Marco Chiandoni

MERMEC, Italy, announced at the WCRR congress in Milan that it has been awarded a €100m 10-year contract by the Finnish Transport Agency (Liikennevirasto) for the inspection and monitoring of Finland's 5960km 1524mm-gauge railway network.

THE first of 12 Jazz regional EMUs for the Italian region of Campania was formally presented to regional president Mr Vincenzo de Luca by Mrs Barbara Morgante, CEO of Trenitalia, and Mr Pierre Louis Bertina, CEO of Alstom Italy, on April 26.

MR Vincenzo De Luca, Campania's regional president, and Mr Maurizio Gentile, CEO of infrastructure manager Italian Rail Network (RFI), signed a five-plus-five year framework agreement in Naples on April 26 which aims to enhance the region's railway traffic capacity.

FOLLOWING a lengthy legal dispute, Sicily's Department for Mobility, Infrastructure and Transport announced on April 15 that it has provisionally awarded Stadler a €43.9m contract to supply five EMUs for Messina - Palermo services.

ITALIAN high-speed operator NTV is seeking a new CEO after Mr Flavio Cattaneo left the company on April 12 to take up his new role as CEO of Telecom Italia.

ALSTOM and Hitachi Rail Italy presented new trains to Trenitalia on April 15 and 19. The presentations were attended by Mr Nicola Zingaretti, president of Lazio region, Ms Barbara Morgante, Trenitalia's CEO and Mr Michele Civita, Lazio's regional councillor for mobility.

TRENITALIA says it is carrying out additional inspections on its new fleet of Pesa ATR220 regional DMUs following the discovery of bogie frame cracks on similar trains operating in Poland.

ITALIAN State Railways (FS) will participate in the construction of the Teheran - Hamedan and Qom - Arak high-speed lines under a framework agreement with an estimated value of around €3bn, which was signed in Tehran on April 12 by FS CEO Mr Renato Mazzoncini and Dr Mohsen Pour Seyed Aghaei, Iran's deputy transport minister and president of Iranian Islamic Republic Railways (RAI).

MILAN Transport (ATM) announced on March 29 that it will exercise an option with Hitachi Rail Italy (formerly AnsaldoBreda) for 15 additional Leonardo trains for metro Line M2.

THE Italian autonomous province of Trento has awarded Trenitalia a contract to operate regional services on the Trento - Venice and Verona Porta Nuova - Bolzano lines for nine years from the end of this year.