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LOWER Saxony State Transport (LNVG), which is responsible for local and regional transport in the German state of Lower Saxony, has expanded its train maintenance contract with Bombardier.

FIRST Freight Company, a subsidiary of Russian Railways (RZD), has agreed to set up a joint venture company under Finnish law with VR Group, Finland's national rail operator, to develop railfreight services between the two countries.

BRITAIN's infrastructure manager, Network Rail, has awarded its first contract for a so-called modular signalling system to Westinghouse Rail Systems. The contract will run until May next year and involves development and a demonstration of the proposed system on a pilot line between Crewe and Shrewsbury.

BOC Investment, the investment subsidiary of Bank of China, is planning to take an 8% stake worth about Yuan 10 billion ($US 1.5 billion) in Beijing-Shanghai Railway Corporation (BSRC), reports the state-owned newspaper, China Daily. BSRC owns and will operate the 1318km high-speed line being built between Beijing and Shanghai.

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) has announced its results for the first half of 2009. Freight traffic - at 1055 billion tonne-km - was 3.3% higher than forecast, even though actual volume was down almost 25% at 572 million tonnes.