NEWS ARCHIVE
30/12/2015 - Railway Gazette International reports - CHINA: Trial running has started on the 18·5 km ‘medium-speed’ maglev line linking Changsha Nan station with the city's Huanghua Airport. Article:
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/urban/single-view/view/changsha-maglev-starts-trial-running.html
12/11/2015 - 'Monorailex 2015' opens in Las Vegas. A three day conference/trade show for those associated with the monorail industry - organised by The International Monorail Association.
10/11/2015 - Railway Gazette International reports - 'Work starts on Bologna airport monorail'. Article:
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/news/europe/single-view/view/work-starts-on-bologna-airport-link.html
04/11/2015 - WestOx Monorail's A40 submission document has been sent to Oxfordshire County Council for their consideration as part of the 'Investing in the A40' public consultation exercise.
16/10/2015 - Railway Gazette International reports - 'Ranchi plans monorail'.
INDIA: The Jharkhand government has backed plans for two monorail lines in the state capital Ranchi following a feasibility study undertaken by Infrastructure Development Finance Company which found that a monorail would be preferable to an elevated or underground metro. IDFC is to submit a detailed project report by December.
A 13 km route would connect Dhurwa in the southwest of the city with Kutchery in the northeast, while the other line would run for 12 km from Piska More in the west to Namkum in the east. There would be a total of 33 stations.
26/09/2015 - OCC launches public consultation on A40. Starting with an exhibition at The Methodist Church Hall, High Street, Witney, possible solutions are presented and opinions sought from members of the public. Witney event is followed by further events at Oxford, Cassington and Eynsham. The period of consultation ends on 8th November.
22/09/2015- American Maglev Technology Inc. provide WestOx Monorail Limited with a preliminary capital expenditure (CAPEX) estimate for the proposal. The CAPEX summary provides a breakdown of estimated costs based on a system, 10.4 miles in length, between Witney and Oxford rail station. A total estimated cost of $321.6m (£210m) would provide a 4-car transit system with a peak hourly capacity of 1320 passengers. Maximum headways would be 10 minutes with a maximum speed of 60 mph. The cost includes the construction of 4 stations including intermediate stations at Eynsham and Northern Gateway. The estimate does not include costs for purchase/lease of land.
(www.american-maglev.com)
27/07/2015- WestOx Monorail facebook page launched.
24/07/2015 - Scomi Engineering of Malaysia announces it is in talks to secure the contract to provide a monorail system for Colombo, Sri Lanka ('Scomi eyes US$970m monorail job in Sri Lanka')
07/07/2015 - Ramboll presents WestOx Monorail Limited with a 'Technical Appraisal' of the project. Ramboll is a leading engineering, design and consultancy company employing 12,300 experts in the Nordics, North America, the UK, Continental Europe, the Middle East and India and operating across eight key markets including Transport. This 'high-level' feasibility study has provided us with vital information in identifying risks, opportunities and potential benefits of the proposal which will be useful in order to take the project to the next stage of development.
(http://www.ramboll.co.uk/)
10/06/2015 - Interest in the WestOx proposal has increased to the point where the website has attracted 1000 visits in the previous month to date (source: Google Analytics).
08/05/2015 - WestOx website achieves the milestone of 1000 visits. In excess of 800 users have accessed the site from locations across six continents (source: Google Analytics).
23/04/2015 - Daegu, South Korea: Line 3 of Daegu metro opened. The city's first monorail line is 24km long with 28 intermediate stations. Daegu Metropolitan Transit Corp will operate a fleet of 28 three-car Class 3000 trainsets supplied by Hitachi. Total project cost US$333m (£215m). WestOx proposed route length is approx. 17km with up to 5 stations only and 2 trainsets.
16/04/2015 - WestOx Monorail is featured in the latest edition of Oxford Today. Oxford Today is a magazine for Oxford University alumni available in print and digital formats and is distributed twice a year (April and October). It has a print distribution of 165,000. WestOx feature in an article entitled 'Oxford in 2065'.
26/02/2015 - David and Andrew met with Oxfordshire County Councillors Laura Price and Stephen Curran. Laura represents the Witney South and Central division for the Labour Party and Stephen represents Leys division. Stephen is also Labour's transport lead at county level. Both were extremely interested in the details of the WestOx proposal and asked to be kept informed of our progress.
27/01/15 - David met with the Labour Parliamentary candidate for the Witney constituency, Duncan Enright, to discuss the WestOx Monorail proposal. Duncan has been campaigning on local transport issues for the last few years and is interested in seeing WestOx develop as a viable option.
10/12/14 - David and Andrew attend presentation by Martin Tugwell of Transport Systems Catapult in London. Martin explained the work of 'the Catapult' in facillitating the development of innovative transport ideas.
08/10/14- Full page feature on WestOx Monorail entitled 'Singular vision' appears in Witney Gazette.
04/10/14 - Railway Gazette report on Riyadh monorail.The first Bombardier INNOVIA 300 vehicle for the 'King Abdullah Financial District' unveiled.
04/10/14- Oxford Times website carries feature 'A single-minded vision' along with abridged version 'Public meeting inspires monorail plan'. Both pieces also appear on websites of sister papers the Oxford Mail and the Witney Gazette.
03/10/14- Full page feature on WestOx Monorail in the Oxford Times.
18/08/14 - David interviewed by Leandra Edmands of Witney Radio. Interview broadcast on Leandra's 'Typically Topical' show - 6:00 - 7:00pm Wednesday 20th August.