BOMBARDIER and Siemens are discussing a possible merger between their two railway equipment manufacturing division, Bombardier Transportation and Siemens Mobility, according to a report by Bloomberg.

GE Transportation announced on April 12 that it has completed the acquisition of a 50% stake in JSC Lokomotiv Kurastyru Zauyty (LKZ) from Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ).

ACCORDING to a study by SCI Verkehr, Germany, the world market for metro cars is set to grow at an annual rate of 1-2% from what it describes as a very high current market volume of more than €8bn.

FRANCE’s Institute of Technological Research (IRT) SystemX, together with French National Railways (SNCF) and Alstom, has launched a two-year project to automate the observation functions of train drivers.

CBH Group, Australia, has awarded a contract to Wi-Tronix, United States, to equip its fleet of 25 diesel-electric locomotives, which are used to haul grain trains, with Wi-Nostix, a predictive fault diagnostics and monitoring system.

MALAYSIA’s Ministry of Communications signed two contracts with CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive for 22 metre-gauge multiple units at a ceremony in Changsha, China, on April 11.

TRANSMASHHOLDING (TMH), Russia, says it increased turnover by 22% in 2016 to Roubles 120bn ($US 2bn) thanks mainly to strong growth in the sale of passenger vehicles.

LONDON-based Pamplona Capital Management has agreed to sell British rolling stock leasing company Beacon Rail Leasing to JP Morgan Asset Management for £855m, less than three years after it acquired the company.

LONDON Underground (LU), Britain, has awarded a contract for 71 engineering wagons to Chinese rolling stock manufacturer CRRC Corporation.

RHINE-MAIN Transport Association (RMV), which is responsible for rail services in the Frankfurt-am-Main area, says it will extend some of its existing concessions due to considerable infrastructure works planned by DB Networks, while also announcing plans to introduce fuel-cell trains.