Dan Templeton

RUSSIAN Railways (RZD) announced on December 13 that it has agreed a contract with Iranian Islamic Republic Railways (RAI) to electrify the 495km Garmsar - Inche Burun line in northern Iran.

COMMERCIAL services began running through Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel with the start of the 2017 timetable on December 11, resulting in shorter journey times for passengers and freight customers along the north-south Gotthard corridor.

MTR Corporation took over the operations and maintenance for the Stockholm Pendeltåg commuter rail service on December 11 through its subsidiary MTR Pendeltågen.

METROWAGONMASH, Russia, has completed delivery of 27 class 711 regional DMUs to Serbian Railways (ZS), it was announced on December 6.

SIEMENS announced on December 6 that it successfully conducted driving tests with its Trainguard 200 ETCS equipment in Sweden over a two-week period in November.

ALSTOM announced on December 7 that it will supply 20 extra six-car MP14 trains to Il-de-France Transport Authority (Stif) and Paris Transport Authority (RATP) for €163m, as part of the modernisation of Line 4 of the Paris metro.

ALSTOM announced on December 7 that the South African Gibela consortium, comprising Alstom (61%) Urumbano (30%) and New Africa Rail (9%), has successfully obtained a provisional acceptance certificate from the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) for its first X’Trapolis Mega EMU.

BOMBARDIER announced on December 6 that it won its first contract in China as part of the Bombardier and New United Group Signalling Solutions (BNS) joint venture.

ITALIAN State Railways (FS) has announced that it has acquired South-East Railways (FSE) and Servizi Automobilistici from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.