Quintus Vosman

PRORAIL has announced it will take over operation of the Betuweroute dedicated freight line from January 1, when the line's current operator Keyrail and all 60 of its employees will be absorbed by the Dutch national infrastructure manager.

THE German subsidiary of Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), United States, has submitted proposals to DB Networks to take over operation of motor rail services between Niebüll and Westerland on the island of Sylt, which is only connected to the German main land by rail.

THE first of 10 new coaches ordered by Czech open-access operator RegioJet from Astra Vagoane Calaroti, Romania, is currently undergoing testing between Prague and Žilina, Slovakia.

DUTCH secretary of state for infrastructure Mrs Wilma Mansveld has informed the Dutch Parliament that Netherlands Railways (NS) will retrofit its fleet of 131 SLT 'Sprinter Light Train' suburban EMUs with toilets.

THE DUTCH government has allocated to €2.4bn to maintain and improve the country's railway network as part of its 2015 budget, which was announced on September 16.

PASSENGER numbers on German regional and urban rail services increased in the first half of 2014, according to figures released this week by the Federal Statistics Agency (Destatis), which show overall regional public transport usage increased by 0.5% year-on-year to 5.5 billion, an average of 31 million trips a day.

THE first of the V250 Fyra high-speed trains rejected by Netherlands Railways (NS) began its journey from Watergraafsmeer yard in Amsterdam back to the AnsaldoBreda plant in Pistoia, Italy, on September 7.

SWISS Federal Railways has awarded ABB Switzerland a contract worth around SFr 69.2m ($US 75.4m) to supply new traction equipment for its fleet of 119 Re460 electric locomotives as part of a SFr 230m mid-life refurbishment programme.

THREE German public transport authorities have published a joint tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union for the Central Saxony Electric Network II (EMS II) concession, which covers the operation of around 5.7 million train-km per year on three routes.

NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) has received the first of 19 Traxx F140 MS multi-system electric locomotives from Bombardier, which will operate Dutch domestic services on HSL South following the cancellation of its order for AnsaldoBreda V250 trains.