Keith Fender

THE German subsidiary of Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), United States, has received a small boost to its plans to launch a car carrying service linking the North German island of Sylt (which only has a rail connection to the rest of Germany) with the mainland.

HEILBRONN-based open-access passenger operator derschnellzug.de has announced plans to launch services on three long-distance routes from December and has begun recruiting onboard staff for the operation.

GERMAN Rail (DB) announced on September 21 that it was suspending all passenger trains between Germany and Austria on the busy Munich to Salzburg route due to the imposition of frontier controls by the German government.

RHINELAND Local Transport has awarded Rurtalbahn a contract to continue operating passenger services on the 30km Düren - Linnich, line west of Cologne until 2020.

FOLLOWING a lengthy legal process, Bavaria's regional high court in Munich has ruled that Bavarian Railway Company (BEG) will not be allowed to finalise two contracts with National Express for the operation of the Nuremberg S-Bahn network without first establishing whether that the financial performance guarantees offered by the selected bidder meet the terms of the original tender.

EUROPE's largest railfreight market endured a difficult start to 2015 according to first half figures released by Germany's federal statistics agency on September 1, which show volumes fell to 178.3 million tonnes, a 3% drop compared with the corresponding period in 2014.

THE president of Latvian Railways (LDZ) Mr Ugis Magonis has been removed from his job and is currently in custody as Latvia's Corruption Prevention and Combat Bureau (KNAB) begins criminal proceedings against him concerning bribery allegations.

GLOBAL logistics company UPS has expanded its China - Germany intermodal railfreight operation to accommodate smaller consignments with the addition of a less-than-container load (LCL) service between Zhengzhou and Hamburg.

GERMAN Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Regio has been selected by Schleswig-Holstein transport authority NAH.SH for the Schleswig-Holstein Rail Network West concession, which covers the operation of regional services on the line from Hamburg to Westerland on the island of Sylt.