David Briginshaw

INNOTRANS, the world´s largest railway exhibition which opens tomorrow, is set to break new records this year with 10% more exhibitors, while visitor numbers are forecast to top 100,000.

ONEROUS border controls imposed by the British government will force passengers using Eurostar's new Marseille - London service to go through immigration and security controls lasting nearly two hours at Lille Europe when the service starts next year.

THE first two out of a fleet of 15 catenary-free LRVs being supplied by CSR Nanjing Puzhen Rolling Stock and Bombardier have started limited operation on a new line in the Chinese city of Nanjing.

EQT Infrastructure II, a €1.9bn equity fund, is to take a majority stake in Hector Rail, a private Swedish railfreight company which operates trains in Scandinavia and Germany.

GERMAN Rail (DB), which is in the midst of a labour dispute with the GDL union over a 5% pay increase for its 37,000 traincrew, has accused private rail operators of wage dumping, an allegation that has been strongly refuted by Veolia, Germany's largest bus and rail operator.

TWO events this month provide strong evidence of the growing success of the global railway industry and its ability to withstand economic turbulence. InnoTrans, already the world's largest railway exhibition, will be bigger than ever this year, and SCI Verkehr's bi-annual report on the railway equipment and after-sales market predicts continuing growth.

BIDS are invited by London Underground (LU) for trains for the Northern and Jubilee lines to enable a more a frequent service to be operated on each line following resignalling and to provide additional trains for an extension of the Northern Line.

JR EAST and its subsidiary Tokyo Monorail have announced two projects to improve rail and monorail connections to Tokyo Haneda Airport as part of the Japanese government's policy to boost the number of tourists visiting Japan.

EXPRESSIONS of interest are being sought by London Underground (LU) from systems suppliers for the installation of communications-based train control (CBTC) on the Bakerloo, Central, Piccadilly and Waterloo & City lines.

''EVERYONE is a winner," Mr Patrick Kron, Alstom's CEO, declared on June 24 during a visit to the company's power plant in Belfort together with his new partner Mr Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE). The visit took place the day after Alstom had finally approved GE's bid for its energy business, thereby ending months of negotiations and political wrangling over the future of Alstom.