THE Japanese government has offered to fund the construction of India's first high-speed line linking Mumbai with Ahmedabad provided 30% of the rolling stock is supplied by Japanese companies.

SHAREHOLDERS in Italian open-access operator NTV agreed at a meeting in Rome on July 17 to increase the company's capital by €100m.

POLAND's largest railfreight operator PKP Cargo has signed a letter of intent with Greenbrier Europe Wagony Świndica, the Polish subsidiary of US wagon builder Greenbrier, to establish a joint venture for the production of freight wagons.

GERMAN Rail's (DB) executive board member for technology and environment, Dr Heike Hanagarth, has tendered her resignation ahead of a planned restructuring of the executive board and a cost-cutting drive.

PORTUGAL's Council of Ministers decided on July 9 to shortlist three candidates for the privatisation of state-owned railfreight operator CP Carga, while two companies have been put forward for the sell-off of former Portuguese Trains (CP) subsidiary Railway Equipment Maintenance Company (EMEF).

THE Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia) and the metro authorities from the cities of Jeddah and Mecca are in the final stages of producing a joint request for proposals (RFP) for the Mecca and Jeddah metro projects.

NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) has reached an agreement with Strukton Rail to acquire its subsidiary NS Spooraansluitingen (NSS), which owns and operates lines between the Dutch national railway network and private sidings.

RHENUS Logistics, Germany, confirmed on July 2 that it has signed an agreement with Austria's Graz-Köflach Railway (GKB) to acquire a 50% stake in open-access railfreight operator LTE Logistics and Transport for an undisclosed sum.

ASCIANO, the parent company of one of Australia's largest railfreight operators Pacific National (PN), confirmed on July 1 that it has been approached by Canada's Brookfield Asset Management in a $A 8.8bn ($US 6.8bn) takeover bid.