no service Duran - Bucay - Huigra] BLN 843.079] Timetable changes in the next Millennium: Planned dates for future timetable changes in Europe are 10 June 2001, 30 September 2001, 2 June 2002, 29 September 2002 and 15 June 2003. BLN 844.080][FR] Arras - Arras: Raccordement Nord - Triangle de Fretin: (Ball 15A3; SNCF table 704) TGVs on the Nord-Europe axis that diverge from the Ligne ŕ Grande Vitesse and take the Raccordement Sud to serve the town of Arras generally stay on the classic line through Roeux (Pas-de-Calais) and also serve Douai. However, on 29 January 1999, as on various dates since spring 1998, TGV7890/1/2 Nantes / Rennes - Le Mans - Lille was timed into Lille Europe 15 minutes earlier than usual without calling at Douai. After its Arras stop it left the classic line just west of Roeux station and ran down the 1.27km single-track Raccordement Nord (Bifurcation 199,6km - Bifurcation 161,94km) back on to the high-speed line. This west-to-north curve is usually shiny in appearance - yet it seems to have no regular passenger service, no postal TGVs run north of Paris, and presumably no ordinary train without TVM cab-signalling is allowed on to the LGV. BLN 844.081][FR][BE] Charleville-Mézičres - Givet SNCF - Heer-Agimont SNCB - Dinant: (BLN 711.02, 713.06, 804.0271; Ball 16B2-17A3; SNCB Ligne 154) The cross-border section sees irregular summer CFV3V passenger trips but is otherwise disused. SNCF and SNCB are reported as studying electrification and reactivation of the route to meet projected growing demand for international freight paths over the period to 2010. Also now being similarly studied is reopening of the (Valenciennes -) Blanc-Misseron SNCF - Quiévrain SNCB (-St.Ghislain) link, closed at Quiévrain but mostly in place (BLN 713.05, 721.05, 736.0202, 768.0524; Ball 7B1). (LCGB Bulletin, Feb.1999) BLN 844.082][FR] La Brohiničre - Mauron (- Loyat - Ploërmel - Questembert): (Ball 21A1-32A3) La Brohiničre - Ploërmel (42km) closed to passengers 6 March 1972, and Ploërmel - Questembert (33km) as early as 6 March 1939. The Mauron - Loyat section was later lifted and for many years the former through line was worked as two separate freight branches. The La Brohiničre - Mauron section saw its last revenue traffic in May 1998, and it is now out of use. (partly from L'Écho du Rail, #190, December 1998) BLN 844.083][FR] Mézy - Condé-en-Brie - Artonges - Montmirail (- Esternay): (BLN 764.0439; Ball 26B3) Preservation group Chemin de Fer Touristique de l'Omois plan to run trains on the Mézy-Moulins - Artonges section of this former Est line, retained as far as CFD's locomotive-repair works at Montmirail. CFTO have a Picasso railcar X3835 at Mézy-Moulins, plus Y2300 ex-industrial diesel shunters. (LCGB Bulletin, Feb.1999) BLN 844.084][FR] (Montargis - Charny -) Villiers St.Benoît - Toucy (- St.Sauveur-en-Puisaye - Étang de Moutiers - St.Fargeau - Gien): (BLN 819.046; Ball 36B3-37A2) Summer tourist trains on this 9km section began again on 8 August 1998, running on Saturdays and Sundays to end-September, marketed as Le Transpoyaudin and operated by Picasso railcar X3814 based at Toucy. (Today's Railways, #38, February 1999) BLN 844.085][FR] Lyon - La Tour-du-Pin - St.André-le-Gaz - Le Grand-Lemps - Moirans - Grenoble and St.André-le-Gaz - Pont de Beauvoisin - Chambery: (Ball 56B3-57B2) According to a 1914 Indicateur Chaix timetable, the operators of the Nice - Digne line, Chemins de Fer du Sud de la France (BLN 843.058) also once ran the metre-gauge Réseau de l'Isčre. This reached its maximum extent in 1909, comprising local lines Lyon - La Côte-St.André - St.Marcellin; La Côte-St.André - Le Grand-Lemps; La Tour du Pin - Aveničres; and Pont de Beauvoisin - Bonpertuis, but was so unprofitable it was in receivership (mis sous séquestre) by about 1914. The département revoked the concession in 1919, leaving the Sud-France with no further involvement. The lines, not all connected, had all gone by 1939. (partly from Les petits trains de jadis - Sud-Est de la France, by Henri Domengie; 1983) BLN 844.086][FR] Lyon-Perrache - Oullins - Givors: (BLN 835.0455; Ball 56B3-56B2) Today's Railways #38 reported Lyon-Perrache's new platforms on the Givors line as opening with the timetable-change on 29 November 1998 rather than 6 October, and this was confirmed by a local SNCF source. BLN 844.087][FR] Lyon trams: (BLN 814.0541, 818.023) Following the formal declaration of public utility in September 1998, work has started on this two-route 24km system, planned to open in December 2000. Work has likewise begun in Strasbourg city-centre on tram Ligne B (BLN 837.0545). BLN 844.088][FR] Bordeaux: Bifurcation Lormont / Bif Raccordement Circulaire - Bastide: (Ball 59B3) Bordeaux Bastide, the Paris - Orléans terminus, was on the east bank of the river Garonne, and less convenient than the Midi's St.Jean through station on the west bank. Once the two railways merged on 1 January 1934 the run-down of Bastide began, and it closed to passengers in 1955, latterly having but a single passenger train in and out. The triangular junction and most of the short branch to Bastide remain for freight. (Today's Railways #35, with local map) L'Écho du Rail (#192, January 1999) says the derelict passenger station is to be developed as a cinema complex, retaining only the riverfront façade and one of the side walls. BLN 844.089][FR] Rivesaltes - Estagel - Lapradelle - Axat - St.Martin-Lys (- Quillan): (BLN 841.02; Ball 73A1-72B1) Rivesaltes - Quillan passenger trains ceased 18 April 1939, and the 9km St.Martin-Lys - Quillan section closed completely 30 September 1956. Dolomite traffic continued from St.Martin-Lys until 31 August 1998 when, much to the annoyance of local people, SNCF 'suspended' trains on the westernmost 10km of the branch, occasioning heavy lorry traffic from the quarries down to a new loading-point at Lapradelle. (L'Écho du Rail, #192, January 1999) BLN 844.090][BE] Knokke - Oostende - De Panne: light rail: (BLN 832.0371; Ball 7A3) The c.3km former Vicinal branch from De Panne to Adinkerke NMBS station, closed 5 September 1954, has been reincarnated, on a different alignment, as the metre-gauge light-rail extension that opened to traffic on 1 July 1998. Journey-time is 7 minutes. The solidly-built double track runs from the original De Panne Esplanade terminus (where a wye remains to give access to the small depot) at first in central reservation on the main N34 road, and then on its north-east side through a pleasant forest area. The principal road-crossings are light-controlled. The final section is on private track through fields, past a stop with a substantial waiting shelter on the eastbound platform, immediately adjacent to the entrance of the Meli amusement-park, a major traffic-generator. Tram-storage sidings, bus-bays and extensive park-and-ride space, plus what appears to be a sizeable staff building, form part of the new layout, mainly enclosed by the terminal loop. The tram-station has a De Lijn ticket-and-information office, and elaborate electronic departure indicators, not yet functioning on 16 August 1998, the last day of the high-summer timetable. Beneath a new high-roofed loading-area, trams call at what is in effect the north face of the main platform of De Panne (Adinkerke) NMBS station, whose traditional and pleasantly decorated building has been cleaned and restored. Leaflets at Belgian stations advertise the new link. While the design permits easy cross-platform interchange with trains on the Deinze - De Panne branch, electrified 2 June 1996 (BLN 788.0404), NMBS had on 31 December 1998 perversely parked their waiting electric unit on an outer track! The 69km double-track Vlaamse Kusttram route has at least 30 intermediate crossovers, allowing flexible single-track working during engineering operations. Reversing points are rather fewer: two wyes and seven loops, of which three or four appear to be regularly used. Duplicate routes are provided at three points to avoid delay when bridges are open over canals, and in August the longer of the two diversions around the vast inner harbour at Zeebrugge was in use, repair work to the other, damaged, bridge being still in progress, with a short section of single-line working. Many of the distinctive ticket-kiosks (lijnwinkels) have been renewed, and 33 of the 70-odd stopping-places had staff on duty 09:00-18:00 in summer, probably students on vacation. With some 40 cars in peak service, kiosks may require fewer staff than on-tram conductors! De Lijn make a real effort to promote local tram travel to visitors who arrive by private car, stressing the opportunity to avoid parking problems, providing neat pocket timetables and other information, and handing out a free advertising newspaper to passengers. In high-summer 1998 trams were running every twenty minutes the full length of the Flemish coast, taking 139 minutes. Between about 10:00 and 17:00 an interposed twenty-minute service ran on the central section of the route on either side of Oostende, giving a ten-minute frequency between the turning-loop at Blankenberge Duinse and the wye at Nieuwpoort Bad. From 17 August frequency dropped to two cars an hour on each service. On a very hot day in August traffic was heavy, with standing loads in the afternoon, especially into Oostende and Knokke. The single-ended BN articulated cars, among the last built in 1980-82 for the former Vicinal, are still impressively comfortable, fast, and smooth-riding. Metre-gauge but slightly wider than standard-gauge Bruxelles trams, many have been lengthened in the 1990s with new low-floor central sections, giving welcome extra accommodation that caters well for passengers with push-chairs. All the cars have been repainted from their Vicinal livery, and many have overall advertising. Quite high speeds are needed to maintain the timings, especially on the longer open stretches, but traffic congestion is a problem in the few places where the tracks have not been segregated. In the main street of De Panne, private cars parked nose-to-tail along the pavement force the numerous tourist quadricycles - a local curiosity - on to the tram lines, where they pedal along at a snail's pace. The whole Belgian coast from the Netherlands border to France forms in effect a linear entertainment park in summer, and while a long stay might not be to everyone's taste, one can eat remarkably well - and the tramway is an efficient and interesting operation. BLN 844.091][NL] Tilburg / 's-Hertogenbosch - Boxtel - Eindhoven: (BLN 824.0174; Ball 4B1) The new flyover at Boxtel was brought into use on 20 December 1998, but much remodelling work remains to be done in the area. BLN 844.092][DE] Neustadt (Dosse) - Neuruppin: (BLN 799.0164, 804.0282, 810.0436, 828.0283; Ball 19B1-20A1; KBS206.53) This route may see passenger trains of Prignitzer Eisenbahn Gesellschaft, who already run local passenger services such as Pritzwalk - Putlitz and Pritzwalk - Neustadt, and are also planning expansion of freight traffic. (LCGB Bulletin, February 1999; IBSE) BLN 844.093][DE] Industrial railways in the Ruhr area: (Ball 33 not shown) The Ruhrgebiet has long had extensive industrial railways, notably the colliery lines of Ruhrkohle AG (RAG, now merged into Deutsche Steinkohle AG or DSK); the harbour lines of Eisenbahn und Häfen GmbH (EH, owned by the steel company Thyssen, now part of Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG); the Dortmunder Eisenbahn GmbH (DE; jointly owned since 1980 by the city of Dortmund and by steel firms now also merged into Thyssen Krupp) as well as various lines serving specific plants. (A detailed article on the RAG system, with a map, appeared in the German publication Lok Report for July 1998.) The recent mergers in both coal and steel have however led to rationalisation, cost-reduction and closure of facilities. The DE system, which competes for business with EH, is particularly threatened, as is the Dortmund steel site itself, where two blast-furnaces have closed since September 1998. On 26 September 1998 a charter train covered DE's main line, which runs from the 0km point opposite Kokerei Hansa, past DB's Abzw Hansa and DE's Bf Dortmund-Nord (1km), around the harbour area at the head of the Dortmund-Ems Kanal, through Obereving (9.5km) and DE's Bf Körne (14km) to Bf Schüren (17.5km), using the end-on connection there with the internal lines of the Hoesch Phoenix coke-plant (now also part of Thyssen Krupp) to regain the DB at Hörde. The organisers were RuhrTour, part of Kommunalverband Ruhrgebiet, a body for promoting the Ruhr area with a programme of public visits intended to show something of local firms' activities. Most are by road coach but in recent years RuhrTour have run a few weekday rail trips over industrial lines, as well as a regular autumn Saturday tour with a nostalgic theme, using stock from Historischer Schienenverkehr Wesel (HSW). Though forced to cease their weekday trips on the ex-RAG and EH lines, RuhrTour still hope to be able to organise an interesting rail charter in autumn 1999. BLN 844.094][DE] Narsdorf - Rochlitz: (Ball 43A2; KBS526) Poor usage and poor state of the track are to lead to passenger closure of this 10km link from the May 1999 timetable change. (IBSE) BLN 844.095][DE] Frankfurt-am-Main S-Bahn: (BLN 841.08; Ball 50A3) The new Frankfurt-Messe station opened 13 January 1999. (Tramways & Urban Transit, February 1999) BLN 844.096][DE] Stuttgart trams: Gauge conversion of the city's tramway network continues. Part of metre-gauge route #15 between Ruhbank and Heumaden is to close on 31 May 1999 and reopen as standard-gauge on 11 September 1999. (Tramways & Urban Transit, February 1999) BLN 844.097][DE][AT] Kiefersfelden - Wachtl am Thiersee: (BLN 843.061; Ball 71B1 not shown) Though Heidelberger Zement's overhead-wired 5km 900mm-gauge industrial railway is indeed international, its summer tourist trains from Kiefersfelden may remain within Germany, for during passenger operations a moveable barrier (which seems to have no purpose other than perhaps to mark the frontier) remains locked across the running-line towards Wachtl. Here, at the first limestone loading-point, the wired running-line is paralleled by another track with a loading-chute on one side above the height of the wagon-sides and a gap in the overhead wiring next to the chute. The tourist train stops on the running-line just short of the barrier and sets down its passengers. A second locomotive emerges from the loading-line and pulls the coaches clear, releasing the train engine to run back past its stock on the running-line. BLN 844.098][PT] Porto trams: (BLN 818.037; Ball 7A1 not shown) The city's sole tram route, #18, running in a U-shape from Boavista west along Avenida de Boavista out to the roundabout at Castelo do Queijo and back east into town through Foz and along the north bank of the river Douro to Massarelos, has been prolonged east from Massarelos to terminate at Carmo from 16 November 1998, though some services instead branch off at Massarelos on to the former route #1 to terminate at Infante, reopened 23 November. Reopening too of the outer section beyond Castelo do Queijo to Matosinhos is a possibility. The elderly standard-gauge bogie cars, driven with much verve, are still well-used by ordinary passengers, and are not just for tourists. The route includes both central reservation and gutter-running in the roadway, and the riverside stretch has extensive views across the water to the south. BLN 844.099][PT] Lisboa Oriente - Entrecampos - Fogueteiro (- Penalva - Pinhal Novo - Poceirăo): (BLN 798.0143, 832.0386; Ball 25B1) The new lower rail-deck added to the Ponte 25 de Abril suspension-bridge over the river Tejo (Tagus) is complete and a ceremonial first train, a three-car diesel unit driven by Portugal's prime minister, crossed the bridge on 15 November 1998. (Today's Railways, #38) During November one of the four-car double-deck electric units of private-sector operator Fertagus was seen at the new CP maintenance depot on the south side of the Linha do Alentejo at Poceirăo. (LCGB Bulletin, February 1999) From April 1999 the Fertagus sets are to commence passenger services, initially from Entrecampos to Fogueteiro, later from Oriente. BLN 844.0100][ES] Donostia/San Sebastián - Lasarte-Oria: (BLN 831.0360; Ball 6A2-6A1) EuskoTren passenger services from Donostia have now been extended on to the 1.02km branch diverging south to serve the new station at Lasarte-Oria. In reporting this, LCGB Bulletin for February 1999 said the station is located on the former San Sebastian - Pamplona line, closed 1953, though the architectural model seen at the Azpeitia railway museum in September 1998, and the building works themselves, suggested that the branch, on embankment and viaduct, is largely new construction. BLN 844.0101][ES] Monistrol - Montserrat: (Ball 16A3) From 1905 to 1957 the metre-gauge rack line of the Sociedad de Ferrocarriles de Montańa a Grandes Pendientes ran from Monistrol station on RENFE's ex-Norte broad-gauge Barcelona - Manresa (- Zaragoza) line for 8.5km to the celebrated monastery of Montserrat. This attraction now sees some 1.5 million visitors a year arriving by car, and reopening the railway is one of the options being considered by consultants commissioned by the Catalan government. BLN 844.0102][ES] Madrid - Segovia - Medina del Campo / Valladolid: (Ball 21A2-20B3-10A1) Initial design is to be completed by end-1999 for the Variante de Guadarrama, a proposed high-speed line north-west of the capital. Favoured route is Madrid to Tres Cantos, then north of Colmenar Viejo, into 28km tunnel beneath the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains, emerging at Hontoria, 4km south of Segovia, then using out-of-use line to Olmedo, splitting west to enter Medina del Campo from the north, and north to Valladolid. (Today's Railways, #38) Segovia - Olmedo de Adaja - Medina del Campo passenger trains were withdrawn 26 September 1993 (BLN 725.061). BLN 844.0103][ES] Madrid metro: (BLN 805.0313) From 15 October 1998 line 7 (orange) was extended from Gregorio Marańón 1.2km to an interchange with line 2 (red) at Canal. BLN 844.0104][IT] Venezia: (BLN 744.0369; Ball 48B3) The outer avoiding line is closed and most track seems to be lifted, but the triangle closer in at Venezia Mestre remains. BLN 844.0105][IT] Firenze Campo di Marzio - San Piero a Sieve - Borgo San Lorenzo (- Faenza): (Ball 49B3-48A1) Unavailable as a through route since war damage in 1944, the Faentina line saw passenger services resume on the 5km San Piero a Sieve - Borgo San Lorenzo section 16 September 1996 (BLN 799.0173). Reopening of the 34km from Firenze, said to be planned for 14 January 1999 (Today's Railways, #38), was marked by two days of festivities on 8-9 January (L'Écho du Rail, #192). BLN 844.0106][IT] Bari - Brindisi - Lecce: (Ball 55B1-56B2) Brindisi Marittima station, electrified with the rest of this Ferrovie dello Stato line in May 1996 (BLN 784.0335), has only a limited passenger service in summer and was locked shut on 27 December 1998, but it seems to have freight traffic throughout the year. A wagon with a Greek container was stood on the Marittima line at Brindisi Centrale. The Brindisi avoiding line has entirely gone. BLN 844.0107][IT] Bari Centrale FS - Taranto: (BLN 768.0530, 796.099, 832.0396; Ball 56A1-55B1-58B3) At the end of 1998 a further new section of route was under construction near Bari. Substantial sections have already been entirely rebuilt, rather than merely realigned. For much of the way the new line is out of sight of the old or in completely new tunnels. At Nasisi, the eastern end of the former Taranto avoiding line, a very rusted and overgrown single track remains, and some of the industrial sidings at Bellavista may be remnants of its western end. BLN 844.0108][IT] Bari FSE - Putignano - Martina Franca - Francavilla Fontana - Lecce - Zollino - Nardň - Gallipoli: (BLN 803.0261; Ball 55B1-56) At Bari FS station Ferrovie del Sud Est have their own booking-office, and FSE's standard-gauge trains depart from platforms on the south side, where the signs say 'Bari Centro' rather than 'Bari Centrale'. The only FSE timetables seem to be wall posters, on which some times are quoted to the half-minute. Though most FSE services are diesel railcars, some are locomotive-hauled, but no freight traffic appears to remain anywhere on the FSE system. Between Francavilla and Lecce is San Pancrazio station, an old two-storey building to an FSE standard design, now rather overpowered by a large modern platform-canopy. A Midland Railway fan could travel from San Pancrazio to Derby (on the Chivasso - Pré St.Didier line; Ball 40A1; BLN 696.010) and see most of Italy! In a shed at Lecce were steam locomotive #835 244, labelled as owned by Museo Ferroviario Pugliese, plus electric E626 185. Posters at Lecce station advertised a local exhibition to mark the centenary of La tranvia elčttrica Lecce - San Cataldo (1898-1933), with a photograph of a single-deck electric tram at the small coastal resort of San Cataldo, some 11km away. At Gallipoli the line continues several hundred metres beyond the passenger station, but no longer goes all the way to the harbour. BLN 845.0109][IE] Mullingar - Moate - Athlone: (BLN 741.0321, 812.0481, 839.0589) The ex-Midland Great Western line, which has no regular use, is hosting a fibre-optic cable route. After some vegetation clearing, an engineering train with a special plough to entrench the cable was seen working on the line on 19 and 25 October 1998. (Rail Express, January 1999) Just north-west of Athlone's present (ex-Great Southern & Western) passenger station, the MGW line trails into the GSW route at Athlone East Jn, which seemed to show slight signs of use on 26 January 1999. Beyond the sizeable bridge over the river Shannon, the old building of the closed Athlone Midland passenger station remains, on its less-convenient west-bank site, just before the divergence at Athlone West Jn of the lines to Claremorris and to Athenry. The (Athlone -) Ballinasloe - Athenry - Galway section is having track-renewal work, advertised in January 1999 as requiring certain services to be worked by buses between Ballinasloe and Galway BLN 845.0110][IE] Athlone - Knockcroghery - Roscommon - Claremorris: This line was the scene on 8 November 1997 of a major passenger-train derailment at the aptly-named passing-loop of Knockcroghery (BLN 820.065). Paragraphs in a draft report on Iarnród Éireann prepared in August 1998 by British consultants International Risk Management Services for the Irish government, but omitted from the published version, are alleged to highlight Athlone - Claremorris, along with Mallow - Killarney - Tralee and Limerick Jn - Waterford, as posing unacceptable risks to regular passengers and to train-crew. The Cork Examiner for 19 January 1999 quoted several damning passages from the draft: '... no other serious railway in the world is running on such lightweight and obsolete rail-section on main lines. ... The site inspections identified many examples each day of defects which would be quite unacceptable in the rest of Europe. ... staff have become used to mediocrity. Poor track is the norm, and since the last train managed to get over safely, it is assumed the next will too'. BLN 845.0111][IE] Kilkenny: Lavistown North Jn - Lavistown South Jn: Notwithstanding BLN 838.0570, the Christmas-shopping relief to the first northbound Waterford - Dublin train ran on four Saturdays in 1998 (21 November - 12 December). It has not normally run the weekend before Christmas - perhaps regarded as a time for last-minute shopping locally, not for trekking to Dublin - but has run the previous three Saturdays. Operation on 21 November 1998 was thus slightly unusual, and seems to have been to cater for a large organised group of local employees. Dates for the Kilkenny avoiding line in 1999 may be 27 November, 4 and 11 December; check from mid-November by telephoning +353 51 873401. Christmas-shopping travel on IE was very heavy in 1998 and on other routes scheduled trains with capacity for 450 people were reported as carrying 800. BLN 845.0112][IE] (Cork -) Glounthaune - Midleton (- Youghal): (BLN 765.0457, 803.0252, 821.092) Iarnród Éireann told the Cork Evening Echo (15 December 1998) 'we are not ruling out opening [the line to Midleton] again in the long term, but the justification is not there in the medium to short term'. BLN 845.0113][FR] Pont-de-Dore - Courpičre - Ambert - Arlanc - La Chaise-Dieu - Sembadel: (BLN 815.0563; OEIS 9908; Ball 55B3-55B1) Preservation group AGRIVAP (Les amis du musée de la machine agricole et ŕ vapeur), who run this lengthy 94km tourist line from their base at Ambert, have been looking for a replacement for one of their railcars, a Picasso, which is said to be unrepairable following a level-crossing accident in 1998. (Voie Étroite, #168, November 1998) BLN 845.0114][NL] Zuidbroek - Veendam: (Ball 2B3) Flood damage in October 1998 closed this freight-only branch but it had reopened by early February 1999. BLN 845.0115][NL][DE] Enschede NS - Gronau DB: (BLN 797.0106, 836.0491; Ball NL-5B3, DE-24A2) The last timetabled passenger trains ran in 1981 and the last special in 1985, but reopening to cross-border passenger services is now planned for May 2001. BLN 845.0116][DE] (Magdeburg - Biederitz -) Loburg - Altengrabow: (BLN 729.089, 841.04; Ball 28B2; KBS259) Last day of passenger services on this 12km section was 15 January 1999. (IBSE) BLN 845.0117][DE] (Neustadt -) Sebnitz (Sachsen) - Bad Schandau: (BLN 835.0462; Ball 44B2-44B1; KBS248) Trains have been running again since 30 December 1998. (IBSE) BLN 845.0118][SE] Växjö - Sandsbro - Rottne - Ĺseda - Hultsfred - Tuna - Totebo - Ankarsrum - Verkebäck - Jenny (- Västervik): (BLN 775.0142, 793.017, 827.0269; Ball 26A3-22B1) In 1984 Swedish state railway Statens Järnvägar closed this 187km 891mm-gauge route, and in 1987 sold it to private operators VHVJ, who had five successful seasons before being forced into liquidation. Since then, northern Europe's longest narrow-gauge railway has languished, though nearly all its track remains in place. Kronoberg county council are not interested and Växjö local council, owners since 1987 of the crucial southernmost section, are a problem, for since April 1996 they have refused to let Smĺländska Smalspĺret tourist trains run within the town boundary. The preservation group's operating company SMAB sought an order requiring the council to sell the 8km Växjö - Sandsbro section back to them as successors to VHVJ, but having failed to secure the order were in November 1998 appealing to the courts against this government decision. On SMAB's Sandsbro - Rottne - Hultsfred section the track is in fair condition, and some charters and works trains have run the full length, but SMAB had little commercial success when they tried in 1996 to run tourist trains from the village of Rottne, the first practicable turning-point north of Växjö. To the north, Kalmar county council are supportive of tourist operation, and in 1997 'listed' the Totebo - Verkebäck section of the line, thus protecting it by law. The section north of Hultsfred, managed by FAS, a separate entity from SMAB, has had some unemployment-relief work done on it and some EU money spent, so it is in good condition. In 1999 tourist trains of another preservation group, Tjustbygdens Järnvägsförening, are to operate between Hultsfred and Verkebäck. Beyond, the national highways authority Vägverket bought the 6km Verkebäck - Jenny section in connection with the building of their new E22 road, and though they built an overbridge across it in one place, they short-sightedly blocked it in another place by the same road. In 1994 Kalmar county directed Vägverket to replace the road blockage by a bridge, and later successfully fought off appeals against this. Kalmar's directive therefore remains in force though Vägverket have not yet begun the work to clear the blockage. Meanwhile, interim listing by the national heritage body has prevented the highways authority from trying to dismantle the Verkebäck - Jenny section, and SMAB have now applied for listing of the whole narrow-gauge line from end to end. From Jenny the long-term plan is to restore mixed-gauge working through to Västervik over the (Linköping -) Jenny - Västervik standard-gauge route. Tourism to south-east Sweden is expected to increase when the Křbenhavn - Malmö fixed link across the Öresund (BLN 835.0466) opens in July 2000, and the troubled line may yet see passenger reopening throughout. (newsletter from Föreningen Smalspĺret, January 1999) BLN 845.0119][IT] (Catania -) Targia - Siracusa: (Ball 60B1) Replacing the single-track route round the coast and through the town-centre over a level-crossing (BLN 820.075), the new double-track line into Siracusa appears to have opened from the May 1998 timetable change. BLN 845.0120][PT][ES] Porto - Valença do Minho CP - Tui RENFE - Guillarei - Redondela - Vigo: (Ball 7A1-7A3) Domestic CP services also run on the 133km Porto - Valença section, but RENFE trains may no longer serve the 3km Tui - Guillarei section of line within Spain, leaving this to the three international trains daily each way, two starting from Porto Săo Bento and one from Porto Campanhă. On 24 November 1998 the 07:34 from Săo Bento was a three-car CP diesel unit (#030627, of stainless-steel Budd design, built by Sorefame 1978) calling at main stations only to Valença, where a RENFE crew took over. The former customs and immigration offices on the station were closed and the border, formed by the river Minho, was crossed without formality at a stately pace of 10km/h over the long bridge. No sign was seen of the Tui-Frontera station shown in Ball and in RENFE timetables of earlier years, and the train made its first stop in Spain at Tui, just before joining the León - Vigo electrified line at Guillarei. Here it reversed, travelling a further 37km under the wires with one stop at Redondela de Galicia, junction for the unelectrified Redondela - Santiago de Compostela line, before arriving in platform 6 at Vigo's modern terminus, a building in grand RENFE style with eight platforms but few trains. The line has been shortened slightly to build the new terminus, for the old station building can still be seen, isolated and shuttered, across the forecourt, fronting the Praza de Estación. RENFE's technology had some difficulty in describing the platform for the return working. Indicators in the booking-hall, on the concourse and at the platform-end all advised different numbers in the range 2 to 5, while in fact the train departed from platform 6, from which it had not moved! BLN 845.0121][PT] Lisboa Santa Apolonia - Oriente - Entroncamento - Coimbra B - Pampilhosa - Aveiro - Porto: (BLN 819.059; Ball 25B1-17A3) Major infrastructure works to ease curvature and allow faster running on the Linha do Norte were continuing in late November 1998, with European Union financial support. Between Coimbra B and Aveiro, two significant realignments away from the original route were under construction, one of them involving a sizeable new river bridge. Between Pampilhosa and Aveiro, completely rebuilt stations with high platforms were in use at Mealhada, Mogofores, Oiă and Quintans, and reconstruction was under way at Curia, Paraimo-Sangalhos and Oliveira do Bairro, with passengers using temporary wooden platforms on slightly displaced sites. Between Paraimo-Sangalhos and Oliveira do Bairro, a new alignment is in use and the old double-track main line has been singled to become a relief loop on the east side. BLN 845.0122][CH] (Bern -) Löchligut - Mattstetten Ost - Rothrist - Olten: (Ball 92B3-87A1) The short east-to-north Bern avoiding curve (Wankdorf - Löchligut) opened 21 May 1967 and is used mainly by freight, with only a few passenger trains (OEIS 9904; EGTRE CH99/2). On the eastern outskirts of Bern, its northern junction, Löchligut, has since 28 May 1995 also been the western end of the cut-off (EGTRE CH99/3) used by fast Bern - Olten trains through the 6.3km Grauholz tunnel avoiding Zollikofen, which rejoin the classic route at Mattstetten Ost. The Mattstetten Ost - Rothrist section of the cut-off (BLN 835.0468) is still in 1999 under construction, while Rothrist - Olten via Born tunnel opened 31 May 1981. BLN 845.0123][NO] Oslo metro: (BLN 814.0556, 824.0185, 825.0214; Ball 28A2) Oslo Sporveier's Tunnel-Bane or T-Bane system began as a number of separate standard-gauge light-rail or tramway undertakings: Akersbanen (AB), Bćrumsbanen (BB), Holmenkolbanen (sic) (HKB), Smestadbanen (SB), Tryvannsbanen (TB) and Kristiania Elektriske Sporvei (KES, becoming OS from 1 January 1925, when the city that had been called Kristiania reverted to its traditional name of Oslo). Neither SB nor TB had stock of their own, being worked by HKB. Through working between the western and eastern lines commenced April 1993 when Sognsvannsbanen and Lambertseterbanen were linked. Holmenkollbanen trains, dual-fitted, began to run through to Helsfyr from May 1994. Full through working on other routes commenced November 1995. Route numbers were given to the western lines by 1974 and to the eastern lines in 1987, with new route-numbers allocated in November 1995 and some renumbering in April 1998. Details of the routes from west to east are taken from The Tramways and Subways in Oslo by Nils Carl Aspenberg, published by Baneforlaget, Oslo 1994, revised 1998. Kolsĺsbanen. Route #14 until 1995, #4 from November 1995, #3 since April 1998. Overhead-wired throughout. Kolsĺs - BB/KES 1 January 1930 - Avlřs - BB/KES 2 November 1924 - Bekkestua - BB/KES 1 July 1924 - Jar - BB 15 June 1942 - Smestad (Sřrbyhaugen junction). Rřabanen. Route #83 until 1995, #2 since November 1995. Overhead-wired till November 1995, then third-rail. Řsterĺs - SB 16 November 1972 - Lijordet - SB 3 December 1951 - Grini - SB 22 December 1948 - Rřa - SB 24 January 1935 - Smestad (Sřrbyhaugen junction) - SB 24 January 1935 - Smestad - SB 7 November 1912 - Majorstuen. Holmenkollbanen. Route #81 until 1995, #1 since November 1995. Overhead-wired throughout. Řvreseter (Tryvann) - TB 16 May 1916, 800m freight-only section, closed 3 September 1939 - Frognerseteren - TB 16 May 1916 - Holmenkollen - TB 17 July 1915 - Besserud - HKB 31 May 1898 - Slemdal - HKB February 1898 - Majorstuen. Sognsvannsbanen. Route #82 until 1995, #3 from November 1995, #5 since April 1998. Blindern - Majorstuen section also route #5 1995-98 and #4 since April 1998. Overhead-wired till April 1993, then third-rail. Sognsvann - AB 10 October 1934 - Blindern - AB ?10 October 1934 - Majorstuen. Central tunnel section, common to all routes. Majorstuen - Nationalteatret overhead-wired till January 1993, then third-rail; Nationalteatret - Třyen/Munchmuseet third-rail throughout. Majorstuen - HKB 27 June 1928 - Nationalteatret - OS 7 March 1987 - Stortinget (ex-Sentrum) - OS 9 January 1977, closed 20 February 1983, reopened 7 March 1987 - Jernbanetorget - OS 22 May 1966 - Třyen/Munchmuseet. Grorudbanen. Route #5 since November 1995. Third-rail. Třyen/Munchmuseet - OS 16 October 1966 - Grorud - OS 3 March 1974 - Rommen - OS 18 August 1974 - Stovner - OS 21 December 1975 - Vestli. Furusetbanen. Route #2 since November 1995. Third-rail. Hellerud - OS 18 November 1970 - Haugerud - OS 15 December 1974 - Trosterud - OS 19 February 1978 - Furuset - OS 8 November 1981 - Ellingsrudĺsen Řstensjřbanen. Route #3 since November 1995. Overhead-wired till October 1967, then third-rail. Brynseng (Hřyenhall junction) - AB 10 January 1926 as tram, 29 October 1967 as T-Bane - Hellerud - AB 10 January 1926 as tram, 29 October 1967 as T-Bane - Oppsal - OS 20 July 1958 as tram, 29 October 1967 as T-Bane - Břler - OS 26 November 1967 - Skellerud - OS 4 January 1998 (trial running with passengers from 20 November 1997) - Mortensrud Lambertseterbanen. Route #4 since November 1995. Inner section Třyen/Munchmuseet - Helsfyr also route #1. Since April 1998 whole line has worked 07:00-19:00 as route #4, and during peak periods and after 19:00 as route #1. Overhead-wired till May 1966, then third-rail. Třyen/Munchmuseet - OS 22 May 1966 - Helsfyr - AB 18 December 1923 as tram, 22 May 1966 as T-Bane - Brynseng (Hřyenhall junction) - OS 28 April 1957, closed 16 May 1966 as tram, 22 May 1966 as T-Bane - Bergkrystallen. Tramways & Urban Transit for February 1999 listed Oslo Sporveier's street-tramway routes, numbered #10-19, which are to be revised from May 1999 when the Gaustad hospital line opens. BLN 845.0124][HR][YU] (Zagreb -) Vinkovci - Mirkovci - Tovarnik HZ (- Šid JZ - Beograd): (BLN 826.0240; Ball 47B1) The 32km section to Croatia's frontier station had 25kV 50Hz electrification restored on 24 November 1998, enabling reinstatement of electric-hauled Zagreb - Beograd through services. (Today's Railways, #38) BLN 845.0125][UA][PL] Lviv - Rava Ruska UZ - Hrebenne PKP: (BLN 831.0366 with sketch-map) Ukrzaliznitsa trains can be very uncomfortable in winter. In November 1998 works were under way in the main train-shed at Lviv, and #6002 07:25 Lviv - Rava Ruska departed from track 25, parallel to and west of the train-shed and on the same level as the pedestrian subway beneath the main platforms. The Riga-built Class DR1A five-car diesel unit was lightly loaded and became emptier with every station. With a temperature of minus 8şC the entire train was unheated for the whole journey, taking 10 minutes under the timetabled 148 minutes for 67km. Mercifully its doors and windows were on this occasion intact, preventing passengers from actually freezing. Only local freight was seen on the Lviv - Rava Ruska line, and the significant number of wagons in international traffic at Rava Ruska probably move via Sokal rather than Lviv, and use the Rava Ruska UZ - Kaplisze PKP broad-gauge line into Poland. The Rava Ruska - Hrebenne standard-gauge line across the frontier has passenger but no freight traffic. While in 1996 no evidence was seen of a passenger service on the Rava Ruska - Ukhniv - Chervonohrad - Sokal line, a timetable on display at Rava Ruska now shows two trains each way daily, taking two hours for 63km, quite fast for a provincial service in Ukraine. Only 15 passengers alighted from train #6024, the 08:36 from Sokal, when the UZ Class M62 and its three coaches arrived at Rava Ruska at 10:35 on the icy morning of 16 November. Border control of passengers leaving Ukraine takes place on Rava Ruska station, tickets being checked before entry to the customs accommodation. For train #22004/21104 12:16 Rava Ruska - Warszawa, check-in began about 11:30 and the gate closed at exactly 11:56, 20 minutes before departure. Control took place speedily, with about 20 customs officials and border-guards for the 15 passengers to Poland. Ukrainian border-guards joined the train, which set off slowly at about 30km/h, stopping at the frontier. Just inside Poland, the east-to-south Hrebenne avoiding line diverges, track still in place but heavily overgrown, and about 100m west the embankment of PKP's former Rava Ruska avoiding line (Ukhniv - Hrebenne) is still visible trailing in before Hrebenne station. BLN 845.0126][AU] Melbourne - Pakenham - Bunyip - Warragul - Sale: (BLN 843 supplement) The only electrification in Victoria beyond the Melbourne suburban network is the Pakenham - Warragul section of the broad-gauge V/Line route to Sale. Services on this route have diesel traction, those few formerly worked by electric units having ceased 6 December 1998. As it is little-used and fairly flat, the double track between Pakenham and Bunyip has seen much use for testing electric trains, with long sections of 120km/h running possible. It is not clear whether the 1500V dc infrastructure will be retained for such minimal usage. If the power is turned off the copper wire could disappear quite quickly. BLN 845.0127][US] Schellville, CA - Ignacio - Willits - Eureka, CA: On 27 November 1998 the US Federal Railroad Administration shut down the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in northern California because track and highway-crossing deterioration posed risks to employee and public safety and to the environment. The order halted the entire 458km freight-only system, recently carrying as few as 300 freight cars a month, mostly with gravel and timber, between Willits and the link to the national network at Schellville, near Napa. Incorporated in 1907 by Southern Pacific and Santa Fe to consolidate various small railroads north of San Francisco Bay, the original NWP became an SP subsidiary in 1929. SP sold the section north of Willits to Eureka Southern on 1 November 1984, but the remaining line was taken over in 1991 by a public body, the North Coast Railroad Authority, a consortium of local-government agencies. SP leased the section south of Willits to California Northern on 26 September 1993, but they subsequently relinquished their lease to a new company which adopted the old NWP name. Much of the southern portion of the line in Sonoma and Marin Counties was recently proposed for passenger reopening, but voters rejected the necessary transit sales-taxes in a referendum in November 1998. (http://www2.trains.com) BLN 845.0128][BO][CL][PE] Oruro - Tupiza - Uyuni - Villazón and Uyuni - Ollagüe - Calama: It seems Bolivia again has scheduled passenger trains. Buses in each direction between La Paz and Oruro connect with the 'new southern express', a limited-stop air-conditioned train to Villazón, beyond which the metre-gauge line heads south into Argentina. An unnamed train on the same route makes all stops and has no air-conditioning and no bus connections, but it conveys the weekly through coach from Oruro west to Calama on the Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia in Chile (BLN 820.088). This is one of only two international passenger services apparently surviving in South America, the other being the railcar-operated 62km standard-gauge Tacna - Arica line crossing from Peru to Chile near the coast (BLN 817.019). Continental Railway Journal #115 for autumn 1998 also reported the timings: El Nuevo Expreso del Sur Oruro 10:10 MO - 21:15 MO Tupiza El Nuevo Expreso del Sur Oruro 10:10 FO - 21:15 FO Tupiza FO - 00:30 SO Villazón Oruro 19:00 SuO - Tupiza FO - 12:15 MO Villazón El Nuevo Expreso del Sur Villazón 15:30 SO - Tupiza 18:20 SO - 07:00 SuO Oruro El Nuevo Expreso del Sur Tupiza 06:00 TO - 18:50 TO Oruro Villazón 15:30 ThO - Tupiza - 08:00 FO Oruro BLN 846.0129][IE] (Dublin Connolly -) Newcomen Jn - Glasnevin Jn: (BLN 839.0589) The new lift bridge over the Royal Canal at Newcomen Jn replaced the old structure on 22 September 1998, but track on its approaches had still not been restored by mid-December. (Journal of the Irish Railway Record Society, #138, February 1999) BLN 846.0130][IE] Ennis - Gort - Athenry - Tuam - Claremorris: (BLN 820.064) On this freight-only line, whose Ennis - Athenry section was threatened with closure at the end of 1996 (BLN 792.0487), Gort station loop, out of use due to derailment damage in June 1995 (BLN 758.0319), had by January 1999 been restored, though points were still clipped, locked and scotched pending final adjustment by the Signal Department. At Tuam station, where a railtour in spring 1995 was not allowed to stop because of the condition of the platform (BLN 766.0482), preservation group Westrail had in January 1999 'engaged personnel to undertake construction work on platform', requiring an IE lookoutman in attendance. (Iarnród Éireann engineering works notice, week ending 10 January 1999) BLN 846.0131][IE] Mallow - Banteer - Rathmore - Killarney - Tralee: Following newspaper criticism of the condition of this line and public apprehension about its safety (BLN 845.0110), Iarnród Éireann on 16 February announced a track-improvement programme, and began on the Mallow - Banteer section with complete closure from mid-morning Mondays to afternoon on Fridays, plus weekend timetable revision, during the period 18-28 February 1999. Later, a further 9km of track between Rathmore and Killarney is to be relaid. Manual signalling from signal-cabins is to be replaced by automatic signalling. The work, planned to be complete by October 1999, is to cost EUR8.25M and be 'co-funded by the European Union'. (Iarnród Éireann advertisement, Cork Examiner, 16 February 1999) BLN 846.0132][FR] St.Brieuc - Loudéac - Pontivy - Auray: (BLN 756.0273; Ball 20B2-31A3) The 900t freight trains that convey gas in tank-wagons from St.Brieuc to Loudéac share the track with a sparse passenger service. To the south, passenger trains ceased 27 September 1987, and the 23km Loudéac - Pontivy section seems to have closed completely at that time, though its reopening for freight is now regularly rumoured, according to an SNCF driver at Rennes depot. Freight trains to Pontivy at present work via Auray. BLN 846.0133][BE] Brussel/Bruxelles: The short link between the Bruxelles-Ouest line 28 (BLN 837.0549) and the Bruxelles - Charleroi line 124 (Y Cureghem - Y Forest Est; Ball 10B1; Lijn/Ligne 28/3) was omitted from NMBS/SNCB's network map of 1 January 1998, and was indeed out of use during 1998 while most of its former embankment was removed and replaced by viaduct. On 19 February 1999, a postal electric unit was seen traversing the reopened line 28/3. Only one track seemed to be in use and certainly only one was wired. The new viaduct will permit the later construction through its arches of the high-speed route out of Bruxelles Midi, replacing the present rather circuitous line 96A from Bruxelles Midi to Forest Est. On 15 January 1999 only the northern arc of the flying junction giving access to the airport line (Y Zaventem - Bruxelles-National-Aéroport/Brussel-Nationaal-Luchthaven; BLN 831.0355; Ball 10B2; Ligne/Lijn 36C) seemed in use, with the southern arc still being made ready. By contrast, on 19 February only the southern arc was in use. BLN 846.0134][LU] (Trier DB -) Wasserbillig CFL - Roodt - Oetrange - Luxembourg: (BLN 757.0298, 764.0440, 808.0372; EGTRE LU99/3; Ball 18A2) Infrastructure work is under way between Wasserbillig and Luxembourg in connection with development of the intermodal facility at Bettembourg yard, and on 1-2 March 1999 the westbound line through Roodt was blocked, with all trains using the eastbound line. As in the summer 1998 timetable, westbound fast (RE) trains were running Oetrange - Syren - Howald - Luxembourg (largely single track with passing-loop at Syren), but eastbound trains were running Luxembourg - Sandweiler-Contern - Oetrange. BLN 846.0135][NL] Amsterdam CS - Haarlem - Santpoort Noord - IJmuiden: (BLN 832.0373; Ball 4A3-3B3) Kennemerstrand Expres trains were withdrawn suddenly at the end of August 1998, and operators Lovers Rail have decided not to reinstate the summer-only service, rather to the annoyance of track-authority Railned who invested in upgrading the IJmuiden branch for passenger use. BLN 846.0136][DE] (Greifswald -) Abzw Schönwalde - Lubmin: (BLN 746.035; Ball 13B1) Closure to passengers by end-May 1999 is understood to be likely, as also for (Hoyerswerda -) Knappenrode - Bautzen (44B3-44B2). BLN 846.0137][DE] Hohenwulsch - Kalbe (Milde): (BLN 771.054, 774.0113; Ball 28A3) The former Altmärkische Eisenbahn line is threatened with closure at the May 1999 timetable change. (IBSE) BLN 846.0138][DE] Berlin S-Bahn: (Ball 31B3, 31B2) As forecast in BLN 838.0574, Tegel - Hennigsdorf duly reopened 15 December 1998 and Pichelsberg - Spandau on 30 December. BLN 846.0139][DE] (Düsseldorf Hbf -) Düsseldorf-Gerresheim - Mettmann - Dornap-Hahnenfurth: (BLN 723.029; Ball 33B1) Contrary to the original plans, DB Düsseldorf Hbf - Mettmann passenger services were withdrawn from 4 January 1999 to carry out necessary track work for the Regiobahn project, which may start operation in July or August 1999. (Blickpunkt Strassenbahn, 1/99) On Saturdays from 5 September to 31 October 1999, DB are advertising steam trains beyond Mettmann to Dornap-Hahnenfurth (as in 1998; BLN 823.0150). (IBSE) BLN 846.0140][DE] Butzbach BLE - Butzbach DB: (BLN 840.1617, 842.034; Ball 49B3) The original connection from the Butzbach-Licher Eisenbahn to the state railway (latterly DB) was indeed by an east-to-south curve. A short BLE branch diverged west of Butzbach Ost and curved south for 1.2km to terminate at Butzbach West, a single-platform BLE terminus with no run-round loop, immediately to the east of the DB station. To run round, BLE trains set back to the exchange sidings just to the north of the two stations, where the connection with the DB was on the east side of the main line. However, to facilitate road works, and to allow transfer of the DB/BLE connection to sidings on the west side of the main line, the present south-to-west curve linking DB to BLE at Butzbach Nord opened 19 July 1964, and the old Butzbach Ost - West curve was lifted. Since then, running from Butzbach DB to Butzbach Ost has required a reversal at the point where the 1964 curve joins the east-to-west BLE, at the throat of the Butzbach Nord industrial-estate connection (never a passenger station). (mainly Deutsche Klein- und Privatbahnen, Teil 4, published by Kleinbahn-Bücher, 1975) BLN 846.0141][DE] Taunus and Oberhessen local lines: (Ball 50) Wiesbaden - Niederhausen is served hourly by modern diesel units, some of which run forward to Limburg-an-der-Lahn. Between Auringen-Medenbach and Niederhausen, near recently-opened Rhein-Main-Theater station, the line crosses major construction works which appear to be along the route of the Köln - Frankfurt-am-Main high-speed Schnellfahrstrecke. Between the Frankfurt-Königsteiner Eisenbahn's Höchst - Königstein (Taunus) branch and DB's Frankfurt-Höchst - Bad Soden (Taunus) branch, a half-hourly through Königstein - Höchst - Bad Soden service is operated by newish diesel railcar sets based at the small modern FKE depot at Königstein, with about five roads (BLN 812.0496). Track on the FKE branch looks to have been relaid recently and the stations appear new. Though the DB branch is electrified, it seems not now to see any electric trains. Previously peak-hour-only Friedrichsdorf - Friedberg trains have been replaced by regular-interval services using modern railcars of the Butzbach-Licher Eisenbahn (BLN 840.0617; Ball 49B2-49B3). Apparently to economise on peak-hour paths from Frankfurt to Bad Vilbel, the 16:15 from Frankfurt Hbf unusually leaves as a combined train formed of a Class 215 diesel locomotive and coaches for the Bad Vilbel - Stockheim (Oberhessen) line plus another Class 215 and coaches for Bad Vilbel - Friedberg - Nidda, the two portions separating at Bad Vilbel (BLN 712.04). The 17:15 operates similarly. BLN 846.0142][DE][FR] Wörth (Rhein) DB - Lauterbourg SNCF: (BLN 821.0100; Ball 57A2-DE, 30B3-FR) As a forerunner to the full reactivation of this cross-border route, three pairs of trains are to run on Sundays only from the timetable change on 30 May 1999. (IBSE) BLN 846.0143][DE] München S-Bahn: Neufahrn - Hallbergmoos - Flughafen: (BLN 842.035; Ball 71B3) When the S1 sets divide at Neufahrn, the station and on-train announcements are in German only, so a number of foreign air-travellers have unwittingly found themselves at Freising instead of the airport. (Blickpunkt Strassenbahn, 1/99) BLN 846.0144][DE] München - Holzkirchen - Bayrischzell and Holzkirchen - Schaftlach - Lenggries and Schaftlach - Tegernsee: (BLN 712.07; Ball 71B1; KBS955-957) Due to delay in delivery of new stock to Bayerische Oberlandbahn, the timetables valid to 28 November 1998 continue till 29 May 1999, when the BOB service pattern is to commence. BOB are train-operators only, and the track remains owned by DB or the private Tegernseebahn company in the case of the Schaftlach - Tegernsee line. At Schaftlach the ticket-office appears to have closed and tickets are now sold at the Imbiss, the station snack-bar. BOB ticketing applies, and various through skiing tickets and a BOB Wochenende Card are now on sale, but a DB Schönes Wochenende Ticket was accepted on the train. BLN 846.0145][AT] Kapfenberg - Thörl in Steiermark - Aflenz - Seebach-Turnau (- Au-Seewiesen): (BLN 802.0232, 836.0507; OEIS 9834; Ball 74B1) Today's Railways #39 reports that Steiermärkische Landesbahnen want to give up responsibility for this 760mm-gauge railway, which would prevent preservation group Verein Thörlerbahn from running their summer-weekend tourist trains, the sole remaining traffic on the line since 1996. BLN 846.0146][AT] Breitstetten - Orth an der Donau: (BLN 785.0355; Ball 76A3) The last freight train on this short branch ran on 23 December 1998, and was to be followed by a 'farewell trip' on 27 December. (IBSE) BLN 846.0147][AT][SK] (Wien Ost -) Parndorf - Kittsee ÖBB - Bratislava-Petrzalka ZSR: (BLN 817.07, 830.0346; Ball 76A3-76B3-AT; 41B1-SK) The first pair of (diesel-hauled) trains on this reopened and electrified international route duly ran on 7 January 1999 as planned. Service is to increase from May 1999. (IBSE) BLN 846.0148][ES] Colloto - Oviedo - Trubia: (BLN 831.0359; Ball 3A3) On 4 February 1999 FEVE closed both their metre-gauge termini in the city of Oviedo, Jovellanos and Económicos, together with the works and depots at Santo Domingo and Avenida de Santander, also removing the connection just west of Colloto and closing the line passing round the south side of the city-centre (Colloto - Oviedo - La Manjoya - Fuso de la Reina). On the same date FEVE inaugurated a new double-track electrified metre-gauge line from Colloto to the north side of RENFE's Oviedo station, and reopened all but the western end of the ex-RENFE Oviedo- Trubia branch, which has been regauged from broad-gauge to metre and is now being re-electrified at FEVE's 1500V dc. Just west of San Pedro Nora, some 3km short of Trubia RENFE, new metre-gauge track curves south across the river Nalón to Trubia FEVE station on the San Esteban de Pravia - Trubia - Fuso de la Reina - Collanzo line. FEVE timetables have been minimally revised. In the meantime the triangular junction at Fuso de la Reina remains, for passenger trains reverse at its eastern vertex, calling at the station there, and do not use the former freight-only north-south third side. BLN 846.0149][ES] Madrid metro: (BLN 844.0103) Since the cement company's freight service was withdrawn in November 1997 from the 29km industrial remnant of the metre-gauge Ferrocarril del Tajuńa (Vicálvaro - Arganda del Rey; BLN 821.0103, 836.0515; Ball 21A2), rapid progress has been made with gauge-conversion and overhead electrification so that the line can become a lengthy eastern extension of Metro Line 9, built to 1445mm-gauge. Some short new sections of route were necessary, notably at the outer end, where Metro services will arrive at an underground terminus in Arganda town centre, possibly during 1999. BLN 846.0150][ES] (Sevilla -) Fuente de Piedra - Las Maravillas (- Granada): (Ball 35A2-37A2) The 12km north-to-east curve avoiding Bobadilla-Antequera seen under construction in March 1995 (BLN 754.0236) opened on 1 July 1998, enabling Sevilla - Granada - Almería trains to avoid reversal at Bobadilla station. Track has been upgraded to allow speeds up to 160km/h, shortening Sevilla - Granada journeys by as much as 45 minutes. (IBSE) BLN 846.0151][IT] (Luino -) Laveno Mombello - Sesto Calende (- Novara): (Ball 40A3) Work is to begin early in 1999 on a north-to-east curve enabling Luino - Gallarate freight trains to avoid reversal in Sesto Calende. Though a direct (Luino -) Laveno Mombello - Besozzo - Gallarate line already exists, this is single, with a fairly frequent passenger service. (IBSE) BLN 846.0152][IT] (Milano -) Busto Arsizio Nord - Aeroporto della Malpensa: (Ball 41A1) When Milano's Malpensa airport opened in 1998, its planned rail link was not ready, and airlines other than Alitalia complained when they were forced to move out from Milano-Linate airport to this less convenient facility remote from the city. The 12km new railway from the Ferrovie Nord Milano is expected to open 30 May 1999. (partly IBSE) BLN 846.0153][IT] Merano/Meran - Malles Venosta/Mals: (BLN 808.0390; Ball 42B3) After a decade or so of disuse the 60km Vinschgaubahn, in German-speaking Italy close to the Austrian border, is heavily overgrown and has its rails tarred over at many level-crossings and at the terminal station, Malles Venosta/Mals. Talk of reopening in 2000 seems over-optimistic. (IBSE) BLN 846.0154][IT] Isola della Scala - Bovolone - Cerea: (Ball 47B3) Out of use since May 1992, this line reopened to passenger trains 27 September 1998 and now has quite a frequent train service. BLN 846.0155][IT] Suzzara - Poggio Rusco (- Ferrara): (Ball 47B3) This section of the private Ferrovia Suzzara - Ferrara is being electrified and upgraded for 150km/h running. From autumn 1999 to spring 2000 the line is to be closed while work is carried out at places where new alignment conflicts with the old. (IBSE) BLN 846.0156][HU] Dunaföldvár - Solt: (BLN 822.0131, 840.0634; Ball 47B3) To make room for road vehicles, MÁV say they may at some unspecified future date remove the rail track over the river Duna bridge at Dunaföldvár. The freight-only line is used occasionally by trains carrying nuclear material from the nearby Paks power-station. BLN 846.0157][HU][SI] Zalalövö MÁV - Murska Sobota SZ: (BLN 726.67, 797.0120; Ball 46B3) Notwithstanding some reallocation of finance elsewhere (BLN 840.0633), construction of the 22.5km direct Hungary - Slovenia link is under way, and opening to passengers and freight is expected during 1999. (IBSE) BLN 846.0158][AU] Sydney Central - Sydney Airport International Terminal (- Turrella): A number of the stations on the New Southern Railway under construction to the airport, due to open in time for the 2000 Olympic Games, are being equipped with side platforms rather than the island platforms shown in the May 1998 Quail atlas. (Quail) BLN 846.0159][US] San Francisco, CA: cable-cars: The San Francisco Municipal Railway, operators of the extensive Muni Metro standard-gauge light rail system, also run the classic 1067mm-gauge cable-cars, invented in the city in 1873. Of the maximum network of 83km, three very steep city-centre routes remain to serve citizens and visitors, with a total track length of 7km (and a cable length of 17.2km). The entire operation was lovingly restored in 1982-84, and its combined car-barn and power-house also houses a free museum. The magnificent Victorian engineering is unique, and the intimacy and informality of operation, with the gripman pulling big levers and stamping on brake-pedals in the midst of passengers hopping on and off the open cars, is a striking and refreshing contrast to present-day American tendencies to preoccupation with public-transport safety precautions. BLN 846.0160][US] San Francisco - San Jose Diridon - Tamien - Gilroy, CA: The main transcontinental railroad routes across America have always ended east of San Francisco Bay, short of the city itself, traditionally reached from Oakland by ferry, or now from Emeryville by Amtrak bus across the Bay Bridge, or from Richmond by cross-platform interchange from Amtrak to the broad-gauge (1676mm) Bay Area Rapid Transit heavy metro. But the Southern Pacific did give San Francisco a modest downtown train-station of its own at 4th & King Streets, serving a single commuter route south down the peninsula, now marketed as Caltrain. The area round the station was once rather run-down but major city redevelopment is now taking place between it and the Bay shore, and the N (Judah) line of the Muni Metro standard-gauge light rail system that used to terminate in the heart of the city at Embarcadero, beneath Market Street in a bi-level underground station shared with BART, has recently been extended in a short tunnel curving north-east and then on the surface south to terminate outside the Caltrain station, giving an excellent and well-used connection for commuters to many parts of the city. The Caltrain terminus itself has a bright modernised passenger building nearing completion, and a service of 33 push-pull diesel trains each way Mon-Fri (14 Sat, 10 Suns & holidays) south past Millbrae (free shuttle bus to SFO International Airport) and the Silicon Valley towns of Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara to San Jose's main station, 75km and 90 minutes from San Francisco. This station occupies the site of the 1877 West San Jose depot of the former narrow-gauge South Pacific Coast Railroad, succeeded in 1888 by the Southern Pacific. SP's pleasant 1935 building was rededicated in 1994 and named after local-authority Supervisor Rod Diridon, who was instrumental in pressing for revitalisation of the commuter service and its acquisition by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board in 1992. San Jose Diridon is a junction where connection can be made with north-south Amtrak trains (the Seattle, WA - Portland, OR - Sacramento, CA - Oakland - San Jose - Los Angeles Coast Starlight and Colfax, CA - Sacramento - Oakland - San Jose Capitols) and since October 1998 with the new east-west Stockton, CA - Livermore - San Jose Altamont Commuter Express (BLN 836.0540). Caltrain services all run beyond Diridon for 3km to Tamien which offers interchange (beneath a freeway) to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority's local light-rail line (BLN 804.0298). Beyond Tamien, only four Mon-Fri afternoon Caltrains run further south to Gilroy, 123km from San Francisco, with balancing early-morning inward workings. Caltrain's modern bi-level gallery cars (built Nippon Sharyo 1985-87) are of interest, being different from the double-deckers used elsewhere in California and in many European countries. Single seats accessed from a narrow aisle run along each side of the upper level, and the space between the two upper aisles is partly occupied by sizeable baggage-shelves, but the structure is open, enabling the conductor patrolling the single aisle between the double seats on either side of the lower level to sell and check tickets of passengers on both levels. Information: www.caltrain.com. BLN 846.0161][US] Los Angeles, CA: Metro: (BLN 821.0112) Extension of the 'heavy-rail' Red Line has been delayed. Passengers heading from Amtrak trains at Los Angeles Union Station to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) via the Metro's Red, then Blue, then Green Lines should note that the interchange between the latter two light-rail lines was during 1998 renamed Rosa Parks instead of Imperial/Wilmington. Maps and other information: www.westworld.com/~elson/larail/ BLN 846.0162][US] San Diego, CA: light rail: (BLN 816.0610) Immediately south of the handsome 1915 Santa Fe depot used also by Amtrak intercity and Coaster commuter trains, the San Diego Trolley has a double-track triangle whose north-to-east (Blue Line) and south-to-east (Orange Line) sides are both severely curved, as also is the section common to both Lines continuing north-east through America Plaza station. The straight western side of the triangle, avoiding America Plaza, is therefore very short (<50m). It is not normally used by scheduled passenger workings. However America Plaza is closed for repairs to the track, mostly embedded in roadway, from 1 March 1999 for about "one month". A temporary 'station' just to the east in C Street serves as the downtown starting-point for Blue Line cars south to the Mexican border at SanYsidro/Tijuana and Orange Line cars east to Santee. A temporary Green Line service, with a palm-tree symbol, is operating from the usual downtown terminus of the Orange Line at 12th & Imperial north via Seaport Village and the America Plaza avoiding line direct to Santa Fe Depot and beyond to Mission San Diego, normally the northern terminus of the Blue Line. Information: www.sdcommute.com. BLN 847.0163][FR] Paris: Batignolles - L'Évangile - Bercy - Tolbiac (- Grenelle - Auteuil-Boulogne - Avenue Henri Martin - Batignolles): (Ball 81B3) The Grenelle - Auteuil-Boulogne section of the Petite Ceinture, the inner ring railway close to the centre of Paris, was removed before 1982, and the Auteuil-Boulogne - Avenue Henri Martin section had gone by 1990, but much of the remainder