REPORTING its first results as an integrated railway, French National Railways (SNCF) achieved a 5% increase in revenue from €29.9bn to €31.4bn in 2015, although Ebitda fell 4.6% from €4.6bn to €4.4bn.

MTR Corporation, Hong Kong, achieved a 3.8% increase in revenues last year as the company continued to expand its international operations, particularly in Europe.

TRENITALIA has launched a tender for a framework agreement to purchase up to 500 electric and diesel trains worth around €4.5bn.

SWISS railfreight operator BLS Cargo reported an 11% increase in traffic last year with a total of 18,225 trains operated compared with 16,486 in 2014.

NEW Zealand's national rail operator, KiwiRail, has posted a net loss of $NZ 16.2m ($US 10.94m) for the six months to December 31 2015. This is an increase of $NZ 9.4m compared with the same period in 2014.

BRITAIN's state-owned infrastructure manager, Network Rail (NR), has appointed KPMG as financial advisers to assist it in testing the market to sell some or all of its electrical distribution and traction power assets to global investors or electricity network operators.

MARYLAND Department of Transportation has selected the Purple Line Transit Partners consortium as preferred bidder for the $US 2bn Purple Line light rail public-private partnership (PPP) project.

THERE is a common misconception that globalisation is exclusive to global tech behemoths like Amazon, Google or Apple. Yet that simply isn't the case. Globalisation is a continuing phenomenon, which consistently produces industry leaders, including in rail, while having the capacity to financially ruin former industry champions.

BRITAIN's rail franchising system could be exposed to significant risks if market interest in bidding for contracts declines any further, according to the findings of a report by the government's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which was published on February 12.

Britain signed the Luxembourg Rail Protocol on February 26 in Rome in the first stage of its adoption in the country.