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THE French government is to invest Euros 550m in the Railenium railway infrastructure research centre to be established in the Lille area, allowing the project to get underway. Construction is expected to start in 2015 and the research centre should open in 2017.

THE Iraqi Ministry of Transport has signed a memorandum of understanding with Alstom for a turnkey project to build a 250km/h line linking the capital Baghdad with the southern city of Basra and Um Qasr on the Kuwait border.

BRITAIN infrastructure manager, Network Rail (NR), says it cut the cost of running the national rail network by £400m during the 2010-11 financial year, but its operating profit remained virtually unchanged at £2bn. NR's pre-tax profit increased from £395m in 2009-10 to £438m.

CHINA's Ministry of Railways has announced today that the 1318km Beijing - Shanghai high-speed line will be officially inaugurated at 15.00 on June 30 and passenger services will start on July 1. Work started on the Yuan 220.9bn ($US 34bn) project in April 2008, but has been completed must faster than planned, as the line was originally scheduled to open in 2012.

MERMEC, Italy, has won a contract worth more than Euros 15m to supply two of its 130km/h Roger 800 diagnostic vehicles to RailCorp, Australia, with an option, to be exercised by the end of the year, to supply a third vehicle. RailCorp is responsible for the commuter rail network in the Sydney area and operates passenger trains throughout New South Wales.

DB REGIO has selected Alstom to supply 56 two and three-car Coradia Lint regional dmus in an order worth Euros 325m. The trains will be operated predominately on non-electrified lines in Greater Cologne and the Eifel Region of Germany from December 2013.

FEDERAL Passenger Company, the long-distance passenger subsidiary of Russian Railways (RZD) has awarded a contract worth more than Euros 100 million to Talgo, Spain, to supply and maintain seven 20-car 200km/h tilting trains for operation on international services from Moscow to Berlin and Kiev.

THE European Rail Industry Association (Unife) has appointed Frenchman Mr Philippe Citroën as its new director-general, replacing Mr Michael Clauesecker who announced his intention to step down in late 2010.

THE presidents of French Rail Network (RFF) and Vinci, Mr Hubert du Mesnil and Mr Xavier Huillard, have signed a 50-year Euros 7.8bn concession to fund, design, build, operate and maintain a new 302km high-speed line from Tours to Bordeaux. The deal is described as the biggest PPP contract in Europe.

BRITAIN's rail minister Teresa Villiers has announced today that a consortium led by Siemens is the preferred bidder to fund, build and maintain a fleet of 1200 emu cars as part of the £6bn project to upgrade and expand the Thameslink cross-London rail network. The consortium will also fund and build two train depots in the London area at Hornsey and Three Bridges.